Mary quietly walked into the pristine bathroom. She held her arms meekly and stepped slowly toward the bath. It was filling up with freshly purified water as little workers scurried all over the place getting things ready for her. Mary smiled weakly at them and watched them work for a few more seconds. A pile of clean clothes was neatly stacked on the countertop for her. Mary couldn’t wait to change into some clean clothes.

Looking toward the mirror, Mary caught sight of herself. She hadn’t seen herself in quite some time, and it caught her off guard. She hadn’t had a chance to change or shower since the night of her initial rampage in New Mexico. She had quickly left on the train with her kids before getting captured, or saved rather, by Naomi. Then she was brought “home”, locked in a box, and forced to crush her own home the next day. Mary had been so busy that she hadn’t realized just how much time had passed.

It was a frightful sight; Mary almost didn’t recognize herself. Her hair, which was usually long and flowing, was greasy and matted down. Her face was ripe with smeared make-up from all the crying she had done since her first enlargement. Her eyes looked more like that of a racoon than the beautiful woman she was. She couldn’t believe Naomi just had dinner with her looking like this.

Mary reached up and gently felt her cracked lip. It stung a little as her fingers gently grazed across the wound. She noticed that her fingernails were filled with dirt and the polish was almost completely gone. Her clothes were torn and tattered, covered in stains. Even her shoes, her favorite pair of Converse sneakers, were dirty and stained. 

She shook her head in morbid amusement, ‘I can’t believe I was ever scary as a giant, looking like this,’ she thought, momentarily. Mary didn’t understand the fact that little people didn’t care all too much about who was stepping on them or what they looked like, just that they survived. 

Mary slipped off her right shoe, revealing a very dirty sock, covered in dirt and sweat. She pushed off the other shoe and it was much the same. It took a few seconds, but the intense odor rising from her dirty sweaty feet hit Mary’s nose. She couldn’t remember a time when her feet had smelled so ripe. Regardless, she reached down and pulled off each sock, one by one. Her feet weren’t in great shape either, they were dirty and the nails were chipped. 

She pulled off her shirt from over her head and dropped it on top of her socks, trying to cover up the stench, even a little bit. Raising her arms up, Mary realized just how drenched with body odor she was from her armpits as well. She hadn’t been able to apply deodorant for a few days now. She grimaced with disgust thinking about her smelly shirt mixing with her socks, which made the combined odor even worse.

Mary looked over her body, examining the bruises on her ribs. She touched them softly, but they didn’t hurt. She unclasped her bra and let it fall to the floor. Her breasts were relieved from captivity and could breathe now. Her bra smelled of sweat, but it was a sweet smelling sweat, not like her feet or armpits. She looked her breasts over, watching them wobble back and forth as she turned from side to side to examine them. They were not sore, nor did they have any bruises on them. She was lucky in that regard because she had always had very sensitive breasts and nipples.

Mary unbuttoned her pants and let them fall on top of the heap of clothes at her feet. There were a few bruises on her legs, but no big ones thankfully. She pulled down her underwear, revealing a sore backside and a very tender vagina with the surrounding hair matted down from sweat. She turned around in the mirror to look at her backside and saw no bruises. She was thankful for that as well.

Mary had no qualms about the little working people seeing her naked either. She felt very calm and comfortable with herself. She looked herself over in the mirror one last time, admiring herself and starting to get a little bit of her smile back. It had been an emotionally exhausting week being at Naomi’s disposal. And besides that, she really hated herself for what she had done to countless little people. But then again, she found herself hating them more and more with each passing day. She started to think that maybe Naomi was right about them. She was wrestling with guilt, but she was starting to win the battle against it.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the rotten stench of dirty clothes assaulting her sense of smell again. She saw a laundry chute with some buttons next to it. ‘What are the buttons for?’, she wondered. ‘Were they for Naomi to use?’ She didn’t know, but she still opened it and looked inside. It was dark and quiet and seemed to go into some sort of basement. Without second guessing herself, she shoved her dirty clothes down the chute. She gave an audible “ick” and shook her head with disgust. She couldn’t believe she had worn those clothes for so long now.

