“No one’s coming,” Jessica looked around with a worried look written on her face. She had only been at Palm Creek for a little over a couple of days before the first complaints came in; mostly from angry neighbours and citizens concerned about their own well being with her around. Caitlin couldn’t stand it, Jack was more diplomatic about the whole thing and even suggested this meeting with the townspeople.

 He put up a notice in a few of the cafes around town, told his neighbours and hopefully they passed it on to bring a sizable crowd to this event. Right now it was just Jack, Caitlin and one statuesque giantess in the middle of town. Most of the shops were still open, there even people inside but none appeared to be interested in coming out for this.

“Remember what we talked about, be tactful. Don’t be yourself,” Caitlin bluntly reminded her, her blue eyes meeting Jessica’s dark brown ones.

“ I can be tactful,” Jessica replied.

“Not enough, you’re too much like Godzilla at the moment. Don’t raise your voice, frown or do anything to frighten people,” Caitlin advised her in a harsh tone.

“ Easy for you to say, people already run when they look at me,” Jessica shot back, immediately regretting it because any sarcastic retort from her led to make foot stomping and wailing from Caitlin.

“ And that mouth of yours, tone down on the sass and sarcasm when you talk to these people. You’re trying to get along, not make enemies. Got it?”

“She means well , Jessica, she really does,” Jack said. He didn’t want the two of them being at loggerheads, seeing as they would be living together for the foreseeable future. He also didn’t want Caitlin’s sour mood to rub off on to him and for Jessica not to squish her out of anger. That last bit was unlikely, or so Jack told himself.

 Jessica was understandably irritated, scowling at Caitlin over her micromanagement. She also disliked how Caitlin made it seem she was the victim here. Didn’t Caitlin realise she had it a lot better than she did? Apart from her regenerative powers and enhanced senses, a lot of it hindered her ability to live out here with people.

 She wanted to pick her up, shout some sense into her empty head but that would likely result in even more stress on Jack. She looked briefly at Jack, feeling pity at how he had become a conduit for the outside world’s grievances at her. From Caitlin to Harold and to the faceless neighbours who lodged complaint after complaint

“ Alright, I understand,” Jessica answered Caitlin.

Jessica elected to keep her thoughts to herself, just thinking about addressing a crowd was enough to put butterflies in her stomach. The trio waited with bated breath, the only significant action came from Jessica adjusting her bottom to avoid any re enactments of Basic Instinct and also her top, not wishing to follow in the footsteps of Janet Jackson. She shifted about to find the least threatening sitting position, much to the chagrin of Caitlin but the giantess persisted until settling for sitting on her calves, knees facing the crowd.

To their relief, a crowd made up of residents and non-residents alike did come, along with a small contingent of reporters who snapped pictures of Jessica.

“Um...good…” Jessica squinted at the skyline, noticing the orange hues painted by the setting sun.

“...evening. Good evening everyone. I am Jessica Chen, no wait...you probably know who I am already. I mean you saw the news…” Jessica stopped herself, realising the redundancy of saying her name. Of course they knew who she was, every newspaper, channel and radio station would have been talking about her. She tapped her chin while in thought, unsure of where to go.

“Okay erm...I um...need to oh yes...I will be staying here in this town. On Jack’s house, no I mean around his house. I can’t actually fit inside it,” Jessica stumbled in her words, mentally cursing herself for this slip. She stopped to piece together the words wanted to say, aware of the crowd’s mutterings. They didn’t know but her hearing was acute to the point of being able to pick out a little of their hushed words. She heard some lewd remarks concerning her cleavage, some nervous chatter about her intentions and the rest was just indecipherable gibberish.

“Ok lets start from scratch. I will be staying with Jack and Caitlin, who have agreed to house me until I can stand on my own out here.” She glanced at Jack, his tight shirt revealing arms sculpted at a gym. She stared a second longer than she ought to,was he always this muscular?

 Jessica quickly pulled herself away from those thoughts, there would be plenty of time to do that in her tent.

“ I understand you’re afraid and it's not illogical to be scared of me. You’ve never seen a girl like me before. I assure all of you I don’t mean you any harm, I am not going to step on you or hurt you if you anger me. Think of me as someone like you, just many, many times taller.”

Jessica stopped to let that sink in. Well, she assumed it would be understood. They look well educated so their thought processes should be up to scratch. She wasn’t asking for much, just a place to stay.

“ Excuse me,” Jessica spotted a hand pop up from the crowd.

“Yes?” Jessica replied, totally surprised by an actual response from them.

She saw movement within the crowd, people giving way to reveal a tall well dressed man.

“Harold, Harold Barnes.I’m your neighbour and I have a question or two about your um….stopover here,” he said while flashing a snooty smile.

“ Don’t you think it's dangerous for you to be here? You wrecked an entire street when you passed through on your way to Jack’s house. It will take weeks to repair the damage,” he shot each word at Jessica, hitting hard.

“ And you haven’t taken responsibility for it. Don’t say it's an accident, you planned to walk there.”

“ I didn’t expect the roads to be so weak. I don’t get out much but I will refrain from using them in the future. Not until it's meant to take my weight,” Jessica answered. He said was her neighbour , it was unlikely to be the last time she heard from him.

 “ Anything else?” Jessica added , suspect he did have more grouses to air.

