Waking up from the procedure was a jarring experience.  The first thing I saw was Kirsten’s face as though it were displayed on a billboard.  Each of her mahogany irises were half my size and looking right at me, and her previously petite nose was just as wide as me and twice as tall.  The powder from her make-up was perfectly evident in some spots, and with her dark red lipstick the small creases in her lips were easily visible.  I recoiled involuntarily and her eyes widened, the whites making a sharp contrast with the small amount of eyeliner she had applied.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” she exclaimed.  I had watched the words leave her lips, but it didn’t sound like Kirsten’s voice.  It was louder than she had ever spoken before, and significantly deeper in a way that shook my insides as though I were at a concert.  She leaned back to sit on her heels, allowing me to see something other than her face, and adjusted herself until she was comfortable.  “I didn’t even think about how scary that would be for you!  Is this better?”  Kirsten looked at me expectantly, and I came out of my retreating posture.

“Yeah… yeah, it is,” I replied once my heart stopped racing.  There was a lot more to adjust to than I had expected: I hadn’t expected that Kirsten’s gentle voice would sound more like a roaring subwoofer, for instance.  I looked around to get a more complete picture of my new life.  Behind me, the lamp I had switched off every night for years rose like a monolith, the chain dangling far out of my reach.  To the side I saw that our bed had become a vast plateau with steep hills at the headboard, and I was standing on a blue tile floor that did not in any way fit our apartment’s décor.  “Um, where am I?”

“You’re in our apartment,” she answered.  “The hospital suggested that I waited until getting home to wake you up, they said it’d be easier for you to adjust to your new life.”  I wasn’t sure I’d ever really adjust to this.  The few things I had encountered so far were different enough that it felt like I was on an alien world.  “How do you feel?”

“I feel weird, and really small.  Everything is just so huge to me now, and it’s… a lot to take in.  I thought I’d be fine, but when I saw your face looming over me I got scared.  Like, I know you wouldn’t hurt me, but it took a second for me to even recognize it was you.  And your voice sounds totally foreign, like it’s been slowed down significantly, but still at normal speed.  Guess I should’ve taken that week to acclimate with holograms, huh?”

Kirsten gave a wry grin.  “Hey, don’t worry about it,” she said.  “You’ll get used to this soon enough, and it’ll be like nothing’s wrong.”  My insides still rumbled when she spoke, but I figured that was more something I’d have to deal with rather than acclimate to.  “How’s your head?”

I waited a moment before answering to let the noise inside my ears die out.  For the first time in months I didn’t feel as though my head were about to split open from cluster headaches, and for all the unusual sights at this scale my vision was fine.  “It’s like nothing’s wrong with it!” I exclaimed.  “Probably better than it’s ever been!”

Her grin widened into a huge smile, showing teeth the size of my torso.  “That’s great!” she shouted, and I covered my ears from the sudden explosion of sound.  Blushing, she covered her mouth with her slender fingers.  “Oops, sorry again.  Guess I’ll have some adjusting to do, too.”  When she pulled her hand away I saw she was trying to suppress her smile and doing a poor job of it.  “Think you’re ready for a look around?”

“Yeah, I’ll give it a shot.”  I pointed down and hoped she could see what I was doing.  “But first, what’s this thing I’m standing on?”

“Oh, that’s very important!  It’s your new bed.  Since your brain is technically all digitized now, you have to sleep in it if you want any memories to be retained in case something goes wrong.  Think of it like a save point – this is the thing that stores your progress so you don’t have to learn everything all over again.  Don’t worry, I’ll get you set up with some stuff to make it more comfortable.”

That made sense, and this platform did look a lot like the machine they showed me before administering anesthetic.  Past the blue platform, I seemed to be on a nightstand with a sharp drop to the floor on all sides.  “Uh, how am I going to get off this?”

“Again, don’t worry about it, I’ve got you covered.”  Kirsten extended a hand toward me, and as it drew closer my trepidation grew.  The delicate digits I used to wrap mine around were all several times longer than me and at least twice as wide, and her palm was large enough that I would be able to stand on it without feeling vertigo.  Though she was moving slowly I still felt imperiled as it encroached, and I resisted the urge to run screaming only because I had nowhere to run.

