Back on Ambloome’s world, in Lily-foot, a colonist named Anna
Lyste was offering psychiatry and therapy. Her banner
Was the business name of Shrinks For Giants. She would specialize
In the counseling of people dating outside their own size.

Anna took her first appointment for the day; a nearby neighbour
By he name of Eustace. He sat down, quite worked up, to belabor
His affection for a giantess named Commencroft, who’d dumped
All the differences between them, which had left him feeling stumped.

She suggested he distract his mind with forms of recreation,
From a woman who’d decided he was far beneath her station.
Then her second patient Bernard said his giant girlfriend Kayte
Didn’t know him as the boy that she believed she took and ate:

‘I must keep the secret from her, so she thinks a separate person
Was demolished in her tummy, lest my situation worsen.
I’m attached to her. I’m really only paying for your ear,
So it’s off my chest in private, where my girlfriend wouldn’t hear.’

‘Sometimes I think I need therapy,’ thought Anna, ‘This position
Puts me right out there for everyone who makes an exhibition
(Shown in confidence to me) of all the factors which can draw
Little men towards the giantesses, notwithstanding vore.’

Then some visitors from earth (whom Alicindra recommended
Could make use of Anna’s services) quite willingly attended
As a couple there for counseling: Alexis Merrilong
And her shrinking boyfriend Rover from the land of billabong.

‘I’m not sure that I can hold her interest,’ Rover remonstrated,
‘When her child came first, she caged me, while I wrote my verse and waited.’
‘Would you like to tell Alexis how that really made you feel’’
Anna asked, while thinking, ‘Is this how I make a crust for real’’

‘There are times it makes me feel as though I’m just a brief amusement
You’d have kept inside that cage, unless that fortunate inducement
Of my poetry prepared you to reciprocate my crush.
Even then, you didn’t seem to be in that much of a rush.’

‘Now Alexis, would you like to give your own response to Rover’’
Anna said, and thought, ‘My work today is clearly far from over.’
Meanwhile Rover thought, ‘She’s only asking each of us to speak
For her hourly rates, without the real advice we came to seek.’

That went on for quite a while; and then another couple entered:
Ambloome and Lee-John, who said that people found them both self centered.
Ambloome had her shrinking power, with which she never made the use
Of activity with Lee-John which would let them reproduce.

‘We have never wanted children,’ Ambloome said, ‘but since we’re able,
There are those who think it’s mandatory. They think that they can label
Us as selfish. Then they say we’re letting down the royal line.
But we’re very much in love as is. We think we’re doing fine.’

‘What about the royal line’’ asked Anna, ‘I’m no second guesser.’
‘Nonvor’s chosen (from a noble family) who’d be my successor,’
Ambloome said, ‘When I was in the future, studying its past
With my former husband Lester, I learned I would be the last.’

‘If you change your own desires to parent, you won’t have to tamper
With a present history which is not yet written. That won’t hamper
Your decision. If you’re happy,’ Anna said, ‘Perhaps the sick
(In the mind) are those who think that childless marriage isn’t hic.

If you send my way those gossip mongers who’ve been criticizing
You for living with your own life choices, I will be advising
Them to mind their own collective business, not critiquing yours.
It’s mentalities like that which led to Alban’s wretched wars.’

Then with counseling, Alexis did her best at reassuring
Her cute Rover that he needn’t use his mental card for scoring
How he rated, stacked against her child. She loved him quite enough.
How they chose to make the most of that was their own private fluff.

Eustace booked another session, which he mainly used up, telling
Anna Lyste why he found Commencroft the giantess compelling.
She said, ‘Maybe you should try the Parallel Dimension Cure.
It could take your mind forever off that woman’s grand allure.

It’s my husband’s new discovery. Len Lyste was unrelenting
In attempts (around the Queen’s concerns) to do some reinventing
Of those amulets. Instead of making one which goes to earth
Or the future or the past, he gave new scientific birth:

Quite by accident, some amulets he made began traversing
To a parallel of our world. Then he learned, with some rehearsing
To control the journeys back and forth. He used one to explore.
If my treatment isn’t helping, pay the man. He’ll make one more.’

