Karen had taken the metropolis subway and survived it once again... In a subway terminal during the morning rush many Littles would often meet their untimely demises. Too many Giants on their way to work and in a hurry looking for a chance to take their frustrations out on any small human that happened to be in the way. Or just accidentally smashing them to bits some other way for some other careless reason.

Sure, if you stuck to the yellow safely lanes painted across the floor your chances of making it to your destination without being flattened were pretty good.

It was when Littles took risks or lost their concentration that they usually paid for it with their lives.

For example, Karen was walking down the yellow brick road (as the Littles had nicknamed the safety lanes) as were hundreds of other Littles..

The path hugged the wall and when it got near a steam-engine it would usually make a right angle turn right towards the train away from the wall....

Karen saw the man make the fatal mistake as she was always on heightened alert at morning and evening rush hour.. Her head like all of the other Littles being on a swivel looking for approaching Giants...

This unfortunate laddy had taken to reading the Littles version of the Lorbrulgrud Herald and reading it a bit too intently as he was soon to discover.. With his head buried in the sweet smelling newsprint obviously fascinated by some political scandal that might have implications for the city as a whole, he kept on walking and reading when the yellow brick road turned right and a ninety degree angle...

Right into the flooded by Giants terminal he kept going. Other Littles at once began shouting for him to stop and run back but by the time he had reacted, which was to bring his confused looking face up and make a terrible discovery that he was in extreme peril it was all too late.

Squish! Went the man wearing the plaid pants with a matching tan textured vest. A distracted Giantess in a crisply pressed grey business suit with three inch black shiny heels didn’t even look down as she hurried to be one of the last folks to get into the steam-train and be whisked off with the several hundred other Giants who were making the commute from Kennington to Primlico.

Several Littles at the turn were sprayed most rudely by the red droplets of red plasma that would prove extremely challenging to wash out of their cloths when they finally got back to their compacted hovels later that evening.

By the time Karen had neared the turn chocked with rubber-neckers and was making her way towards the shuttle craft a Giant town Bobby with a bushy bicycle moustache was taking notes from the witnesses.. A most bored and uncompassionate expression upon his masculine face while his female juggernaught of an assistant, who was most likely a trainee was busy scooping up the remains of a man who would most likely be deposited in a trash bin rather than given to the Littles morgue for a proper identification procedure, with what was probably nothing more than a cheap kitchen spatula. Yet he continued going through the motions of asking if the Littles knew who the deceased was. Or who the Giant was that had ended his life and could they describe what she looked like.

Unfortunately she looked like about a few score other ladies who were in the terminal at any given moment.

Karen doubted that she even knew what she had done to the poor man.. . At least she hoped that was the reason she kept walking.. She didn’t want to contemplate a complete lack of concern being the true culprit here.

Karen never the less waited for the signal light to turn green for she and her fellow pedestrians to hurry to the Littles air tube shuttle.

This contraption was much like what you would see at a banks drive through window.. People got in, braced themselves, and then the plexiglass string of cylinders shot off like a rocket riding a jet of compressed forced air. So fast would it go that they would beat the previous Steam Train by a few minutes every time. Which made debarking a dangerous affair too.

The ride was it’s typical bone jarring experience when Karen’s stop at Pimlico came with the usual fast braking air tube shuttle that forced everyone forward due to the swiftness of the sudden stop.


Out the Littles poured as did she with the light of the steam-train right on their heels...
Moving quickly along the yellow Littles designated path the former passengers tried their best to hurry towards the safety of the walls again knowing that some Giants in their haste would run right through the out in the open safety walks making for more gruesome accidents.

But try as they might the Giants disembarked and resumed their hurried fast walks to be on their way.

Massive shoes of all sorts, male and feminine gained and then pounded past them appearing to move in excess of fifty miles or more per hour speeds. This was the time that Giants footwear became close enough that tufts of air, ear squeezes from compressions, with loud bone jarring impacts would get the Littles nerves on end..


Karen kept watching along her shoulder ready to dive to the side at any moment to avoid some careless footfall...

