He certainly couldn't very well bring two double sized people there at that point.

He returned to Earth Double and explained everything to a surprised Melendy, but leaving out the reason that he'd called her Lynda, and the fact that he loved her more than Lynda. He didn't want her to feel the faintest concerns about a rival double, as he had no intentions of creating any rivalry. Had he been able to see Lynda again, he'd have been happy with her for the rest of his life, and would never have discovered Earth Double. Yet things had gone in a different direction, and he could not have been happier with the outcome.

Half an hour later, he popped into Earth Single again, wondering what would happen if one of his arrivals had coincided with someone looking in his direction. He'd have to pop out and hope they thought he'd been a mirage. This time the Swain Gardens Single were deserted. He went back, and helped Melendy into position. She vanished towards Earth Single. Then he did the same for Mrs Fielding.

"Oh Mum, look how small and quaint this is!" said Melendy, thinking, "No wonder Lewis is so small and cute."

"Nobody else on either of our earths knows about the other earth, as far as I'm aware," said Lewis.

"How tall is the tallest person on your earth?" asked Melendy.

"There is a record of a woman who is eight feet tall (eight of my world's feet, which would be four of yours)," said Lewis, "You'd be even taller than her, but just as your people thought me a native midget, mine would accept you as a native giant."

"They'd accept one of us," said Mrs Fielding, "I think it would arouse too much suspicion if we came here together. I should stay on my world, now that I've seen proof of yours. You two young people need to be able to go on outings and see each other on both worlds."

"If I can fit in your house's rooms," said Melendy.

"I don't think I'd like to tell my parents about your world," said Lewis, "They might stop us from meeting again. But my year 10 formal is coming up, and the school dance hall is much higher even than you. You could stoop down to go through the door and then be comfortable all evening. Would it be alright for me to take her, Mrs Fielding?"

"Of course it would," said Mrs Fielding.

"Mum, thanks! I'd love to go!" said Melendy.

"Let's not tell your father about this either," said Mrs Fielding, "Too many people could find out after he's had a few glasses of wine. I don't drink."

"I don't think I ever will either," said Lewis.

"Nor would I," said Melendy.

On the next Friday night of youth group, Lewis arrived early at Melendy's house, and they walked to youth group and arrived holding hands. Lewis had found it surprisingly comfortable to be with the giantess Melendy, even though single sized Lynda had met him at his most inexperienced stage of awareness of girls' beauty. He had stepped up to the mark and offered his hand to Melendy, who'd happily accepted it.

There were a few familiar faces on the steps.

"What's she doing with the midget?" asked one girl, named Gates Yale, making no effort to lower her voice.

"Don't worry about them," whispered Melendy, "Jenny lets me use her pool during the week. The other night, she told me all about the horrible way they talk of you.

They reached the stairs and started upwards.

Gates made a thinly veiled pretence of tripping a little on the stairs, fell deliberately towards Lewis, knocking him off the second step, so that he fell back onto the concrete courtyard and grazed his hands.

"You did that deliberately!" said Melendy, and shoved Gates with all her strength.

"Just trying to improve your taste!" said Gates, and slapped Melendy hard on the face.

Melendy kicked the girl in the shins, and the two were soon wrestling until Melendy had Gates bent over on the stair rail. The fall would not have hurt her, but her back was hurting from the positioning and the pressure.

"Let me go!" she coughed, as a crowd had now come out to watch.

"Why can't you just let us be happy?" said Melendy, "I like him much more than anyone else here, and your size-ist wise cracks only show how small you really must be on the inside! I'd like to let you go all the way to the street footpath and hope you keep walking on out of here!"

Lewis had climbed to his feet. His left hand showed small traces of blood, and the skin was torn on both palms, but he wasn't seriously injured.

"Melendy, it's alright," he said, "Nothing any of them say can ever possibly matter to me again, as long as I'm with you."

"Stop it, girls, and tell me what happened," said Jenny, who had heard the commotion and come out to the steps too.

"Look at his hands," said Melendy, pulling Gates abruptly back into an upright position, "She feigned slipping and shoved him off the steps!"

"Is that true, Gates?" asked Jenny.

"Yes," said Gates.

"Then I think you'd better go. You're barred from the group for the rest of this year. If you come back in February and behave perfectly, I'll see about another chance. The same goes for anyone else who wants to do something like this. These nights are supposed to be safe and fun," said Jenny.

"So why doesn't she have to leave?" asked Gates, in reference to Melendy.

"Has she injured someone's hands too?" asked Jenny.

"She hurt my back!" said Gates.

"She was only protecting me," said Lewis.

"That's what I thought," said Jenny, "Now don't argue. Just go, or I'll have to ban you forever."

