Giant Solidarity G/T

Chapter VIII. Workday

Alma declined to report Evan to management for torment, at least at that point. Understandably, her instinct was to shelter and hide from that abusive monster. She requested that Crystal sleep in her bed with her that night. With some urging, Crystal agreed, shrugging off her gruff exterior. We resolved to not close the Teeny Suite door and at dinner, brought their plateful of tiny-cut Salisbury steak and potatoes in for them. To ensure the womenfolk's safety, I strolled down the street that evening to the shopping plaza to buy a motion sensor alarm for the door. On my hike along the twilit sidewalk, I revoltingly saw Evan again. He must have just gotten off work. Unnecessarily slow, he drove his blue truck past me and waved before speeding up. When his tailgate pulled away from my vision, I saw a green GRUDAT bumper sticker. That figured. In the end, I left the superstore with a plastic bag of three alarms and wireless beepers, we syn to them, rather than one alarm. We had windows also.

Everyone was grateful for an uneventful Sunday the next day. We only watched TV and chatted blissfully. Same couldn't be said for Monday. After a less than restful Sunday night's sleep, I would've called out of work due to my fatigue. I had deadlines however, and Rey was already wearing her urgent care badge over a set of shamrock-green scrubs. Our shifts started an hour apart, so coordinating showering, dressing, and prepping our food for work was a familiar dance. We avoided stepping on each other's toes... or our human friends. Today, we incorporated making sure our talus-bone-high roommates were situated. We felt compelled to make sure they had food within reach and wouldn't become bored since we'd be gone eight hours. It wasn't babying them, we just felt guilty they were disallowed to work. Crystal and Alma figured they would watch the giant TV across from their Suite most of the day, saying it was like an Imax screen to them.

I was first to leave as usual. In the hallway, after the door swung shut behind me, I turned to find myself nose to forehead with shorter Ms. Perez. The stout woman stood blocking the stairs, eyes narrowed behind her diamond-shaped spectacles. Wolfgang barked loudly from behind her closed apartment door. Without a greeting, she pointed at her camera. "I watched my footage and saw that rodent pull a weapon!" My heart sank, looking at the blue light. I'd forgotten our door was open during the end of the Evan occurrence. "That video's going right to Samson. Your repulsive little shrew-people are already causing chaos in the building!" shouted Perez, poking me in the chest. "With staff, no less."

"Ms. Perez," I said gracefully, setting my lunchbox on the floor. Somehow, I suffered under a delusion that diplomacy remained an option. "Her name is Crystal, and she was defending her friend. Does your camera have audio?"

"It threatened Evan with a knife!" shouted the older woman. I felt a mist of saliva graze my cheek.

The door opened behind me. "It was a dull nailfile, not a knife!" retorted Rey's voice in my ear.

When I turned to my girlfriend, I was shocked and fearful to see she had Alma perched on her shoulder. "She, not it!" Alma's shrill voice yelled. Brown eyes of the downtrodden girl leered up at Perez. "Humans don't call Giants and Giantesses "it" you know."

Our nasty neighbor jumped back at the sight of Alma below Rey's earlobe. I barely had time to register Alma's brave outburst before Ms. Perez replied. But she spoke to me, blatantly avoiding tiny eye-contact. "Ask that thing if the term Longpig means anything to it!" In a disgusting gesture, Perez smacked her lips. Alma wailed, distressfully, hand over her mouth. Inside the apartment Larry growled and hissed protectively.

"Piss off!" Rey glared at Perez, her hand in her pocketbook. I knew right where my girlfriend kept her mace. "Don't ever offend our peephole again, dumb broad!"

Perplexed, the pudgy curmudgeon backed up and disappeared into her house. I picked up my lunchbox and kissed Reagan's cheek. "Dumb broad didn't sound very feminist Babe."