Dumb Blonde by Jamie Westwood Tricia gets a treatment that turns her into a giantess Update: 30/10/1997 to giantess Chapter the First: She should never have let Steve talk her into it. Even before the quantum accelerator had fired she knew that something was wrong. It was just an intuitive feeling - nothing she could have put her finger on at the time - but now her worst fears were horribly confirmed. This was, without a single shadow of a doubt, the most dreadful moment of her life! Patricia Louise Morton and her husband Steven were an odd couple in many ways. She was 29, a gorgeous blonde fashion model whose face had appeared in every glossy magazine in the civilized world; he was an attractive but quiet 45-year-old professor at a small provincial university. Her name was a household word everywhere in Britain; his was virtually unknown outside his narrow academic field of quantum molecular enhancement. He was a genius, while she had a reputation for being a bit clueless, a dumb blonde whose mind was unable to handle anything beyond clothes and looking pretty. Some unkind people (largely her rival supermodels) called her a "bimbo", a label she violently detested. None of this was really fair. Tricia had, after all, graduated from college (albeit with the lowest grade of degree it was possible to get), but she did have a tendency to get flustered when under pressure, and to say and do unfortunate things. She also tended to get miffed at times (particularly after she had just said or done something stupid) and to snap the heads off those around her. A "Tricia Morton Huff" was a term well used amongst those who knew her. Nonetheless, those who knew Tricia VERY well could see through these minor faults to the kind and generous young lady beneath. She was a kindly mother, a loving wife, a dutiful daughter and a good friend to many. Steve had fallen in love with her when he had tutored her in mathematics (never her best subject) during her turbulent final year at university. As soon as she had graduated, Tricia changed her career plans from physics research to fashion modelling, and the couple were soon married. Despite their many differences they enjoyed a happier and more stable marriage than most of their friends, either on the faculty or the catwalk! Steve and Tricia both led busy, independent lives: While he lectured at the university and developed his theories of quantum enhancement, she jetted off to Paris and New York to display the latest collections of world famous designers. Nonetheless, they always found plenty of time for each other, not to mention their two young sons Jamie and Benjy. Indeed, they enjoyed no fewer than eight years of wedded bliss before the first shadow fell, the first event in the chain which was to lead to Tricia's current predicament. Tricia had been injured in a car crash. The injuries were not SO serious in themselves. The paramedics had easily freed her from the wreckage, and within a month she was able to walk again. Nonetheless, there was something in her upper spine which would not quite heal. Every now and then she experienced a piercing stab between her shoulder blades, which often made her cry out in agony. She saw specialist after specialist, all of whom were baffled. It was only as a very last resort that Steve suggested his own technique of quantum molecular enhancement. "I know it's never been tried on a human before, darling." he said, "But there's got to be a first time for everything. It'll not only heal your backbone, but it'll make it so hard that not even an atomic explosion could harm it." "But won't it change me in other ways?" asked Tricia. "Yes." agreed Steve, "It'll transform your whole body chemistry. Your bones will become harder than granite and your muscles stronger than steel. You'll be able to bend iron bars, pick up double decker buses in one hand, and even bullets will just bounce off your skin. I should think that that would be a change for the better - especially for a woman! Just think, you'll never have to worry about being mugged or raped again!" Tricia was tempted, but she couldn't help worrying about the possible side-effects of this untested treatment. However, the steadily worsening stabs of pain and the apparent lack of any alternative gradually wore down her resistance. In addition to this, Jamie and Benjy (now aged seven and eight) liked the idea of having Wonder Woman for a mum, and eagerly joined the campaign to persuade her. At last, after about two weeks of constant pain and nagging, Tricia finally gave in and agreed. Chapter the Second: The quantum accelerator had been developed by Steve and his colleagues over several years, as part of the government-funded "Project Titan". Housed in the largest of the underground research laboratories beneath Donchester University Physics Institute, it used enough electricity in a minute to light the whole of London for a week. Not surprisingly, the machine was only ever switched on for a few seconds at a time! Tricia had to sign hundreds of consent documents before she was finally led down to the enhancement chamber at the head of the accelerator. As she sat in the steel seat, the huge metal doors closing around her, she felt the first twinge of foreboding. But the sight of Steve's smiling face through the round window soon calmed her nerves. A sudden