Down below, the clothes fell into a laundry department run by another team of little people. It would fall onto a table connected to conveyor belts that sent the clothes to different areas to be washed by hand. The crew on the table would separate the laundry and send it to the correct cleaning teams. Usually Naomi hit the red button, alerting the little employees that a load was incoming. But since Mary hadn’t hit any buttons, this pile of clothes caught them off guard, falling directly on top of them, trapping them under piles of stinking fabric. It would be quite a while before they would work their way out from under them.

Up above, Mary was unconcerned with the fate of her clothes as she shut the door. She was just glad the awful smell was gone. She turned around and walked back toward the bath, surrounded now by tons of little people running around on the tiles ready to climb scaffold, platforms, cranes, or whatever else was needed. Mary’s heart leapt with excitement at the prospect of having a bath. But there was also a slight twinge of guilt and nervousness at being tended to by so many little people. But deep down, she was really looking forward to it.

She took another step forward and looked down at where she would step into the bath. Then, her eyes widened as she gave a loud shriek. Standing at the head of the bath was her son, Max.

“Max!” she yelped, “What are you doing here! I’m trying to take a bath!” Mary instinctively covered her breasts and crotch right away.

“Mom, it’s okay!” he shouted. “I’m in charge of this department! This is what I do for Miss Naomi.”

“I don’t want you here, Max!” she blurted, “I don’t feel comfortable, it’s not appropriate.”

“Mom, it’s not like that at all,” Max said, reassuring his giant mom. “This is work, it is just a job. We need to be able to have a professional relationship.”

“I understand that, Max,” she said, “but this is weird.”

“I thought that you’d be proud of me…,” Max said confused, “Miss Naomi is super happy with my work, I don’t know why you wouldn’t be.”

“I am proud of you, Max....,” Mary answered consolingly.

“Then just let me do my job,” Max said.

Mary hesitated for a few seconds, then she dropped both of her arms to her side in defeat. “Fine,” she said, “but don’t call me ‘mom’.”

“As you wish…...Mary,” Max said with an awkward pause. It sounded super weird calling his mom by her name, but he was excited to ‘show off’ his crew and show her how ‘important’ he was.

His giant mom’s form loomed overhead as she entered the almost full water. Max could objectively tell that his mom was very pretty, but he had no sexual feelings for her whatsoever, so he didn’t have to try and hide any awkward boners around her like he did Naomi.. But still, seeing her giant body move so gracefully and powerfully instilled a deep admiration and awe in him. 

As Mary was getting in, she slipped against the smooth tub and fell in the rest of the way. She landed comfortably on her butt, but inadvertently splashed gallons of water on some of the crew. Mary’s boobs bounced as her giant body crashed down. The water came just up to her nipples if she sat straight up. She covered her mouth with her hand in shock and looked around wide eyed for a few seconds. After realizing nobody was seriously hurt, she laughed a little.

“Oops!” she smiled, “Sorry guys, I hope I didn’t get you too wet!” Mary was genuinely relieved that she hadn’t hurt anybody, but her tone sounded very calloused. Max was already a bit frustrated with her and tried getting people back into position. Some workers had been swept away from the splashing waves of bath water and were scrambling to get back to their posts.

“It’s okay,” he reassured her. “It’s no problem. Nothing we can’t handle.” Mary began running her hands, cupped with water, along her arms and started cleaning off her arms. The water turned murky and dirty right away. “Okay, mo-, uh, I mean, Mary,” he stuttered. “Place your arms on these platforms and put your hands into the scaffolding in the marked areas.”

Mary looked at the convoluted setup and lifted her arm out of the water, dripping and splashing water all over the little workers on the platform and scaffold rigs. Mary did the same with the other arm as well. Max thought it was amazing to see her move like that. And it was fascinating to see so many people soaked because of her careless actions. But they knew what to expect in this department and they were aware of what was involved in doing these baths. That’s why they were paid hazard pay. 

The little people used extension poles to scrub and wash Mary’s skin all along her arms. Down at her hands, crews were cutting and smoothing out her long fingernails and removing tons of dirt and filth from beneath them.

“Okay, very good,” smiled Max. “Now place your feet on the resting spots at the other end.”

Mary did as her son told her and lifted her feet out of the water and placed them where there were two crews of people waiting for them. The little people were completely dwarfed by her giant feet, but that was something they were used to. But what they weren’t prepared for was the gut-wrenching smell coming from them. But at least her soles weren’t plastered with red blotches. A sight they had been seeing all too frequently from Naomi lately.

