The beaches of Tectelphia were both for play and for work, with both tourists and shrimp boats filling the waters. It wasn't as impressive as some of the white sand beaches in California, this was not a resort, but, it served the citizens of the city well enough. The giants occasionally used the beaches as well, though they sat on a cliff on the very far end of it. Some of the men more neutral towards the massive people often hoped to catch one of the women in bikinis, though it had yet to happen.

It was quite humorous when Valerie, Lorraine, and Trent arrived on the scene. It was like the opposite reaction of a person yelling “shark”, with everybody instead hurrying to the water to avoid being stepped on by the towering figures, even some of the lifeguards. Trent and Valerie observed this. Valerie sighed, sadly, while Trent looked embarrassed. Lorraine Pruess, on the other hand, was looking out, over the normal sized people, at the ocean.

“Isn't it just marvelous, Trent?” She asked, turning to the boy. “Doesn't it just take your breath away?”

“S...sure, Ms. Pruess...” Trent replied, nervously. He didn't look at her when he said. He was still blushing.

Valerie smiled out towards the big blue. It was a comforting sight to see something so beautiful that was soooo much bigger than she was. She had spent a lot of time sitting on that cliff on the far side of the beach, looking out at the Atlantic. Most of these times, she thought about how she wished that the general population of the world would view Giants in the way that they looked at the ocean. When they went to the beach, they regarded the big blue with a sense of beauty. It was the largest thing on this earth, yet it didn't scare them. They brought their families to it, got their lives from it, built homes near it so that they may spend their days looking at it. Untold thousands had gone off to brave it, and explore it. Like any human, many secrets and stories laid beneath its dark depths, and it told them, like an old man, to the next generation, which would do the same to the following. No one was afraid of the size of the ocean. Why could they not view giants like they did with the big blue sea?

“A penny for your thoughts, Val?” Raymond spoke into her ear. “You been awful quiet.”

“Oh, I'm just thinking,” Valerie replied.

“Don't let them get to you,” Ray continued. “Not all of them are running. Look.”

He pointed and Valerie saw that indeed some of them had remained. But...

“Raymond...I only see two people standing there.”

“Hey, that's a sign of progress!” Raymond replied. “Each person that doesn't run is another step in the right direction!”

Valerie shook her head, but smiled. He was right, in a sense. There was probably a time when ALL of them would have been fleeing into the water right now. Lorraine, still, seemed completely oblivious to the whole matter, eagerly asking Trent his opinion on the beauty that laid before him and if he thought it would be a good enough painting to be found in a museum. The boy struggled to answer every question, not being able to find his voice, shuffling his feet and staring at the ground, but Lorraine's high spirits were unaffected by it. While Ms. Pruess' oblivious was a little troublesome (especially when it actually got her in trouble) it was very heart warming. Valerie, herself, almost wished that she could be as cheerful as her some days. For Lorraine, there was no enduring tension between her and the general population, making her outlook on life a lot more bright. Mrs. Bradson always hoped, but she saw the people running away from her and was always saddened by it. But, despite that, she knew that she had Raymond, and that made everything okay.

She followed Lorraine and Trent, her lover on her shoulder, listening to her friends talk.

…

Terry Trayor, the Mayor of Tectelphia, was a wreck at the moment.

He had felt the ground tremor, he had heard some sirens, he had actually seen some of the...giants...outside of his window. They had come into the city again, and that meant he was going to have to deal with them. And if there was anything that Mayor Trayor hated...it was just that.

There had once been a day where the Mayor would have thought he was a tough man, a brave leader of his city where he proudly grew up and had worked in all of his life. He was the kind of mayor who would cut down crime and make the streets safe. He would run the city well, and do everything in his power to balance budgets, increase education, and fix all the ills of Tectelphia. He had stood strong when Tectelphia had been hit by a powerful hurricane, rendering a good portion of the city to wreckage back in nineteen eighty nine, not hesitating to work hard on getting Tectelphia back on her feet. He had thought that the citizens looked up to him and were grateful that he had proven himself to be a very capable leader. He had felt like any man would, after doing a job quite well, filled with satisfaction and content.

But, that all changed when he met Jennifer Stark. The damn Giant Relations Person.

As the mayor, he had knew of the giants. But, back in those days, they had stayed away from the city more, usually only hanging around the borders, without actually entering. But, nowadays, they came around much more, with their towering bodies, their quaking footsteps, and their unholy strength. It hadn't been so bad at first. Mayor Trayor found himself shivering when they walked near his office, but he had never been in their way and had intended for it to stay that way. However, one day, he got a E-mail from Jennifer Stark. After his initial surprise that giant people could even SEND an E-mail, he was more shocked (not to mention horrified) that this Stark woman wanted to meet him in person.

