Two weeks into November, James came home in the afternoon from the slaughterhouse. He had been on site to oversee the progress in transforming the old building into a suitable home. ‘They’re behind schedule,’ James thought. He had been hoping to get himself and his wife moved in by Christmas, but setbacks had pushed the move in date to mid-January. Abby had been ducking her head, occasionally smashing into doorways since September. Still, she seemed to have been in much higher spirits than she was back in August. ‘I think she was really encouraged by that law passing.’ Unlike James, Abby had always been more enthusiastic about politics and government action. ‘She probably sees it as some sort of social affirmation.’ James had kept his opinion on the legislation to himself, mostly to keep his wife happy, but also because he recognized how much his wife might benefit from government aid in the future. ‘People think we’re so wealthy that we couldn’t run out of money, but they’re wrong,’ thought James. Abby was growing exponentially, and consequently, her expenses were too. Just moving into the refurbished factory was going to cost them nearly twenty million dollars. ‘We couldn’t have even moved until all that money came in last month.’

As James was driving home, he noticed his wife out on a walk. It was hard to miss her. He watched as she carefully, her eyes trained on the ground in front of her, walked along the side walk. People mostly tried very hard to get out of her way. James couldn’t blame them. Abby was 18’ 6” tall and weighed two and a half tons. ‘She would shatter your foot if she even lightly stepped on it,’ thought James. ‘It’s good that she’s looking out for little people, but she needs to pay more attention to what’s up around her head.’ Abby was now taller than the street lights that hung over the roads, and was beginning to approach some of the lower powerlines around the city. ‘Can’t have a remake of the ending of that old giant woman movie,’ James thought.

Abby arrived home shortly after James. He asked, “How was your walk, honey?”

“It was nice. I didn’t crush anyone or destroy anything, which is my main goal when I go out for fresh air these days. I went to the park and just people watched a little bit.”

James walked up to his wife to give her a hug. His chest came up to her upper calf, as he managed to hug her left leg. Abby stooped down to rub her husband on the head. She couldn’t reach him when standing up straight, ‘not that I can even do that indoors anymore,’ thought Abby. 

James released her leg and stepped back several feet to get a look at his wife’s face. ‘Every day, to see my wife’s face I have to stand further away from her,’ thought James. ‘This was our fantasy, but every day we both discover new difficulties and limitations.’ Abby could see that her husband was looking pensive and scooped him into her arms. She could cradle him like a baby, laying him on his back while looking down on him. He seemed to cheer up as she carried him over to their couch and sat down, continuing to hold him.

James watched as his wife brought him closer to the face he loved so dearly. She began to purse her enormous lips as she moved him closer for a kiss. Her puckered lips completely covered the lower part of his head, reaching from his chin to his nose. She opened her lips slightly, slipping her tongue onto his mouth. Abby’s tongue was six inches wide, far too large for James to actually let it into his mouth. He made his best effort at reciprocating, sticking his own tongue out and trying to use as much force as he could to even be felt. Abby responded, sucking her lips together slightly and then opening her mouth wider again as she went to kiss her husband again. James saw nothing but darkness as the front half of his head was enveloped by her mouth. ‘Could she fit my whole head in there?’ James wondered, as Abby wondered the same. She pulled her husband back to let him catch a breath, and then brought him back in between her lips. She was being gentle, and realized that she wasn’t quite big enough to get his whole head in her mouth as James’s forehead head touched her teeth.

She pulled him back out. ‘Maybe in a couple months,’ she thought. She gave him a face wash with her tongue as she withdrew him again.

“That was some pretty great kissing, don’t you think, sweetie?” James nodded appreciatively. “You know what that put me in the mood for?” James’s eyes bugged, and then shifted to look towards their bedroom. She brought his face directly in front of her mouth as she said, “It’s put me in the mood for dinner.” His face showed fear, but his pants betrayed an additional feeling of excitement. ‘He can’t pick between his fantasy and his survival instincts,’ Abby thought, bemused and slightly aroused by her husband’s attraction. She set him down on the couch and got up, walking to the dining table where she expected her ample dinner to be delivered soon.