I closed my eyes when her fingers got close enough for me to see the whorls on their tips.  She pressed my arms against my sides firmly enough that it would be impossible to resist the relatively enormous weight of her fingers, but gently enough that I didn’t feel threatened.  My feet lifted off the ground and I forced my eyes to open.  When I saw the gargantuan hand bearing down on me with fingers poised to smash me between them, I wanted to squeeze them shut again.  My nerves quickly settled, however, and I came to think of this as more like an amusement park ride, with my gigantic wife’s hand as a roller coaster of sorts.

Kirsten slowly lowered me to the ground, keeping her hold on me firm until my feet were solidly on the hardwood floor in front of her knees.  She withdrew her hand, placing it atop her thigh with a clap.  I stood there looking up for a moment, mesmerized by how gigantic my wife was to me now.  Most of my view was blocked by the sheer black fabric over her knees no matter how far I craned my neck back, and her slight torso was now the size of a building.  Her face still seemed enormous even though it wasn’t filling my view, but from here I no longer felt threatened by each of her facial features, and appreciated the beauty as they complemented each other.

Just when I was getting acclimated to the view it began to shift again, Kirsten’s dress bulging while one of her legs pressed against it.  A tremendous boom rang out when she planted her foot, accompanied by a violent quake that sent me stumbling.  She rapidly shot up, and another crash came with a second tremor, and I tumbled onto the lacquered floor.  “Kirsten, earthquake!” I shouted, feeling as though the building was about to crumble.

“What?  I don’t feel anything,” She replied, looking around in confusion.  While I struggled to get up I heard her giggle.  “Oh!  That was just me standing.  Am I really so gigantic to you that my footsteps rock your world?”

I craned my neck back as far as I could and still couldn’t see the top of her head.  She was hundreds of feet tall compared to me now, absolutely titanic to my new, tiny body.  My head was almost level with the tip of her ballet flats which looked to be about as long as a flatbed trailer.  If she got much more gigantic to me, I thought, she would be more like a landmark.  “Yeah, you really are!” I shouted up at her, still feeling uneasy from her footsteps.  “Any chance you could carry me around for the tour?”

“You know, I’d really like to,” she replied.  Even so far up her voice retained its resonating qualities, like she was speaking through a crystal clear public address system.  “Unfortunately, Doctor Kirillova insisted that we walk alongside each other during this.  She said it’ll help you adjust faster, and let you know your limitations when I’m out.  It’ll also let me know what I need to do to accommodate you, so while it might be unpleasant it’s going to help you in the long run.”  I couldn’t argue with that, but it was difficult to see those enormous shoes and not worry about being caught beneath one.

Kirsten took a step toward the bedroom door, careful to walk in a more gliding manner so that she wouldn’t “rock my world” as she put it.  Even though her slit dress restricted her legs, her gait was long enough that she easily outpaced me.  With only three steps she was already at the doorway while I was running to catch up.  “Hey, wait up!” I shouted.  She looked over her shoulder and down, then stopped when she spied me so far away.

“Oh, my bad!” she said with an embarrassed smile.  “I had gotten so used to us walking together that I didn’t even… but I’ll work on it.”  Kirsten stopped and waited while I caught up, though it took several minutes.  The whole time she watched me patiently with the same smile plastered on her face.  I wasn’t sure what she was so happy about, watching her husband struggle to keep up while scurrying about on the floor, but I guess we were both glad I wasn’t dying anymore.

When she finally started moving again Kirsten did her best to match my pace, slowly moving her foot along with me as I traversed the floor’s planks.  Walking at such a pace must have been infuriating for her, but if she minded she didn’t say anything.  As an added benefit, now that she was walking at my speed the ground no longer shook when her foot hit the ground.

First we made a trek around the living room.  As I had expected everything was much too large for me to practically use.  The couch was like a tremendous ridge, and I would have an easier time sliding under it than taking a seat on the cushion.  In addition to that, the chair I had personally picked out when we moved in had the same problem, with no way for me to actually sit in it.  Even if I could, it would have been too large for me to use.  Even the rug conspired against me, slowing my progress so much that Kirsten had to come to a complete stop several times while I untangled my feet.