That’s when a she noticed the sole of a massive black high heel.. It’s bottom still wet with red bodily fluids belonging to the man whose life it had ended. The blood hadn’t even dried yet.

Up and down the shoe continued quickly disappearing into the mass of working class Giants blending in until it was lost..

This depressed the Little lady some as she made her way to the wall lift. There was a group waiting as usual to be shot up from the terminal to the ground level above as Giant stairs were near impossible to climb. Another perk of Her Majesty’s Littles Right to Work program. And as usual, she would have to wait for her turn like everyone else.

Three Littles could fit in one plastic tube comfortably in the afternoon or evening. But this was rush hour so it would probably be more like six to eight of them squeezing into the lift.

Karen shook her head.. If you tried to reason with people that it would be much more of a comfortably affair if they just garnered a modicum of patience and waited their turn it wouldn’t have to be asses to elbows. But this day would be just like any other so in she went to be packed like a sardine with the others.

They waited for the red light to change to green signaling the upward journey that was about to occur. It was at that point that Karen felt the grubby fingers of the man behind her rubbing them against her flanks. Finally he squeezed her right cheek as well.

Karen didn’t even look back at him.. She simply slithered her hand back behind herself and found the groin of the groping assailant.

Her fingers then latched upon his ball sack as the light turned green for the air shoot and they lifted off like a rocket. The g-forces causing everyone to squat down some. All except the man that Karen was keeping on his tip toes squeezing even harder as he tried to lower himself...

When the door opened everyone filed out except for the man who dropped to the floor holding his groin area and crying in agony.

None of the other blissfully unaware passengers even looked back .. Not even Karen as the door whooshed shut sending the pervert back down the same direction in which he came.


Right outside of the terminal and to the left was a Littles café chain store called The Glumdalclitch Cafe where someone could buy a double latte for less than a half penny piece or a more humble yet fast and furious cup of joe for no more than a copper farthing! ..   It was Karen's favorite hang out, where everyone knew her name.
 
There was a sign placard that all of the chain shops that featured a Brogdingnag girl with double braids smiling while she held out a Little who in turn was holding out a Tiny.. All three with steaming mugs of coffee in their free hands.

Karen entered swiftly.. The door bells chiming from the strings that hung the simple metal sounding devices just far enough down the wall to make the door opening and shutting trip their little pinging wares.

“Hey Karen the usual?” Called out a stout and portly built barmaid with very well endowed breasts, sandy blonde hair and a beautiful face with the slightest hint of a double chin, who was in her early twenties and in the middle of pouring a steaming brown caffeinated liquid into a cheap plastic tea cup of a elderly customer.

“Sure thing Gloria.” Karen responded as she quickly took off her sports jacket that her mother had gave her on her birthday last year and set her firm buttox upon the low lying bar stool.

Gloria smiled at the usual customer sporting the long red locks and began pouring her a shot of espresso and was about to start gossiping with her friend, that is until a tiny squeaking voice beat her to the punch.. Both ladies looked down upon the old linoleum bar table to see a Tiny man running with a white torn rag while simultaneously shouting up to Karen.

“Oh dear Karen, our poor dish washing machine has failed us once again I’m afraid... Just look at all of the spots on your sugar spoon!”

Karen looked to the old worn white metal utensil that she was in the process of grabbing in order to stir her sugar into the coffee with, and yet, their indeed was a soap stain upon the convexed center of her stir stick.

Karen looked up to Gloria who winked at her and moved on to another customer deciding that her and Karen’s chit chat could wait until Andy had finished working his usual hussle.

The Tiny skinny fellow with the red spikey hair, like Karen’s in hue with nothing more than a white t-shirt with the cafe’s company emblem iron patched upon the back of and some red boxing shorts, pulled out a minuscule plastic spray bottle as he squirted some tap water out of it hitting the soap stain dead center to which he furiously began scrubbing with his dirty little rag.

Karen adored Andy and thought his tiny quirky movements when he would clean silverware grime whether real or imagined were to die for. With his name brand shirt and the fact that he lived most likely in the kitchen somewhere, he pretty much took on the role of this coffee and sandwich shop’s mascot.. With all of the pretty waitresses and shift managers feeding and taking care of him. Even earning himself warm baths in a cooking pot at the end of each day as Gloria had scandalously relayed to Karen one day during one of their morning chats.. He earned his keep and took his job very seriously.