Two pressure washer operators repelled down on top of Mary’s toes and started blasting them with water. From her big toes down to the pinky’s, dead skin and dirt came off, revealing the clean pristine skin that Mary naturally possessed. They scrubbed out underneath her toenails, clearing out any remaining filth. Then dutifully crawled between her toes, regardless of the smell, and washed them out with soapy water. This tickled Mary and she jerked her feet slightly as she let out an audible giggle.

“Oh, you guys!” she laughed, “That tickles!”

They were used to that and were always prepared for a stray tickle or two. So nobody working on her toes or on her soles were caught off guard. Max sighed with relief; these guys were true professionals. The more the little workers scrubbed and washed her feet and toes, the better they looked, and the better they started to smell. Mary wasn’t concerned at all about the smell to the little workers. In fact, she could not have cared less, she had completely forgotten about it.

There were so many other things to get done, and Max was trying to make sure everybody was doing something. He wanted to get people started on her armpits since she already had her arms raised on the platforms. Max ordered the trimming crews to one of her pits and instructed them to trim her hairs and wash every last pore. They no more than touched a soft fold of skin with a scrubber and Mary jerked violently, raising her hand out of place, tossing one of the nail workers into the ocean of bath water. 

“Oh my gosh, that tickled!” cried Mary, “I didn’t expect anyone there!” After laughing for a few seconds, she eyed the flailing nail curator in the water. “Come here, you,” she said with a smile. She picked him up from the water and placed him back on the side of the platform. “You have to be careful you know! I’m very ticklish!”

Mary set her arm back in place, unknowingly setting in on a person that was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was completely smothered under her arm. Max didn’t notice, but the other co-workers from that area started raising quite a scene. When they caught Max’s attention, and he realized what had happened, he addressed his giant mom.

“Mary, you have to lift your arm up for a minute,” he said.

“Huh?” She asked sleepily, obviously enjoying the pampering. “Why?”

“Because someone got caught under it,” he said sternly, “Now lift up your arm.”

“Someone got caught under my arm?” Mary asked. “How on earth did that happen?”

“Just lift it up so we can get him out!” Max screamed.

“Where are your manners, Max?” asked Mary playfully. “No ‘please’?”

“Lift up your arm, please,” said Max with frustration.

Mary smiled and lifted her arm. The little worker was gasping for air and crawled back toward the edge, being helped by a few of his co-workers.

“I told you,” Mary said, “you guys have to be careful!” Mary set her arm back down and most of the little people got back to work almost immediately. The lucky employee who was just saved needed a little bit of a breather. Max looked at his mom with surprise and a little fear. He had never seen this side of his mom. She just nonchalantly teased that little worker. He had seen her either feel incredibly guilty, or just lose it and murder tens of them. But teasing was new. But Max would prefer watching her tease them than kill any of them, even by accident.

Mary leaned her head back, closed her eyes, and focused on all the feelings coming from the little people crawling on and around her. She could get used to this. She felt a small wave of power and prestige come over her as she was tended to. But even more amazing was the slight arousal she felt coming from between her legs. It was definitely a strange sensation for her. She had only ever experienced fear or anger around the little people, so to feel anything sensual was a welcome change.

Mary enjoyed every single sensation coming from the tiny crews of people that were cleaning her. Her feet were finished, and they looked and smelled amazing now. Her toenails were cleaned and trimmed as well. The same was true of her hands, all her nails were smoothed out and dirt free. Her cuticles had never looked better. She even made it through both armpits getting trimmed and scrubbed without flinching...too much. The hardest part was having to sit still as crews of cleaners tended to her face, cleaning her skin and dressing a few wounds here and there. 

The last two things to finish were her hair and ears. Mary’s head laid peacefully on the headrest while the rest of her body was submerged in the warm water of the bath. The water was filthy, but she didn’t care. Most of the crews were tearing down and starting to clean up, but the hair team had their work cut out for them. It was a lot to wash, rinse, and brush out. Fortunately, they had large pieces of machinery that made the task much easier.

Mary slept soundly as the last two pieces of scaffolding were pushed up to her ears so they could be cleaned out. Her snoring was subtle, but very audible to the little people. The little crews squeegeed out her ears and removed piles of wax to be picked up by the trash crew below.

