A Wish or a Prayer

When he went to sleep he was 8 feet tall. The next morning he was 9 feet tall.

He was too big for a chair so he sat on the floor of the kitchen and ate breakfast. He must have eaten three times as much as usual.

Well, giants do need to go to school, too, and so it was with Jason. Only he was too big for the bus. But he decided to walk to school--now that he was twice as tall as before, he easily covered the mile or so to his school, what with his longer legs and bigger feet.

His parents had called the school to tell them that due to some strange condition, their son was growing to giant size so they shouldn't be alarmed if a 9 or 10 foot tall 10-year old made it into their classrooms, or attempted to.

Jason had to duck down to enter the room and he sat in the back, on the floor. Naturally everyone was surprised at his sudden growth. Many seemed afraid of him now, especially the bullies who had tormented him before.

"Hey, Petey! Look at me now!"

"Uh, that's OK, Jase--gotta go..." The boy tried to run off but Jason easily caught up to him and placed one of his gigantic hands on the boy's wee shoulder.

Petey looked up. Jason was twice his height now--pretty close to 10 feet tall. The tip of Petey's head was just slightly under Jason's waist.

"So, are you sorry for yesterday?"
"Uh, yes...of course! I was rude to...to knock you down..."

It was unbelieveable. A day before, Petey had dominated his scrawnier classmate. Now the shoe was on the other foot. Now, Jason was a giant who could beat the crap out of about six kids at once!

By the time school ended, Jason was too big to even attempt to enter a classroom. For awhile he had watched the class from outside the building but now it was becoming apparent that by tommorow, if the growth continued, he'd be far too big to attempt school.

When his parents got home, they found that Jason was outside, too big to enter the house. He was 12 feet tall and weighed some 1,500 pounds. His clothes had all grown with him: so now his pants were a size 70 waist, 60 inseam; and his sneakered feet measured about 21 inches long by 8 inches wide. His hands were 14 inches long and he could now reach things 14 feet off the ground without assistance.

It was great and yet sad at the same time.

While Jason did enjoy being a giant, so much had changed. Sure, he could be the big guy (for once) with the other kids, but now many treated him like he was some kind of freak or monster. Well, most of them did; some of them got a kick out of his height and they asked him to do all sorts of cool stuff...

Being twelve feet tall, he could easily lift kids OR adults up as if they were babies or toddlers. Of course many of them didn't WANT to be lifted up. Matt had Jason sneak up on Matt's dad and he lifted him up like a father would lift a baby or toddler, cradling the man with one arm up against his back and the other under his thighs. A 10 year old easily lifting a grown man! Jason weighed about 8 or 10 times as much as many adults now. His arms and legs didn't seem any more muscular but they were sure bigger now and he did seem to have more strength, despite being pre-pubescent. Jason's huge sneakers left deep and long prints in the ground. It wouldn't be the last time that would happen.

He towered up near the trees! He could look in the second or third floor windows of houses (and would soon be taller than many houses)!

But there were problems--like a shortage of food. Being 12 feet tall and 1,500 pounds meant he had to eat much more food, and it was tough getting it. His parents only had so much. He went to some restaurants and asked them to give him leftovers. And his thirst required gallons upon gallons of water, soda, or milk. This would only get worse as he grew.

And now, being too small to stay in his own house, he prepared to make his backyard his new bedroom. After attempting to feed their new giant son, his mom and dad went outside to be with him. Jason would sit cross-legged on the ground and Mom or Dad would sit in his lap as if they were toddlers. As bedtime neared, Mom tried to hug and kiss her now 14 foot son. He had to lift her up and cradle her as she attempted to get her arms around his broad neck. She placed a kiss on his tender cheek; a huge head that still showed the innocent face of childhood.

Jason slept in his clothes in the backyard; a truly oversized T-shirt, shorts, and socks. He placed his sneakers over near the shed. Someday the sneaks would be so big that his mom and dad could easily fit in one of them with room to spare.

---
That was odd, about the clothes. They grew with him--not just the ones he'd worn the previous day, but about 3 or 4 other pairs of undershorts, another couple pairs of socks, and one other pair of sneakers. The clothes were placed in the backyard for his use. Whatever had made Jason grow--God? Magic?--was making them grow, too. If only the food could be the same.

---
Jason was up to 16 feet tall by the next morning. It was Saturday so no school to worry about, but Jason figured he may never need to go to school again anyway. His parents, meanwhile, had things to worry about.

At 3 am they were awakened by the sound of breaking glass and a loud thump. They went outside and saw that Jason must have had a dream and he had kicked one of his titanic legs, the huge foot making contact with the house and shattering a window in the kitchen. We'll probably have to make him sleep at the ballfield by tomorrow night, thought his dad. He can't do much damage there.

By noon on Saturday it was 18 feet tall, a full three times as tall as most adults and four times his previous height. Many of his classmates were barely taller than his knees. The boy who used to weigh 78 pounds was now about 5,000 pounds. Soon it would be easier referring to his weight as being in tons.

