------ Chapter 4 ------

           As soon as my enormous sister was out of sight, I flopped to the grass on the edge of the sidewalk and desperately tried to wipe all the sweat off my face. Her feminine odor blasted my nostrils, and the grass brought little relief. I’d have to make it to a bathroom, if I wanted to get her stench off.

           Fortunately, school was just a block away. For the first time in this dangerous new world, I was on my own. I wasn’t being carried by some member of my family.

           It was a bit unsettling, in all honesty.

           Glancing about to make sure there were no cars, I bolted across the street. When I reached the other side, I felt a feeling of elation. It was like I’d dodged a bullet or something. In this new reality, crossing a street was equated to laughing in the face of death.

            My confidence growing, I continued on towards school, sticking to the sidewalk. Soon the front doors of my high school were in view.

            As I watched, a large group of women were travelling inside, chatting excitedly amongst themselves. Of course, they were incredibly monstrous to me. A bit scared, I darted into a nearby bush and continued my surveillance.

            Periodically, groups of giant high school aged women, some that I recognized, arrived at class eager to start the day. I could make out a few that would be my classmates, and marveled at how humongous they were. I had never thought of the girls in my class as particularly threatening, yet now I felt like if I tried to go in myself I’d be unknowingly crushed under their pretty heels. I’d need to be careful, and the small voice in my head told me I would be wise to remain unseen. I remembered what my mother had said earlier that morning, about how the girls at school picked on me.

            I’d need to make it to the men’s bathroom. There, I could clean myself up and plan my next move.

            I waited until it was all clear, then darted towards the doors. The huge steel doors of my school were like the gates to a castle, and I knew there was no way I’d be able to open them myself. Fortunately, much like with my bedroom door, there was a smaller, “man-sized” door cut into the main door. I quickly slipped in through that one.

            I glanced about the hallway, and saw titanic female legs everywhere. Open toed shoes slammed into the ground here and there. Brightly painted female toes pressed powerfully into the ground, compressed by the shear tonnage of towering female bodies. All around me, the chatter of high school girls filled my ears.

            The bathroom was right near the main entrance, or at least it should be. I glanced about, trying to find the door through the masses of bare womanly legs. I spotted the women’s room, towering high into the air. Nearby, the men’s room door could be seen as well. It was dwarfed by the women’s, being significantly smaller of course.

            Mustering up some intestinal fortitude, I waited until the room seemed clear enough and burst across the hallway. I ran with all the speed I could conjure, and was actually surprised when I slipped through the bathroom door, completely untouched and likely unnoticed.

            The men’s room was normal sized, and for the first time in a while, I felt like I was back in my old reality. It was a comforting feeling, like the world was built for someone my size. As I washed my face, I vowed that I’d never take that for granted again.

            It took a while to get all of my sister’s armpit stink off of me, and while I was washing I heard the bell for first period go off. Good. Now that the halls were cleared out it would be much easier for me to make my way to the library.

            After drying myself off, I listened at the doorway until it sounded as if the hallway was clear of Amazonian students.  Carefully, cautiously, I slipped out and stuck to the edges of the walls, trying my best to cling to the shadows. For a bit, I felt like a secret agent or a ninja or something, which was a fun thought.

            I was surprised when I made it to the library doors unnoticed. I chalked it up to an advantage to being small. Of course, the main library door was no less imposing than any other door, yet someone had been courteous enough to make a smaller one for men. I was beginning to feel pretty thankful for whoever had done that.

            The library was enormous, each bookshelf towering like a mini skyscraper. Immediately I found a fault in my plan. First off, I was going to be strictly limited to the books on the bottom or second to bottom shelves. Secondly, most books came up to the middle of my chest at least, and were hefty enough to be fairly difficult to move. My only saving grace would be that it would be easier to hide in here.

            I ran about the shelves, searching in vain for a “men’s” section- a shelf with books built for smaller, male readers. To my frustration, I found no such section existed.

            “Probably because there aren’t a lot of men…” I muttered to no one in particular.

            Within a few minutes, I found the history section, and subsequently located a large book on general world history that just so happened to be on the bottom shelf. Struggling, I barely managed to pull it off the shelf.

            I flipped the cover open and poured over the contents. What I discovered was astonishing.

            Right away, I noticed that there were some major differences between this reality and the normal one. As I read, I learned of a period in ancient pre-history where men and women were equal size and number. Somehow though, men had begun to shrink and women grew. As men became much smaller, they began encountering more difficulties, and as such died off at an alarming rate. Birthrates for men likewise became extremely low. Men eventually became so small that they were unable to digest regular sized food, which also significantly contributed to their decreased numbers.

            It explained why men were so absent in this society and why I was being breastfed my meals. Amazed, I read more.

            I learned history had been radically altered with this development. First off, society now had a matriarchal structure, one that grew more and more powerful the bigger that women got. With relatively few exceptions, gender roles had been reversed. Women controlled all segments of society, from the legislature to the economy to entertainment. Every president, congresswoman, and senator was female. Almost all movies stars were women, as well as athletes, CEOs, writers, and all other professions. Sure, there was a massive decrease in wars and warfare in general, yet social movements, instead of being generally more liberating, mostly involved furthering the decreased importance of men in society. As I read, I quickly realized that this reality’s history was one where men were consistently being devalued, underappreciated, and underrepresented. To be male was something undesirable, and the divide between the status of women and men was purposefully widening.

            As I read, a harrowing chill swept over me. I quickly began to understand my predicament, and wanted nothing more than for things to go back to the way they were. To be a man in this alternative reality meant to have absolutely no power. Women were strong, powerful, and desirable, whereas men…

            Disgusted, I closed the book and without putting it back grabbed another one- a book on sociology. I tore it off the shelf and began reading.

            It was interesting to learn how the human species coped with this radical change. The book focused almost entirely on women. I glumly assumed in this society they were the only gender worth writing about. The thing that stuck out the most for me was learning that unlike in my “normal” reality, women in this reality actually desired size. In a world almost entirely composed of women, size had become a physical symbol of power and authority. Women had to compete with each other to get taller. The “beauty” industry, while providing traditional makeup products and such, also provided women with products meant to artificially or naturally increase height. To be big was to be beautiful, powerful, and womanly. It also meant that there was a steady, measurable increase in women’s height over the years, meaning that women were breeding larger and more powerful women to replace them.

            On that note, I wondered exactly how women were breeding more women, considering there were nearly no men in this society. I flipped to the final chapter of the book, which looked to provide a promising answer.

            The solution was a fairly simple one, and I was literally floored when I learned of it. Bluntly put, rape wasn’t exactly illegal in this world, and in fact, was pretty much celebrated. By gigantic women, of course. There was no mention of how men felt about it.

            Unable to read more, I closed the book in horror. What was this going to mean for me?

            As I sat on the library floor and contemplated, I heard a series of thundering footsteps behind me, ones louder than I’d ever heard before. Before I could react, a long, female shadow cast itself over me, and chills ran up my spine. A stern but familiar female voice blasted down from above me.

            “So this is where I find you Dean? You’re in trouble now, mister.”