Tall Pages: Linda's Height Problem Chapter 2

 The sisters walked down the street at a very steady pace. They wanted to get to Phillip’s warehouse as soon as they could. A car was an obvious choice but both were too tall to fit inside one. Like always they would have to walk and they didn’t have a single moment to spare.
 One thing that Linda noticed was a sign that she had knocked her head against the previous day. However this time it was high enough for her to walk underneath without needing to duck. If she didn’t think that she was shrinking before she certainly did now. This only seemed to make the situation that much more dire for them.
 At the speed that they were walking it only took them a few minutes to reach the warehouse. Like before Gwen knocked on the door and she almost used too much of her strength. If need be she was willing to rip the door off its hinges. Before it came to that Phillip did answer the door. He was surprised to see the sisters again but he didn’t know just how panicked they were.
 “Hello,” said Phillip with a small amount of surprise in his voice. “I wasn’t expecting to see you back so soon.”
 “Doc we have a situation on our hands,” replied Gwen. “Whatever happened to Linda yesterday is causing her to shrink.”
 “Shrink?” He looked behind Gwen to look at Linda. From his perspective she looked more or less the same as she did the previous day. “She still looks the same.”
 “Believe me she’s not, we can measure if you want to be convinced. I’m telling you that since she left here yesterday she’s been shrinking.”
 “Ok, just give me a moment to open the big doors.”
 He closed the door and made his way to the larger doors. He thought that Linda shrinking was impossible and that it was all in their heads. But just to give the sisters comfort he was willing to measure her.
 No sooner had Phillip opened the doors the sisters came through. Linda quickly made her way over to the height chart and she stood up straight. He grabbed a large ladder and pulled it up next to Linda. Quickly he climbed up it and had a look at where the top of her head came, he was expecting it to be at five metres twenty, instead however it was lower than that. He looked at his notes for a moment and then looked at Linda again. She was now at four metres and eighty five centimetres. It was Chantell that had taken the measurement the previous day and he could understand if it was a couple of centimetres out but thirty five was too big to be some mistake.
 “So how tall is she?” asked Gwen.
 “I don’t believe this,” replied Phillip as he continued to look at Linda’s head. “From what I can see she’s four metres and eighty five centimetres. A full thirty five centimetres shorter then when she was measured yesterday.”
 “Damn she’s shrunk by another five centimetres since we measured her a few minutes ago.” This only made her even more worried and she saw the worried look on Linda’s face. “Doc you’ve gotta do something.”
 “I don’t know what exactly, I don’t have any idea what’s causing the shrinkage. All we did yesterday was measure her and then….” He fell silent for a moment as he began to think. He remembered the accident that happened between Linda and Chantell with his device that was going to scan her body. “By George that’s it.” Quickly he climbed down from the ladder and made his way to a desk. On the desk was the device that had malfunctioned the previous day. He picked it up and raised it high so that the sisters could see it. “Somehow this device has caused Linda’s height to decrease. I don’t know how exactly but it is the only logical explanation to what is happening. But there’s just one hole in the theory, the mass that is being subtracted from Linda has to be going somewhere. It just can’t disappear into thin air, unless.”
 “Unless what?” She was waiting for Phillip to say what he was thinking but she was almost too afraid to hear it.
 “My assistant Chantell was also involved in the accident that is now seemingly causing your sister to shrink. I theorize that what is likely happening is that whatever height Linda is losing Chantell is gaining.”
 “Wait so as Linda shrinks your assistant is getting taller?”
 “That is a theory but more or less yes. Linda’s height is being transferred through an invisible link to her. At this rate it won’t be long before Linda is Chantell’s height and vice versa.”
 “So where is your assistant? Isn’t she here?”
 “No today’s her day off but I can give her a call.” He quickly took his phone out of his pocket and typed a few numbers onto it. When he was done he placed the phone by his ear and waited for someone to pick up. The two tall women stood there and waited to see what happened. “Hi Chantell it’s Doctor Van Basten here.”
 “Doc you won’t believe it,” replied Chantell on the other side of the phone. She couldn’t be heard by Gwen or Linda. “You won’t believe what’s happened, I woke up this morning and I found out that I’m taller. I’ve grown like thirty centimetres or more.” There was a pause for a moment. “Sorry I think I just grew again.”
