The Hammer and the Bell [one-shot story]

[pseudoclever]

Back again! Taking a go at writing a stand-alone story - not something that's usually in my wheelhouse. I would generally prefer to ramble on and on and on about whatever it is I'm trying to describe, and the enforced 4K word limit I put on myself required some creative editing.

What do you need to know for this one? Not much. I guess if you're the kind of person who REALLY wants the "Inside Baseball" perspective, I can say that it's based on a 2-second snippet of dream I had.

One more thing. We've exactly one week away from the next story I'll be posting, so you can think of this as the cartoon before your feature presentation.

Okay, enough jibber-jabber.




The Hammer and the Bell



A million tiny lights illuminated the couple – reds, yellows, blues, nameless shades in between. They blinked and shone, dazzlingly bright in their eyes. Music from a dozen sources merged in the air around them, came together in a disoriented electric sweetness. But perhaps best of all was that confused, ever-present aroma – elephant ears, gyros, hamburgers and hotdogs. Will had called it “the fare of the fair,” and for some reason Tanya thought that was about the funniest thing in the world.

It felt, for both of them, as if they were walking around on another planet. The strange atmosphere, the exotic flora and fauna. The lingering dizziness from the couple's third consecutive ride on the Tilt-a-Whirl – the last one had, as he would later point out, been Tanya's idea.

But mostly, it was the company. Will's arm linked companionably through the feminine crook of her elbow. The tickle of her long, fragrant hair. And especially those intimate looks they stole from each other. When they were leaning in close, almost cheek to cheek, to be head over the noise. Both heads swimming, gazing deep, deep into each other's eyes. Was it any wonder the air felt a little thin, the gravity not quite as strong as it should be?

Will admitted he'd been thinking of asking her out. “For ages.” Tanya, smiling demurely, said she'd been hoping for almost as long. And after that there was nothing to say. So they just walked, hand in hand. Past rigged games and rickety attractions. Past cowboys, cowgirls, and plain old cows. Over their heads the moon was cresting the horizon, fat and orange. The sky slowly darkened past purple twilight, to black evening.

“Yar, you there! You sir, you madam! Whadda ya say sport, win the lovely lady a cupie doll? A winner ev'ry time, I guarentee it! Yar yar, com'on over you two!”

It was the barker's accent that caught their attention. The way he said 'doll' so that it rhymed with 'spell.' Will stopped short, and Tanya obligingly paused with him, her arm still intwined with his.

“There ya are champ, there ya are!” the man crooned, pointing his cane at Will. He was dressed outlandishly, in white pants and a red polka-dot shirt, and was grinning at them in a way that was probably intended to be friendly, but hit the mark closer to 'manic.' He adjusted his faux straw cap, swung his cane around to point at the tall iron structure standing behind him. “You know how this's done don't'che? All you do is ring the bell! Show off for the lady! Big strong guy like you? Yar, you'll do fine. Three swings, three dollars, what'd'ya say sport?”

Tanya smirked up at Will, eyes dancing behind her cute, thick-framed glasses. “Ya me boy,” she drawled, attempting to replicate the man's accent, failing utterly. “Win yer girl summthin' nice why dontcha?” She giggled sweetly, began to reach into the pocket of her jeans for a bill.

Will put his hand over her's, gently. The touch was a sudden shock for both, and they shared another of those long looks before he could speak again. “Don't worry kid, I've got it.” He pulled a fiver from his wallet, passed it to the man. “Keep the change, friend. So, um...is there a hammer, or....” He stripped off his jacket, passed it into Tanya's care.

“Yar indeed, sport.” The man reached behind the giant tower with the old-timey bell mounted at the top, produced an enormous wooden mallet. Will accepted it, hoisted, tested its weight. The thing was deceptively heavy, extremely awkward and dense. Despite what the barker had said, about him being a 'big, strong guy,' he knew he might've bitten off more than he could chew. Will stood five foot nine, with a decent build, sure. But he had more a swimmer's body then a lifter's. Honestly, he wasn't sure he'd even be able to SWING the damn thing, never mind hit the target, and double-plus never mind hitting it hard enough to avoid embarrassing himself in front of his date.

