Lucy – Yin & Yang
===
I had taken a piece of hardened bamboo and splintered it so that it fit in my palm like a dagger. I sharpened the tip with a stone and was careful to make it strong. My makeshift dagger felt deadly in my hands and provided me comfort. Twice already, I’ve had pervs come up to sweet talk me with their shit pickup lines. Only one guy on this island caught my attention, and he was more man than all these downsizers put together.
Someone walked up behind me. I spun around, my left hand grabbing them by the collar, my elbows shoving them back until they slammed against a palm tree. My right hand, with my bamboo dagger, aimed at their throat, the tip only an inch away.
“You goin’ to poke an eye out with dat t’ing.”
I smiled at Jean-Claude. “It’ll do more than poke an eye. It’ll gut the next dirtbag that asks to get in my pants.” I backed off from him and admired my weapon.
He massaged his neck and sat on a fallen tree trunk and handed me a piece of pork from the boar the other survivors slow roasted all night long. The meat was so tender that it fell off the bone. A little dry and the lack of spices sucked, but it was far more delicious than the protein bars we were eating for the first couple of days.
“What do you know about Fleur?” I asked between bites. I stood over him while he sat back and looked out towards the ocean.
“Not’ing.”
“What about the other one that’s been fucking around inside the island?” I asked. “Know anything about her?”
He shook his head at the same speed as the palm leaves swayed in the wind.
“I don’t like either of them,” I said. “They’re both hiding something.”
“What about da man?” He pointed with his lips and a head tilt towards Seb. The giant was trying to fix a puncture in the raft.
“He’s harmless.” I ate the last piece of meat and threw the leftover rib bone into a bush behind Jean-Claude. I sat next to him and fiddled with my dagger with my fingers. “The giant women worry me the most.”
“Which one?”
“I haven’t decided.”
The beach was a long rectangle. Near the center was where everything started, where we washed ashore on this godforsaken island. The downsizer carriers, bags, and raft were still there. Seb kept fiddling with those things, trying to repair the raft. He was also the only one hunting, making sure we had water, and was pretty much doing all the heavy lifting.
The black giantess occupied the left side of the beach if I was looking out into the ocean. There was a curvature at the far end of the beach, where the mountain range of the island began. Fleur seemed to like hanging around there. Downsizers I recognized seemed to keep meeting with Fleur about something. I’ve considered going down there to see what’s up, but everyone coming back from speaking to Fleur seemed so tense that it dissuaded me. Another thing about Fleur—she was hot. I worried that Seb might notice her.
Kiernan. The white girl hung out at the opposite-end of the beach when she was actually at the camp and not fucking around in the jungle. She slept with us and had a downsizer that was practically glued to her. She’s said little and has done little at camp. Okay, maybe she helped by discovering fresh water and telling Seb where the hunting grounds were … but she was up to something. Her and that downsizer.
“Recognize that man?” I asked Jean-Claude. “The one that hangs out with the blonde giant?”
“A lit’le familiar.”
“I need to talk to him. Figure him out. See what that blonde is up to.”
-
Since the other downsizers finally figured they weren’t getting off this island soon, they began building huts throughout up in the wooded areas near to the beach. Some of them showed off their craftsman skills by constructing well-structured homes. Other people tied palm leaves together to construct simple tents. Either way, many people busied themselves with something.
I wore khaki slacks that I had tailored on the beach by cutting the leg portion at the calves. I ditched my button shirt and wore only my tank top. My bare feet kicked up sand as I walked over towards the blonde. She was on her back, still asleep.
An imaginary line separated the camp from the blonde’s territory. I didn’t think she owned this side of the beach, but it did feel like I was trespassing the closer I got to her. My eyes spotted the man that I’ve seen with the blonde since the beginning. He slept in the area between her chest and shoulder. It looked comfortable where he curled up on her bare skin, sinking into her body.
I made sounds like I was trying to grab attention from a cat. “Psst!” After a few tries, his head perked up and looked around.
Getting really close to the giant didn’t seem like a good idea, so I was somewhere between 50 and 100 feet away. When the man looked over at me, I jumped up and waved at him, forcing a smile so he knew I was friendly. He was about to speak, but I made a gesture with my finger to my lips, telling him nonverbally to stay quiet. With a wave of the hands, I made him understand I wanted to speak with him without awakening the slumbering giant.
-
“Umm, good morning,” he said. “Can I help you?” He had slid off his giant friend and come to meet me further down the beach.