crack, like a bolt of thunder came from deep within the bowels of the machine, after which a fiery blue phosphorescence began to surround her. She felt a strange tingling throughout her body, as unbelievable power surged into her skin, muscle and bones. It was an exciting feeling; she felt empowered, as if she would never know pain or fatigue ever again! Then it was over. The blue light faded and died, and the doors of the chamber opened. She stepped out to be met by her husband and a group of white-coated technicians, all of whom looked very excited. "How do you feel, Mrs. Morton?" asked one of the technicians. He had already been introduced to her as Phil Francis, technical superintendent for Project Titan. "O.K. - I think!" said Tricia. Now that the tingling and the phosphorescence were gone, she felt exactly the same as she had before. Could any fundamental change really have taken place? Meanwhile Steve had picked up a steel bar from a nearby tabletop, which he now handed to his wife. "Here, darling." he said, "See if you can bend this." Tricia looked doubtfully at the bar in her hands: It looked so thick and strong that she would not have thought herself capable of bending it even a millimetre. Nonetheless, she grasped both ends and applied her strength. To her utter amazement, the bar gave way at once. It seemed almost to be made of Plasticine! Delighted, she bent it right round on itself and tied it in a knot, before handing it back to Steve. All the technicians clapped and cheered, as delighted as Tricia at the outcome of their experiment. This was the culmination of many years of painstaking research, as much for them as for Steve. Steve put the bent bar aside and gave his wife a kiss. It was a magic moment for everyone. As the first woman ever to have undergone quantum molecular enhancement, Tricia Morton was the top story in all the newspapers worldwide, and much of the next two weeks were taken up with newspaper and T.V. interviews. There were also long sessions in the laboratory as the scientists strove to measure exactly how strong she was. Even those precious hours she DID get to spend at home were spent largely giving demonstrations of her strength, while her sons and their friends looked on in amazement. Yet as the weeks wore on, the novelty wore off, and life began to go back to normal. Tricia felt that she OUGHT to be the happiest girl alive; not only had her shoulder pain gone, but pain itself seemed to have become a thing of the past. She could now stub her toe or even rest her hand on a red-hot cooker-ring without the slightest discomfort. Best of all, she could now go unaccompanied wherever and whenever she liked, totally free of danger; even the roughest and toughest prowlers on Donchester's streets turned and fled when they heard the approaching tip-tap of Tricia's stilettos! Yet all was not well in Tricia's mind. The foreboding she had felt as she entered the accelerator had returned in greater force, and she felt sure there would be some fearful consequences of her and Steve's meddling with nature. She began to become morose and snappy, and Steve feared the onset of another of her famous Huffs. "Whatever's the matter, love?" he said one morning, "You've not been yourself for several days now. I hope the pain isn't returning?" "No, dear." said Tricia, "I'm sorry I've been so beastly with you and the kids just lately. I think I just need a break." "Why not go and visit your mother?" asked Steve, "The kids and I can manage without you for a while. And I don't think you've seen her since ...... your treatment" Tricia smiled at him. "Thank you, darling." she said, "I do love you so much." An hour later, as Steve was beginning his first lecture of the day at the university, Tricia was speeding down the urban motorway in her beautiful red convertible. It was a beautiful spring morning; apart from a few puffy white clouds, the sky was blue and clear, and the bright sun flashed on Tricia's long blonde hair. It was only an hour's drive to the village of Witham where her mother lived, but it was a journey she was never to complete..... Chapter the Third: As she glided through the outer suburbs of Donchester, Tricia began to feel very strange. The dreadful anxiety was now the strongest it had ever been, and it was beginning to make her feel light headed. She pulled over to the hard shoulder, stopped the car and got out for a walk. As she stepped away from the car, the world around her seemed slowly to dissolve, as if some magical mist were gathering before her eyes. She stumbled, recovered herself, but now had no sense of which direction she was headed. In her confusion she stumbled onto the carriageway, causing an approaching car to swerve angrily. The sound of the car's horn echoed in her ears for a moment, but was then cut abruptly short. Suddenly Tricia was herself again, though she no longer seemed to be standing in the road. The sound of the traffic was gone, the air tasted cooler and sweeter, and looking around her she noticed that the sky seemed bigger and bluer than usual. There were also strange puffs of what looked like mist floating here and there, at about shoulder level. They reminded Tricia of something she had seen only a few seconds ago. Could they be .... the clouds!!? "No!!!! Please No!!!!" Slowly Tricia forced herself to look down