But then he saw Tanya, still grinning at him, the hope in her eyes as plain as the nose on her face. And suddenly, he felt stronger.

Will lifted the mallet, stumbled slightly, swung it down on the target as hard as he could. The target gave an airy 'thrump' sound, the ringer climbed, higher, higher...and began to fall back to earth less than halfway to the top. He turned, chagrined, to face Tanya, expecting to see disappointment on her pretty face.

What he saw, however, was something more like a confused grimace. It looked as if she had an itch, but didn't know where to scratch to make it stop.

To Tanya, everything felt...well, there was no good word for it. Just...off, somehow. It was like seeing an old friend, not noticing immediately that they'd dyed their hair, but knowing that something wasn't quite right. But much more powerful than that...more like, as if the entire WORLD had somehow been dyed a different color.

As she stood there, trying to solve this puzzle, an unpredictable gust of October wind stirred and blew a cold draft against her exposed midsection. Absently Tanya reached down, started to smooth her tight blue sweater back down over her midriff, froze. The garment was SUPPOSED to ride a bit high on her, to reveal just the faintest glimpse of her taut little tummy (but not too high – she wanted to look cute, not slutty.) But that balance had clearly shifted. Her stupid sweater had somehow managed to hike itself almost all the way up to her bellybutton. She grabbed, pulled it down over her stomach, felt it spring back up into the whore zone. She tried again, and again, but the stubborn garment refused to comply. And strangest of all, it seemed to be returning higher each time she tried.

That previous, undefinable strangeness was growing stronger. Her thoughts whirled, a faint greyish tinge clouded her vision. What was happening to her? Had Will slipped something into her drink? Before she had a chance to dismiss this line of speculation, she felt a sudden stabbing pain from just beneath her waist. Wincing, Tanya looked down. The button of her jeans...digging in...too tight!

Only one solution here. Blushing, she undid the clasp, tried once again, desperately, to pull the sweater down, to protect her modesty. No good – it only bounced up higher than ever – well past 'slutty,' into the realm of 'ten-dollar hooker.' Worse, now her silky green panties were showing through the fly of her jeans. And...what? More and more of them were peaking into view with each passing second! She watched, mesmerized, as her jeans bulged and stretched, her tummy poked out above the waistband, the cuffs of her pants slowly crept their way up her calves, like a pair of receding, denim glaciers.

Now on the verge of panic she shot a pleading look at Will, found him staring down at her in wonder. And HE looked different, too! So...so...she fought for the word, and in a flash it came. Small. He had always been more than a head taller than her scrawny five foot one, and certainly he still looked quite a bit bigger than her but....

But what? Not as big as he had been. And he seemed to be getting even smaller.

In that instant her mind cleared, and the answer came rushing in. She was growing.

It was happening faster now. Her arms lengthened, her hips flared. The frames of her glasses bent, strained, dug into the soft flesh behind her ears. Every single part of her was steadily growing...bigger, and bigger! Even her breasts, tiny things they had always been, seemed to be doing some swelling of their own. B-cups, C's? It was impossible to tell. But there was one thing she was certain of. No, make that two.

The first was that...her body changing this way...filling out, growing bigger. It had hurt. But now...it was starting to feel...good.

Very good.

And second – she didn't want it to end.

In the same second this thought crossed her mind, however, it did just that. Her growth came to a stop so suddenly that it was as if some unseen hand had flipped a switch.

Tanya stood, half-naked, dazed. She could only stare at Will, open-mouthed, and he could do nothing more than stare back. She might've cried, have fun away in fear – but for one saving grace. Despite the strangeness of the situation, it was the same look they had been sharing all night. The look that said, clearer than words ever could, that after years of wanderingly a seemingly empty world devoid of human life, that you had finally found another living soul. Did she see confusion on his face? Some of that, yes. Amusement too...maybe just a bit? And more than a little excitement.