“Hey,” I said, putting on a cutesy voice and tilting my head. “We were wondering if your friend can help with the projects we got going?” I pointed to everyone constructing the huts further inland.
“My friend?”
“Her!” I pointed at the giant.
“Oh, Kiernan?”
“Yeah. What’s your name, by the way?”
“Ellis.”
“I’m Lucy, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you, Lucy,” he said, extending his hand for a shake, which I returned, feeling awkward the entire time. “I’ll ask Kiernan if she can lend a hand when she wakes. But we’ve been busy, so no promises on helping.”
“Busy? Busy with what? I haven’t seen you guys around here much.”
“Oh, we’re charting the island,” he said with a yawn, still not fully awake.
“Why is she charting the island?”
He shrugged. “She’s a scientist and her mind’s wired differently.”
“Is she looking for something?”
“Food, water, and whatever else that can help with surviving out here.”
“Are the lake and boars not enough?”
He shook his head. “Kiernan said it’s not. For all the downsizers, it’s probably enough food for years, but the humans need a better food source.”
“Huh,” I mumbled. “Humans and downsizers? Not giants and humans? What’s the scientist got to say about this tiny island?”
“Umm.” He scratched the back of his head. “I don’t know, actually. Do you think they are giants and we’re still normal?”
“I don’t know what to believe,” I said truthfully. “This island sure doesn’t make me feel small. Fleur, Seb, Kiernan—they make me feel small.” I looked him in the eyes. He seemed to daydream about something. “Have you eaten?”
-
We sat near the bonfire in the camp’s center on the beach. The fast-moving clouds overhead provided these brief moments of reprieve from the relentless sun. The breeze from the ocean helped shove the humidity that hung low on the island and felt great against my sweaty skin.
I tore a chunk of meat from the slow-roasting boar and served it to Ellis on a palm leaf. He thanked me and bit into the meat greedily. I sat close to him and looked over my shoulder at him. It was plain as day that he was keeping something from me.
“How’d you and Kiernan meet?” I asked.
“You know the old saying, ‘Boy meets giantess; boy asks giantess out; giantess asks for a diamond the size of a basketball.’”
I smiled. “She asked for a diamond?”
“Just a joke.” He took another large bite. He offered me some, but I told him I already ate. “But things are getting close.”
“Good for you,” I said, patting his upper-back. “I love to hear people entering mixed-sized relationships. I hope it works out for you.”
“Thanks,” he said with a huge smile. He stared off into the distance like a love-struck fool. I could tell he was happy. “She’s so great. I can’t wait for her to wake up so that we can—”
He was cut off midway through his words and breakfast when I saw three flesh-colored pillars descend around him like a birdcage. The details up close were so alien to me. The wrinkles around the creases of her fingers, the fingernails as large as breastplates. … The giant fingers flexed and clamped down on Ellis like the claw machine at an arcade.
Suddenly, the giant hand ascended, pulling Ellis away from me in an instant. I jumped to my feet, disoriented from seeing a bulldozer-sized hand come out of nowhere and snatch someone in a second. Above me, Kiernan loomed, bent at the hips, bringing Ellis close to her chest. She only wore shorts and a shirt. Straight ahead of me were her bare ankles, slightly above my head-level.
The sun peeked out and illuminated Kiernan from behind like it was some kind of celestial message to me. She gave Ellis a look. Then she glared down at me. She was so big. Even something innocent as her toes flexing caused this loud crunching sound of sand compressing.
“What the hell are you doing?”
At first, I thought Kiernan was talking to Ellis, but when I focused on her eyes, they were locked with mine. I didn’t care for that tone. I also didn’t care to be the size of a peanut to her.
“What’s it look like?” I yelled.
Kiernan narrowed her eyes. “Ellis doesn’t have time for trampy bugs like you. Neither of us do.”
Trampy? “Who you calling trampy? I’m not the one walking around the beach with my ass hanging out.” That made her mad. I could tell by how she clenched her fist around Ellis.
“I’ve eaten French Fries bigger than you,” Kiernan said, using her thumb to stroke Ellis in her fist. “You better watch yourself.”
The sound of Kiernan’s bare foot moving got my attention. An excavator shovel’s worth of sand poured around her five straight toes as she lifted them from the beach. A mini-sandstorm formed underneath the sole of her foot, billowing outwards as she went to make a step. My heart thumped wildly in my chest as it began to move towards me. I saw details like her toes relaxing, compressing slightly like an accordion, while her entire foot dangled from her ankle. It drifted through the air, a hot-air balloon lazily floating on the horizon.