She reached out and petted his greasy hair which brought a smile out of his determined face as he continued to scrub.  Gloria had just set Karen's coffee with the beautifully shaped heart that she had made with care and cream in front of her friend being careful not to crush Andy under it.
 
“And how has my favorite Tiny masco- I mean, Tiny waiter been doing lately?” Said the amused lady who remember to mind her manners and not to divulge a inside joke between the cafe staff that was bound to set him off should he become aware of.

“Oh the usual you know.. Making sure our staff get’s their orders right and keeping the place nice and sparkling clean so that we don’t get shut down by the Royal Department of Health.. Whatever would you Giants do without me?” They both had a giggle at that as Andy continued..

“So how is that skinny, sallow, free loading, non-working, sorry excuse of a puppet you usually keep in your front coat pocket just below your dainty breast doing these days?’

“Andy!”

The Tiny startled man looked up from his cleaning detail to see Gloria standing over top of him with a frown upon her face. Her hands balled up on each side of her waist supporting her tired arms.

“We’ve had this discussion several times and you have agreed to stop catcalling to every Lilliputian that you see or even know about. Need I remind you of where you’re likely to wind up if you keep molesting my friend about her Tiny friend?”

Andy shook his head in resignation and began scrubbing again. Mumbling some obscenity no doubt.
Karen thought that the animosity was actually cute.. Well she did until Andy and Edward got into a knock down drag out fist fight one morning that she and Gloria had to separate earning Andy one of his famous time outs and Edward a trip back to the inside of her coat pocket.

What it was over, Goddess only knew, but the gist of it was certain to have been over the long standing feud that the Lilliputians and the Blefuscians have had. A war that never really ended with no peace treaties ever being signed. And to this day if you were to see the two factions in the same room they would either be standing on the opposite sides of it or fisti-cuffing it down in the center of the said hall for sure.

After a few more minutes of continual scrubbing Andy stopped for just a moment and looked up at Karen’s green utility suit. A bit of confusion set upon his face until he began busying himself with more scrubbing...

“That looks like an exterminator’s outfit am I right?”

Karen’s heart almost stopped and she even had to choke out a cough while she thought up a quick fib. Her face flushing red with embarrassment.

She also noticed that Gloria though busy was now casting side glances at Karen , with Andy’s pointed question having drawn her attention and interest. Karen knew that Gloria like herself loved the Tinies and had many a discussion on how they should be granted second class citizenship just like the Littles had. Gloria even volunteered to feed them at the soup lines over at Cripple Gate stealing sandwiches from the very shop where she is employed in order to do it too.

“Oh no Andy I now work for a ground cleaning crew. We you know, pick up cigarette butts and tissue papers that the Brobs leave behind.” Karen lied with her head bopping back and forth to simulate a degree of normalcy and cheerfulness to hopefully hide her inner turmoil and anxiety.”

“But don’t they wear bright orange suits so that the Brobs can see them more readily?... Not that they take much notice anyway.” Andy huffed as he stood up just finishing his task.

Karen reached for a penny in her pocket and while talking to Andy she moved the coin over to a tip can that stood twice the height of the tiny man. There was a strip of scotch tape blotting out the company logo that was marked with the words “Andy’s retirement fund!”

“Yeah well this is a new experimental color that they’re trying out to see if it helps us hide from their children any better... I’m part of that trial team. You know how those self indulgent Brob kids can be.”

Andy only sported a poker face while he examined the spoon some more.. After hearing the plunk of the penny hitting the bottom of his tip can his mood improved remarkably though. Smiling up at the Giantess he bowed.

“Thank you, you most beautiful and kindly lady!”
Karen breathed again.. Had she pulled it off? She stuck out her finger tip once more and patted him on the head which he accepted, his grin growing larger.