Will briefly broke eye contact, gave her a quick, appraising glance – up, down. What a sight she must've been! Quite big for a woman now, as tall as he was, perhaps even an inch taller (and why did THAT turn her on?) Dressed in clothing four sizes too small – blue jeans that might've been painted on, and a sweater that had been tight even before her growth spurt now riding all the way up to the base of her ribs. Oh, and not to mention her breasts...they were just a bit larger than average, but to Tanya they felt absolutely enormous. Especially given the way they were stuffed into her tight-ass little sweater.

“Will?” Her voice was soft, barely more than a whisper. Yet somehow he heard it over the background cacophony of the fair.

“Yeah?”

She only continued to stare at him. Tanya chewed her lower lip, her eyes waveringly nervously. She opened her mouth to speak, shut it again.

Will knew the question she had been about to ask, and so he answered it. “You're beautiful.”

Tanya looked up, mouth opening in a huge grin. “Do you mean it? And it doesn't bother you, the um...I mean....” She held her hand up to the top of her head, made the half saluting gesture that children sometimes make when comparing heights, shrugged.

“What could possibly be wrong with there being more of you?” he asked. The two locked eyes. As one they moved, slowly...coming together....

“Aw, tough luck sport.” The carnival barker's voice startled them both. Will spun on his heel, found the man grinning his toothy grin at the two of them. He had been silent for almost a full minute now, but the way he was talking, it was as if Will had swung the hammer only a moment ago. What else, he didn't seem to be acting as if anything strange had happened at all. Neither, for that matter, did anyone in the crowd of people that were even now strolling by them. But there were hundreds of them! SOMEONE must have seen it!

The old man cleared his throat, straightened his tie, pointed to the mallet lying where Will had dropped it in his dazzlement. “Two more chances there boy. Want to see if you can hit 'er better this time? Or would'ja rather give it up now and take yer lady-friend home?”

Will looked to Tanya, saw her once again fiddling with her sweater, trying to pull it down over her midriff. A bad job if he had ever seen one. All at once she let it go, looking down disgustedly at her exposed tummy. Tanya sighed, then laughed. She studied her new body for a moment longer, lips pursed in thought.

Her eyes flicked to the mallet...to Will. And then, grinning eagerly, she nodded.

He didn't have to be told twice. Will hefted the big hammer over his head, barely noticing how much lighter it seemed. This time when he swung it down, the ringer made it nearly three quarters of the way to the top. And before it even had a chance to fall back to its resting place, Tanya was moaning at the top of her lungs.

This time her growth was faster, more urgent. And despite the occasionally painful bursting and snapping from beneath her skin, it was overall FAR more pleasurable. A powerful wave of sensation hit her, nearly made her lose her balance as her body surged bigger. Clothing stretched, tightened to the point of choking, then ripped free. Her legs grew longer and thicker, tore out the stitching of her jeans with a machine gun 'fop-fop-fop' sound. Her shoes made similar but much louder noises as her feet burst through them, in one-two quick succession. Bits of cream-colored flesh began to appear through the holes in her clothing, holes which slowly widened as her body continued to expand. Her sweater made a soft groaning noise as it strained against her growth, its base slowly creeping up her stomach, toward her bust. And Tanya herself was groaning too, hands pressed into cheek and neck, as she reveled in this indescribable feeling of growth.

Will watched, marking her growth by the midway behind her – the way her body covered more and more of it with each passing second, blocking it from his view as she became bigger. She was taller than him already, by perhaps four inches. The plastic hinges of her glasses snapped from her face, their lenses popping, as if in slow motion, and falling to the soft blanket of grass at her feet. Six inches taller now. What remained of her jeans ripped through like tissue paper, revealing acre upon acre of beautiful, muscular leg. A full head taller. The look on her face was a mask of pleasure – cheeks flushed, eyes watery and glazed, gasping and panting as she stared down at him. Ten inches, a foot....