“ Yes there is. You better not stink, this is  a clean community where hygiene is close to godliness. Since you’re about fifty feet tall,the smell will get around.”

Pfft, fifty feet, Jessica thought to herself. She was big enough to put Nancy Archer on her lap and spank her like an errant child if she wished. Harold clearly needed glasses if he couldn’t even make a reasonable estimate of her height.

 “ I understand, no one likes a smelly girl. I’ll be using the lake for my showers. It's big enough but I know it's public property and I would like your permission. If any of you have any objections, please raise them now or I will assume your silence is consent.”

Jessica waited for anyone to speak up, letting a good number of minutes pass in total silence. She looked back at Jack who gave her an encouraging thumbs up.

“ Okay,” she spoke again to the crowd.

“I take it you consent to me using the lake for my baths. Any more questions?”

There were a few more questions raised, some were expected(‘ I know my outfit is skimpy, I don’t enjoy flashing my goodies to the world) while a few were an unwelcome surprise(‘ Yes I’m single. No I’m not looking for a relationship right now.’) Then, Jessica saw a reporter step forward. She looked like a bundle of nerves, the petite Asian woman shaking as she approached her.

“ Miss Chen, this is Angela Chan from The Washington Post,” she introduced herself.

“ I would like to ask: Have you been in contact with the US government lately?”

Jessica shook her head,  neither Zoltan or anyone purportedly claiming to represent him had contacted her.

“No, no government rep has approached me since I got out,” she said confidently. However, a part of her could not help but wonder what was Zoltan’s plan for her?  

***********

“Hey Jessica,” Jack’s voice rang out, snapping Jessica out of her flashback.

She sat up, looking past her bountiful bosom and truck sized feet to see Jack standing just inside the tent.

“Caitlin pissed at you again?”  She asked, hoping there wasn’t a big fight. Judging from the sunlight filtering through the gap in the tent flap, it was unlikely the two could have had a nuclear level fallout in such a short time without her eyes even picking up on it.

“ No, I just thought we could head over to Harold’s and apologise to him. Probably best to get it over and done with.”

Jessica sighed, he did have a point. Better to just rip the bandaid off than to slowly pull it off.

“ Okay but stand aside.I don’t want to crush you by accident, Caitlin will never let me live it down if you get squished under my boob,” Jessica said; it got a chuckle from Jack who duly obeyed.

“ Of course, getting crushed by your wrecking balls would really ruin my day.”

Once she was clear of the tent, Jack climbed on to Jessica’s hand before being carried over to Harold’s place. Although he claimed to be Jack’s neighbour, their properties weren’t adjacent to each other as one would expect. Instead, Jessica had to walk about half a mile to find his house, a single storey modern villa painted white.

At her height, Jessica could spot a pool in the backyard, likely to be about a hundred and twenty feet in length, very ostentatious from the palms trees lining a white stone path that led to the gate, running parallel to a gravel road which presumably led to the garage. The entire compound was sprawling, enough to require

“ Did you call Harold? I don’t want to miss lunch, my stomach’s starting to growl.”

“ Don’t worry I did; and you won’t miss lunch either. Five food trucks aren’t going anywhere until you gorge yourself silly on tonnes of food. Literal tons mind you, you are the only person on Earth I’d believe if you said you could eat a whole whale.”

Jessica chuckled, she had never tried that, given her disdain for eating endangered animals but yes, she thought she could eat an orca, maybe a dolphin. A sperm whale would probably cover for more than one meal.

“Yes, yes I could,” Jessica admitted as she placed Jack on the floor. Both were standing outside the gates,  Jessica remembering to keep off the road although damage had been done on the side, her footprints creating potholes.

 “ Should we press a button or something?” Jessica asked, looking down at the gate. Harold’s property had a brick wall encircling it with spikes resembling arrowheads on top.

“ If he hasn’t seen the giant lady outside then he’s blind.”

 Harold did actually see her, as evidenced by the car pulling up at the gate.

“ Don’t take too long, every second you’re here makes my house depreciate.” Harold moved to them but he did not go beyond the gate, enjoying the belief of the security it provided to him.

“ You know that gate isn’t going to protect you from me right?” Jessica raised her leg but Harold shouted loudly, insisting she keep it off his land.

“ I see you’re still not wearing any underwear,” Harold’s remark turning Jessica’s face beet red.

“ I can’t believe I am apologising to you,” Jessica exclaimed. She had half a mind to turn around and go back to her tent but Jack had worked hard to arrange a man with this pompous windbag.

“ Yet here you are,” Harold rubbed it in, arms spread out.

“ I’m waiting.”

“ Okay,” Jessica fired back. If only he weren’t so keen on rubbing salt into the wound.

 “I...I am sorry Harold.”

“Sorry for?”

Her fists clenched at those words, Harold really intended to milk this for what it's worth.

“ Sorry for knocking you off your boat after you sprayed pepper spray on my face.”

“I’ll take it, consider this practice for your future mistakes.” Harold waved back at them, grinning broadly as he climbed back into the car.

“Let's go,” Jessica grunted as she grasped Jack, putting him safely in the centre of her palm. For additional security she held it against abdomen, under her bust.

“ You did well. Thanks for going along with this.”

“You’re welcome, let's not make this a regular thing okay?”