So then Eustace bought a Type Two amulet and chose to use it
To explore the parallel of Ambloome’s world, where giant shoes fit
On the doppelgangers of the folks he knew of giant size.
If an earth existed also there, it hadn’t caught their eyes.

Ambloome-B the Queen was married to a giant, and their offspring
Was a daughter. So there wasn’t any kind of twisted scoffing
Such as Ambloome-A and Lee-John faced; but Eustace came to meet
Commencroft’s own giant counterpart and found her kind and sweet.

So they dated on her world and then he happily invited
Her for dates upon the world where all the colonies were sighted.
Since no colonies existed on her world, in Ambloome’s field,
Commencroft-of-B enjoyed the tiny towns that were revealed.

Eustace introduced his girlfriend at a LATERALDATE convention.
Commencroft-of-B soon kissed him, free of any apprehension
Which her counterpart (the local Commencroft) had always shown.
Then when Commencroft-of-A turned up, the whole shebang was blown.

She took legal action, suing Eustace for objectifying
Her with someone from another world, as though he’d been defying
Her rejection of advances he had made to her in vain.
Bryce had lawyer status on that world, which Eustace could retain.

Back on earth he needed extra letters after name, to practice;
And he knew that any chance of recognition would be cactus.
So his wife Admyra helped him start a business in her land.
As solicitor for Eustace he was set to make a stand.

Neither Commencroft-of-A nor Eustace called for some recusing
Of Admyra as presiding judge. Each hoped they’d not be losing.
Bryce crossed Commencroft-of-A and asked, ‘Has Eustace ever forced
His attentions on you’ ‘ If he hasn’t, where’s this action sourced’’

Bryce called Eustace to the stand and asked him, ‘Whom have you been loving’’
‘Only Commencroft-of-B,’ said Eustace, ‘I have not been shoving
My attentions onto Commencroft-of-A. She’s been so cold
And unfeminine towards me, telling me that she’s too old.

Since I’d given up on someone whose response was hard as granite,
I went elsewhere on my therapist’s advice, to tour a planet
In a parallel dimension. She at no point did suggest
I should seek or find a doppelganger. Things just turned out best.’

Bryce asked Commencroft-of-B, ‘Do you believe your man (my client)
Has persisted with unwelcome moves on you or any giant’’
‘On the contrary,’ Commencroft-of-B responded, ‘He made sure
That I understood he loved me, not the one who’d never thaw.’

Then came time for closing arguments. The lawyer for the plaintiff
(Commencroft-of-A) restated that his client could remain stiff
And should not then be subjected in a social singles haunt
To her counterpart and someone she’d rejected, there to flaunt:

‘She was clear in saying ‘no’ to him, which he was never willing
To accept as answer. So he dates her double, with it spilling
Over into her attempts to find a partner who was right.
The defendant rubbed her face in things, to vent his public spite.’

Then came Bryce’s turn to close. He said, ‘The plaintiff wasn’t looking
For a partner. Long before she’d made the recent social booking,
She had clearly indicated that she found earth men too small.
Why was she prepared to come to LATERALDATE events at all’

Yet she’s there at functions made for meeting tiny men, parading
The superiority she feels, indifferently degrading
All the tiny men who’d never stand a chance. Then when one does
(With her double) she comes running to the bailiff and the fuzz.

She expects to make a song and dance about her own expression
Of her wishes. Yet her counterpart (who’s told you in this session)
Has some wishes of her own; and so the ticket show begins.
Would we even bring this case to court, if these two girls were twins’

Commencroft-of-A enjoyed the right to say her ‘no.’ She said it.
Then my client walked away and sought some counsel, to his credit.
It would seem that she resents his first advances. That’s absurd.
Since he hadn’t heard her answer, no harassment had occurred.