***

As the year before, Abby and James planned to spend Thanksgiving with her family. They lived nearby, and it seemed silly to try to travel anywhere else. There were complicating factors this time, however. Last year, Abby had been able to sit in her parents’ dining room. This year, she was only a few feet shorter than the very top of her parent’s home. James also knew that Abby’s food needs were simply too great for Mrs. Knockle to handle by herself. Abby was slightly more than three times as tall as a tall man, but food is a matter of volume, not just height. As a result, she was eating as much food as thirty men the size of her husband or her father. ‘Preparing Thanksgiving dinner for thirty-five people is too much for her,’ James had thought. Instead, James had simply called Abby’s parents to confirm whether it would be James, Abby, the Knockles, Carol, and Carol’s boyfriend at dinner. He informed his mother-in-law that Abby would be paying for a catered party in their backyard. She objected at first, but James had talked her down to merely preparing a number of pies, though James worried she wouldn’t take his recommendations on how many to make seriously.

***

Abby’s family lived in a suburb only a few miles away from the city. She had decided that because of her incredible stride that she should simply walk. James, with his ordinary pace, was less enthusiastic.

“Come on, little man, I’ll just carry you.” Before James could protest or suggest that he drive separately, she picked him up and put him on her shoulders. He tried to grab tightly to her head, taking some of her hair into his hands just in case he slipped off. ‘I could break my neck falling from here,’ James thought. His legs straddled either side of her neck; his own head didn’t even reach as high as hers while his feet just barely reached the top of her breasts. 

While James had to admit that his wife could move quickly, he spent the entire walk to the Knockles residence paralyzed with fear. It had only taken Abby twenty minutes to walk over, but James felt like it had been hours. She set him down, oblivious to the terror her husband had been feeling. 

“Well, thanks for bringing my little girl home for Thanksgiving,” joked Abby’s dad. James could see he was keeping a fairly nonchalant attitude, or at least trying to, when it came to the fact that his daughter was now 19 feet tall. ‘Her mother, though,’ thought James, ‘is struggling a bit.’

“H-h-hello, dear. How are, how are y-thi--, how are you and things?” Abby’s mother stammered at the giantess.

“Mom, you need to speak up, I’m having trouble hearing you.” In addition to Abby’s voice growing deeper, another of the few problems her size change had caused for her bodily functions had been her hearing. Her ability to pick up sound had seemingly remained unchanged from when she was 5’ 4”, which caused a problem when she was trying to hold a conversation with people who were often dozens of yards away from her ear. ‘If only her Christmas gift was ready now,’ thought James.

“HOW ARE YOU DOING, ABBY?” Mrs. Knockle shouted back. She had begun to look more relaxed.

“I’m fine. You don’t need to shout, either, just speak up when you’re talking to me. Use an outdoors voice.” Abby appeared to be annoyed.

A few trucks and vans had earlier arrived to the Knockles’ house, and servers and workers were moving between the front of their house and the backyard. An enormous tent, almost as large as the home itself, had been set up in the backyard. Together, the O’Brians and the Knockles went to the backyard and took a seat in the tent. The table had been placed at a height for normally sized people, but a number of enormous pillows had been placed in a position for Abby to sit. ‘I wonder where they got such large pillows,’ Abby thought. ‘Oh, those are dog beds. Clever.’

Abby saw Carol and a young man she hadn’t met before at the table. He looked slightly tall, though Abby couldn’t figure how tall, as she had begun having trouble estimating normal people’s sizes. Everyone looked small to her. She also thought that this guy looked like a douchebag. He was dressed in some kind of skater punk shirt, with a backwards trucker hat on, and a dirty-looking, patchy goatee. “You must be Carol’s new boyfriend,” Abby declared.

“Yeah, my name’s Dan. Carol calls me Danny, but you can call me either name.” Abby continued to look at Dan, considering him. ‘Why does my sister keep dragging these losers to family events?’ thought Abby. ‘At least this one isn’t staring at my breasts.’ Actually, he appeared to be anxious about something. 

James called their head waitress over to inquire how much longer it would be until dinner was served. “Just another forty minutes, sir. We need to get every warmed up suitably.” On a normal day, James would not have bothered to keep his wife waiting; ‘cooked and semi-cooked food that’s lukewarm or cold goes down pretty easily for her. But today’s Thanksgiving, she deserves properly served food.’ 

The smell of a roasting pig and frying turkeys filled the air as they waited and talked about various things. Abby’s family was concerned about her well-being. Abby and James admitted that her size was causing enormous problems in her daily life.

