The Giantess
Now you’ve arrived at this spot- take a look around. On your left you might see a boarded-up building… and on your right some twisted and broken railings and a tree stump… looks mysterious, doesn’t it? Maybe Feathers led us here because it is well known that crows love to solve mysteries… and this is where one begins…
A long time ago there was a Giantess who lived in Nelson Terrace, Luton, her name was Caitlin and she was very friendly. She had long pale-yellow hair, like spaghetti. She also had a long tail. She loved flowers, nature and reindeer. She liked playing football, hopscotch, and tag with the local kids.
One year Caitlin went on holiday to Paris, France. Unfortunately, when she was there, she got so excited at a tea party she broke all the cups and teapots because they were too dainty for her big giantess hands. She then got so scared with everyone being so angry with her that she ran away from the tea party and accidentally stepped on the Eiffel Tower and squashed it. Everyone back home in Luton heard about it because it was on the news.
When she got home, the people decided they just couldn’t trust her anymore. They didn’t want their homes or teacups destroyed. They decided to lock her up and, in the struggle, to get her into the building- and it took everyone in Luton to manage that- she bent the railings and broke the tree; she didn’t mean to do that either but that was the last straw that made everyone believe they had done the right thing by locking her away.
Inside the building was a lab with all the best scientists of Luton working away to reduce Caitlin the Giantess to regular human size.
Unfortunately, none of their experiments worked, so after a while the scientists all left. Caitlin stayed exactly the same size but as years passed the rumours about her grew and grew.
People said that she had broken down the Queen’s door in a rage at a Royal Garden Party. People said she was so strong and big she could throw people up to the sun where they would get burnt to a frazzle. People said she would knock down houses in her effort to try and make friends with people, rather than coming through the front door as normal.
Poor Caitlin stayed locked in the building. Everyone pretty much forgot about her.
But then trouble came to Luton. A big argument broke out in the market. It started with two people arguing about who should be Prime Minister, but before long literally everyone was fighting. As the fight grew and grew, a bin caught on fire, and then the fire spread and people were running around trying to put it out! The fire service was doing their best to extinguish it, but after a very hot summer there just wasn’t enough water around to put it out.
The smell of the smoke reached the building where Caitlin was imprisoned. But she was asleep. The people of Luton knew they needed her help- so they gathered together an orchestra to play outside the building to wake her up. The orchestra played jazz, her favourite kind of music, and it worked! She woke up!
She agreed that she would do everything she could to help Luton recover from the fire and the fight. But first she must get out!
Caitlin had a spoon she had been eating her breakfast with, so she began to dig a hole at the bottom of the wall. She soon realised it would take 5 years to dig herself out that way.
Then she saw a gap in the wall and pushed the wall apart with her fingers- but even she wasn’t strong enough to make a big enough gap to squeeze through.
She tried all kinds of things like punching the walls, trying to blow the door down, shouting so much that the vibrations broke the walls but none of it worked! What could she do? The fire in Luton was spreading and the fight continued!
Then a boy passed her a piece of paper through a crack in the wall. It contained a passcode for the door, he’d got it from his dad who had been one of the scientists, and it worked! She was out!
“Thanks,” Caitlin said, “let’s get this fire out.”
She stomped down to the sea, then she took a big breath in and then blew the seawater up up up in the air into Luton and put the fire out!
But there was still the fighting to stop.
The first thing she did was pick up each person fighting and separating them from each other. Then she told them to take a deep breath. She explained that some emotions get so big, like sadness or happiness, anger or excitement, or feeling scared or brave, that they can make us do daft things, like break teacups or fight. She told them she knew what that was like only too well, because that’s how she ended up breaking the Eiffel Tower. Then she gave everyone ice creams, milkshakes and burgers, which she got from a local supermarket.
After that, Caitlin helped repair the damaged houses, and cleaned the roads, and then she walked up to Darland Banks, snuggled down on the ground and disappeared. They say she is still sleeping there now under the hills and sometimes, if you listen carefully, you can hear her snoring. And they say that she will wake up again to help if ever Luton is in trouble
Have you ever felt an emotion so strongly it made you feel big like a giant? What made you feel like that? What happened?
Ah, here is Feathers, to guide us to our next stop- see you there!