She’s here seeking legal remedy, to sound a boisterous clanger,
Just because the man she shunned is dating her mere doppelganger.
Look at how she’s dressed in court, with tickets pinned upon her dress,
Saying ‘victim’ and ‘objectified’, ‘harrassed.’ But I digress.

She can hardly seek injunction, since my client’s not a vagrant,
Just because she pulls a fashion stunt that’s nothing short of flagrant
Retribution for a couple’s chance at happiness they saw.
There’s no cause to sanction this reaction in a court of law.

On my planet earth, man’s right to ask girls out has been eroded
As corruption by the movement of the feminists has goaded
Legislators into overworked harassment laws, to thump
Every shy man, who’s already trying to clear a nervous lump.

Yes that lump’s been in the throats of men, whose nerves have predicated
That it’s hard to ask a lady out. Now they’re debilitated
By supplanting all rejection’s pain with undeserved law suit,
Just because of what’s been getting worse, since Eve first found that fruit.

We cannot allow the nastiness of earth to go on spreading
Into this world, leaving nice young men to live in fear of dreading
Their attempts to court the ones they’d love. It’s one thing we should nip,
Lest a feminist regime replace this peace with power trip.

Many sweet and lovely giant women have enjoyed their pairing
Up with earth size men. This won’t occur if these men can’t be daring,
Lest the legal system punish them for showing that they’re keen
On a giant girl, as Lee-John would have done to court the Queen.’

Then Admyra made her ruling. She said, ‘As a woman (hear me),
I am not prepared to see my gender (whom I look on dearly)
Be reduced to trying to prove their great equality in court,
By complaining of the compliments that most of us have sought.

Let the records of this case reflect that I am now directing
Any woman asked on dates (whose feelings lean towards rejecting)
To express their ‘no,’ and then move on. Unless man uses force,
There is seldom any need to seek a trial as their recourse.

I dismiss the plaintiff’s action, being highly prejudicial;
And I don’t expect the time of me (or any court official)
To be wasted in the future by a frivolous attempt
To suggest that seeking romance is illegal or unkempt.’

Then the Scribe, who did write down these facts, whose past had once been checkered
(With complaints like Commencroft-of-A’s) included for the record
That the ladies had their chance to shine in everything he wrote,
Just as long as men weren’t hated for the times they’d hope and dote.

In the Trial of Kayte’s Mom, Alicindra needed no one’s leading;
As she won her case successfully, by doing all her pleading
Of the matter she was charged with by some somewhat biased males.
Just like justice, writing records needs a chance to tip the scales.

‘Now that we have won the case and made our point,’ young Eustace pondered,
Is it time to make the short supplies of Commencrofts less squandered,
By returning you to your world, with the other staying here,
So confusion doesn’t take the place of cupid’s winning spear’’

‘Then you wouldn’t have your earth sized friends or live in little building,
Commencroft-of-B replied, "but maybe Alicindra’s gilding
Might replace the way my double thinks. I can’t believe that she
Could behave like that to us, and yet be so much more like me.’

One day Jenyfer was visiting her giant world alone,
Sharing news with Ambloome (her old friend) of how they all seemed prone
To adventures both on earth and their own world, which though demanding,
Served to strengthen their relationships and further understanding.

‘That’s been true of some of them,’ said Ambloome, ‘I still can’t forget,
That my mother’s in the future. Even with her amulet,
She can never bring her husband back, because of such a thickness
In the heads of those who poisoned Flyte. They bore the greater sickness.’

‘I can’t quantify your anger there,’ said Jenyfer, ‘But still
You’ve built colonies and LATERALDATE has helped perfect the skill
That has come with inter-dating. We’ve both married twice, resulting
From our efforts, and we saved the earth from their Cabilo’s cult thing.’

‘Yes I know. I mainly focus on the good. At least this time,
Earth’s destructive ways of thinking didn’t lead to any crime.
Commencroft-of-A and Eustace played their issues in the courtroom,
And perhaps her double may have found a younger, rather short groom.’