 “Chantell listen to me, that accident that you were involved in yesterday is causing you to grow. If you don’t come to the lab soon you’ll become as tall as Linda was when she came yesterday.”
 “You’re saying that I going to become over five metres tall?” This idea both shocked her and excited her. She remembered how awestruck she was the previous day when she saw Linda. She wanted others to feel that when they were around her and being over five metres tall would seem to do the trick. “Actually Doc I don’t mind being tall, it’ll be fun for a change.”
 “You don’t understand Chantell. You need to come back here.”
 “I’m sorry Doc but you’re breaking up.” She began to mimic the sound as if she was having a reception problem. Quickly she put the phone down leaving Phillip standing in his lab, he hadn’t had the opportunity to tell her that her growth was causing Linda to shrink. He looked over to Gwen.
 “She doesn’t want to change back. We have to bring her here and reverse what has taken place. I need to ask you a favour, I need you to bring Chantell back here so that I can hopefully put things right. I would go myself but I need to see why my device caused this to happen and if it can be reversed.”
 “Do you know where she is?” asked Gwen who seemed more than happy to try and locate his assistant. When it came to the health of Linda Gwen was willing to do almost anything to save it.
 “She lives near Orange Square. From what I could hear on the phone she was outside. She might be a little hard to spot for now but as she continues to grow she’ll be much easier to find.”
 “Ok I’ll do it.” She looked up at Linda who still had a worried look on her face. “Are you going to be alright here?”
 “I’ll be as fine as can be expected in a situation like this.” She thought that this was the best place for her. Phillip could monitor her height and also work on the device that she hoped would cure her condition.
 “Good, I promise you that everything will be alright.” She started to walk towards the large doors. “When you see me next I’ll have Chantell with me and then everything will go back to the way it was.” Before stepping out of the doors Gwen did turn to look at Phillip. “Please take care of my sister for me.” There was a hint of worry in her voice as she knew the stakes of what was happening.
 “Wait before you go take this with you,” replied Phillip as he walked towards her and gave her a walkie-talkie like device. It looked quite small in her hand. “This is just so I can contact you if I need to and vice versa. Good luck.”
 With that Gwen left the warehouse in order to find Chantell. One thing that Phillip had kept to himself was one of his fears. He feared that even when Linda and Chantell’s heights had been swapped that the process would continue. Chantell would grow taller than Linda was but she would still shrink. He thought that if this were to happen that Chantell would likely grow until she was a little under seven metres tall while Linda would disappear, he hoped that this wouldn’t be the case.
 Meanwhile near Orange Square Chantell stepped out of her home and she had to bend down to get through the door. The previous day she had been one hundred and seventy metres tall but now she was two metres ten. She was surprised to find that the clothes that she was wearing seemed to be growing with her. If they weren’t she would have struggling to find clothing that fitted her.
 As she walked down the street she was surprised with how different the world looked with her extra height. From what Phillip had told her she could grow as tall as Linda which was something that excited her. She could feel her body stretching upwards as every part of it grew longer and longer. She didn’t fully realise that as she had walked her height had increased by an extra ten centimetres while Linda’s height had just decreased by the same amount.
 Eventually Chantell came across what seemed to be a small bakery that she had walked passed numerous times. Her ongoing growth spurts had made her feel hungry and she had to duck down to get inside. She had been in there the previous week and she recognised the man behind the counter. He was one who was friendly to every customer that he had enter the bakery. Since he saw the same faces numerous times he was good and remembering their names.
 “Hello there and welcome to my bakery,” said the man but when he looked straight he only saw someone’s chest. It wasn’t until he finally looked up did he actually see the head of the two metre and twenty centimetre tall Chantell. He had seen her the previous week at her normal height so seeing her half a metre taller really did shock him. “C-Chantell, what happened you?”
 “Isn’t it obvious?” replied Chantell with a giggle. “I’ve grown a little since you last saw me.”
 “A little,” replied the Man who was still in shock. He knew that people had growth spurts but this was ridiculous. “How did you grow so much in such a short amount of time?” He was still trying to wrap his head around all of this. A part of him thought that he was having some kind of dream. It was the only explanation to what was currently happening to his regular customer.
 “Let’s just say that I’m finally going to be as tall as I should be. It won’t be long before I’m too tall to fit into your bakery. You’ll have raise the roof for me when I’m done growing, that is if I ever stop growing.” She giggled once again. “Ok down to business now, I’m going to need a lot of food to fill me up now. I want three loaves are your finished breads and around half a dozen doughnuts to go with it.”
