The Life of a Giant

The city of Tectelphia, located in Maryland, only a few hours away from Washington, Capital, was not your average city. And this was not by choice.

Given the option, the people living there would want to be normal, and for the most part they already were. Tectelphia contained office buildings, a factory here and there, the subways, buses, and trains, a man with a saxophone playing a lonely tune for pocket change, it was almost your average American city. It was also a city, not surprisingly, that favored seafood and had many 'beach' and 'ocean' themed restaurants to keep the people full of fish. So, in that retrospect, it was almost your average Maryland city too. The people were average too. Crime happened, police chased the ones responsible, reporting the successes and keeping the failures under lower profile. The inner city schools aren't that great, and the cars cause pollution problems.

There was a suburb outside of the city to the southeast. There the schools were a bit better. One of the schools, an elementary, rebuilt its playground not too long ago. Something happened there awhile back, and not many of the locals like to talk about it. It was an accident, one that caused a lot of trauma to some of the children there. Took out a lot of the playground equipment too. If you were to walk up to the school yard, the marks of the accident are still visible in the grass. The houses are modest and average, most of them ranch house style. There's a Jewish Community Center here, where people go to work out, swim, play basket ball, or indoor tennis and soccer. The Library's down the block and for those interested in track, the high school's got the track field around the football field. It keeps the people busy. On the other side of the suburbs there's the shopping center, with a grocery story, a few restaurants, a comic book store, a GAP, and a movie theater that was just finished two years ago.

Northeast are the beaches, along with the docks. Boats come and go on one end, families and children play on the other. The boats out on the water are usually shrimp boats. The sandy beaches run along to the northwest of Tectelphia, where some rocky cliffs form. They used to be used as a Lover's Lookout to gaze at the moon's reflection on the big blue at night, but that was a long time ago. Not many people from Tectelphia go there anymore. Occupants of the beaches and the dock workers also make sure to keep away from that stretch f

Southwest from Tectelphia is the Saint Almo's Fields. A large open field of grass. The highway into Tectelphia runs along side it. Nobody goes into the fields. It's actually against the law in Tectelphia to go into the fields. And for good reason.

Most new comers to the city are often perplexed (and greatly irritated) by the road system. There are several roads blocked off that only pedestrians can use, and they have to remain on the sidewalk. Instead of making a simple turn onto the street that would more quickly get you to your destination, you had to go around, continuing driving until you could either find another route or find a parking place and walk on the closed road's sidewalk. If you did that, you'd probably assume that the roads were under construction. A quick walked down them showed cracks and other wear and tear. However, you'd then wonder why there are no men in orange, waving signs, or loud machines as they ground into the street. Nothing was bothering them, making you wonder why they were closed and no one repairing them. Then, you'd ask, probably some waitress while at lunch, what the deal was. She'd turn red, grin nervously, laughing a little.

Then, she'd tell you that some giants lived nearby.

After hearing this, you'd probably nod your head. You should have guessed as much. You've heard of giants, no doubt, during your live. You're not sure what you think about them, but, as far as your concerned, as long as what they do doesn't interfere with you, then everything is fine. You'd probably think of Jennifer Stark, that one giant lady with the black hair and the business suit. She appeared on TV every now and then, talking about things going on with the giants. She seemed like a woman who had everything together, despite having her hands full, and that was good. In ways, you think that the American Government could learn from the giants. She was some sort of representative for the Giants. Apparently, she's been in contact with the President himself, and that's pretty impressive.

You know a lot of people have mixed feelings about the giants. Some don't really care about them, and if they want to live their lives, let 'em. Others are a little more afraid, willing to let them go about their giant lives, but wanting them far away from the general, normal sized, population. Then, there were some who spoke out against them, calling all giants a menace and a threat to the well being of the human race. To them, the giants were monsters and needed to be expelled from society. Other, more radical ones called for their annihilation. Of course, none of them were willing to actually confront the gants themselves with this. You never saw a group of people with picket signs outside the homes of the giants, located in Saint Almo's Fields around Tectelphia.

Staying in Tectelphia, you'll probably hear about Raymond Bradson, the man who married the giant woman who caused that incident back at the elementary school playground. The woman, then Valerie Swanson, was a young girl and had occasionally played around with the children. Giant people are homeschooled (at least according to Ms. Stark), so they don't go to school, but Valerie Swanson liked to play with other “normal” children at the playground. But, at one point, she didn't come around the playground for a long time. About two weeks she disappeared from it, despite always coming every day. Then, finally, when she came back, she kicks a car into the playground, wrecking the equipment and injuring several children. By some stroke of luck on Valerie Swanson's part, nobody was killed. Back in those days, Ms. Stark wasn't around. So, too afraid to confront the giantess, the parents sued the school, just wanting somebody to pay. Eventually, the playground was rebuilt and the school limped on. A few people still point to this event to remind people of the dangers of giant people. Valerie Swanson disappeared from the public view for awhile. It wasn't until she was around twenty-one (twelve years after the incident) that she slowly reappeared, taking long strolls, keeping a respectable distance from the city, now wearing glasses. Two years later, she me Raymond Bradson. One year after that, they were married and she took his last name. They still are, three years more. Some point to Mr. Bradson as a sign that giants and normal sized people can live peacefully.