‘It’s amazing, Ambloome,’ Jenyfer was quick to keep on track,
‘There’s another Ambloome out there. Will you still allow some slack
To the scientist Len Lyste, to let our people use devices
(Type Two amulets he makes) and sells for manageable prices’’

‘For the moment,’ Ambloome said, ‘I closed the old dimension lanes
Through to earth from most of us, because its people were the banes
Of our peace, in folks like Alban that Barbarian. You know what’
Maybe losing mother made me look on life here like a robot.’

Then Lee-John and Ambloome asked Len Lyste to make (for them) Type Twos.
Just as soon as they were ready, Ambloome took the chance to use
Their new amulets to visit giant world-B for a meeting
With the other Ambloome. Soon the group were chatting during eating.

Ambloome-A was there to satisfy her curiosity
At the living proof of how perhaps her life by then would be,
If she’d married someone giant sized, and they had had a baby.
And would Ambloome-B have fallen for an earth sized partner’ Maybe.

‘Is there someone here like me as well’’ asked Jenyfer, since she
Had been Ambloome-A’s best friend at school, since they were in Year Three.
‘If there is, I’ve never met her,’ Ambloome-B replied, ‘But searching
Is your privilege. We’ll have peace between our worlds with nothing lurching.’

They could not locate a Jenyfer in Ambloome-B’s home town.
That was not to say there wasn’t one. But she could not shrink down,
If she did exist, nor cross through time and space. But maybe one day,
They would open other doors without the fear of swords and gun play.

In the meantime, Krees was visited by Roslanne, who had done
All those hurtful things he’d mentioned, back when Jenyfer had won
His full trust (in Ambloome LVII). She had left him hurting,
When her answer to the problems she had caused had been: deserting.

They had broken up so many times, which she would instigate,
Every time he’d say she hardly made the time to have a date,
When by then they should have married, lived together, each one starring
In the other’s lives, instead of trying to heal incessant scarring.

Only five months later he had first met Jenyfer, and felt
(For the first time): there was more outside the painful memories dealt
To his deepest thoughts by Roslanne. Yet the fear of his to sally
Forth and ask her status was a part of Roslanne’s damage tally.

Now she asked, ‘Can I come in’’ and said, ‘My daughter’s grown and gone.
I’m so sorry for the things I did. Perhaps we might move on
To a second chance for both of us. I’ll try to be much kinder.’
All the pain she caused came flooding back, with only that reminder.

‘When you left, I said you couldn’t walk away and then expect
I’d renew your opportunity to damage and neglect
Our relationship. You should have put me first, when you were living
With your kids. Yet now you’re here expecting me to be forgiving.

But you just ran out, and chose to say I didn’t meet the grade
Of a partner made for you, when all the lies and games you played
Brought all hell down on our love affair, which should have been the greater
Of considerations in your choices. You can’t come back later.’

When he’d finished, she appealed to him: ‘I wasn’t thinking straight.
All those times you thought that I was socializing, when out late,
And you wondered why I left you out. I knew how it could feel, though.
I just couldn’t share the fact that I was working for Cabilo.

‘Then some giants took his plans apart, and finally I learned
Of those evil things afoot, when all my savings had been earned.
I pulled out, just as he met with justice, free of the psychosis
That my private doctor thinks was brought about by his hypnosis.’

‘It’s too late,’ said Krees, ‘I knew about Cabilo, from the start.
But I knew if I went after him, I’d jeopardize your heart.
As it happens, five months after you last left, I fell so deeply
For a woman who was married. So I had my private weepy.

After 18 extra months, I ended up in her employ,
Though to her I was the babysitter, just a full-grown boy.
Now just recently I learned that she and her first love (a Viking)
Were among the ones who took Cabilo down, while I was hiking.

She’s a giantess who has the power to shrink: the perfect bride,
For her Viking husband Braisyde, who has subsequently died.
Though you kept me from all aspects of your life, which led to busting
Our relationship, the one time married woman was more trusting.