“But I’m trying not to focus on the negatives, and looking on the bright side,” said Abby. “I can do things that no one else on Earth can do. I’m the strongest woman, the strongest person for that matter, to ever live, which is a cool thing to think about.” The smell of the pig was driving her wild, and her stomach let out a tremendous growl that everyone at the table heard. “I’m also usually the hungriest woman on Earth at any given time,” she said laughing.

“It must be hard though, you know, because you’re growing too big to go so many places. You’re practically as big as the house,” her mother said.

“Well, she’s almost as tall as the house, but she’s keeping her fitness and figure, aren’t you Abby?” Mr. Knockle said. He tried to pat her on the back as he said this, reaching just up to the small of her back. “Here, get up and help your old man with something.” Her father left the table and went inside the house for something. He returned with some plastic shopping bags. “Here, put these on your hands. Would you be so kind as to clean the gutters out on the house?”

‘What am I, some twelve year old to be ordered to do chores around the house, now?’ thought Abby. Still, she recognized how easily she could do this compared to her parents and did as her father asked. She could just see into the gutter by standing on her toes and easily reached them, running a bag wrapped finger along the length of the gutter, pushing the gunk along. As she occasionally fished the dead and rotting leaves up with her fingers, she would drop it into the trash can that her father was pushing along by her lower legs.

“Yuck, okay, it’s all done. Any other menial labor you want me to do?”

“Oh, boohoo, that was so much work,” teased her dad. “Now that you mention it, I do have a bush in the front yard I’d like removed, maybe you could rip that out for us?”

Before Abby could address his request, a server had announced that dinner was ready to be served. Rejoining the table, they found it loaded with troughs of potatoes, punch bowls filled with gravy and cranberry sauce, and a roasted pig that was being cut into massive pieces. Several turkeys were present as well. Abby took the back haunch of the pig and put it on her plate, which was itself the size of a card table, as well as two of the turkeys, and a pile of potatoes and other sides that was bigger than James’s head. James could see Abby’s mother staring in shock at the plate her daughter was making. Abby, nonplussed or unaware of her mother’s reaction began eating. James followed suit and began working on his own dinner. 

“Well, it was nice of our multi-millionaire daughter to insist on catering this, wasn’t it darling?” Mr. Knockle asked his wife. “Nice to just get to enjoy the meal instead of cooking it, right?”

Mrs. Knockle seemed to snap out of her trance. She picked at her turkey, finally starting to eat so she could replay, “Mmm, yes, very tasty.”

As Abby began working on one of the turkeys she had taken, Dan tried to start talking to her. “So, I don’t know if Carol told you, but I want to be an inventor.” Abby basically ignored him in favor of her dinner because of her mouth being full of turkey; she gave him a thumbs up as she nodded to indicate she had heard him. Dan continued, “So, well, I know you have a lot of money, and I was hoping to get an investment.”

Abby swallowed nearly a third of a turkey, and while reaching across the table to get herself a bottle of wine told Dan, “Oh, we don’t talk business at dinner.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Dan said nodding along, “Yeah, after dinner then?” Abby ignored him, turning her attention back to her food. “Yeah, that’s sounds good, sounds good,” Dan said, answering himself. “Yeah, like, I got this idea, like it’s those edible underwear, but, like, it’s edible jewelry.”

‘Where does her sister find these guys,’ thought James. ‘To her credit, she usually dumps these guys pretty quickly too, but come on, she’s too smart and attractive for these chumps.’ Carol looked absolutely miserable and embarrassed. ‘Don’t think he’ll be around too much longer,’ thought James, ‘this idiot basically just pitched us candy bracelets and necklaces.’

A short time and several pies later, the dinner had given way to a completed dessert stage in the afternoon. The sun was getting low, and James wanted to make sure they walked back before it got dark, so that Abby could still see where she was placing her powerful and dangerous steps. A number of leftovers remained, a small amount being reserved for the Knockles, while the majority of the rest was prepared to be sent back to the O’Brians’ apartment. The caterers had been reluctant at first because they had expected to simply discard the remaining food, but a modest fee was agreed upon to rescue the leftovers from being discarded. ‘I paid them four grand for this service, like Hell I’m letting them throw food out or keep it for themselves when Abby is eating almost 120 pounds every day.’ 

