The back wall of the facility, evidently a makeshift ceiling-length retractable garage, ticked upward. Sunlight spilled inside, and with that exchange, Judy Stevens in her newly 150-foot glory was given access to the now-puny outside world.

            “Anyone is welcome to accompany me, at a safe distance, of course, outside for my orientation as the very first Sky-Class citizen in our midst,” Judy informed them. With that, she ascended almost to full height, but bowed her head before it could crash through the roof. Then, with fingertips alighting at the walls to guide her in the cramped space, she extended her foot outside into the concrete exterior, and then the rest of her massive form followed.

            The crowd, of course, followed their leader like a swarm of flies.

            “Unbelievable,” Scott uttered. He shambled in a trance toward the door far beyond.

            “I know,” Kyle said.

            “She said this is… like, a permanent thing?” Maggie asked.

            “I think so.”

            “What the hell?” Scott swore.

            Outside, Judy was able to stand at her full fifteen-story stature, and she was making the most of it. Her broad hands stretched far overhead; she was a marvel, standing there amongst the dollhouse-sized billion-dollar facility, with all the finger-sized populace at her feet. Just above the staggered industrial rooftops of Techilogic, Judy could make out the urban sprawl, unsuspecting of her newfound state, unless any of them happened to be watching the live feed from the reporters. Gently, she stooped down and removed her bus-sized high heels with their dizzying spikes and set them neatly aside in the grass beside the Techilogic complex wall.

            “Safety first, you know,” she informed them all, and was answered with polite chuckling.

            Scott observed his mother’s impressive giant pumps where they matted down the grass, just about the same size they usually were when he was inserted inside them. Now, by sheer cosmic convenience, on the very day he thought he’d rejoin ordinary life, he could now say with confidence he would always fit inside his mother’s shoes, no matter how short or tall he became.

            The young man next watched Judy’s mature, purple-painted toes squirm luxuriously in the grass. Flexing and curling. Terrain was ripped up in wide garden patches as she gripped the earth in her dexterous digits. When next her foot rose, there was a noticeable crater dipping more than six inches into the ground, in the distinct plump, ovular shape of her ped. It was a shape Scott was more than used to seeing whenever his mother laid him in one of her foam flip-flops for a little sunbathing, and he discovered the fossilized divet of the woman’s weight. Now, that same geometry was adopted by the very planet.

            His stomach overturned.

            “Jesus,” Kyle uttered. “Does this mean we don’t have to live with her now that she’s bigger than the house?”

            Scott stifled a painful smile. If only that were true. Somehow, though, he knew his mother would have other arrangements laid.

            “Wow,” Maggie said with some dreamy admiration. The girl’s fingers twirled in her blonde locks. “She’s… huge. Everyone in town must be able to see her.”

            “Now, where are my children?” Judy asked pleasantly of the crowd. “I want to be able to share this first exciting afternoon with them. And to show them a surprise I’ve had planned. Especially Scott, who I’m so proud of, after all his hard work earning back his size.”

            An adoring coo from the reporters rose at this loving response. That would make a terrific soundbite for Judy, as per usual. Scott, however, winced. He wrapped both of his younger siblings into an embrace, one under each arm, and stared with all the defiance he could muster up at the 150-foot leviathan who just happened to be their legal guardian.

            “Oh, there you are!” Judy declared happily as her spotlight-gaze struck her three offspring. She batted her eyes, brushed her bangs out of her line of sight, and bent down. The ground sunk again under the compressed strength of her soles. Both of her hands opened, fingers outstretched. For a moment it seemed she was going to simply snatch them all up, but instead, she deposited both palms up on the ground.

            “Climb aboard!” she instructed.

            Kyle and Maggie did so, one out of fear and one out of thrill, and each climbed into opposite platforms. However, Scott remained standing in place. He knew it was foolish, but in this moment, he just couldn’t bring himself to step forward and back into his mother’s hand without retching.

            Judy nodded, recognizing that look of rebellion in her oldest boy’s eyes, and lifted her hands back up without him. Her fingers caged protectively around his siblings as she brought them up to chest level, granting them a view better than they’d get from the top of a Ferris wheel.

            “It’s all right if you don’t want to ride up here, Scott, dear. But I do want you to come along. I have something to show you kids, remember. Why don’t you just grab hold of the chain, please?” She arched her heel up from the earth, indicating the silver-linked anklet jewelry at the top of her foot.

            Scott frowned. He didn’t know his mother to be a regular anklet-wearing person. Did she honestly put it on today anticipating this moment? He wouldn’t put it past her. Either way, from the imperiousness of that “please,” he understood there was no question.

            Sighing to himself, Scott stepped toward his mother’s enormous foot. He clambered over the row of contentedly resting toes, though not without a little bit of a bucking surprise from her flicking digits between his legs. Keeping his balance only just, though, he made the awkward hike up the incline slant of the woman’s foot. At the top, he looped his arm around the chain for grip, and braced himself.

            Just as was expected, Judy led a march around the spotless campus of the Techilogic facility, around the greenery, and out toward the parking lot which separated it from the city. Two children perched in the restrictive playpens of her palms, and the third dangled like extraneous jewelry from his mother’s bobbing anklet. Upon turning the corner, she laid her feet down with the same gentility as before, but her stride was becoming more self-assured. More like Judy, really, only much more of her.

            She plastered on a permanent smile, knowing just how many people could see her now, in all her plastic benevolence.

            However, with her attention diverted, Judy’s sole came crashing down upon a two-door sports car parked in the fire lane of Techilogic’s front curb. Scott opened his mouth to make a noise, then tightened his limbs in preparation for impact; however, the blow hardly registered as a vibration in his mother’s skin. The gleaming crimson-chrome car crunched like a flimsy soda can under the ball of her foot. By the time she’d noticed what was happening, the entire vehicle was already flattened to the ground in shorter order than a garbage compactor.

            “Whoops,” Judy whispered. She arched her foot, revealing twisted metal chunks clenched in the impregnable network of crisscrossing flesh wrinkles of her grassy sole. For a moment the car remained stuck to her skin, then plopped back down with in a gust of wind and a groan of gears.

            Scott gulped. He’d seen his mother accomplish some impressive physical feats, but at the end of the day, those were always put in the perspective of his current height. Optical illusions, really. But right now, he’d just witnessed his mother crush an actual human-scaled car under her naked foot with hardly a notice.

            No perspective necessary.