“Man, I’ll never get used to the way this stuff smells,” said Sam, a new hire that had been working in maintenance for about three months now.

“Well, you’d better,” said another worker, Sarah, as she kept cleaning. “It’s all I’ve done since I got hired.”

“Oh, that’s not true,” said Mandy, another girl working on the outer rim of Mary’s ear. “Sometimes it’s toe jam too!” Mandy laughed a little at her own joke.

Sarah nodded in agreement, “Yeah..., earwax, toe jam, fingernail dirt, plaque from her teeth… it’s fucking pathetic. I can’t believe my life has come to this. I got this job because of the insurance and the hazard pay, but honestly, I really don’t think it’s worth it.”

“Oh, what I wouldn’t give to be in their position,” sighed Mandy.

“Right?!” giggled Sarah, “Must be nice…, imagine if things were reversed? I’d fucking squash these two giant bitches for sure.”

“Whatever,” said Sam, “I’m just glad her dipshit of a son forgot about the teeth cleaning routine too, otherwise we’d have to do it for his giant bitch of a mom too.”

“Praise, God…,” Sarah said, “And she used to be a tiny person as well! You would think she’d have a little sympathy for us!”

“I don’t think God exists,” sighed Mandy as she removed another piece of filth from deep inside Mary’s ear canal, tickling her. Mary’s head twitched slightly and her snoring resumed. “If this is the kind of life a “god” wants for me, then he doesn’t exist.”

“You’re probably right,” said Sam. “Or maybe he just has a weird sense of humor.”

“You know, if this giant slut ever gets shrunk by Naomi again, I would not mind seeing her get squashed. Her and her stupid son,” Sarah said as she diligently kept working.

“Okay, can we talk about how messed up it is that her son got this job?” said Mandy.

“I heard he has a thing for Naomi,” replied Sarah.

“Really?” asked Sam, “Because I heard Naomi has it bad for the director, the chief assistant.”

“Uh, well, duh,” laughed Mandy, “she only gave him a blowjob the other night when we were called to her office for makeup and nails.”

“What!” said Sam, “No way!”

“Haha! Yeah, right there in her office!” laughed Sarah, “Can you imagine if this giant bitch knew that?”

“I wonder if he’s told her…” Sam wondered out loud.

“Yeah right, he’d be a dipshit to tell her,” said Mandy, “Especially now that she's a giant.”

Meanwhile, as the three ear cleaners continued to gossip and complain about the giants, the trash crew down below collected the remaining pieces of wax, dead skin, and other debris. Others started cleaning up the machinery and started to tear down and put away the scaffolding. Max looked at his watch and clipboard, he was still a little overtime, but it was much better than the first time he’d done it for Naomi.

“I don’t know what else I could have done better,” Max said to Lindsey who was finished with work and standing next to him. Lindsey’s father hadn’t missed a beat after nearly getting splattered by Naomi’s toes a mere few hours ago. He was back at his station and had pressure washed Mary’s toes as well. Max  had assigned Lindsey to assist him and help keep things on schedule.

“What if this process was done first?” she asked pointing to the spreadsheet, “Then these two things could be done simultaneously?”

Max nodded thoughtfully, “Yeah, we might try that next time. You’re going to make me look good.” Lindsey smiled, and nodded her head and looked at Max. She was happy to be proving useful to him. 

“So, your mom is quite something, isn’t she?” Lindsey asked.

“What do you mean?” asked Max.

“I mean, look at her,” Lindsey replied gesturing to the gigantic Mary, “she’s breathtaking.”

Max looked at his mom, her giant features were cleaned up and she looked better than ever. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“I’ll never get over seeing someone hold so much power like a giantess does,” Lindsey hummed. 

Lindsey was still in awe of the giant beauty before them that was his mom. Max looked back at his giantess of a mom. Lindsey was right, she was breathtaking. And it was very cool getting to see all the little people taking care of her, but still having that fear of her. Max did have to admit himself that his mother's beauty made her very god-like. 

Just then the ear cleaning crew had finished and were climbing down when the giantess arose and looked around at everybody cleaning up and putting things away.

“Aww, is it over?” she asked. “Well, I really enjoyed that. Thank you, everyone!”

“Almost,” said Max, “next we’ll drain the tub and then rinse the dirty water off you with the shower tank.”