Abby’s mother and father said goodbye, each hugging one of their giant daughter’s legs. Abby’s mother didn’t quite reach the top of her knee, James observed. “We’ll probably see you guys at the beginning of the New Year, when we move into our new place,” said Abby. With that, she picked James up, placed him on her shoulders, and began another, for James, terrifying trip back to their apartment.

***

“I know Christmas isn’t for a few weeks, but your gift is ready now, and I don’t want to wait to give it to you.” James stood a few feet out from his wife so he could look at her while getting her attention. Two men who appeared to be doctors accompanied him. ‘I wonder what those doctors are doing here. Could they have a breakthrough on stopping my growth?’ Abby hadn’t seriously thought about a medical solution for her TS, given that every doctor she had seen had been overwhelmingly negative. ‘Maybe there was research I didn’t know about?’

“Are they going to stop me growing?” Abby could see her question cause a combined look of surprise and disappointment on James’s face. ‘No, I was being silly. I have to ride this out, however large that makes me.’ She could tell that James’s gift had nothing to do with stopping her expansion.

“I’m sorry, honey, as far as I know, there’s still nothing to be done about that. But, your gift is related in that it’s treatment for some of complications of your TS.” The doctors revealed what appeared to be medical devices. “This doctor basically has an advanced hearing aid for you. I know you’ve been having trouble hearing people, so this seemed kind of obvious. The other one… well it’s kind of a gift for me and a lot of your friends and family, as much as it’s a gift for you. It’s a voice recalibrator. I don’t really know how it works, but this doctor says it will turn your voice back to its normal pitch. I know that I’ve really been missing your old voice, and I think your parents and your sister might have been too.”

James saw tears of joy well up in his wife’s eyes. ‘She’s beautiful,’ he thought. James had always loved the look on her face when she got happy and tearful. Abby looked at him and saw the look of joy and satisfaction on his face, and she knew that he was happy because of her happiness. She picked him up off the floor and gave him an enormous kiss. As she pulled him back from her lips, he said, “I love you, Abby.”

“I love you too, James,’ she said, still in her intimidatingly powerful and deep voice. “I guess we better get that thing installed,” she said with a half-cry, half-laugh.

Abby had simply grown too large for hospitals, which is why the doctors had agreed to come to their apartment. The hearing aids had gone in easily. The voice recalibrator required surgery, but the doctor had brought technicians and robotic arms to help. “Fortunately, your wife’s incredible size means we can do this fairly easily by going down her throat with the robotic aid, rather than cut her open. Unfortunately,” she motioned to several gas tanks and a liter of clear fluid, “her size will make anesthesia very expensive and difficult.”

Shortly after, Abby was unconscious on a bed that was really just a pile of large throw pillows and dog beds. James had thought it would be more comfortable to put her on the couch, but the doctors wanted her lower to the ground so that they could actually reach her mouth. “We put enough drugs in her to put everyone else in this room into a coma,” the doctor had told James. “Hopefully, it keeps her out.”

Fortunately, the drugs worked. A few hours later, the operation was done. Abby awoke shortly after, causing the doctor to feel relief that things had gone as quickly as they had. Abby felt almost like she had a frog in her throat and swallowed a few times. The sensation passed, leaving her thinking it had just been a dry throat.

“Does it sound like it worked,” James heard her ask in his wife’s original voice. James was practically crying with joy as he ran over to her and hugged her bosom while she gingerly started to sit up. 
He recomposed himself, “Your voice is beautiful, honey.” He went on to explain that the hearing aids and voice recalibrator had been designed in such a way to accommodate her future growth. “We might need to replace them in a year or so, but it’s so nice to hear that it worked. And how about me, do I sound normal to you?”

“Yeah, but you’re right next to my face right now. I think they’re working though, I can hear stuff the doctors are saying.” They looked up from their conversation at her, “Oh, I wasn’t paying attention to you, I’m just saying I could hear that you were talking.” 

“We were just saying how unbelievable someone of your size is. We were happy to be able to help you deal with one of the unpleasant complications of your condition.” The doctors would go on to explain that they were experimenting with neural interfaces, and that in the future, her prosthetics could be made to interface with her brain. In the meantime, they gave her remote switches in case she ever felt the desire to turn the prosthetics off.