Just before we even dated, she took me to her big place
On the giant world, and grew to take up quite a lot of space.
I won’t speak of your involvement with the man that they defeated.’
Roslanne left. He thought of Jenyfer, and dozed off, gently seated.

Anna Lyste was hard at work at Shrinks For Giants, with an earthling
Whose desire for more excitement in his life was quickly hurtling
For depression he could not stave off. He opened up his soul,
Baring all the facts of emptiness, describing every hole.

Anna didn’t have the answers to the way he made each fact sound,
As she listened to the details of his most unlikely background:
He was Skee, a wealthy 13 year old Viking boy, who’d come
To the giant world, inheritor of quite a hefty sum.

He’d inherited from parents, who had died when he was seven.
Now they slept beneath the ground, awaiting living space in heaven.
He had used his massive fortune, so that he could gratify
All the whims that people dreamed of as they struggled to get by.

When he’d sampled every thrill on earth, he wondered where his fright went,
Since he had the keys to every door, except some real excitement.
Then he’d met with Ambloome, while she’d visited her husband’s home.
When she heard of his great acidy, she said, ‘You’ll be a gnome.

I could take you to a place where you’d be tiny like a fairy.
You could live with earthlings, and some giants, though they won’t be scary.
You can have adventures, if you choose, and be a colonist.’
He had tried it for a while, and then consulted Anna Lyste.

He’d exhausted all the means of seeking thrills on his own Terra,
From the snow, to depths of oceans, from New York onto Sierra,
And then done the same on Ambloome’s world (the bonus chance he’d scored).
At this point young Skee had tried it all. So now he just felt bored.

She suggested the dimension cure her husband had provided
Once for Eustace, but he said, though it was not to be derided,
It would only be the same again, on parallels as such.
‘As excitement goes, I really don’t think that would lend me much.’

‘If my husband’s Type Two Amulets had Ambloome’s own one’s power
To traverse the course of time, you’d have the greatest means to scour
Any times in past or future, which may satisfy your will
For encountering the means to find a brand new kind of thrill.’

That was Anna Lyste’s new theory. Skee was so enthusiastic,
That she thought of something else, though it would call for something drastic.
She suggested that a means to reach the future could be tried,
If the aim of such an exercise could yet be modified.

She’d been treating someone (Alysonne), who’d used a means of freezing,
To suspend her age for decades. Then she’d found the outcome pleasing.
Anna said she could request that Alysonne start freezing Skee,
Though they’d never know when someone else would come to set him free.

‘That’s excitement of the greatest kind!’ Skee found himself exclaiming,
‘I’d be gambling on the time that I’d wake up: the best of gaming.
When and if someone discovered me and took the chance to thaw,
I could face the new world’s challenges, returning nevermore.’

‘You would have to be quite certain that you wanted such an outcome.
I treat Alysonne for reasons. She has talked with me about some
Major culture shocks she’s coping with. Yet on the whole she’s glad,
That she froze herself. Some other people might have thought she’s mad.’

Skee considered it for days, and then was pleased that he had chosen
This new avenue of action (or the lack of it, while frozen).
Anna Lyste consulted Alysonne, who gave her own consent.
As he chilled, he went to sleep and didn’t know the time he spent.

He awoke to find that there was still an icy layer sticking
To his clothes, and saw a giant lady holding him and licking
All the ice, until she’d thawed the lot. She’d chosen not to wait
For the rest to thaw. He asked her for the year of current date.

The lady’s age was 53. She said that she’d been older
Even at the time he went to sleep, when things had gotten colder.
Yet he’d been asleep for decades. He explained why he had slept.
He was just in front of her sweet face, where giant fingers kept.

‘I’m so thankful that you woke me up,’ he said, while he was gazing
At her giant face, ‘I’m still 13. It’s really quite amazing!
We were both around, when I dropped off, but now you’re 53.
Having made himself much younger than this friend excited Skee.

