Axel3.14Chad complied with the police imapassively, rarely giving more than four words at a time. By the end of the afternoon, the police ruled the case a matter of self defense and allowed him to go.
Imbrued by crusty brown stains, the tall lean man cast a dagger-like shadow on the street as he walked back to his vehicle. Turning the key in the ignition, Chad bristled at the interior. Without Tia in one of the seats, it seemed utterly cavernous. At home Teddy and Meredith hugged him. He slipped the sitter a hundred dollar bill, and watched the teenage girl dissappear.
"Where’s mommy?" His son asked
"I-I…" Chad sighed.
"Indeed, I too am curious about the whereabouts of our stepmother." Meredith glowered and counted the bloodstains on Chad’s attire.
"Kids, Tia is…."
Chad was interrupted by a beeping sound at his waist. He grabbed his cell phone and grumbled, "Hello?"
Dr. Kaldwell’s voice buzzed on the other end. "Chad! You need to come over here. Your wife is…"
Click! Chad was in no mood to hear about the ordeal.
"As I was saying, we were going to get some food when…"
Ring!
Chad grabbed the importunate phone again and felt an impending scream.
"Chad, sweetie, could you please come to the hospital and bring me some clothes?"
"I’m coming as fast as I can…."
Chad put away his phone and smiled. "She was called prematurely to work." I have to get her some clean clothes. You two, go watch a video or something until I come back." Chad ran into the bedroom, grabbed some garments, raced out the door.
At the doors of the hospital he froze, heart pulsating against his uvula. He found Tia in one of the patient’s rooms. The muscle-bound woman sat up on a hospital bed, watching a program on the small television on the ceiling. She was clean, cognizant, and calm, but she was stark naked. Tia turned her head and smiled when Chad walked in.
She rapidly turned off the television,walked over to her husband, and enveloped him with her embrace.
"I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you. Are you alright?"
Chad’s mouth fell agape. "You were dead!…weren’t you?"
Tia giggled. "I said I’d see you later."
She moved in for a peck and whispered, "Actually, it was pretty close, but I managed to curb the bloodloss. The bullet extraction surgery was a complete success." Tia raised a relatively small love handle to reveal some sutures.
"Of course, these are just props. I healed completely an hour ago."
Tia stretched and inhaled. "Did you bring the clothes? Apparently they don’t make paper gowns for ten foot five inch plus sized giantesses." She laughed.
Her nonchalance eased Chad. He unrolled a women’s t-shirt that he could use as a tent and an even more commodius pair of sweat pants.
"Did you remember my underwear?"
Chad provided a pair of panties that could be used as a tablecloth.
"Wanna help me put them on?" Tia said with a glimmer in her eye. Chad felt an immense force accumulating near his pelvis. His customized twenty-inch giantess pleasurer was about to activate. Suddenly Tia placed a hand on it, and it retreated into limpness. "Not yet, tiger, we should be getting home soon."
While Tia drove home, Chad began pondering. "Why are you so reluctant to openly show your powers?"
"Many reasons… If my powers were known, every person with a stuffed nose would mob me for healing. I can’t administer to that many people! Even If I wanted to, I’d probably make a mistake. Furthermore, I enjoy making people happy, and if my powers were known, it wouldn’t work anymore."
"What do you mean?"
"Remember the look on that man’s face last month when his cancer suddenly receded? He was ecstatic! He thought that some wonderful angel acted on his behalf. If my power were publicly known, this type of healing would be routine. The joy would be desensitized, and moreover it would be replaced by dissappointment and resentment, because I have my limits."
"If you allowed yourself to be examined scientifically, the mechanisms behind your power might be learned and artificially reproduced."
Tia shook her head. "No… What I can do verges on magic. I’ve tried to do the same thing many times before. Even if the machine did exist, the coarser parts of humanity would ruin it for everyone."
"Who are you talking about, Tia?"
"Not who, what… The exigiencies of the capitalist system, supply and demand, man’s innate tendency for the destructive. Do you know how many people I could eliminate with impunity if I wanted to?"
Chad shuddered.
"Exactly. Not everyone appreciates the virtues of compassion. So I guess I’ll always be doing this… Stalking around at night, removing people’s ills…"
Chad smiled. "If you want secrecy. I won’t betray you."
"I know."
"What about the kinds? Do we tell them?"
Tia pondered, "We shouldn’t yet. We should wait until they are at least fifteen, and probably longer."
At that point, Chad pulled into the driveway. Inside their house, Teddy bounced from the couch. "Mommy, Mommy I love you !!!" He shouted, hugging her with his puerile strength.
Meredith still looked concerned. "I had concluded that something terrible happened to you."
"I thought so too, but I’ll be okay." She smiled.
Teddy and Chad went outside to play catch, leaving Meredith next to her new stepmother. They looked at each other in a long silence. Finally…
"Tia?"
"What is it, Meredith?"
"I’m sorry."
Tia scooted over to the preadolescent and put an arm around her. "Why?"
"I’m sorry because, I can’t call you mother."
"I’m not your mother."
Meredith looked down, "I know… But Teddy does, and it angers me."
"He’s only saying that because he cares about me…"
"No!" Meredith’s eyes flared. She looked down again, mollified. "I mean, our mother devoted each day of her life to us, and every time he calls you that, it’s like he’s forgetting our real mother…"
"He’s only seven years old. Do you believe that your biological mother would want him to be depressed?"
"Of course not!"
"Well, maybe you could tell him about your mother when he’s older. If your mother’s sentinence is still active somewhere, I’m sure that she’s glad that there are people that care about him."
Meredith clutched Tia and sobbed. "Tii-a?"
"What is it, dear?"
"Will you ever leave us?"
The nurse peered at the young woman, into the gravity that eleven years rarely imparts. She stroked her head several times. After a minute Tia Whispered into Meredith’s ear. "I’ll do everything in my power to never leave you"
Meredith burst into a fusillade of tears. She looked into Tia’s eyes with a mixture of dissappointment and serenity. "Thank you. It would be selfish and puerile to ask for more." She collapsed on Tia’s sturdy form in resignation.