Then, you'd hear about Lorraine Pruess, a blonde giant woman who appeared at some point between Valerie Bradson's accident and her return to the outside world. She was always dressed elegantly and was quite attractive. Occasionally, she strolled the city, humming some classical music under her breath, every now and then stopping in front of a tinted skyscraper to peer at her reflection and apply make up, putting on a show for the people inside. She wasn't really liked by the construction crews, though, due to her ditzy clumsiness. She caused accidents, broke things, stepped on things. But, she was more fortunate than Valerie Bradson, for she had never even hurt anybody. There were rumors that Jennifer Stark (who was called the Giant Relations Person on TV) was losing patience with her as well.

Finally, you'd hear about the boy. Some kid named Trent Berlinger. He was the only Giant male around Tectelphia. He kept to himself for the most part. Folks didn't see him as much as Ms. Pruess or Mrs. Bradson after she came back out to the world. He was younger than the women, about eighteen, seemed shy and reserved. People occasionally pointed to him as a sign of how harmless giant people were. That kid didn't seem like he'd harm a fly (if he knew they existed and wasn't giant). When he did come out he usually stayed away from city. On the occasions that he entered city limits, his behavior was odd. He seemed like he was watching something, but nobody really knew what though. He would hang around one position, peeking around a building for a little bit before quickly walking away, his face red. He was an odd one, but he stayed away, and that sat with a lot of people fine.

You might then, inquire about Jennifer Stark. She lived around Tectelphia (though her work was international), so the locals knew more about her than anybody. Out of all the giants, she caused the least damage, setting an example to the rest. The air of professionalism arose from her, the kind of person who walked erect with their hands behind their back. She was proper (or whatever that was for a giant person) and was dressed professionally, usually in a woman's, black business suit and slacks, a red bowtie in her hair, and a scarf in the place of a tie under the collar of her white dress shirt, her hands covered in leather gloves. She was wells spoken, from what you've seen on TV, and based of her dealings with normal sized people, apparently skilled with making the task of conversing with a giant person a little more comfortable.

After that, tales of the Metal Man might begin to surface in the conversation. You've heard of him too. His last name was Brokers, his first name was either Garth or Darth. Seen him even, along side Jennifer Stark every now and then. Heck, he's even made appearance, according to the papers, in other countries. Nobody's quite sure what happened to him, but some say he was involved with in an accident that rendered his body essentially useless. But, instead of remaining a vegetable, he was taken in by the giants and then, several years later, he reappeared. He was always a big man (a mini giant, some people in town joked) but now he was much more intimidating, his arms and legs now metal, much stronger than he used to be. And he had to be. He was now the Cop of the Giants, according to Jennifer Stark. And a normal sized man who could pull that off was not to be fucked with.

Some question might come into your head during the discussion, and you might ask how a giant person lives. Not many people have all the answers, but a lot of them know that they don't really eat. They drink something. A few people may tell you how they've seen the giants drinking out of some bottle every now and again. Judging by the look on their faces, it isn't something that they really looked forward to. They might have a restroom to do their business in, but no one really knows (and they don't really want to). Their homes are quite large, but, somehow, they don't seem to affect the local cost of running things. There are rumors by some of the Anti-Giant lobbyists that the giant people were somehow more advanced technologically wise than the general population, building structures that supported themselves, without aid from the general population's resources. The Government refused to make a comment about it, but...the Metal Man was also used as an example. There was talk that he had been in a relationship with a giant woman before becoming the Metal Man. The giants had taken him in at one point, and he came back with metal limbs...

For a long time, Tectelphia, as well as other cities in America, dealt with giant people. They didn't always appear on TV, they, for them most part, kept to themselves, while the general population went on their business, trading goods, living their lives, going to war, whatever. The giants stayed out of the way in conflicts and the general population was fine with that worldwide. The relationship between giant and normal persons was strained, had always been, but were maintaining a peaceful existence. A few people noted that the strain wasn't really the fault of the giant people. They would tell you that the giants were actually quite friendly and welcoming. But, these people were few and easy to ignore.

As you thought about these things, you'd wonder about the life a giant. You'd wonder how things look from their point of view. What were they're hobbies? How smart were they? Were they anything like normal people? Did they have a preference for when elections came? Were they even allowed to vote? Did they pay taxes? Do they sometimes lie in bed and wonder what will happen to them when they die? Are some of them Christian? Atheist? Buddhist? Do they smile at the sunrise and watch the sunsets? Did some of them dream of squishing every player on the Yankees team underfoot? Did they like the Yankees? Did they watch any sports team?

What was it like living the live of a giant?