Ann O’Malley was in the midyear winter months of her first teenage year at Northern High School in Telegraph Road, Pymble. The girls could organize their own time, including the decision to skip a meal, if it suited them, from the age of twelve onwards. However, the younger girls would attend special schooling classes in the Freedom Fields hall, rather than catching a bus to a distant location. Teenage girls with poor performance records at school were counseled with a view to improving their efforts, but the decision to progress further in their endeavours remained their own to make.

The system at Freedom Fields had not achieved perfection. There were girls who abused their freedom and made no effort to complete their homework within the time periods allowed by their teachers at school. There were girls who had their own examples of various human problems: the occasional bully, the infrequent theft, and other troubles. The orphanage staff did their best to deal with problem girls as they became apparent, but the freedom of lifestyles enabled the majority of the girls to develop at their own pace and in their own way.

Sporting events were common, but not compulsory. The staff discouraged any negative treatment of girls who chose not to participate in social events.  The orphanage funds provided a small weekly allowance for each of the girls, the size of which depended on their age.

Ann O’Malley had turned thirteen in May 1953, two days prior to the school holidays. It was now July of that year, and Ann was in the middle of the long winter term, which was the second of the three divisions of the school year. She was working hard at her school work, but was able to utilize her considerable intelligence in order to accomplish her school tasks within the time possible. She enjoyed the liberties afforded her by the policies of Freedom Fields.

Having listened to stories told by her friends at school about their personal lives, Ann felt privileged to be allowed to make her own decisions, provided she behaved herself. She always did. It seemed illogical to do foolish things and face the consequences, when so much could be accomplished without foolishness.

One day, she had been playing baseball in the Freedom Fields grounds with friends after school, when a taller girl hit the ball so hard, that it disappeared into the bushes.

“I’ll get it!” called Ann, and ran in the direction of the ball.

Looking around, she eventually saw where it had landed, and reached down and grabbed it, just in time to see a tiny boy attempting to conceal himself behind a flower. She crawled over and gently picked him up and slipped him into her shirt pocket.

“I’ll talk to you later. We’re playing baseball,” she said quickly, and stood up and ran back out to the field and threw the ball to the pitcher.

During dinner, she managed to drop small bits of food into her shirt pocket, which the tiny boy could eat. Once she was in her own room, she took the boy from her pocket and introduced herself properly. He was not yet 9 years old, and was in fact a visitor from a parallel earth, which would later be known as Earth-T. Its people were miniscule, in comparison to Ann. He had somehow slipped from his own earth into hers. He had been orphaned in Earth-T’s world war two, when he was merely a baby. Ann was touched by the fact that they were both orphans, both for the same reason too. He had been on her world for weeks, and could not find his way back to his own. He did not know what had caused him to slip into her world. Maybe, he was one rare person of earth-T who possessed the teleportation power which was common to boys and men on Ann’s earth, who had the gts gene. Boys Ann’s size would later use the power to teleport to other earths, one where everyone was twice their size, one called Earth-G, where the people were all giants (relatively as large as Ann was in comparison to the boy from earth-T. Of course a far more detailed account can be found by reading the prequel “Captain Miniature and the Red Moll Conundrum”).

“You can stay here with me,” she said, “I’ll bring you food and hide you here, and some days I can take you to school with me secretly if you like. We’ll become great friends.”

“Thank you very much, Ann,” said the boy, “I’m Wendell.”