to her feet. Her worst fears were confirmed: She was HUGE! The suburbs of Doncaster were spread out like a map around her feet, shops and houses smaller than sugar-lumps, factories and tower-blocks mere matchboxes. Even the motorway was down there, running under both her feet and looking like a long piece of black ribbon. Tricia could see tiny cars on it, looking no bigger than ladybirds. Many of them had already collided with her feet causing multiple pile-ups on both lanes; the impacts must have been so feeble by Tricia's standard that she hadn't even felt them, but many had now caught fire and the flames were spreading! In her flustered state, Tricia's first thought was for her shoes. They were hand-made leather ankle-boots which she had only bought the previous day, and which were now in danger of being scorched by the flames. "Hey! My boots!" she gasped, stepping quickly off the motorway and looking down to examine the damage. Her shoes were quite unharmed, but there was a another surprise in store for her: She had stepped right onto the middle of a suburban housing estate and at least fifty tiny houses must have been pressed flat beneath her soles! "Oops!" she gasped, the word sounding ridiculously inadequate in her ears. Hardly daring to think of what she'd just done, Tricia stepped backwards away from the estate, only to find that she'd trodden on another neighbouring suburb. "Oh, golly!" she gulped, her horror and dismay mounting. For the moment at least, she forced herself to keep her feet still! Looking about her, Tricia wondered exactly how big she was. She knew she was a bit dim where numbers were concerned, but she guessed she must be at least a mile high -considerably taller than the highest mountain in Britain! Once again she examined the miniature city at her feet, on which her own footprints now appeared as clearly as on freshly fallen snow. The crushed houses were pressed hard into the ground - there could have been no survivors. In the tiny streets between the uncrushed houses she could see thousands of ant-sized people, some running away from her in panic, others just gazing up in terror. There were cars too, most of them being driven dangerously, some colliding and others caught in traffic jams at junctions. Tricia wanted to say something to the little people, to tell them she and didn't mean to harm them, but seeing as she'd already stomped hundreds of them to human pate, no suitable words sprang to mind! She turned her attention back to the motorway. The blaze of crashed cars was now really hotting up. Several fire- engines had appeared on the scene, but their access to the blaze was blocked by the long tailback of cars on both carriageways (some of whom had been foolish enough to try to get past on the hard shoulder). "Well." said Tricia to herself, "There's not much I can do for the people I've already squashed, but perhaps I can save some lives here to make up for it." She returned to the motorway (being careful to tread in her previous footprints) and wondered how to extinguish the blaze. Her first thought was to blow it out like a birthday candle, but she had a vague feeling that that would only make the fire spread. Then she had another idea which made her smile at her own cleverness. "You're no dumb blonde, whatever people might say!" she said to herself. "You can be one smart cookie at times, Tricia Morton!" She rummaged in her handbag until she found a small bottle of nail polish remover. It was a clear liquid, just like water, and there must have been many thousands of gallons of it by "normal" standards. Smiling at her own ingenuity she unscrewed the cap, crouched down, and poured the liquid over the fires on both carriageways. Suddenly the blaze became a fiery inferno. A tide of burning nail- polish remover swept down both carriageways, igniting hundreds of cars which had previously been in no danger at all. As the fire engines themselves were engulfed, the tiny firemen jumped from their cabs to escape the flame. They didn't survive long; a split second later Tricia's gigantic boot came down on their heads as she finally resorted to brute force and stomped out the fire underfoot. The flames finally extinguished, she examined the label on the empty glass bottle: "CAUTION", it read, "THIS PRODUCT IS HIGHLY INFLAMMABLE. KEEP AWAY FROM NAKED FLAME". Never, in her entire life, had Tricia felt more like the bimbo she was sometimes accused of being; her well-meaning attempt to play the heroine had only increased the death-toll by several hundred. Her spirits were only slightly lifted by the discovery that her boots had not been damaged by the fire! Chapter the Fourth: "What a mess!" said Tricia, as she surveyed the scenes of destruction which now surrounded her feet. "How could this ever have happened?" She remembered a conversation she had once had with Steve, shortly after they had watched the movie "Attack of the 50ft. Woman". Tricia had been delighted to see Daryl Hannah turned into a giantess by aliens, and she had asked Steve if such a thing could ever really happen. He had laughed and said that it was all nonsense. Tricia hadn't really understood his reasonings, but apparently if a person was to grow like that, her body weight would increase faster than the strength of her muscles and bones: A fifty-foot-tall woman would not even