Mary’s tongue was swathing around her mouth and up against her teeth. She had a perplexed expression on her face as she fidgeted back and forth.

“Everything okay?” asked Max.

Mary smiled, “Oh yes! Everything is great. I just wish there was something I could do about my teeth; I wonder if Naomi has a spare toothbrush for me?”

Max facepalmed, “Oh my God, I forgot about the teeth cleaning! Hold it” he yelled over to a group of workers. “Put that platform back, we need the teeth cleaners out for work.”

A bunch of employees started moaning, and the faces of the cleaners that just got done with her ears were exasperated. They had thought they had gotten off without that disgusting chore, but they were sorely mistaken.

“Teeth cleaners?” asked Mary excitedly, “What’s that? Is that part of this too?”

“Yes, I just forgot is all…,” said Max.

“Lovely!” Mary said, “So who does that?” she asked, eyeing a group of about 6 employees coming back towards her. “Is it you guys? Are you the ones that cleaned my ears out so well? I’m so excited!” The little people however, were tired and less than enthusiastic. “And what are your names?” she asked the wore out little crew. After listening to each little person speak up, she repeated the names back to them. “Sam, Adrianna, Sarah, Mandy, Hayden, and Chrissie? Is that correct? Oh man boys, the girls have you outnumbered! Hope you can keep up!” Mary set her face up on the little platform and let the little people get to work.

“Why is your mom being so weird?” asked Lindsey.

Max looked at Lindsey with confusion, “What? She’s not being weird. What do you mean?”

“Yeah, she is,” countered Lindsey, “she’s asking names, being chipper. She wasn’t like this a few minutes ago.”

“I don’t know, Lindsey,” said Max, “I think you’re just reading too much into it.”

“Okay,” she said in an unsatisfied tone, “I just thought it was odd is all.”

Up in Mary’s mouth, the little people did their best to clean all gunk out of her teeth. They brushed and scraped her teeth as well as her tongue. Mary tried her best not to move but spit was pooling up and she had to swallow. Chrissie was standing on Mary’s tongue brushing it when she felt the tongue undulate underneath her. Chrissie fell and slid back to Mary’s throat and disappeared down the wet slimy hole. Chrissie didn’t even have a chance to scream.

“Oops!” Mary giggled like a little girl and smiled.

Everyone else stood completely still, in shock. That had never happened to any of them before, not even with Naomi. They didn’t know what to do. But before they could even think to move, Mary opened her smiling mouth and unleashed her wet sticky tongue, grabbing two of the little workers from the platform and pulled them back into her waiting mouth. Mary rolled them around on her tongue and swished them back forth in her saliva. She smiled and looked up at the ceiling, as if savoring the taste.

The remaining three crew members, scared out of their minds, dodged out of the way of the gigantic tongue and jumped off the platform into the tub. It wasn’t a well thought out plan, they were still trapped with the giant murderer, but they just needed to get away from her mouth. The water was still draining from the tub, but was almost empty. One landed on Mary’s right breast but the other two hit her flat stomach and rolled down into her crotch and got tangled in her pussy hairs. It caused her already tender pussy lips to swell with excitement.

“Oh guys!” she said with a mouthful of two tiny little people, “That tickles!”

“Mom!” yelled Max in panic, “What in God’s name are you doing!?”

“Well, you see,” Mary explained after taking a strained swallow, sending the two tinies plummeting down to her stomach, “these guys were wondering if God existed or not, and so, I am just showing them that I am their God, and I do, in fact, exist.”

“What in the actual fuck, you are talking about!” Max yelled.

Mary ignored her son and reached down to her right breast and cupped the little woman tight against her nipple. Feeling her squirm against her nipple was extremely stimulating and it made her wet. The water was almost gone, but Mary could see her lips down below starting to liquify with warm sticky juices.

“You need to get out of here, Max…” Mary warned.

“Mom, no!” he yelled, “Stop what you’re doing!” He ran closer to her and kept screaming at her even though she was ignoring him. “Mary! Stop!”

Mary started breathing and panting heavily, rubbing her right palm against her breast and fondling her left nipple with her left hand. The more the little woman struggled the more Mary got turned on. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt like this. Down further, the struggling of the man and woman in her hair only excited her more. The more they struggled, the more they inadvertently worked their way closer to her warm waiting lips.