My eyes went wide. I jumped to the side and flipped over to watch her pale foot take a step. She had turned and walked opposite where I landed near the bonfire. Had I not moved, well, she would’ve missed me by a mile. She wasn’t trying to be threatening with her foot like I interpreted, so it made me look like a damn fool.
Kiernan looked over her shoulder and gave me a smug I-won-that kinda look. I spat out some sand from my mouth and watched her go back to her side of the beach. I pulled out my homemade dagger and gripped it tightly until my knuckles turned white.
“What was that all about?”
God’s thunderous voice rained down on me from behind. Suddenly, I was pissed off about that encounter with Kiernan. Because the best giant on this island, the only one I trusted, was right over me. I flipped around to see Seb looking down at me. His stubble was growing thicker and his wavy hair had the surfer dude quality to it.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” I said, twirling my dagger.
“Really?” he asked with a slight smirk. “She gave you a scare when she turned to walk. I don’t think she was trying to—”
“You saw that? You were watching? Why?”
“I was just making sure … Look, you want me to talk to her? That was uncalled for with what she said.”
I looked around to see if anyone was listening, and of course there were. Jean-Claude was standing at the tree line looking anxious. Other looky-loos were standing around with curiosity after my confrontation with Kiernan and now the giant. I groaned internally. One day, I would get a private moment with Seb so I could talk freely with him—even after he made it clear we shouldn’t. I knew he wanted to talk to me as badly as I wanted to talk to him.
“Don’t talk to her,” I said standing up. “You can’t talk her out of being a bitch.” The gears in my head started turning. “But maybe you should pick me and protect me when she’s around.”
Seb rolled his eyes.
“C’mon Seb!” I switched to my high-toned, girlie voice. “I’m scared and could use your protection!”
“What happened to ‘Nothing I can’t handle’?” he asked.
I froze. “I don’t know.”
He snickered and nodded. “I’m going back to work. If Kiernan says something again, let me know.”
“Wait, where are you going?”
-
“What happens when you fix the raft?” I asked. We were back at his project area on the beach. The downsizer containers looked like huge distribution warehouses to me, but were more like stacked briefcases to Seb. His bag sat on top of the containers. The raft between his fingers. “We all go back in the containers and you take us back to the mainland?”
“That’s the last thing I’d do,” he said. “Stranded on a deserted island is much safer than floating in the middle of the ocean.”
“Then why are you trying to fix the raft?” I stood in front of his bent knees. I felt so safe connected to him when he was near me like this.
“I want to go fishing.”
“Fishing?” I paced in front of him. “You need a raft to fish?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t get it.”
He opened his bag and pulled out the protein bars he had. “Even rationing these things, there’s only enough for us for two days. By us, I mean—”
“You, Fleur, and the bitch.”
He sighed. He threw the bars back into his bag.
“Do you realize how many fish you’d have to catch to feed you guys?” I asked. I went to climb his knees, but he stopped me with a finger.
“A few mackerel each, I think.”
“A few? Not like thousands?”
He shook his head. “You still think me and the others are giant?”
“Don’t you?”
“Doubt.” He went back to fiddling with the raft. “For our sake, I hope we’re not.”
“I think it would be fun,” I said. “Then the world could see you the way I do.”
He ignored me.
-
Seb took his pocket knife out of his bag and mentioned he needed a lot of trees. I suggested he could clear out the trees around the camp the other downsizers were making. I got to ride with him! He took me in his hands and walked in the midst of the other downsizers. His blade, twice as long as I was tall, made short work clearing the forest. He didn’t need the bamboo, but he chopped them down and stacked them for the construction crew.
He didn’t need leaves or branches. He was more interested in the tree trunks themselves. After Seb gathered like two dozen tree trunks and cleared out a huge field for the crew to build, he took them back to the raft, carrying me with him again.
“I shouldn’t give you special treatment,” he mumbled quietly to me.
“Nobody cares!” I said.
Seb pulled out a discarded wrapper from an eaten protein bar and set it down on the beach. I sat on its edge so it wouldn’t blow away. He then grabbed a tree trunk and held it in his palm, the blade of his pocket knife slicing down the center as if scoring a hot dog.
I watched, intrigued, guessing what he was doing. Seb then turned over the log and gave it a hard squeeze with his fingers. Sap oozed from the tree and dripped onto the wrapper. I asked Seb how he knew that species of tree was rich with sap.