be able to stand up, let alone fight with helicopters in the desert! Looking down at herself, Tricia gave a wry laugh. "It looks like you were wrong, darling." she chuckled, "Unless ....." Suddenly a light seemed to come on in her mind, and she temporarily forgot the carnage below. "I bet I know what's happened!" she said, "The quantum accelerator made me MUCH stronger than an ordinary-sized woman ought to be. Now my body's responded by getting bigger, until I've finally become the right size for my strength!" Of course, this little theory didn't explain why her clothes had grown too, but Tricia felt this was just a minor detail. All thoughts of "being a bimbo" vanished from her mind as she mentally awarded herself a Nobel Prize for physics. Although her thoughts soon came back down to earth, she was now in a more positive and businesslike mood; she had stopped feeling guilty and begun to feel angry. It was high time for another Tricia Morton Huff! "I must find Steve!", she said out loud. "He got me into this, and he can get me out again!" Finding Steve would involve going to the university, which in turn meant walking back into the heart of the town. Tricia surveyed the many thousand houses, shops, factories wearhouses and office blocks which separated her from the town centre; it would be impossible to make the journey without treading on a good many of them, but that could not be helped. There was no way in the world she was going to remain rooted to the spot like because of a situation she could not help, and if little people got trodden on then, well ....... they could blame that on her idiot husband! In any case, she'd already squashed or incinerated enough tiny folk not to feel squeamish about pulverizing a few hundred more. She set off. With her first step, Tricia flattened a multi-story car-park, a cinema and a couple of warehouses. With her second she crushed another small housing estate and a large factory. She chose her steps carefully to minimize (within reason) the number of buildings she smashed, and walked slowly enough to give SOME of the little people a chance of getting clear. It was not them she was angry with! But even before she had taken ten steps a new and horrible thought struck her; she halted in mid-stride, her left foot poised over a shopping centre. In her haste she had forgotten all about her two sons, Jamie and Benjy, who were presently somewhere in the city below. Unless she worked out exactly where, they stood a sizable chance of being trodden on by their own mother! The boys would currently be at school. Donchester Private School. Tricia often delivered them there in the mornings, and she tried hard to remember exactly where it lay in relation to her current position. She had a horrible feeling it was rather close ..... Looking down she saw the school beside her right foot; it was difficult to recognize it from this angle, but that was definitely the red-tiled roof and the tarmac playground. Had she chosen to plant her foot a smidgen to the left she would have crushed it - and all the children - and been none the wiser! Her heart pounding with relief, Tricia crouched down to examine the school more closely. The children were there in the playground - about a hundred of them - all standing still and looking up at her. They were as tiny as ants to her, but straining her eyes she was just able to pick out the bright red jerseys her sons had worn to school that morning. She smiled down at them. "Hi, Jamie," she said with a little wave, "Hi, Benjy. I'm afraid Mummy's a bit busy now, so she'll have to explain all this later. Right now Daddy's got some explaining of his own to do". With that she stood up, smoothed down her skirt, and continued her journey. At last, Tricia reached the university. By her standard, the campus covered an area of about two square feet, and was built around a large quadrangle just large enough for her to stand in. (This was swarming students when she approached, but she gave most of them time to get out of her way.) She knew that the quantum accelerator was housed under the physics building at the north end of the courtyard. That was where Steve would be. Putting her hands on her knees, she looked down at the matchbox-building. "Steven Morgan!", she said sternly, "I hope you've got a very good explanation!" She could now see several people moving about on top of the building, but any one of them could have been Steve. She would have needed a magnifying glass to have recognized her husband! As she was wondering what to do next, she became aware of a faint buzzing, like that of a tiny fly nearby. Catching sight of the offending insect she made instinctively to swat it, but then halted as she suddenly realized it was a helicopter. It flew right up to her face, and a voice hailed her from a megaphone. "Tricia, darling!" it said, "Are you alright?" "Is that you, Steve?" Tricia asked in astonishment and delight. Somehow hearing her husband's voice calmed her anger, and the Tricia Morton Huff came to an end. "It's me, Tricia, yes!" he replied, "Are you alright!" Tricia couldn't help smiling at this question. "If you call being a mile-high giantess who has to stomp on thousands of people to get about "alright", then I suppose I am!" she retorted, "Now please, please, PLEASE get me back to my normal size!" "I'm afraid