And once again, with disappointing suddenness, her growth stopped.

Tanya shook her head as if suffering the aftermath of a particularly strong drink. Will. Short...yes. That was how he appeared to her now. He was almost childlike in his stature. The top of his head was just below the level of her shoulder. Even her nine year old cousin was taller than that!

Yet he wasn't a child. That twinkle behind his eyes, the mischievous turn of his lips...there could be no doubt what was on his mind. Something no child would be thinking. Little or not, he was still a man. And the way her body was responding to that...the quickening of her pulse, the pounding of blood at her wrists, the dry feeling in the back of her throat. Big or not, she was still a woman.

The old man laughed, looking from one to the other like a good-natured babysitter. “Come now you two, nonna' that.” He clucked his tongue at them in amusement. “'Sides, the game's not over. You almost got 'er there on that last swing anyways. Com'on then, third time's the charm. One more go at it, boy?”

Will turned, was about to say something snarky, about whether the old man thought she wasn't big enough already, if she really NEEDED another go. But then he felt a large, powerful hand rest on his shoulder, and when he turned the seven foot amazon was smirking down at him. Something about that smirk told him, another swing or not, he was in for one LONG night.

“Mind if I take a turn at it?” Tanya asked kindly. Her voice was the same as ever – high alto, sweet, almost musical. But beyond that, so much about her had changed. She grown nearly two feet, of course. And her figure had filled out, from a waif's to a vixen's. But perhaps the physical changes were the least of it. Her posture, the set of her shoulders. That confident, half-laughing glint behind her eyes. And something much more difficult to define. The closest he could come to explaining it was that, previously content to ride along in the backseat, she now seemed to be sitting behind the wheel.

The old man barked laughter, offered the hammer high up into's Tanya arms. “Be my guest young lady. Just don't you go breakin' my machine, yar?” He laughed again, as if this was the funniest thing in the world.

Tanya's giant smile widened, but she nodded seriously. “I'll do my best.”

She glanced down at her date, gave him a quizzical look. 'Is this okay?'

Will smiled back, shot her a thumbs up. 'Damn right it is.'

Nodding, Tanya rubbed her hands together, spat, hoisted the hammer.

The air split.

The hammer came down.

The target crumpled like a Styrofoam cup.

And the bell rang. It rang with the deep harmonic resonance of a six foot orchestral gong. And before that sound had left her ears, she was growing again.

This time it was the strongest, the most incredible, the best ever. Everything – the crowd, the midway, the hammer game with its strange patron...they all seemed to be falling, rushing away beneath her. And it was happening faster than she could believe. The pathetic remains of her jeans tore to shreds. Her shirt, already strained, began to crackle and snap. It stretched for a moment to shape her swelling breasts, the growing arch of her womanly body, then split down the middle. Will was level with her collar...then the rosy tips of her breasts...her ribs...and still she was growing!

The feeling...how could there even BE so much pleasure? It should have driven her mad, or at the very least knocked her unconscious by now. Minor magic compared to the kind which was even now causing her to swell bigger, grow stronger...yet it was magic nonetheless. She tried to moan with the ecstasy of it, found her throat too dry to make more than a cracked wheeze, settled for throwing her ever-lengthening arms into the air like a church-goer crying hallelujah.

Nine feet. There was a sudden upsurge of agony – bones popping, skin stretching until she was certain it would tear. But then the pain receded into the background, and by contrast transformed the otherwise pleasurable growth into pure bliss. Her arms thickened with muscle, her breasts filled and ripened. Her body, her ENTIRE body, was miraculously and wonderfully getting larger! For a moment she wondered if she might be getting TOO big, if she would have trouble functioning at her new size whenever her growth finally stopped. But this thought only made Tanya laugh as she continued to grow higher and higher into the early autumn sky. Who cared what society thought? She was a goddess now!

