Wonders of Nature
By Nemo
Driving up the coast of the great state of Maine, I took in the incomparable scenery as Jane pushed her little Toyota up the Route 1A highway. It was early October and even here on the seacoast some of the fall colors were emerging from the green. And the ocean, at first, remained a flat gray. But as the sky got bluer, the water turned green, then a deep blue.
As we drove through seaside communities such as Kittery, York and Ogunquit, we looked for possible places to stop. Jane was a country girl; she couldn't wait to leave the car, take off her shoes and play in Mother Nature. When we saw the beach loom into view, we knew without speaking it was just right. High dunes, a flat beach to the sea, and to the left, a rocky area where the low tide left little pools of water.
"This is it," said Jane, who winked and then smiled at me.
We pulled off to a parking area, largely empty. The sun was strong now, the sky and sea blue, nothing but ocean as far as we could see. Only a lonely fishing boat broke the flat, endless plane of water.
From my seat I leaned over for a long kiss. Jane kissed back. We got out, taking only a sheet, water bottles and, most important, a colorful kite from the trunk. Yes, we were no longer kids, but you've got to take a kite to the beach. It's a Maine state law or something.
We crossed the dunes, enjoying the feel of sand on our bare feet. Jane stopped next to an old wooden fence and pointed at the post.
"Look," she said in a whisper.
I looked but saw nothing. Then Jane bent down and picked something off the fence post. A fuzzy brown and yellow caterpillar. It was wrapped around her finger; she turned to me to show me. And the second I saw it I knew I was in trouble.
"It's so cute," Jane said, but her voice was no longer my girlfriend's. This new voice boomed loud and powerful, from far above. And I was scrambling to hang onto her finger, which kept moving in the air and threatened to drop me to my death.
I was now hanging from her finger with my arms. I tried to swing my legs over, for more stability, but the finger seemed to be playing with me, turning this way and that. My heart pumped furiously as I held on for dear life, but the creature holding me showed no concern. Jane, I wanted to say, stop this at once! Put me down! But my voice failed me.
Now the face came into close focus as the creature held me closer to it. It was Jane all right, studying me with her beautiful, inquisitive green eyes. Tiny freckles, long eyelashes, the soft lips I had kissed only moments before, all greatly enlarged. Her expression was serious. Then she grinned widely and a second later she set me on the fence post.
She turned around to face me - the real me. "Wasn't that cool?" she said.
My head was still spinning but I managed to answer. "Yes. But maybe you shouldn't pick up any more...of those."
She raised a quizzical eyebrow at me. "I didn't hurt it. See? Safe and sound."
I had to agree with her. The brown and yellow caterpillar looked fine.
But what about me?
We spread our bed sheet across a flat area on the beach, using stones to keep the corners down. Even so, the wind kept blowing the sheet back onto itself. But as long as we were laying on it, we only got a little sand in our faces.
During a lull in the wind, I sat up to look at the waves lapping at the shore. Jane saw me and sat up as well. Just then I noticed a small ladybug on her shirt.
"You've got a ladybug on your shirt," I said.
She looked down, then held her shirttail taut to see the tiny orange insect better. "It's a cutie. Guess I need a new shirt now."
"Why?"
"Oh, when a ladybug lands on you, you have to buy a new shirt or whatever she landed on. My mother told me."
I had no answer for this. But a moment later I had a thought.
"Maybe it's a HE," I said
Jane threw her head back and laughed her great laugh. I loved it, but my smile faded as she reached with two fingers to remove her tiny visitor...
Those finger were now compressing my sides, and I felt myself lifted from a massive cloth surface and dropped onto another surface; uneven and creased, with that now familiar face watching me. I could see the necklace I'd given her last month hanging from her neck, coming down into her cleavage. The tiny cross that dangled from it was roughly ten times my size.
"She's so small," she said. "She's not flying away."
I'm not a she, I wanted to cry out. It's me, your boyfriend! I'm a guy!
I would have flown away if I could, but running seemed to be all I could do. Even so, I made very little headway. Where could I run to, anyway?
Her face came closer. She took a breath and blew on me. A mini hurricane engulfed me and carried me to the precipice. But I hung on as best I could, until, until...
I looked down at her hand, now empty. "Where?" was all I could say.
"Oh, she flew away. In that direction." She waved her hand languidly.
"It was definitely a HE," I protested. But she had already jumped to her feet, grabbed the kite and was running down the beach.
We played with the kite for a solid half hour, stopping only to kiss and cuddle as our feet slowly sank in the wet sand. The kite stayed up, though, until the wind got too strong and started to dive wildly downwards. When it almost hit a passerby, we decided to reel it in.
Our sheet was now completely upside down and gritty with sand, courtesy of the strong sea breeze. We laughed, put the stones back, lay the kite down and walked toward the tide pools we had spotted earlier. It took about ten minutes to get there, strolling hand in hand. When we came to the rocks, we disengaged in order to better negotiate the black rocks poking up from the sand and surf.
"I always look for crabs in places like this," she called out from fifteen feet away.
"Really? Isn't that dangerous?" I called back.
"Nope. They're really small. Help me look."
I tried to help, but all I could picture were those large reddish crabs I had seen at the Jersey shore. They could really pinch you if you weren't careful. I looked steadily downward, but could see nothing but murky water.
Jane's voice startled me. "Hey, I found one! Come here!"
I carefully stepped over the black stones, but when I got there and followed her pointing finger, I couldn't see anything. Then she squatted down to probe the water with her fingers.
"Jane, you're not going to...I mean, I don't think it's a good idea..."
My girlfriend was concentrating deeply, however, as she single-mindedly hunted her prey. Catching that crab was her mission now. The delicate fingers turned over small rocks, felt their way through the water, moved this way and that. Finally she straightened and held out her quarry on her open palm.
It was the tiniest crab I had ever seen, less than an inch long. It was scuttling desperately sideways across her palm, trying to return to its safe, watery home.
In a trice I was down there, on all fours but face up, scrambling from the giantess that had got hold of me. I surprised myself with my speed, but as I came to the edge and made my leap for home, a new palm came right up to catch me. Once more I scuttled then leapt for freedom, only to have yet fleshy surface break my fall. Above it all the giantess giggled at my useless, frantic efforts.
The voice boomed, "Do you want to hold it?"
The she creature finally tired of me, and set me down in the water. I glanced up at the womanly form gazing down, then I found a new rock to glide under.
"That was fun, wasn't it?" said Jane.
Before answering I tried to catch my breath and let my heart rate slow down. I took Jane's hand and we started back toward our sheet/blanket on the beach. Reaching the flat sand again I finally felt able to talk.
"That was something," I said. "Not sure if 'fun' is the word I would use."
Jane stopped and kissed me, then said, "Aw, you're just jealous. I bet you wish you were that little crab."
I only shook my head and smiled, hoping that nature would not send any more tiny creatures our way. Not for a while.
Jane reached for my hand, I took it, and we started back down the beach.
Giantess World
