I'm Sure She Has Bad Knees

she was always small. a small baby and a small child. early on in life, the doctors told her mother that she would never be more than small. because she knew nothing else, being small didn't bother her. no, that is not what bothered her. what got on her nerves was how much it seemed to bother everyone else. people would rush around her to open a door, assuming that she could not figure out how to open it. she was small; she wasn't dumb! wherever she went, folk would reach up to get things for her, they would bend down to speak with her, as though their mouths had to be right up by her ear in order for her to hear them - did she look deaf? but what really got her goat was when people would try to pick her up, like she was some kind of toy. ARGH!!!

fortunately, she lived in an age when you did not have to live with your lot. genetics and the gods may have chosen to make you something, but you could now thumb your nose at them, pay doctors a whole lot of money and transform yourself into whatever you wished! so, as soon as she could, credit card in hand (even better than lots of money, apparently) she went to a doctor well-recommended by those in the practice of self-transformation. and he said - how tall? she said - well...
then the door closed because, even in that world, doctor-patient privilege is taken seriously.

...

so there i was, at the yoga studio. i was turning around to head out of the locker room and into the classroom and, i almost had to pinch myself to make sure i was not dreaming. i was looking straight ahead but i was looking at a bellybutton. a bellybutton. and it was attached to a person. a real live person. the tallest woman, no, person, i have ever seen in real life. i was so close, and she was so tall, that i had to strain my neck to look up at her. i fought back the urge to push her down (a reaction born out of my long-lived, yet never realised, desire to be 6foot 2) and she smiled down at me. i swear i read her mind: "who's going to need help getting things off a shelf now, huh?"