Next up was the kitchen, and we ran into the same problems.  Everything was simply too big for me, from the refrigerator to the silverware.  Not only could I not get food, even if I could I would have to eat it with my hands anyway.  The sink was more like a swimming pool, and each glass would have sufficed as a room on its own.  I would have thought there would be something I could use, but after Kirsten showed me that the smallest spoon we owned had a basin my size it was clear nothing was even remotely practical for someone in my situation.

The last stop would have been the bathroom, but we both had a fairly good idea how that would go by now.  I didn’t need to see it to know that I could slip down the shower drain, or marvel at the absolute size of the porcelain throne.  The apartment, and society as a whole, simply wasn’t built with inch-tall people in mind.  If the idea hadn’t seemed so absurd I would have screamed at the injustice of it.

Kirsten turned around once we finished the kitchen walk-through, placing the tips of her shoes neatly on either side of me.  She looked down at me and blushed slightly before saying, “So, it looks like you’ll need just about everything, or some sort of accommodation.  I’ll stop by the fabricator tomorrow and get you a chair and food, and see about getting some stairs made so you can get up to the less replaceable items.  As for the couch, you don’t mind curling up in my lap and cuddling, do you?”

I zoned out after halfway through what she was saying.  “Wait, you’re going to work tomorrow?” I asked.  “I appreciate everything you’re going to do for me, but I was hoping we’d have some more time to work with each other and get used to this.”

“I know, I did too!” Kirsten replied.  “I was hoping we’d be able to spend a few days together, let you explore some things, take you out with me keeping a close watch on you, stuff like that.  But my job decided this was an elective procedure and I had to beg and plead to get this one day off.  Apparently, the norm is that people pick their spouses up from the hospital after work, I had to drive home that this was a life-changing event and you’d need some time adjusting.”

“Really?  That’s heartless of them.”  I reached out and grabbed the toe of her left shoe, the closest I could get to some sort of comforting gesture.  “Don’t you have any vacation days or something?”

Kirsten smirked a little.  “I’m saving my vacation days for something special, just the two of us.  When it happens, you’ll thank me, but for now try not to worry too much.  Tonight I’ll set up some steps so you can get off the nightstand, and I’ll leave some food out for you tomorrow, then everything should be good to go after I get home from work.”

I balked.  She had been telling me not to worry an awful lot, and I was found this vacation to be questionable.  Still, I trusted her get all of this done, and worst case scenario I’d be a little hungry when she got home.  It’s not like I was going to die anymore.  “Okay, I can deal with this for a day,” I called up to her, then gave her shoe the best hug I could give it.

“You’re getting awfully chummy with my shoes,” she said.  “Should I be jealous?”

“Maybe,” I replied coyly.  “I’ll be spending a lot more time with them now, I might pick up a totally new appreciation for them.”

“They’re a package deal, you know, and one might get mad if you spend too much time with the other.  Think you can juggle those commitments while also dealing with a spurned giantess?”

“Spurned?  I think I can manage all three of you.  After all, you spend so much time together I could multitask pretty well.”

The shoe I was leaning on began sliding away, causing me to stumble forward.  “Oh no, that one’s leaving you!” Kirsten said, then started sliding the other one back so that she ended up kneeling.  “That one too!  I guess you’re just left with your wife.”

I acted disappointed.  “Well, if I have to settle for a beautiful, generous giantess, then I’ll manage somehow.”

Kirsten smiled, then carefully picked me up.  She pressed me against her lips while she stood, getting dark red lipstick all over my pants and face.  When she was done she looked at me and said, “You walk really slow, you know.  That tour took like five hours.  I hope you’re going to make this up to me somehow.”

I chortled.  “Anything you have in mind?”

“Normally I’d ask you to take me to lunch, but I don’t really go on dates with inch-tall men.  How about we stay in and share a sandwich instead?”  I couldn’t shrug with my arms pin so instead I nodded, and Kirsten walked me over to the table, set me down atop it, and went about getting our food.