Little Mary Was A Giant


And like a giant, he lived on a palatial estate, buttressed behind black, wrought iron gates and surrounded by a foreboding wall of some native stone, no doubt.

He had the unaccented accent of the very privileged. The sort that took pride in anonymous charitable donations. The wives wore diamond studs as understated as trust funds and in every room of their under heated "family homes" were fashionably shabby and ancient oriental rugs.

They were of a certain type. They were over bred,deliberately underfed (even the males had eating disorders) and were restlessly and relentlessly discontented. Boring people really. I never understood our society's fascination with this languid, dissolute and useless class. I knew them well, due to a cruel trick of fate. I had been forced to rub elbows with them all my life, in a peripheral sort of way.

Little Mary being a punctilious man, presented me with my first confidentiality agreement. Personally, I thought it was over kill, but with the typical arrogance of his enclave, he assumed he had more to lose than I did. I signed it, he signed it. His people talked to my people and so on until the evening was arranged and I was deposited by cab, outside his home.

I rang the intercom as instructed and waited patiently. I knew I was being observed as an outside camera had been tracking my arrival and every move since, with a dispassionate, insectile scrutiny. I ignored it and stared straight ahead. No words had been exchanged, but the gates slowly swung inward,with silent consent. I stepped through and began walking down a long, tree lined path. It was lit dimly by the moonlight. I saw what appeared to be a bobbing lantern, coming down the path toward me.

It was held aloft by one of the tallest humans I have ever seen. This figure was dressed from head to toe, in what appeared to be a historically accurate Victorian maid outfit. I realized that I was looking at a painfully gaunt man, in a dishwater grey haired wig, with a lace square pinned to the crown of it. His cheeks were hectically rouged. He smiled distantly at me and signaled that I was to follow. I was instantly drawn in by the over the top theatrics of it all. I just had to know what was next.

So I followed.