“Lucky guess.”
One-by-one, Seb knifed and collected sap from each tree trunk until there was a huge glob of it. Using one of the discarded tree trunks, Seb dipped one end into the sap, and then applied it to the gash on the raft. He then took a log and lit it, using the fire from the bonfire. Then he heated the sap and rubber together to fuse them.
“Where’d you learn all this?” I asked.
“Back when I was Active Duty,” he said.
He brought the gash down to me and asked me to help get the creases that were far too small for his big fingers. I used some bark and twigs to help him out seal the rest of the gash. I let him play with fire and melt everything together.
“Seb … I want to start seeing each other.”
He nearly burned his finger when he froze and looked down at me with wide eyes.
“I feel a connection,” I said. “Don’t you?”
“Lucy, I’m flattered. But no.”
“What the fuck?” I stomped my barefoot into the ground. I was sure the gesture went hardly noticed. “Are you some sort of sizeist or something?”
“Lucy, you know I’m not.”
“Then what is it?”
He let out a breath. “It’s because of Kasia, alright?”
“Who’s that?”
“My ex-girlfriend.”
“And?”
“Kasia and I dated for years. She wanted to downsize because most of her friends and family were downsizers, and she wanted to hang out with them at their level.” He kept fixing the gash in the raft as he spoke. “We agreed she’d downsize—who am I to say no to something like that—and we’d try to make a mixed-size relationship work. She’d hang out with her friends, live with her mom and dad, and then stay with me in the big world.”
“What happened?”
“It was a disaster. Huge trust issues. Took almost an hour before I got to hold her. She was nervous the entire time she was in my home. When we hooked up, she thought I was a monster.” He stopped moving, his eyes staring at nothing as he reminisced. “She thought I was grotesque, disgustingly huge. … she called me every name in the book. I never raised my voice or said anything that would discomfort her. I took her back to her community and that was it. We never talked to each other again.”
“Wait, you don’t want to be in a mixed-size relationship because of that experience? But Seb, I’m not Kasia. I see you huge right now, and I don’t think you’re a monster. I’m attracted to you!”
“You know there’s more to it than that, Lucy. I’m also talking about,” he whispered the next word, “sex.” His eyes darted around to make sure no one was listening. “I’m open to any sized relationship. But I want that intimacy. When Kasia saw how—”
“Wait, how big are you?”
He blushed.
“Seb, are you packing?” I grinned. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. You pull out your cock, and you’ll know I can handle you.”
He laughed. “I’m not going to—”
Seb stopped talking when he noticed Fleur walking up to us. He tried recomposing himself and went back to working on the raft.
“Seb, I’m hungry,” Fleur said. “We got any more of that meat?”
“If there’s anymore, it’ll be over there.” He pointed to the bonfire. “But can you make sure the other downsizers ate before you take any?”
Seb wasn’t looking, but I caught Fleur rolling her eyes. “What are you doing anyway?”
“Fixing the raft so I can fish.”
Fleur’s eyes lit up. “Oh?” She spotted me next to Seb’s knee. She squatted and sat down. Her body quaking the earth and causing the sand on the beach to reform under her weight and movement. “Who’s this?”
“I’m Lucia … or just Lucy. Everyone calls me Lucy,” I said. “I’m helping Seb with the raft.”
“Well, anyone helping gather food is definitely a friend of mine.” Her ginormous hand lowered next to me with the palm facing up. I looked at her palm, then up at her face. “It’ll be nice talking to you at eye-level instead of down to you. I promise I scored 100% on my MHIP, and I’ll hold you if you consent to it,” she said in a silky tone. “Without phones, you’ll have to take my word for it, I’m afraid.”
I looked at Seb who kept a watchful eye on me. “Sure,” I said to Fleur.
I brought my knee over and hoisted myself onto the edge of her palm and shimmied myself onto her meaty palm. Her hand was noticeably more delicate than Seb’s. I could feel the various bones that made up the structure of her hand, my weight sinking into the valleys between the skeletal makeup of her palm. Her warm skin pulsed with the beat of her heart, making me feel like I was an alien surface, but the cadence of her heart gave me comfort. I sat cross-legged in the center and looked up with a warm smile.
“Ready?” she asked.
I didn’t say it, but I appreciated she asked instead of assuming. “Ready,” I said.
The ride up was smoother than any elevator I’ve been on. I didn’t even know I was racing up to the sky by feeling alone. That level of skill came from someone experienced in handling downsizers. I know, because I scored low as shit on that portion of the MHIP before they forcefully downsized me.