 “E-Err ok.” Quickly he began to get all the Chantell’s order together. He was too confused with the situation to truly question it as he got his finest loaves together and the doughnuts that she had wanted. It took him a minute or two to get everything that he needed together. As he did this he placed them on the counter top. It took him about a minute to get everything together and he was out of breathe when he was finished.
 No sooner had he completed this Chantell placed the money on the counter and picked up the goods. They now seemed smaller than she remembered but she didn’t waste any time in eating them. The man could only watch as the towering figure ate everything that he had just placed on the counter. She was taking mouthfuls that he thought was impossible for a person. However he couldn’t deny what his eyes were currently seeing.
 Within minutes Chantell had eaten everything that she had just bought. There wasn’t even a crumb left and she rubbed her stomach after she was done. She smiled down at the man and went to turn away. However before she did he watched as she grew another ten centimetres before his very eyes. He was completely lost for words as he had never seen anyone grow like her.
 “Thanks Bruno,” said Chantell as she ducked to get through the door. “I’ll see you again tomorrow.”
 “Err sure,” replied Bruno with much confusion in his voice. He was completely blown away by what he had seen. He wasn’t sure if he had actually seen what he had seen or if he was still asleep and simply dreaming.
 Not too far away Gwen had arrived at Orange Square but for the moment she couldn’t see Chantell anywhere. She had run to the square as fast as her long legs could carry her which could be as fast as a car. She had been hoping to find Chantell straight away but she was disappointed to see that the soon to be truly gigantic woman was nowhere in sight. It meant that she would have to find her the old fashioned way.
 There were people who were walking in the square who would look at her. Some even took a picture or two as she was the tallest woman that they had ever seen. Gwen simply ignored them and carried on searching. One thing that she did notice was that there were a few street performers in the square as well. If Chantell had been there it was most likely one of them would likely know.
 Gwen approached a man who was dressed up in a fairly convincing robot suit. She could see him performing in front of a few people who were passing by, he would use his voice to make it sound like he was moving mechanically. Whenever he spoke he made sure that he sounded like he was an actual robot. It was obvious that he had taken a lot of time and effort to make his performance seem genuine.
 As Gwen approached him she knew that he wasn’t the first robot that she had encountered. On more than one occasion she had fought against robots, some were even large than her but it always ended the same. She would rip them apart and all that would be left of them was scrap metal. She didn’t think that this encounter would lead to that.
 “Hi,” said Gwen as she approached the performer. “There’s something I really need your help with.” She heard as the performer made sudden and efficient movements. Like usual he used his voice to mimic his movements and he looked up at her. He tried to hide his amazement as best as he could.
 “What is your request?” replied the Robot Man. His voice sounded very computerised and was quite convincing.
 “Have you seen a super tall woman anywhere around here?”
 “Memory damaged, need coins in order to repair.” Gwen didn’t need to be a genius in order to understand what he was saying. She knew that she could use her strength to force him to answer but she only resorted to violence when there was no other option. She placed a few coins onto a dish that was just in front of him. There were other coins on it as well as a couple bank notes. “Computing…. Only super tall woman that I have seen today is you. Computing, estimating that you are over two and a half metres tall.”
 Gwen silently crossed her arms, she didn’t have time for such nonsense. She could see that this street performer wasn’t going to be any help to her whatsoever. Every moment that she wasted with him was another moment she couldn’t spend helping her sister. She chose to walk away and continue to look for Chantell. She thought that she would find her eventually, she might not be that easy to spot now but when she grew to around four or five metres she would be easier to find.
 Some distance away Chantell was walking down the street. She was still loving her newfound height and the fact that she was growing excited her. She also felt a lot stronger as well, she thought that she would be able to lift a car or stop a charging bull, on more than one occasion she was tempted to test just how strong she was now.
 As she walked Chantell noticed another street performer, this time rather than a man in a robot suit it was a muscular man who was trying to lift heavy weights. There was a small crowd of people watching him as he demonstrated that his weights were not fake. He even let one regular man try to lift one of his weights but he couldn’t.
