After being escorted off Tectelphia's limits by Garth Brokers, the other three giants made their way back to St. Almo's Fields. Trent Berlinger, eager to leave before they brought up his love interest yet again, quickly excused himself and headed home. Valerie, her husband, and Lorraine continued towards the Bradson home. Neither Raymond nor Val were particularly excited about Ms. Pruess following them. When she was annoyed or mad about something, she had a tendency to talk to you about it whether you really wanted to hear it or not. And, right now, she was plenty mad.

“Can you BELIEVE her!?” She griped as the trio entered the Bradson home. As soon as they were in, Lorraine placed her purse down near the door and sat down on the couch. Valerie sighed softly and sat down next to her, her husband still on her shoulder, sitting on her collar bone like a bench. “I mean, honestly! What gives her the right to just kick us out of the city this early? We have another two hours before our 'curfew'!”

“Well...Trent was being sort of loud,” Valerie reminded her.

“Oh, he was just being goofy,” Lorraine dismissed it. “It's so rare that we get a group of the normal people to hang around us like that! So Trent may have gotten a little emotional, so what? He is a pretty emotional young man after all...”

“Yeah, but...” Valerie tried.

“And!” Lorraine overrode her. “She can kick us out of the city, but she's still in there! How is fair to remove us from the city when she could cause just as much damage as the rest of us?”

“Because she's the Giant Relations Person,” Valerie shrugged.

“Right!” Loraine pouted. “She's just that. She's not the 'Giant Dictator'. The only thing we need her for is to keep in contact with the important people of the normal population. That's it! We don't need her telling us where we can and cannot go or punishing us for things she deems wrong, because I don't know who passed away and made her the 'Queen' of everything.”

“Well, you have to admit...” Valerie said. “Things were a little disorganized before Jennifer came along with Garth...”

“Oh, please, Valerie!” Lorraine rolled her eyes. “Don't tell me you believe that? In what way were things 'disorganized'? Everyone had homes, we had our...food, there weren't THAT many damages going on. We were fine before Jennifer showed up and we'd be fine without her!”

“But Jennifer made the damages go down pretty much to non-existence,” Valerie pointed out, trying to be fair. “Plus, we're now allowed to go into Tectelphia and other cities. There's something you couldn't do before. Also, people aren't as scared as before. Now, we can walk around without armed forces eventually showing to send us away. I mean, let's be honest, Jennifer's made things better. Sure, her rules can be strict, but if she's making things better for everyone in the long run, then, don't the ends justify the means?”

“Well...” Lorraine paused. She tried to think of something to come back to that. “I...”

“I mean, I know she's harsh sometimes,” Mrs. Bradson said. “But, if she's only like that because she genuinely cares about the normal people and their perception of us, than isn't it understandable?”

Lorraine said nothing.

“I think you're too harsh on her,” Valerie went on. “Try to put yourself in her shoes. She has to watch over everyone and that includes people outside the states. Sure, she has some people working for her in other countries, but, still, she does a lot and I think she does deserve a lot of respect from all of the other giants.”

“Plus...” Raymond spoke up. “She wed me and Val, which makes her alright in my book.”

Ms. Pruess said more nothing.

“Just give her a break, Lorraine,” Valerie said. “I'm sure if you try to work with her the problems you two face will eventually go away and you two might even come out as friends.”

“That'd be the day,” Lorraine sighed. She stood up. “Well, I should get going. It is getting late and I should be heading home.”

“Well, alright,” Valerie sighed. “Bye Lorraine.”

“Goodnight, Valerie,” Ms. Pruess replied softly.

She left and Raymond and Valerie Bradson sat where they were, Val on the couch, Ray on her shoulder. They sat there in the quiet for some time before finally turning on the TV.

…

There was a great deal of controversy surrounding the giant people. This was to be expected. Some people were alright with the towering figures, declaring them merely big humans who had every right that the average person had. To this group, the giants should be embraced. These open minded individuals were a minority. Then, of course, there were those who believed the giants to be a threat to all mankind and progress on Earth. They pointed to over population, lack of resources, among other things as reasons to why the giants had to be dealt with, either by elimination or other means. Most of this group was comprised people who feared the gigantic citizens and they had fallen from prominence over the years, especially after Jennifer Stark had taken over and gotten things organized and people became more aware of the life of a giant. These actions led to the rise of people who were opening up but were still skeptical and afraid. This, currently, was the largest group of the controversy. People have all kinds of views about the giants.