this IS your normal size now, love." said Steve, "But we HAVE worked out how to control your dimensions. We'll have you small again in just a jiffy!" Steve must have had a portable quantum accelerator with him, because a blue phosphorescence suddenly shot out from the helicopter to envelop his gigantic wife. In a blink of an eye, Tricia found that she was no longer a huge giantess. She was just an ordinary-sized girl, standing amongst the wreckage of the university quadrangle. Suddenly Tricia heard the sound of rotors behind her. Turning round she saw the helicopter - now a huge and very noisy machine - alight about fifty feet away, and out of it jumped Dr. Steven Morton. He ran directly to her and gave her the nicest hug she had ever received in her life. "I'm afraid I've been a bit of a silly girl, darling!" she said "All those people ....." "It was no one's fault, dearest." said Steve, "Nobody have guessed there would be a size instability - but it's all over now. Let's go home". Chapter the Fifth: Mrs. Tricia Morton strolled lazily down the high street, enjoying the bright spring morning. In recent years she had come to enjoy being a giantess very much. Right now she was her favourite size: at 300 foot she was big enough to feel like a goddess, but not SO big that she couldn't avoid treading on people. Not that she needed to do much avoiding these days - the locals were so used to her that they instinctively moved aside whenever they saw her coming. After all, they HAD had six years experience of living with a giant lady around! Of course, Tricia COULD still make herself a mile high (she only did so far out in the country, where she was in no danger of squashing anyone) and every evening, when she returned home to Steve and the boys, she would shrink down to a petite 5'6". The ability to change her size had mellowed her character immensely, and the dreaded "Tricia Morton Huff" was now well and truly a thing of the past. Being so much bigger than everyone else had forced Tricia to take herself a lot more seriously, and her nervousness and her stupid mistakes had quickly ceased. With nothing more to be cross about, Mrs. Morton had become a gentle, serene goddess, helping her tiny friends when they needed it, and just standing back and looking pretty when they didn't. The citizens of Donchester had quickly forgiven her the destruction she had wrought, and she was now the most popular and admired lady in town. With her help the areas of the city she had destroyed were quickly rebuilt, for without even exerting herself she could do the work of ten thousand labourers! Of course, not even Giantess Tricia could restore the people who'd been squashed, but she consoled herself with the knowledge that the calamity could never be repeated: Having perfected the technique which allowed his wife to control her size, Steve had given up quantum molecular enhancement altogether and taken up gardening instead. By order of the government all, material relating to the Titan Project was destroyed, and the accelerator itself was sunk into the deepest part of the Atlantic. The only remaining evidence of its existence was Tricia herself. "Hi, Mum!" called up a familiar voice from the street below. Tricia looked down and smiled to see her two teenage sons waving up at her. They were accompanied by pair of pretty young girls, whom Tricia knew to be Jenny and Maxine. "Mum!" called 14-year-old Jamie, "We're off to the leisure centre for a swim. Could you give us a lift there please?" With an indulgent smile, Tricia reached down her giant hand and the foursome scrambled gratefully into her palm. The tiny passengers safely aboard, she stood up, stepped right over the shoebox-sized Town Hall, and wended her way towards the main leisure complex. Arriving in just a few short steps, she set the children gently down in the forecourt. "Thanks, Mrs. Morton!" called Jenny, "Hey, why don't you shrink down and join us." "Please do, Mrs. Morton!" called Maxine, "We'd love to have you with us!" Tricia smiled down at them, but shook her beautiful blonde head. "It's kind of you, darling," she said, "But I think I'll stay big for the moment. You four go off and enjoy yourselves." As she stepped right over the centre and continued her walk, the children were not the only ones to gaze up at her in admiration. Try as they might, neither Tricia nor any of her little friends could bring themselves to regret what had happened on that terrible day six years before. A lot of people HAD died, it was true, but something new and wonderful had also been born. Nowadays the little people of Donchester only had to look up at the beautiful blonde giantess towering over them to know that magic really WAS alive in the world, and that even the wildest and most improbable dreams really could come true. The End. AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story is set in a fictitious city, somewhere in the British Midlands. I have generally adhered to U.K. nomenclature and spelling, so for the benefit of U.S. readers a "Motorway" is (more or less) a Freeway, a "Ladybird" is a Lady Bug. If you have enjoyed this story, please feel free to make and distribute as many copies of it as you like. If you have NOT enjoyed it, please refrain from adapting it to your own tastes. Write your own story instead. (c) J.Westwood, 1997.