 With some effort the muscular man lifted up his weight which was a large ball of metal with a handle attached to it. It looked to weigh a few hundred pounds and with a lot of effort he lifted it up into the air which seemed to get an applause from the crowd around him. He gave them a small bow but he did notice Chantell walking towards him, she towered well above anyone who was standing close to her. She stood at around two and a half metres and it clearly showed in her confidence. There were a few people who gasped when they saw her and some of them even thought that she was somehow part of the act. They all waited to see what this tall woman did next.
 “You look pretty strong,” said Chantell with a smile on her face. She looked down at the man who was around a hundred and ninety centimetres tall himself. “But I bet you that I’m stronger than you.”
 “I’m sorry but I don’t accept challenges,” replied the muscular man. “I don’t want you to get yourself hurt.”
 “Is it really that?” She bent down until she was at eye level with the man. “Or do you just not want to admit that I’m stronger than you?” Her pleasant smile changed to a mischievous smile instead. She reached down the weight before he had a chance to stop her. However it was heavier than she expected. She began to feel a little stupid as she used all of her strength and eventually she was able to lift up the weight barely off of the ground. It was further than any of the bystanders could have lifted but nowhere near the strength demonstrated by the muscular man.
 The embarrassment that Chantell could feel was getting a little much for her but she could feel her body beginning to stretch again. Everyone looked in amazement as they saw the tall woman beginning to grow even taller. She could also feel her strength increasing at the same time as she lifted the weight even further. She seemed happy with herself and she eventually dropped the weight down onto the ground.
 “H-How did you do that?” asked the Muscular man as he looked at Chantell in amazement. He had never witnessed anything like this before, he was almost at a complete loss for words. “People don’t just grow like that.”
 “Evidently I do,” replied Chantell as she rose up to her full height. There was some astonishing gasps from the people around her. “I admit that I’m not as strong as you but I’m still growing and it won’t be long until I’m not only the tallest person in the world but also the strongest.”
 “But how is that even possible?”
 “Oh I have my secrets, I’ll check in on you in about an hour or so, then we’ll see who is the strongest.”
 With that she stood back up to her full height and walked away with a smile on her face. Everyone around her was still in utter shock over what they had just witnessed. They had seen something that many thought was impossible but they had seen it with their own two eyes. They couldn’t imagine just how tall Chantell would become and just how much she was enjoying it.
 Back at the lab Linda’s height had continued to decrease. For every centimetre Chantell gained Linda would lose. Phillip was doing everything that he could to help by fixing the device that had caused the accident in the first place. He felt some guilt and he wasn’t sure that he could even stop what was happening. However he was determined to cure Linda and bring her and Chantell back to their true heights.
 There wasn’t that much for Linda to do except to sit around and wait for the situation to improve. However as she waited she could feel herself shrinking slowly. She would look at her hand from time to time and she noticed that it looked smaller than it had done before. This made her feel worried and she could hardly wait for her sister to return with the woman who was stealing her height.
 “Is everything going alright there Doc?” asked Linda as she looked over from where she was sitting. She could see him working at a workbench. Although she had lost some of her height she was still much taller than him while she was sitting down. Most of her height had disappeared from her legs.
 “As good as can be expected given the circumstances,” replied Phillip. He didn’t want to tell her about his fears since he thought that some hope was better than having no hope whatsoever. “How are you holding up over there anyway?”
 “I can feel myself shrinking, If it keeps up at this rate there’ll be nothing left of me by the end of the day.” She didn’t think that this was true since she thought that the process would end when she reached Chantell’s former height.
 “Don’t worry, everything will be alright, I promise you.” He continued to work away and every now and again he would glance over to Linda. She was moving around as she was trying to occupy herself. She wished that she had brought a good book with her to read while she waited. “It would be better if your sister brought my wayward assistant back soon, it would make fixing this problem much easier.”
 “Gwen will bring her back. Even if she has to carry her through the streets she will bring her back.” If there was one thing that she knew it was that she could always count of Gwen. Her sister had never let her down and it didn’t seem like today was going to be any different. “It’s just mad to think while I’m getting shorter, she’s getting taller. It won’t be long until she’s my height and I’m hers.”
 “Hopefully things will be put right before then.”
 Linda didn’t say a word as she felt herself shrink by another ten centimetres. She was still over four metres tall but she did look shorter than she did before. All she could do was sit around and wait. She wasn’t strong enough to help Gwen and not smart enough to help Phillip. This made her feel completely useless, what did make her unique was slowly being taken away from her. She just prayed that by the end of the day that she would be back to being her old self.