Bus Stop

“Damn. He’s…BIG.” I thought to myself.

I stumbled forward a bit as a squirrel nudged past me with a frown and a cold “excuse me.” As she did so, I realized I was still blocking the entrance to the station. In my defense, I noticed the squirrel, now ahead of me, pause and reflect on the same thing I’d noticed: a huge jaguar sitting casually on one of the benches in the bus terminal. He was certainly worthy of all the attention, as his inky black pelt was stretched over quite a body—a wide chest, broad shoulders, powerful arms and legs. His choice of minimal clothing also gave quite a view to all who cared to look, a pair of blue shorts that didn’t look like they’ve survive should he decide to stand up.

He took up most of one of the benches all on his own, and though there were plenty of other places to sit in the mostly-empty bus station, I felt drawn to him. I’d always had a fascination with tall people, and this guy was surely the tallest—and the strongest-looking—I’d ever seen in person. I shuffled slowly toward his bench, thinking about how to start a conversation with something other than, “Wow, you’re really huge!” I hadn’t come up with anything by the time he noticed me, his head turning from the schedule screen to regard me with amber eyes. Whatever witty introduction I might have concocted flew from my brain as I looked back, staring at him without speaking well past the socially-acceptable limit.

To my surprise (and relief), he chuckled and gave a slight smile. “Have a seat,” he said, scooting over slowly. The cushions and supports of the bench rumbled and pinged as all that weight shifted toward one end, and I slowly sat down beside him, still staring. He looked big from a distance, and now he was positively gigantic. If we were both standing, I doubt my ears would have crested the base of his chest.

“Er, thanks!” I finally managed, feeling suddenly foolish about the whole situation. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to stare. I’ve just never, uh, seen someone…” I bit my lip briefly. How do you politely tell someone they’re enormous, as if they didn’t already know?

As I wrestled with this dilemma, the jaguar finished for me. “As big as I am?” he asked, his eyes half-closed above a lazy grin. “Relax. I’ve gotten used to it, and it’s still kinda fun to see those looks.” The squirrel favored the jaguar with another one as we both caught her looking at us on her way out, and we laughed as she hurried more quickly out the door.

He introduced himself, and I reciprocated. He thankfully led the conversation for a while, asking where I was going, where I was from, who I was rooting for in the upcoming Super Bowl, that sort of general small talk. I slowly felt more at ease as we talked, and I eventually got up the nerve to begin to ask the questions that had been burning in my mind. “So…I’m really curious. What do you do? I’m having trouble seeing you as anything other than a bodybuilder…or a wrestler, maybe.”

His smile faded a little, and his massive chest rose and sank in a gentle sigh. I was afraid I’d offended him somehow and began to apologize, but he shook his head. “No, it’s OK. Everyone’s curious. I don’t have a job, really. I’m still in college.” He chuckled deeply as his long, serpentine tail flicked once across his lap. “Wrestler’s a good one, though. I hadn’t thought of that. As much as I’d like to try those things, I doubt I’d pass the drug tests, and anyway, it wouldn’t last.” He closed his eyes, leaning back on the bench again.

I wondered what he meant, and it dawned on me that he must be on steroids. That would certainly explain his size and physique, as well as the fear of drug tests. I felt a bit foolish again for asking what turned out to be a delicate question after all, and as I opened my mouth to apologize again, I felt the bench shake suddenly.

The jaguar had taken in a sharp breath and grabbed the edge of the bench with a rigid arm, and I could see the muscles there twitching and tensing beneath his obsidian pelt. His eyes stared at the ceiling for a moment, and then he looked over at me again with a startled expression, almost as if I’d discovered him when he thought he was alone. Before he could say anything, he closed in eyes in a grimace, his long white fangs protruding from parted lips as he clenched his teeth together. His whole body then shivered for a moment, sending vibrations through the bench like palpitations.

I asked if he was all right, but he didn’t respond. Instead, he grabbed the bench with both arms this time, the hand nearest me slamming down onto the front edge of the seat, just a few inches from my leg. I shifted away quickly in surprise, but as I stared at the jaguar’s paw with its stressed flexor tendons threatening to shear the seat of the bench, I seemed to see it expand. The trembling thumb pushed slowly toward the back of the seat, and the fingers curled further around the edge. Before I could be sure of what I saw, a deep, resonant creak met my ears, and I turned to look at the jaguar again.