And it would not surprise some that there was another selection of individuals who had developed something of a particular liking for the giant people. Kirk Rogers was one of these.

Growing in the later half of the nineteen fifties, Mr. Rogers, the son of a wealthy “captain of industry” oil man who had rose to prosperity during the war, had been infatuated with the women of the giants for as long as he could remember. He had met one in New Mexico during his youth when he had been a pilot in the Air Force. The sheer size of her, the majesty of her stature, her brunette hair flowing in the wind like a giant flag. She was a breath taking tower of stunning radiance. He had met her through chance, she happened to step over his car, but he eventually was able to meet with her and the two of them had a brief relationship, signaling the beginning of Kirk Roger's affair with giant women.

Kirk was always a smooth talker, it was a proud trait that he had gotten from his father. He felt that he could woo any woman no matter her size. The problem wasn't the talking to them (no matter how big she is, a woman is a woman, and weren't they all the same?), the difficulties of course laid with the interaction. A giant woman had giant needs, of course. A lesser man would probably have given up with trying to solve such momentous difficulties, but Kirk Rogers was a rich man, and he had connections. The giants had always built their own things for their own use, staying out of the way of the general public as they did it. Kirk merely called up some of the giant “builders” and was able to pay for a giant house of his own. This baffled the giants, but this was before Jennifer Stark was the Giant Relations Person, and that was good. Had she been around at the time, Kirk most likely would have failed.

But, Mr. Rogers was able to get his own massive house, not too far away from his mansion near the border line of Maryland and West Virginia. He spent a great amount of time chasing giant skirts, taking them to his home and having his way with them. They were just like any average woman, you complimented them enough, talked the right way and suddenly they were eating out of the palm of your hand. Ah, those had been the grand days of his youth and middle age. However...old age was coming down on him now, as the Twenty First Century went along. He was no longer the spry young lover that he had been. He still had the family fortune and he still had the giant home, but the affairs were now much farther in between, and he mostly lived in seclusion these days, a legend that eventually fell from the minds of the newer generation. Jennifer Stark eventually came into her position as the Giant Relations Person and learned of Kirk's giant home. She had made small contacts with Kirk, who refused to give up his giant estate until he was dead. It was pride and the fact that it was a symbol of his glory days.

His old age drove him to misery, as he found himself in a very similar situation to Trent Berlinger, except that it was backwards. He knew of the giants around Tectelphia, of course. He didn't really care for Jennifer Stark, that one was a little too independent for his tastes. Trent Berlinger might as well not even exist, and Valerie Bradson was too average, and Kirk wasn't into women with glasses. But...the last one, the blonde, Lorraine Pruess, took his breath away. Being from a prestigious family, Kirk fancied himself a man of higher tastes. He could tell that Ms. Pruess apparently felt the same about herself, and he admired her greatly for it. Her walk and dress and, hell, her general appearance was just remarkably elegant and graceful. She embodied everything that a woman should be in Kirk's mind: charming, beautiful, elegant, graceful, civilized, heavenly scented, well dressed, well mannered, and exquisitely cultured. He knew from the very moment that he saw her that he had to have her. But...he couldn't. She was young, fresh, full of life, which was coming to an end for Kirk. She was too good for him now...utterly beyond his reach. It was if her presence was time mocking him, teasing him with things that he no longer was able to handle.

All he could do these days was look. It was a free country and there was nothing wrong with him looking. But, he didn't like it. He felt that he was quickly becoming a creepy old man, who tried to get a look up a young woman's skirt, and, ashamedly, Kirk had done so to Ms. Pruess. He hated himself for it, but he couldn't resist the temptation. It made him feel even more old, even further away from what he had once been. It was this that he feared would drive him to madness.

But...perhaps there was still hope.

Money had always come through for Kirk Rogers before. He believed that with enough financing, a man could make anything that he wanted come true. Kirk had learned a great deal of engineering from his father, and had always gotten a top notch education in the sciences. He had the money, he even had the expertise (though he hated calling himself a scientist, it wasn't an interesting enough title). During the past few month, he spent many months planning and formulating ways to reverse the course of his life. Man had always been able to change their fate, always able to twist things around to suit them better. It would not be different for someone like Kirk Rogers.

So...Mr. Rogers remained in his mansion, working diligently and alone, trying to change his own fate and begin again. It would be soon, he felt. All he needed was time....

And some money, of course...