Terry Trayor considered that the moment when he manliness left him forever.

He tried to get out of it. Oh, how he tried. First attempting to keep rescheduling it so that it would never actually happen, something that failed quickly when Jennifer politely asked him stop (it hadn't been tough to catch on to the ploy). Then, he tried to send somebody else in his place, but nobody was brave enough, all of them rebuking him with comments along the lines of “You do it! You're the MAYOR!” With those words, Trayor began to feel that he was letting his city down and was afraid that he was losing his image of the 'fearless' leader. So, he finally decided to meet Ms. Stark. He did it for the city of Tectelphia.

It didn't go well.

He had always known that the giants were tall, but he knew that in the way that he knew ice was cold. It was just an obvious fact that everyone knew, but he didn't understand it in a way that a person from the Antarctica would. They knew ice was cold and they fully understood just how cold it was. Terry Trayor had not understood just how tall the giants were.

Jennifer Stark, of Giant Relations, was a living, breathing tower. Her eyes were larger than windows of a church, her arms over a longer than the length of a football field. Her feet were like houses, her legs like trunks of massive trees, the buttons of her jacket like manhole covers but wider, her breathing sounded like a massive pump. Everything shook with each move she made, the innocent shuffle of her feet rattled cars and windows, and fell a person or two. To behold her before him, this massive behemoth, it made Mayor Trayor's knees tremble and lock.

She had been polite enough, but that only made things worse. She offered to place him on the top of a skyscraper, so that they might talk “face to face”, instead of him having to look up to her like an ant. He had agreed, after having to catch his breath for a while, but instead of letting him climb up the building by the stairs inside, she extended a hand and, with quite politely, offered him a ride. Terry, not about to say no, obliged. It was the most demeaning feeling that he had ever encountered. He felt like a mere pet (a hamster perhaps) as he climbed onto the giant fingers of the woman. As she lifted him up off the ground, he saw that she was smiling at him, and he felt like he was a child's doll and almost expected her to say that they were about to have a tea party with all the other dolls. To be manhandled like this, to be so small...it made him feel weak, like he wasn't in control. He felt afraid and that made him feel unworthy of being the mayor. Being on top of the building was only more unpleasant. Those giant, hazel eyes, piercing into him, his puny reflection clear in the great dark pupils, as they fixated on him. The voice, though she was clearly speaking softly, boomed and was authoritative and clear. It was like she was calling the shots, usurping his power from him.

The Giant Relations Person had told Mayor Trayor about herself, what she did, explained who the other giants were, and then, finally, how he could contact her. This, more than anything that day, horrified the man. He was going to be seeing more of her. Repeat performances of being held in her hands, being carried around by her like a toy. Oh, no, no no. He didn't want that. But, what everything worse was he knew that there was nothing that he could about it. Jennifer Stark had explained that she had been in contact with the top, the President himself, and if he was letting her do this, then all Mayor Trayor could do was resign if he didn't like it. And he had thought about doing just that, adding onto the horrible experience. He felt as if his image was ruined. He had gone from the Capable Mayor, to some sham of a man, who no longer even wanted his office.

He had met her more since then. And no matter how many times he saw her, he just couldn't get over it. He had even dreamed about it. In one dream, he was at home, standing in front of his full length mirror, tying his tie for work. He turned and called to his wife. She came in and he turn and see a stiff version of his wife, her face frozen in a unpleasant, too cheery smile, her dress hard and unmoving, her limps completely in a fashion that made Trayor think of the Vitruvian Man. When she spoke, her mouth didn't move and she jumped between one stiff foot to the next, like an excited boy who had no control of his knees. It was at this point that he would notice the massive fingers holding his wife and looked up to see Ms. Jennifer Stark, her hazel eyes delightfully staring down at him. He then realized that he couldn't move and saw that he too was in the Relations Person's grip. Ms. Stark would bring them husband and wife together, imitating smooching sounds as their stone set face tapped each other. Then, the Giant Relations Person would lift him out of the house (the roof was gone) and placed him into the car. Then, lifting that up, she spun around gaily, making “vroom, vroom” noises. At some point, in her playing, she got too wound up, and the car slipped from her fingers. It was when he heard the hard crash of the plastic car that he awoke in a panic.

Today, he sat in his office, the police sirens at the bank reaching his ears. The blonde giantess, whose name he couldn't remember, had been out and about. She was a trouble maker, it seemed, and, like Jennifer, Mayor Trayor wasn't a big fan. He knew of the other giants. The one with the ponytail and glasses seemed safe enough now, he had never had problems with her, though he did know that she was connected to an incident in the suburbs many years ago that didn't end well. The other one, that young guy, kept to himself and usually didn't come out unless he was with one of the others. But because of the blonde, he saw more of the Giant Relations Person than he would have liked, and he knew that it would be only a matter of time today before he was informed that that particular giant woman would be on his metaphorical door step...