***

For Christmas, James’s family had come to stay with them over the weekend. He tried to remember the last his parents had seen Abby in person. ‘It might have been as long ago as June, back when she won her championship.’ Abby had been only around 13’ tall at that time; now she was half a foot over twenty and weighed three and a half tons. No matter how many times people saw her on the news, in Athena advertisements, no matter how many times James tried to compare her size to common benchmarks, like cars or houses, people always seemed shocked at her size when they saw her in person.

On Christmas Eve, James’s parents, Dianne and Jack O’Brian, rang the bell and waited for an answer. They heard enormous thuds on the other side of the massive door. ‘Their door is more than twice as tall as me,’ thought Jack. The thudding noise was getting louder, seemingly closer to the door. ‘My God, is that Abby coming to answer the door, I’m hearing?’ They heard two more booming sounds in close succession come from what sounded like just the other side of the door. The door swung open and they saw the enormous body of who could only be Abby. She was sitting on her knees, obscuring their sight of any of the apartment behind her. She bent forward to get a better look at them. Her giant smiling face looked down on them.

“Hey, welcome. Come in, come in.” James walked into his living room as he saw his parents sliding around either side of his wife to get through the door. They both had a look of shock on their face. His mom saw him and mouthed the word ‘wow’ exaggeratedly to him. After rolling his eyes at his mother, James went over to both his parents, hugging them and welcoming them.

James had his parents sit on the couch, while Abby sat herself at the other end. James went back to the kitchen, grabbing coffee, tea, and cake for his parents. He used a push cart to deliver the same, but scaled up, for his wife. 

“She really puts you to work, doesn’t she,” teased James’s mother. Abby smiled, while James looked at his mother annoyed. “Relax, I’m just poking a little fun at you. So, really, how are things going?”

“Things are good. You know, we wish you could have come visit us this trip at our new place, but we’re still a couple weeks out from moving.”

“Yeah, it’s hard to believe a place like this,” said Dianna as she raised her hands towards the sixteen feet high ceilings, “could ever be too small for anyone, but then you get a look at Abby and you understand why you need to move.” Even sitting down on the couch, Abby’s head was beginning to get close to their ceiling. “So, Abby, I bet you’re excited to move.”

“Oh yes, thank you, I am,” Abby replied. “Truth be told, it’s going to be a real surprise to me what it even looks like, James did almost all of the work on the move. I was… well to be honest I was kind of depressed during that time of the year, I wasn’t leaving the house much.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that.” James could tell that his mom had either gotten over her shock or was doing a good job of at least appearing that way.

“Well, James has been just amazing throughout this whole process. I cannot imagine going through this with anyone else.” Jack looked at James with pride. 

“Well, I know when I talk to James on the phone that it sounds like you two are just intensely in love, so I’m happy to hear that you guys can work through problems with each other successfully too.” James’s mom leaned in closer, towards Abby. ‘What a ridiculous sight,’ thought James, ‘It’s not like you can whisper to someone who’s head is nearly eight feet higher than yours.’ James’s mom spoke in a loud whisper, “How are the other things in the marriage going.”

“Mom!” James couldn’t believe she would ask about that.

Abby giggled at her husband’s reaction. “Things are different, but they’re going great. Better than ever, actually.” James shot her an exasperated look. ‘Don’t talk to my mom about our sex life,’ he thought.

“Really?” James’s mom seemed interested. “I guess, I don’t know what you can even do, you know, mechanic—“

Jack interrupted, “Okay, I think we’ve talked enough about our son’s sex life okay? He’s still sleeping with his wife, I think that’s about all we need to know. I’m not even sure we need to know about that, either.” James was relieved to end the conversation. ‘Oh, but that was so amusing to watch him squirm,’ thought Abby. ‘I can see he gets a lot of his personality from his dad.’

Abby tried to continue the conversation in a slightly more polite fashion. “You know, we still kiss and he gives me massages, and I like to hold him and sit him on my lap. He’ll rub my feet. It’s all still very nice and intimate, even if it is different from other couples.”

“Rubbing her feet is practically an upper body workout,” said James. That was a joke, but it was also true. He could put both his hands on her sole at the same time and had to move either his torso or his legs considerably to run them up and down the over three feet that each foot extended. One night, Abby had gotten annoyed at him for getting too tired to massage her second foot. He had simply gotten too sore and tired.