If there was any doubt about his paw changing size, there was none about his body. As I watched, his chest broadened, huge pectoral muscles twitching as they swelled to fill the space accommodated by his broadening shoulders and back. His legs seemed to jut out from the edge of the bench, decreasing the angle of his bent knees, which rose slightly higher as his lower legs lengthened. His lower half made it look as if he were slouching in his seat more and more, yet his shoulders and head rose higher above the back of the seat as I watched. And watch I did, for what seemed like minutes, though the whole process couldn’t have taken more than a few seconds. My ears twitched as the keening bass creak deepened further for a moment, and then slowly faded into silence.

The jaguar’s newly-enlarged chest heaved a few times as he caught his breath. The experience apparently took a lot out of him, and it was a few more moments before he turned to look at me, again with that where-did-you-come-from expression. His eyes widened in alarm as he looked quickly around the depot, then back at me. “Oh god, I did it right here, didn’t I? What…what did you see?”

Deciding honesty was the best policy, especially when dealing with someone now nearly twice your size, I told him. “I saw you shake a lot, and it looked like you…grew?” I looked him up and down again, and he was almost all I could see sitting this close to him. “Yeah…you definitely look…bigger. D-did that really just happen? God, can you really DO that?”

The jaguar closed his eyes and seemed to sink into the bench again with a much heavier sigh. “They’re getting faster…” he said in a soft, dejected voice. Sitting up again to look at the schedule, then at the clock on the wall, he looked down at the bench, then at me. “And bigger. At least the bus is finally coming in a couple of minutes. Hopefully I can get on the damn thing and back home before I...” he paused as his eyes caught mine, and after reading my expression, he surprised me again by chuckling. “Heh…that must have been pretty weird to see. I’m glad no one else was around while it happened, at least. Yeah, you saw what you thought you saw. I’m….growing.”

A million questions went through my head, but I didn’t know how to ask them, or even if I should. He watched me for a moment, his tail flicking a few times before he continued. “Unreal, huh? You wouldn’t have believed it if you hadn’t seen it with your own eyes, right?” He sighed again. “Well, believe it. I made a dumb decision a while back that led to a few more dumb decisions, and now I’m stuck like this. It was fun at first. I gradually got taller than everyone else, and it looked like I lived at the gym. Everyone assumed I was just having one hell of a growth spurt and that I was really into working out. After I’d grown a whole foot in a month, though, people realized something was up, and I finally had to try to stop.” He rubbed the back of his head with a huge paw. “That didn’t go well, to say the least, and now…it’s happening FASTER. Well, you saw how much I grew! I’ve got to get away before I draw too much attention to myself and…” His eyes darted around the station once more in a fresh check to see if anyone else had arrived. “…there’s plenty of room at the home place, at least.”

A voice came over the intercom that announced the arrival of the jaguar’s bus, and as he stood, I finally got a real sense of his size. He stood impossibly tall, seeming to grow even bigger as he rose to his full height, his feet sending dual tremors along the floor and up into the bench as he planted them to gain his balance. The look of amazement on his face must surely have matched mine as I stood up next to him. I don’t know how accurate my previous estimation of his height was, but he had to be at least nine feet tall now, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if he was ten. I barely reached up to above his hips, and those shorts barely managed to contain them; he’d have to be careful even walking now if he wanted to stay modest.

He looked down at me and grinned. God, his ears looked like they were about to brush the ceiling. “Hey, it was nice meeting you. Thanks for talking with me and listening to all…this. And…I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone about what happened…or what’s happening. Maybe I can still get it under control.” He gave me a hopeful smile and reached out toward me with an enormous hand, one that swallowed my own completely when I shook it.

“Uh, for what it’s worth, I think it’s all…pretty amazing,” I finally managed to say with a blush. “I hope things work out, and that we cross paths again sometime soon.”

He blinked once as he looked down at me, then smiled widely. “I do too.” With that, he turned and walked out toward the buses. I watched as he ducked through the door to get out, then managed to squeeze himself somehow through the doors of the bus. The up-down shudders of the poor vehicle let me know each step he took finding a seat, and the sag of the carriage over the back wheels let me know where it was. I only hoped he’d be able to get off once he reached his destination.

I had a while until my own bus arrived, and I filled the time going over what had happened again and again in excitement. I wished I’d taken a picture of him at some point, though he probably would have frowned up on that. I know I’ll always have a mental picture, at least. Once my mind wore itself out replaying the incredible events of the day, it turned itself to extrapolating his predicament. As the thoughts grew from amazing to alarming to downright terrifying, I wondered again if I’d ever see him again.

And how damn big he’d be.