Gates sauntered off, while Melendy helped Lewis up the stairs. Jenny led them to the first aid room and found ointment, cotton strips and bandages to wrap around his hands, especially the one which had been bleeding, while Melendy turned the taps on and off for Lewis to wash his hands.

"Do you want to press charges against her?" asked Jenny.

"I guess she's been punished enough," said Lewis.

"I can put the things on his hands, Jenny," said Melendy, "They probably need you to run the activities."

"Thanks," said Jenny, sensing that Melendy wanted to be alone with Lewis, and leaving the room.

"I would have reported her to the police," said Melendy, gently rubbing freshly squeezed ointment onto his hands.

"She might try charging you over the fight. Besides, I can't account for my identity on your world, and the last people I'd like to see made more aware of my size and presence are the police. In a way I'm even glad she did it. I always had a few doubts of whether you could like me as much as I like you, because to you I'm little more than half your size. When I saw you go into action tonight, I knew she'd given me the chance to find out. So in a strange way, I'm grateful to Gates Yale's cruelty."

In another strange way, it felt lovely to have a beautiful tall girl gently starting to apply bandages to his hands. She slowly wrapped each one around and pressed down on the back of his hands, so as not to aggravate the scratches and cuts on the palms. The bandages were secured, and she gently held each hand between finger and thumb and kissed his forehead.

"You need never doubt that again," she said, "There isn't a boy on this world I like more than you. There never will be. I'd never met anyone I liked in my first year of starting to think about boys. Then Jenny asked me along here and I didn't think I'd like anyone here either. Then later this year she asked me again, and I was so lucky to find you. I can't wait to go to your formal."

"Me too," said Lewis.

"Do you really want to face that lot tonight?" she asked.

He thought of the fact that he'd once been too proud to accept an ice cream from Lynda. Now he had been grateful for the way Melendy had protected him, a boy from another girl on a world where he had a significant size disadvantage.

"Torin and some of them are alright … and they all have to face us too. Thanks for taking on Gates for me. Let's see what Jenny's organised for tonight.

He stretched up and kissed her cheek.

"I hope Mum doesn't find out about this. She doesn't like me fighting. I hardly ever have before."

"I just realized I'm going to have to explain this to my parents," said Lewis, "I'll have to truthfully say I fell backwards on the stairs, after someone slipped and bumped into me. They won't see any reason to act on that. I can't tell them that a girl bully from a parallel earth did the slipping and bumping on purpose."

The rest of the night went without incident, as well as the following week's youth group. On the Saturday evening came the formal. As soon as he'd done his homework, he raced off to Swain Gardens Single to meet Melendy, who had practiced the journey enough to come from her own world unassisted.

Lewis was taken aback by the sight of Melendy, as he walked through the gardens towards the wall, where she stood, 9 foot 10 inches tall and wearing a beautiful feminine formal dress. As he drew closer, he looked up into her eyes with unrestrained admiration.

He walked her to the station, and caught the train to his school's suburb of Wollstonecraft, and up to the school. The couple caught a lot of attention, as Lewis introduced her to his class friends and others in year 10. As she was too tall to sit comfortably on a chair, nobody minded when she used the window ledge and helped him up to sit beside her.

In time, he invited her to dance, and felt elated at having her in his arms. He had her back at Swain Gardens Single by 10pm. The lamps lit up the pathways, and then he thought of something else.

"It's the first time I've seen these gardens in either earth at night," he said, "I'm so happy to be doing it with you."

He stretched up, but could only kiss her forearm. Even her neck was simply out of his reach. Melendy smiled and lifted him up onto the one foot wall. He put his arms around her and managed to reach the base of her neck, and kissed it.

He still couldn't reach her lips.

"Don't stop. I've been waiting for weeks," she said.

"I have, also. I was just thinking that your earth's Swain Gardens wall would be just the right height for …"

"I understand," she said, smiling with amorous intentions. He walked her over to the position in the bush and held out his hand.

"Beautiful giant young ladies first," he said.

"And handsome young cute small boys best be quick to follow," said Melendy with a sweet laugh.

Soon he was positioned in her arms on the two foot high (or one of Melendy's world's measurement of feet high) wall in Swain Gardens Double.

He looked into her face. Melendy giggled a little, at the happy realisation that he could now be in a position to kiss her in the more common way. She was still taller, but he could reach. She tilted her head downward a little. He tilted his upwards, and touched her lips. Her double sized arms were all but enveloping him.

Whatever other troubles lay ahead, whatever ridicule their relationship might still face on either world, whatever secrets might be discovered later, there would be nothing that could ever take away from the joy that they both felt at that moment.

The kiss went on for more than three minutes.

"Oh I love you so much," she said, when they finally drew back for air, and her arms hugged him even tighter, "I can't wait to invite you to my own year 10 formal."

"I feel like I've loved you all year," said Lewis.