It started to rain soon after, a sudden, heavy downpour coming down on the city. So heavy that Sean could hear it from the inside of his cage. Kristine was now sitting in the lounge chair, looking through the window and having some tea, the cup passing his prison by every few moments on the way to her lips. It seemed as if this was going to be yet another lazy, if not sleepy, afternoon. He certainly felt like taking a nap, preferably a long one, still feeling uneasy after the procedure but unable to pinpoint what exactly was wrong. Nothing hurt or ached him, he wasn’t feeling nauseous, only a little dizzy and a bit tired which, he thought, was a rather positive conclusion to spending a long stretch of time being irradiated.
‘Maybe I’ll feel better if I stretch my legs’ he thought and began walking around the cage. But there simply wasn’t enough space in there for taking a stroll, neither long nor short. Stepping from one set of golden bars to the next he could only admire his surroundings. Behind him was a sea of teal, a long curtain of said colour stretching for hundreds of feet up and down – Kristine’s tunic. He could notice the familiar, golden ropes stuck to its surface in a few spots. There was more of them up above, a whole auroral forest of them, one Kristine forbade him from entering for fear of losing him. That and her gentle, caring, colossal face he spent the past few days looking up to, a vast cavern of her mouth she whispered kind words to him with and the twin pools of her eyes that followed his every move. He stepped over to the other edge of the cage, looking out. In the vast expanse of the living room the most distant objects appeared almost blurry, that’s how distant they were to him. He saw the mesa of the coffee table ahead and sharp cliffs of Kristine’s bare feet resting on it. And in between her and the table, a massive, long bridge of her legs. In moments like this Sean would almost forget she was human just like him, being more than willing to compare her to a landscape; a living, breathing landscape he could feel and smell around him, the air thick with the aromas of her perfume and soap and shampoo radiating from her skin.
Was he still human? He certainly felt like one, despite the minor nuisance of his diminished stature. But in the last couple of days he had to endure things a human being normally doesn’t deal with. Such as almost getting stepped on by pairs of feet the size of a battleship. Or trekking through a jungle of a lawn. Or getting lost in the carpet fibres. Or walking down a fallen sequoia of a. Even being locked up in a cage hanging around the neck of a woman who seemed well over a thousand feet tall wasn’t something that usually happened to people. And yet all those things happened to him and Sean couldn’t help but begin to question his own humanity, especially when he compared himself to his caretakers, both unthinkably huge giantesses, both living landmasses that had complete control over his well-being. He wasn’t bitter about his situation, aside from being more than aware that, had he waited for Mandy to assist him, he wouldn’t be in such a state in the first place. But the fact of being so dependent on the women surrounding him due to his condition was beginning to slowly tire him out. Not that he wasn’t grateful; he learned to care for Kristine and Nicole even though at times he felt like the former saw him as an exotic pet and the latter as a source of amusement, like an animated Lego figurine, even if he wasn’t even as big as one. But in turn he could tell they both cared for him, each in her own way.
He walked to the centre of the cage and lied down, hands crossed under his head, as he stared at his prison’s ceiling. Suddenly, he felt his surroundings being lifted and soon a massive blue eye was staring at him from the other side of the bars, one so big he could drown in it or crawl through its pupil. ‘Just checking on you. Rest, little one’ a whisper was heard, Kristine’s soothing voice echoing around as the cage was lowered back. He kept lying on his back and not doing much other than staring ahead and it was then he noticed the cage’s ceiling seemed to be higher than usual. He stood up, head raised, still looking up. It did look different now, higher, wider, more distant. As he looked around, so did his surroundings. The bars were taller, the spaces between them wider. The cotton ball on the side now towered over him. The floor stretched further than it did before, the very interior of the cage seemed bigger. What was going on? He closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head and when he opened them again everything was back to normal, the dimensions as he remembered it, as he was used to. Was it the mix of fatigue and dizziness playing tricks on his eyes? An illusion? He couldn’t say for sure but he was getting anxious. Didn’t Mandy mention she couldn’t know what effects the procedure would have on his body? Were they all naive to think that getting rid of one nefarious type of radiation with a different one wouldn’t come with a price?