My ride came to end at Fleur’s smiling face. Her eyelashes were naturally long and stylish, seeping the air as she blinked. A tiny beauty mark, the size of my palm, was to the right of her elegant nose and stood alone among the sea of her chocolate, blemish-free cheek. But her lips stole the show. Full and juicy, they stretched and popped with her smile. Her dark eyes, like that of a noir cat, focused on me, with me unable to tell where her iris ended, and where her pupil began.
“Much better, right?”
I got lost in her musical voice. Sweet and smooth like honey dripping from a comb and onto my ears. I felt comfortable in her palm, some seventy-five feet up in the air.
“Umm, yeah.”
“Aww,” she hummed. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I think you look so cute in my hand.”
I blushed. “Thanks.”
“Seb,” she looked up at the giant in front of her. “Were you keeping this little one a secret from me?”
“Secret?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Fleur said. “Are you two …”
“Nothing like that,” Seb said.
I shot him a look that he brushed off.
“Oh …?” Fleur twisted her palm, so I was facing her enormous eyes again. “So you’re …”
“Helping,” I said.
“Giants don’t scare you?”
I scrunched up my face, crinkling my nose, squinting my eyes. “Nah.”
“So precious!” Fleur brought me close to her face and wiggled her nose. She then looked up at Seb who was putting the final touches on the raft. “I’ll get going now. I don’t want to interrupt you from getting us food.” Fleur stood up and turned to leave.
“Hey, Fleur …?”
“Hmm?”
“Can I have my helper back?”
I vibrated on Fleur’s palm as she giggled. Like a basket on a Ferris Wheel, swaying from the momentum of moving around, Fleur’s palm cupped and adjusted with her movements. I doubt she thought much about the little movements she was doing in her hands to keep me still. When I carry a plate from the kitchen to my table, I don’t really pay attention to balancing it. That sort of thing comes second-nature. Almost instinctual to the point you don’t have to think about it. I don’t think Fleur forgot about me, but I appreciated her keeping me safe some hundreds of feet up in the air.
Fleur and I looked at each other. She looked a tad flush, almost surprised to see me still in her palm. God, I loved her eyes. They darted around so fast and locked onto me with laser precision, her pupils shrinking to focus on little me.
“Oh, shoot,” she said, “I forgot I was still holding you! I was about to take you with me.”
There was a pause. I wasn’t sure if it was my turn to speak. But Fleur spoke before my mind could come up with something to say.
“That wouldn’t have been bad, though,” she said. “You are a brave downsizer not scared of giants like me.”
“I guess I said that.” I assessed my situation and found it … uncomfortable. Something about being on the ground around Seb and Fleur didn’t bother me. Maybe because I had the freedom to move around or run away if I wanted. But sitting on Fleur’s hand like I was meant there was no escape. Her curled fingers slightly twitched, ready to encase me like the tentacles from a deep-sea leviathan.
“Here’s your helper back,” Fleur said, giving me back to Seb. I jumped into his palm and felt relieved to be back with him. “But if you change your mind,” she said to me, “and want to help me out with some things, you’ll know where I’ll be at.” She winked and walked off.
“Weird.” I looked up at Seb and noticed him staring at Fleur. Tracing his eyes, I could see him watching her ass jiggled within the tight denim shorts she wore. “Something got your attention?” I asked.
“Oh, um. I …” He looked flustered, his cheeks becoming red. “Nothing.”
-
“What you find out?” Jean-Claude asked.
“Fleur seemed nice enough. I think she likes me.” I sat next to him on the beach under a palm. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was really into me.”
“Sexual?”
“I think so,” I said.
“Going for it?”
I laughed. “I’d rather not. Still working on Seb, but he’s not budging.”
“And da other giant?”
“Kiernan? She’s hiding something for sure. I think that downsizer she’s got might be hers, if you know what I mean.”
Jean-Claude was so chill. He leaned back and took a deep breath as he admired the view of the ocean. The breeze felt so good, and the warm air almost beckoned me to a nap.
“She’d not let him roam if he was,” Jean-Claude said after a while. “And da man would know not to leave her side if he was.”
“You think they’re just a normal couple?”
“Yes.”
I took a deep breath and sighed. I watched Seb push the raft out into the ocean, determined to fish. I wondered if he would return with thousands of little fish or one great big one. Maybe then we’ll find out a little more about the island.