Mary used her left hand to reach down and twirl her pussy hairs with her finger, dancing around the tiny people. Mary smiled as she listened to their squeaks of panic. Mary slowly rubbed her outer lips, spreading and fondling them until she couldn’t take it anymore. She pushed the two screaming tinies deep inside of her. The resulting surge of ticklish sensations from their tiny bodies had left Mary breathless. She didn’t understand how two tiny people could feel so good.

“Yes!” she sighed, still rubbing her nipple with Adrianna, the unfortunate tiny person in her grasp.

“Oh fuck, yes!” she muttered loudly, her body started convulsing and twitching as she held her hand still over her breast, only the subtle movements of Adrianna were stimulating her now. 

“Ah! Aahh! Aaahhh!” Mary gasped and panted as her pussy tightened and throbbed in a powerful orgasm.

The two little people below were expelled from her swollen lips as gallons of viscous fluid oozed out with them. Although the pressure had cracked a few bones here and there, they were coughing and gagging, but still alive. Mary’s body went limp as her orgasm faded away. Her panting slowly returned to normal breathing and she opened her eyes. She pulled her hand away from her breast and looked at the terrified tiny woman cowering within her grasp. Mary picked her up by her leg and dangled her in front of her mouth.

“Maybe next time you stupid little people talk shit about giants, you shouldn’t do it in their giant fucking ear for them to hear everything you fucking say!” Mary screamed at the poor woman in her grip, causing permanent damage to her ears. Not that it would matter much longer anyways. Mary tilted her head back and dropped Adrianna inside her mouth.

“Thanks for the good time though,” she said and swallowed her whole. 

Mary sat there, completely satisfied. The last little drops of water went down the drain when the handheld shower head turned on automatically.

“Perfect timing!” Mary sighed. 

She grabbed the showerhead and rinsed off her body, washing the sweat off her face, then slowly worked it down her body. Mary stood up, still a little wobbly from the earth-shaking orgasm she just had. Careful not to get water all over the place, she rinsed the rest of her body off.

As she rinsed her feet off, she noticed the two little people she shoved inside her still laying on the tub floor, unable to get away because of their many broken bones. They were trying to crawl out of harm's way as fast as they could, but it was for nothing. In the midst of the torrential downpour, a dark shadow came over them. They looked up just in time to see Mary’s beautiful face become obscured from view by her giant foot rising higher and higher into the air. All they could see was the clean, soft, somewhat reddened sole of the woman who just used them for pleasure. Her foot came thundering down right on top of one of them, Mary didn’t know which one, nor did she care. But the little body splattered all over the place.

“Hayden!” screamed the tiny girl with outstretched hands.

Mary twisted her foot back and forth, as if putting out a cigarette, desecrating his mangled corpse even more. The little woman, Sarah, could hear the squelching of his skin and cracking of his bones as his body was literally turned into paste beneath the ball of Mary’s giant foot. Sarah could only whimper as Mary raised her foot one last time. She looked heavenward toward Mary as the same foot rose ominously over her now too. She could see the flattened remains of Hayden’s body plastered to her giant sole. Sarah sobbed uncontrollably and incoherently.

“No…, please…,” she sniveled, “I’m sorry…, so sorry…,” 

Mary gave a slight smirk before bringing her foot crashing down on the tiny woman’s body, squashing it to jelly. Mary let out a deep sigh of relief as she casually twisted her foot back and forth over this one as well, grinding her body to minced meat. Mary lifted her foot up and washed her bloody sole with the showerhead attachment. The tiny bodies peeled off her skin and flowed down the drain. Once her feet and the bathtub were clean of any blood, the water turned off automatically.

“Perfect timing!” Mary chirped. The giantess climbed out of the tub, ignoring her tiny screaming son, and dried herself off with a towel. Most of the workers had left already, but a few had witnessed the carnage and were horrified. That’s something no one ever really gets used to, I guess. 

Mary put the clothes on that were left for her and fixed herself up. She looked in the mirror again. This time she was proud of who she saw. She wasn’t some weak woman that felt guilty and scared all the time. She was a strong powerful woman, a force to be reckoned with. She was very beautiful and good looking, of course, but her smile was the cherry on top of her confidence.

“Where is your father at?” asked Mary looking over her shoulder back at Max, “I need to talk with him.”