“Well, it’s nice to know that her growing so big hasn’t hurt your marriage,” said Dianne. James and Abby both thought to themselves similar versions of the same idea, ‘She’s right. The TS has changed our marriage, but we still love each other, we’re still close.’ James snuggled up to his wife, who in turn gently held him to her body.

***

“Sorry about my parents,” James had said after his mother and father had left the apartment. James had put them in a hotel in the city, but had considered putting them on the couch for their visit. ‘It’s long enough and wide enough for them to both sleep on it comfortably, but it might be too much to ask them to hop up onto and off of it at night and in the morning.’ They had struggled to climb onto it in the first place.

“Nothing to apologize for James, I like your parents, remember? Your mom was just making sure we are happy.”

James let out a deep breath, trying to calm himself. “Yeah, you’re right I suppose.” He looked up at her, and then stepped back because he wanted to see her face. “My parents like you too, just so you know. I think my dad is really proud of me for taking care of you.”

Abby, with mock indignation, replied, “I’m a big girl, I think I can handle myself.” She knew that James did a lot of work to make her life easier. ‘Though I don’t know if even she appreciates how much management it takes, and she’d know better than anyone alive but me.’ Abby continued, “It’s a good thing we get along. I could be a mean mother-in-law’s worst nightmare. Did you see that your mom is only as tall as my knee?” James only came up another six inches higher than that. ‘Everyone is small compared to you.’ She stood over her husband, bent over forwards by the constraint of the ceiling. “I’m glad you set them up in their own hotel room. I think you better run along to bed now.” James didn’t have to be told twice, and sprinted to the bedroom, eager to see what his wife had in store for him.

***

Jack and Dianne returned the next day. That night, and then in the morning as they took a taxi back to the apartment, Dianne had continued to express incredulity that her son was still able to be intimate with Abby, while Jack continued to deny any curiosity in the subject.

When they arrived, they found Abby in an enormous robe, wearing pajamas underneath. James appeared to be dressed likewise. He was sitting at the dining table, slowly picking over some waffles. Abby had what appeared to be an oversized punch bowl filled with cereal in her hand as she answered the door. James didn’t stir at his parent’s arrival. Abby went back to the dining table and finished her cereal, drinking down gallons of milk as she finished her breakfast. “We’ll get dressed before exchanging presents,” announced Abby. She bent her head down near James, who whispered something in her ear. She picked his plate up with two fingers and her thumb and tipped the remaining half waffle into her mouth. She set the plate back down, and carried James off to their bedroom to get changed.

Jack and Dianne looked to each other with concern. “Do you think he’s okay?” Jack asked Dianne. James had considerably less energy than the day before.

“Maybe he’s just not a morning person, you know he used to really like to sleep in,” Dianne replied. They stopped talking as they heard Abby returning from down the hallway. She was walking alone, trailed eventually by James who was taking small steps.

“Are you okay, son?”

“Just sore. Really, really sore. I’m okay, I’ll be fine, I just need to take it easy. Dad, could I have you go make me a Korig? Coffee would be really nice, and Abby doesn’t fit in our kitchen anymore.”

Dianne tried to take the opportunity to think about something other than her son’s discomfort. “So, uh Abby, didn’t you used to love to cook? Has it been difficult giving that up?”

“Well, I did enjoy it, but so did James. You know we used to split cooking duty for the most part; I think maybe I did slightly more. You know, even James isn’t cooking as much anymore, he just can’t make enough food.” 

Jack returned a minute later with coffee. “Thanks, dad.” 

“Why are you so sore, son?” Dianne was concerned.

Abby interjected, “I’m afraid that’s my fault. I got a little… over ambitious last night.” Abby had asked James to let her ride on top for one last time, fearing that it would soon be unsafe for her to do so. She had been careful not to put her full weight on him, but even though she had avoided injuring him, he had come out exhausted and barely able to move afterward. “We’re usually more careful.”

James’s dad laughed. ‘Yeah, I guess that’s kind of my dad’s humor, even if he’d rather not have heard that,’ thought James. ‘Mom is going to worry about us forever, though.’ Abby blushed, and tried to change the subject, asking, “So, uh, how about we open some presents?”