As he looked at his prospective friend, in gratitude, still fawning
She then quickly popped him in her mouth without a word of warning.
‘Looks like I was frozen food to her. That’s why she chose to thaw
Her intended item on the menu. Now it’s time for vore.’

Though he wouldn’t want to feel the awful pain of molars biting,
He at last had found a situation which was so exciting.
He was in a giant lady’s mouth. He may depart her tongue,
And explore her throat or stomach or perhaps inside her lung.’

He had no more chance of getting out of her than of reversing
What had brought him to the future, with some bygone years dispersing
In the memories of the folks who’d lived them while he’d been asleep.
He imagined the descent inside her throat was very steep.

It was challenging to think where he might go, with all his choices
Now the limits of locations near the source of women’s voices.
As he thought back to his therapy he’d had with Anna Lyste,
He considered where he’d go, if this big lady did assist.

Then she opened up her mouth and took him out, and said, ‘Befriended,
Though I am, I think I’ve done my bit, by stopping your suspended
Animation. I can’t be your friend. My name is Kayte. So long.
When I was young, I ate a boy. Since then I’ve been quite strong.

I was married, with my years ahead. I knew that he would miss them.
But I gladly ate him anyway, removing from my system
Any urge to eat up other boys, until I came upon
Pixie popsicle from yester-decade. You might well be gone’’

‘I could be your friend forever, and I’d usually be harmless.
We could chat about all sorts of things and you’d enjoy the calmness.
But on rare occasions, I might not control my lifelong urge
To dispatch you to my inner realm, with one great gulping surge.’

‘I don’t want to leave you, Kayte. This time you did your in time saving
Of my little self, and you should know that I can match your craving
For a meal of me, with my desire to play for higher stakes.
I’m excited by the risk of whether your resistance breaks.’

So she took him to the colony, where he was re-established.
They would often go on picnics, where she catered well, and lavished
Every well-cooked giant treat on him, still keen to cultivate
Lasting friendship with the second boy she very nearly ate.

Back in present time, when Anna Lyste wound up a consultation
With the childless Queen, she told Ambloome, ‘We have a situation.
I’m afraid that I should break a client privilege. Bernard said
That he tricked Kayte into thinking he was one on whom she fed.

It was while she was with Tennyce. Alicindra had been kept in
Bernard’s loop, as both of them prepared a culinary deception,
So that Kayte would think she’d eaten someone, which he knew would rid
Her of urges to eat someone else. And now she dates that kid.’

Anna filled in all the details. Ambloome rapidly demanded
Private audience with Alicindra. ‘That was underhanded!’
She exclaimed, ‘By rights I should put Kayte straight under Queen’s arrest.
You had better hope that I decide it’s worked out for the best.’

‘You don’t always make the right decisions,’ Alicindra stammered,
‘When we first discovered earth you thought the giants were enamored
Of their charm. You let us go there often. Then you pulled the plug
On the amulets for most of us, because of one mad thug.

Alban’s motive for the things he did, which left you grieved and stressful,
Was preventing us from going there. You’ve made him quite successful.
I’m aware your mother had to move. She has been greatly missed,
But perhaps you need to talk that out in time with Anna Lyste.’

‘Maybe YOU’RE the hypocrite!’ said Ambloome, ‘Brazenly maintaining
That concern for earth relations is the cause of your complaining,
When your LATERALDATE events on earth have had to be curtailed.
Since I offered you the colonies, you should think Alban failed!’

Then she stopped and said, ‘I’m sorry. We should really be united.
You’re Kayte’s mother. Nonvor’s mine. It’s time for us to be more sighted.
I will have to have my special agents keep an eye on her.
If she doesn’t re-offend, there won’t be penance to incur.’

‘I am sorry too,’ said Kayte’s Mom softly, ‘We have never fought yet
‘Til this day. When you stopped amulets, except for our small quartet,
Which has grown a bit, I knew that you were right. I just lashed out.
It’s been hard to run the group with Kayte. I was not right to shout.’