…

Lorraine, Trent, and Valerie all sat at their special cliff, looking out on the beach. They had talked for a long time about whatever they fancied, Raymond had reminded Valerie of the day they met. Trent had kept an eye out for his special someone, hoping to catch another glimpse of her today. Valerie had noticed and asked him if he was looking at the girls again. Though he quickly tried to end the subject, Lorraine's interest had been brought on and she asked if Trent had a crush on someone. The poor boy blushed a deep red, confessing the truth for everyone to see, causing Lorraine to tease him which only made him more uncomfortable. He gave Valerie a quick glare, who shrugged innocently at him. But, she changed the subject simply enough by asking Lorraine if she had done anything to her hair.

They remained their for an hour or so, when Lorraine got bored and announced that they should go somewhere else.

“I don't know, Lorraine,” Valerie said, as they got up from the cliff. “I think Raymond and I should be heading home.”

“Yes,” Trent said, not wanting to find himself in another awkward position. “It is getting late.”

“Oh, but we still have time before Jennifer's silly curfew,” Lorraine protested. “And we really don't spend that much time together. Oh, come now, it will be so nice to be with the two of you for just a little longer, don't you think?”

“Well...” Trent tried.

“Oh, Trent, don't tell me you'd rather being doing anything else than be with me?” Ms. Pruess stopped him.

She was teasing, of course, but that defeated the boy well enough, regardless, resigning him to stay with the woman. Valerie, knowing that Trent would want her to stay too, looked at Raymond, who merely shrugged. He didn't really want to stay out that long either, but Lorraine was difficult to say no to.

“Alright, Lorraine,” Valerie gave in, smiling wanly. “I guess we have some time to spare.”

“Oh, wonderful!” Lorraine brightened. “Well, then, let's not waste anytime! There are sights to see! Things to do! Things to...”

“Stop right there, Lorraine Pruess!” A gruff voice called. All three giants stopped dead in their tracks.

They turned and saw him flying up to them. The Metal Man, Garth Brokers. He soared around Trent and Valerie and came to a stop right before Lorraine's big brown eyes. With a flick of his wrist he whisked off his sunglasses and stared at the woman, who had a few hundred tons on him, in the eyes, calmly.

“Oh...hi, Garth.” Lorraine said to him, a little timidly. “How are you on this glamorous day?”

“I'm fine. I've been looking for you,” Garth Brokers replied.

“For me?” The blonde said, sheepishly. “Oh, I'm flattered...”

“Jennifer wants you in her office.” The Metal Man cut her off. “Now.”

“Oh, my goodness...” Lorraine sighed. She actually seemed to regain herself a little. “What does she want now? I haven't done anything wrong today.”

“Obviously you have or I wouldn't be here, would I?” Garth replied calmly. “I don't know what you did. I'm just supposed to bring you to here. So, let's get going.”

“Oh, can't this foolishness wait?” Lorraine complained. “Me, Valerie, and Trent were about to go out for some fun and I'm...”

“I said 'now', Lorraine.” Garth told her.

“Oh, well, if you insist.” Lorraine said, immediately losing herself again.

The two of them began to head off when Valerie stepped in their path.

“Uh...excuse me, Garth,” She said timidly. “What exactly did Lorraine do? I mean, I've been with her and I...”

“That's none of your business, Valerie,” Garth said. “Step aside.”

Valerie stepped aside and the two of them went on, Lorraine following the Metal Man through the city. Mrs. Bradson and Trent watched them go and then looked at each other, unsure of what to do.

“Well, I guess so much for that then.” Trent said unsurely.

“Don't count on it,” Valerie replied. “Once she's done with her 'meeting' she'll just come gather us again. We already said yes to her, and if we try to ditch her, she'll just come find us again later.”

“So...what do we do now?” Trent asked.

“We wait, my dear Trent,” Valerie smiled. “We wait.”

“Hey, who wants to go to the park?” Raymond suggested. “It'd be better than standing here in the middle of the city. Might even be a special someone there, eh, Trent?”

“Come on, Mr. Bradson!” Trent complained. “Make him stop, Valerie!”

“Oh, he never listens to me,” Valerie chuckled, patting the boy on the shoulder. “Besides, I wouldn't dare contradict the truth...”

“But it's not true!” Trent rebuked them, blushing. “I swear!”

“Aw, but I was going to put in a few good words for you!” Raymond teased.

Trent slumped forward, defeated. Valerie giggled and gave him a hug and then, with an arm around him, lead him in the direction of the Tectelphia Park.