Ten feet. The elastic from her panties, surviving against all odds to this point, finally gave into the inevitable. The growing Tanya was almost completely naked, and at this point she cared not in the slightest for her modesty. The only scrap of clothing left on her body was a small blue ring of sweater that still hung around her neck. It looked for all the world like a tattered cotton bib, the kind they might give you to wear at a southern-style barbeque restaurant after you'd ordered the all-you-can-eat ribs. Though if it had been such, it was now far too small to offer its owner much protection.

Eleven feet. She could see over the roofs of the nearest line of stands, off into the parking lot in the far distance. Yet the only thing she cared to see was Will, tiny little Will. He looked so cute, staring up at her in awe bordering on religious ecstasy. As she watched him, a new feeling was growing inside her, welling up beneath the velvet blanket of pleasure that threatened to overwhelm her senses. Something that, in her previous life, she had never known. She...she could do whatever she wanted with him. If he resisted, it would be no contest – she could overpower him as easily as batting an eyelash. Though from that look on his face, she doubted that would be necessary. Will would follow her. He would do whatever she told him, without a second thought.

Twelve feet was enough to bring her even with the top of the hammer game, eye to eye with the rusty old bell. It was here, perhaps not coincidentally, that her growth slowed, and at long last came to a stop. She was huge...more than twice as tall as any girl Will had ever seen, and at least three times as beautiful. The unseen fingers of October wind rustled her flowing blond hair, made it swirl around her perfect, gigantic face. Just looking at the giantess Tanya had become was enough to make his breath catch in his throat, to bring hot tears to his eyes.

She tore her gaze away from him, surveyed the crowd beneath her. Not one of them seemed to think anything of the fact that there was now a gigantic, naked woman standing in their midst. Was it only an illusion then? A dream, a hallucination? But then she had another thought, one that brought the smile rushing back to her face. Even if none of this was real, even if she hadn't actually grown to a twelve foot goddess, and all of this was in her head...Will could see it, too. He was here to share it with her. The two exchanged another look, the kind that so irritates the friends of people who have fallen hopelessly in love. Will said nothing. Tanya said nothing. Because no words were necessarily. Not for people such as they.

“Ay, good swinging there, young lady!” the old man cried, breaking the moment. He threw his head back in mad laughter, revealing a mouthful of gold-capped teeth. He looked Tanya in the face, neck craned almost to the limit. “Ya win yerself a cupie doll. Go on, take yer pick. You've earned it!” He gestured with his cane toward the random pile of cheap stuffed animals and other brick-a-brak arrayed at the foot of the bell tower.

“Thanks all the same,” Tanya purred. She slowly dropped to one knee, put her giant hand against the small of her boyfriend's back, hefted him into her arms. “But THIS is the only doll I want.”

Tanya leaned forward, held Will to her lips. She kissed him, quite seriously, with a mouth that was as wide as his entire face. It was their first. But far from their last. When she began to walk, her footsteps shook the ground. The crowd parted before her the way water parts before the bow of a ship. Still looking into his eyes, she carried him off into the night.

The old man watched them go, shaking his head. “No one ever takes a cupie doll,” he mused, in a voice without any hint of an accent. He laughed, adjusted his straw hat. Then he began to bellow his shtick into the crowd again, calling out in his strange, drawling voice.

[Mr Wayne]

Pseudoclever,

I wanted to be the first to praise your newest work of growing literature. Nicely done, nicely done indeed regardless of its length. The plot was solid all through and the setting of a carnival was very advantageous to use. I shall definitely be on the look out for your main event. B;-)

[cyero]

My god, that was beautiful.

[Infernalpanda]

Hey relax kid, that was pretty good sport. What's say a cup o cha, and a fine cigar. Eh see now!! Bought time I'd say. Five stars now yeah. Take a load of sport.

[gammera1976]

Excellent read.

[ssteelrat]

Pseudo: yummy, this one's a keeper. Thanks.

[amateur]

<old-timey voice>

Tha's a real humdingah of a story there, sonnay.

</old-timey>

Your writing is excellent, as always. You have some of the best descriptive voice I've seen in this genre.