Once Karen’s index pad had finished ruffling his hair and was retreating Andy’s attention noticed Karen’s coffee cup. His eyes going wide with shock! It was time for him to press the advantage!

“Oh me lady! There appears to be a lip stick ring around the rim of your cup! I’ll just, ~ Hey!!???”

Andy was being lifted up into the air by two finger tips that had latched onto the back of his t-shirt. His arms flailing to the sides uselessly as Gloria rose him over to the tip can and gently dropped him inside. A thunk and rattle could be heard as his tiny feet moved the coins around some... Furious curse words echoed within the tin rippled walls as it was lifted to Gloria’s mouth.

“You’ve fleeced Karen enough today Andy. And on top of that you insulted her by insulting her friend. You can bother her again tomorrow.”
More Irish accented indignations swiftly followed.

Gloria just smiled and shook her head... Already walking the tip jar over to the far side of the bar table in order to set him upon a shelf. She continued to try and reason with the highly pissed off Blefuscian as they got closer to the cupboards for he and his tip jar’s final resting place.

“No it wont be a long time out.. “
“I heard you call Edward names.”
“Well you promised to be good today”
“And I still remember the crap you pulled yesterday.”

Karen could not hear Andy’s pleas as Gloria’s words got more distorted as she walked the jar further away until a flash of body zipped past her left side and rounded the bar table almost scaring her.

On her way, another young pretty waitress who had been the source that had startled Karen, with pale skin and brown eyes briskly passed by the barmaid commenting as she picked up a glass coffee pot in order to refill the patrons at the far end of the shop.

“Andy earn himself another time out?” She said already on her way back in the direction in which she had just came.

“Yes but it will be a short one.. Just long enough for Karen and me to talk before she leaves us for work.. So don’t let him con you in order to get out like he did last time!”

The young brunette put her hand up in the air over her head and mouthed “I promise not too.” and rolled her eyes as she glided on back to the rear of the store to make her refills.

Gloria returned and leaned over the counter looking Karen straight in the eyes while cleaning out another plastic cup.

“New job huh?”

Karen gulped her espresso and nodded, finding it hard to make eye contact with her friend.

Gloria’s eyes moved down to the table top.   She tried to break the tension with a story about Andy.

"You know what our little mascot did yesterday after you ate your breakfast and left?  He pissed in the coffee cup of a nice gentleman who brought in his Lilliputian friend when they weren't looking because Sharon had dropped a bunch of plates on the floor near the rear.   Using the distraction, out came his little johnson and in went his pee...   Once he was done I snatched him up and put him in my apron pocket for the next two hours I was so mad."

"Did they see him do it?"  An incredulous Karen inquired.

"Nope, the lucky little leprechaun was smiling away before I swiped him up..  Uh!  The nerve of that little popper sometimes.  I swear one day somebody is going to put him on a danish and swallow him whole.!   And it will probably be me! "

Both grinning ladies looked back down at the table again.   Gloria chose to break the silence.

 “Don’t worry honey.. I know you will make the best of what you have to do and somehow help others along the way like always.”

Gloria said while looking down trodden as she slowly walked back to the other customers further down the bar table asking if anyone needed a refill.

Karen gulped down the rest of her cup, grabbed her coat, put a silver three penny bit upon the table, and beat a hasty retreat outside.

After clearing the door she sank back to the wall and put her hands up to her face to hold back the tears... This day hadn’t started out well at all with her menstrual cycle kicking in to boot.. She hadn’t fooled anyone with her deceptions either, this much she was sure of. How could she have been so stupid as to wear her green monkey suit into that place? Routine can get you killed as they say.

Looking up, the sign placard caught her attention once more.. It was catching the first rays of the morning sun in spite of the hazy coal smog...

Glumdalclitch who had been a champion of Littles rights over two hundred years ago was still holding the smaller people in her hand in an act of charity just as the history books had noted of her at length.

She was still smiling down upon Karen just as she had as she had entered the shop.. Her eyes catching the sun rays now, making them twinkle with life..

Karen forced herself to look away. She wiped her eyes clean and brushed the last warm tear off of her cheek.

Taking a deep breath she hardened her heart and stomped off towards her job.