He shook his head once more. ‘Nothing, it’s nothing, I’m just tired’ he thought as he tried to calm his nerves. He decided to keep on lying on his back, staring at the ceiling and listening to the rain still pouring outside. After all, there was nothing else for him to do here, not until Kristine would let him out and, from what he could see, she wasn’t in a hurry to do that. Doubts started to pour in once more. How could he call himself human if his liberty depended on whether a fifty feet long finger unlocks the door to his prison? Or if his daily rhythm was strictly attuned to the gigantic woman said finger belonged to and her whims? He hid his face in his hands and sighed heavily, trying hard to think of other things. Banal, ordinary, everyday stuff such as food he would eat when he was back to normal or the cleaning up he’d have to do in the lab, anything that would take his mind off these realizations. ‘Maybe I’m just being overly dramatic’ he thought some more as he tried to relax.
Eventually the rain stopped and Nicole dropped by shortly after, carrying two bags of take-out food with her. They ate in silence with Sean, as always, sitting on the edge of Kristine’s plate and chipping away tiny pieces of his morsel. When they were done and washed the dishes they moved into the living room, where Kristine sat Nicole down on the sofa and told her about today’s happenings. The young woman listened intently, nodding every few seconds, as her aunt recounted the procedure including the most minute details in her tale.
‘So… it worked?’ Nicole finally asked, glancing at the cage.
‘I mean, yes. But the effects will only appear with time’
‘And she couldn’t tell you how much time it will be?’
‘It’s not that she couldn’t, she was simply unable to. But that’s okay’ Kristine said and placed two of her fingers on the cage ‘Sean will be my guest until he’s big enough to fend for himself’
It might take a while, Nicole thought. ‘Well you can take care of him until then. How is he feeling, by the way?’
‘He seems tired. Today he’s been lying down a bit more than he usually does. A little under the weather, perhaps? But other than that I think he’s fine’
‘I wish he was already big enough to tell us if something’s wrong’ Nicole said, glancing at the cage again, then smiling. ‘What will you do when he gets too big for that cage?’
‘I guess I’ll find something bigger to carry him in’ Kristine smiled back. ‘But as I said, I don’t know when that would be’
‘You know, I just had an idea’ Nicole said with another smile, this time dreamy, pensive. ‘Remember when I was growing up and you measured me against the wall? And kept track of how tall I was at this or that day and we’d later read the numbers in your little notebook?’
‘How could I forget? You were growing up so fast. Before I knew it you were already taller than me’ Kristine’s face lit up as she recalled the memory. ‘You think I should do the same with him, correct?’
‘Yeah. And when he’s back to normal he’ll have a souvenir’
The two women smiled broadly at each other, the idea already taking roots in their minds. ‘I’ll go find a ruler’ Kristine said and left the room. She was back soon, a transparent, six-inches long plastic ruler in one hand and a little red notebook and a pen in the other. The two knelt by the coffee table as Kristine let the Sean out. Nicole held the ruler with her thumb and forefinger as he approached and stood still with his back against the lines.
‘Exactly six millimetres’ Nicole said as Kristine jotted that information down, as well as the date and time the measurement was taken. ‘Can’t wait to see more numbers in there, each bigger than the one before’ she added, nodding towards the notebook.
‘So do I’ Kristine said, closing it and smiling at her niece. ‘Do you think he’ll grow taller than me too, just like you did?’
To that, Nicole said nothing, only grinning in response as the two giggled. Below, on the coffee table, Sean looked at the ruler rising before him, still held in place by the young giantess’ fingers. Something was wrong, again. He wasn’t six millimetres tall as they just estimated, but five - or so his eyes were telling him at the moment. He took a closer look. Still five. He stood with his back against the cold plastic, put his hand to it above his head and turned. Five. Finally, he took a step back and blinked. Six, now it was six. He shook his head and looked again but it remained at six. ‘What is going on?’ Sean thought, once again feeling anxious, oblivious to the cheerful tone of the women far above him. He took one more glance at the ruler as the golden cage appeared on the coffee table, still confused as he walked back into his prison and took a seat on its floor.