He would run down an empty street, his feet making loud thudding noises. Sometimes there would be a loud beep--a car was coming. He would stop and move to the side of the road. But sometimes he'd just spread his legs apart and have the car pass beneath them. Whenever that happened, he'd see the car start to speed off afterwards, as if the driver were afraid that the boy-giant would pick it up in the air! No, cars were still slightly heavy to Jason but as time went on that would change.

---
Inevitably, a local TV station heard about Jason and, with his parents permission, they interviewed him. It was said that they had no idea when the growing would stop. How would Jason deal with this?

Food, as they mentioned, would be the biggest problem. Others could be dealt with. His clothes were now too big to fit in washing machines, so Jason was told to go to a local pond and wash them there (with some excess soap from a nearby soap products factory; a few barrells of it). Jason said his parents told him to behave; just because he was now a giant, that didn't mean he could hurt people or cause mischief.

But, boys will be boys...even ones that are 21 feet tall.

So far he was well behaved but what if he started to get reckless? What if he attacked people, destroyed property, and so on?

The city made a makeshift toilet for Jason in the city dump; a backhoe dug a hole that would serve as a basic urinal while one isolated area was designated for defecation. It was almost a kitty litter type of situation: after relieving himself, Jason would kick some sand or salt and cover it up. This would only work for so long, though. Fortunately, the lack of food had meant that Jason wasn't eating much so he also wasn't hitting the "bathroom" too often.

For sleeping, the city did take the suggestion of Jason's dad and they had him repose on a ballfield. Of course there were worries about the condition of the field AFTER the giant had slept there. Would it kill off the grass or mess up the dirt?

Through all this, Jason's parents held out hope that the growth would stop either naturally or through some kind of formula (scientists at the local university were frantically searching for that). Yet the fact that his clothes were also growing, and at the same rate, meant that science might not necessarily be the answer.

That night, Jason's parents went to the ballfield to wish their son a good night. The pace of growth was odd; sometimes it wouldn't be all that much but today Jason had doubled his height. He was 18 feet tall by 8 am and 36 feet tall by 10 pm. His friend Matt was slightly shorter than one of Jason's feet. Jason's weight was estimated at 20 tons. Though the lack of food had made him perhaps a bit slimmer than that. OK, maybe only 19 tons.

Jason's parents stood next to him on the ballfield and bowed their heads. Jason got down on his knees, put together his four-foot-long hands, and bowed his head. "Lord," said the boy giant, "I don't want to be big anymore. I know it's fun sometimes but...well, it's not the same. This isn't right. I wanna be the size I used ta be...I promise I'll be good if you can do this, Lord."

The next morning Jason was up to 42 feet tall. By noon he had grown slightly more; by then he was 45 feet tall, exactly 10 times as tall as before and he weighed 10,000 times as much. To be exact, he was 40 tons (80,000 pounds)--or maybe slightly less. While he had grown a mere 9 feet overnight, his weight had doubled, or nearly doubled.

But he was still hungry. He went to a farmer's market in the outskirts of town and grabbed a bunch of fruit from outside carts as some people fled in horror. "You! Mister!"

A frightened man stopped in his tracks. "Er, me?"

"Yeah! Could you go in there and get me some stuff? Anything... cheese, veggies, snacks. Just say it's for the giant. Oh, and I'm gonna need a LOT!," he laughed.

"But who's gonna pay for it?"

"Nobody--you just tell them I'll stomp on the building if they don't!" (Ah, a robbery; so much for the promise Jason had made to the Lord the night before.) "Oh, and just to make sure ya do it..."

To his horror, the man saw Jason grab his wife and son and lift them up. He held the man's wife in one clenched hand and the son (a kid about Jason's age) in the other; they tried to squirm to get out but they knew that even if they broke free, it would be about a 35 foot fall to the ground.

"Lemme go!," Jason heard the boy yell. He looked down at the 5 foot tall 11 year old in his hand; it was one of the bullies from school! Now Jason was 50 feet tall, exactly 10 times the boy's height. The boy looked so puny in the giant's hand.

"Whoops!" Jason intentionally let go of the boy and he fell down to the ground. Fortunately, some people nearby ran over and caught him--though the force of the boy dropping knocked them over in the process.

Nobody was seriously hurt, though. The bully and his rescuers stood next to Jason's 8 foot long sneakered feet; they glanced up at Jason for a second then started to run away. Jason followed them, making the ground shake with each footstep.

"You stop right there! Police officer!"

The cop pointed his gun up at Jason. He started giggling--as if that would cause him harm? "OK, I'll stop," laughed Jason. And with that he went over to the officer's police car (which, fortunately, had nobody else in it). With many tons of force, Jason put his right foot down and flattened the car! He then picked up the destroyed vehicle and held it up over the officer. "Missing something?"

to be continued--I had written the rest of this story but it got lost...