"I didn't recognise any of you," said Steve, "Not even you, when I saw you on television, Tim."

"I'll never forget the way you and Mr Fitzhugh conned that Piper into letting me go," said Tim, "I only wish he'd lived to see my people living in peace with yours."

"So you're dating a giant girl too, Alan," said Alison, "One of my students at that."

"Flora and I like each other very much," said Alan, "Her mother was against it at first, but she's nice to me now."

"It's hard to believe you're the girl at the cave-in who wanted me to keep me as a doll," said Dan, "How are your parents?"

"They're doing well, and glad to hear of our new laws too."

"Your mother helped us get away," said Barry, "And your father stepped in front of Kobick's sergeant's gun to make sure of it."

"Steve and Dan saved our lives," said Teddy.

"We don't have any need to know where your spaceship is hidden," said Dal, who ironically had been the only member of Minders Of Little Earthlings to have moved the Spindrift to a new location as a child, "But we offer you our full support, and we will continue to monitor (through Tim) the developments at the Supreme Council meetings, to make sure that our laws reflect your best interests. Our own space travel technology is still in infancy, but if we can help to return you to your planet, I will do what I can to arrange assistance from sympathetic scientists."

"We've adjusted over the years, married up and had families," said Valerie, keen to give an honest answer without revealing Mark's invention, "Even before the wonderful news of your work in the Council, we have come to think of this world as our home."

"And I'm married to giant Betty," said Barry.

"And Alan's relationship with Flora would break up if they went back to earth," said giant Betty.

"But we appreciate the kindness of your offer and all you've done for us all the same," said Mark.

The Spindrift families and members of M.O.L.E. enjoyed their celebration party well into the night, and then giant Betty took them all back to her apartment. It occurred to Eli Burton, that Mark's invention would make it much easier for them to get around on the giant world without assistance too.

Alan could certainly see how that would make his relationship with Flora easier and safer to manifest. There might still be giants who could be a threat to their safety, though their actions would now be more illegal than ever before.

Barry Lockeridge snuggled against giant Betty's cheek, as the lovely lady dozed off to sleep. For the first time in years, he found himself wondering about many things. Why was the giant technology behind earth's in a world that was largely so similar? Why was their fashion sense so compatible to that of earthlings on 1960s television shows that Barry had seen in reruns on earth? Most of all, Barry wondered happily, why were there two Bettys?

Suddenly time seemed to freeze, and a man walked into view on giant Betty's pillow, but he was not visible to either the frozen Barry nor the frozen sleeping giant Betty Lockeridge. He seemed to be talking to himself, as he stared away from the sleeping pair.

"Consider for a moment, if you will," he said, "the fact that I have come from the future, spent most of my time on earth in the late 20th century, and used my future abilities to pass myself off as a 20th century earth man, while freezing time and restarting it, while allowing other people to explore various possibilities, to revisit forgotten times from their pasts and to see concepts which, in their time, would otherwise be considered as mere science fiction. Consider that two renegades from my society (named Oles and Fielder) once visited a giant planet in 1984, where they committed giant murders and threatened the crew of a small group of visitors from earth to this giant planet, before one of our law enforcers followed them back in time to defeat them. Now, submitted for your approval is the case of one Barry Lockeridge, a boy who grew to manhood on a giant world, who fell in love and married a giant woman who both resembled and exceeded the visual image of the older woman of his dreams. Mr Lockeridge now finds himself pondering on the unanswered questions of his past. Now he will not merely ponder, but he will go back to 1983, both in mind and body, so that his younger self can explore the possibilities and the probable answers, courtesy of a realm only I can make accessible …. The Night Zone."

Barry Lockeridge was suddenly surprised. He was no longer on giant Betty's pillow. He was at Los Angeles Airport. He wondered what was going on. Had Mark used him as a test subject for the teleporter? No. It couldn't be the case, because beside him was his dog Chipper, alive!

Barry tied Chipper's leash to a seat in the V.I.P. room and ran to the Mens room. He looked into the mirror in amazement. He was once again a boy on the outset of adolescence! Yet he had all his memories of the decades spent in the Land of the Giants. How could this have been happening? It was as puzzling as his first encounter with giant Betty in a timeline he was sure that he had lived. It surely could not have all been a dream.

Barry returned to the waiting room, and was soon ushered aboard the Spindrift by a young 23 year old Betty Hamilton, stewardess. The giant Betty he remembered had aged gracefully and Barry still loved her with all his heart, but it was interesting to see the young earth Betty from this perspective again. He remembered his reflections on giant Betty's pillow that night, and wondered if he was hallucinating, imagining things, or possibly undergoing the self-hypnosis trick that Alexander Fitzhugh had once taught him. Had Fitzhugh acquired such a technique in his years as a practiced con man on earth, or by finding it in the German medical book he translated for his giant wife Nurse Helg? Barry just realised that both he and his best friend had been the only members of the original Spindrift team to marry giantesses. Now it seemed, if he ever got back to the reality he knew, he might watch Alan and Flora grow into a similar situation and relive his youth by proxy.

Proxy? It occurred to Barry that he was somehow getting another chance to relive his youth in person.

Barry looked around, familiar with his memories of the 1983 Mark, Valerie and Fitzhugh, yet aware that they did not know him at this point. They were all acting as they had done on that first day. The Spindrift took off. This time Barry could picture Steve and Dan in the cockpit, piloting the ship into the surprise of their lives.

He could tell Betty! He could prevent it. It seemed wrong though, to cheat history, to change time. He thought of the ramifications. He would surely prevent Dan's marriage to Marna and the birth of Danielle, if they never met on the giant world. He would most likely prevent Mark and Valerie from getting acquainted and marrying and having Alan as their son, and hence prevent Alan and Flora from dating. Steve and earth Betty might still pair up, and that would leave Barry without either Betty. Besides, if he ever got back to the present in 2010, Barry would still have his giant wife, and Mark's teleporters would still enable them to return to earth and back whenever they liked, and best of all, the giants had accepted them as friends now.

For better or for worse, Barry knew that he had to let history play out as he remembered it. Then another incident began to replay. Betty Ann Hamilton came over to Barry's seat.

"Mam, do you think those cousins of mine will show up?" he asked, wondering if that was how he had originally worded it.

"… if they don't, honey, I'll take you home with me, and you'll never be an orphan again," said Betty.

"But would I be the adopted son of Steve and Betty Burton with Eli as a little brother?" he wondered, as he enjoyed the feel of Betty stroking his hair.

Betty returned to the cockpit to talk to Steve and Dan, as the journey began to get rough. Eventually the ship made a forced landing, take off again, and make another forced landing. Then Steve and Dan went out to investigate. Barry watched the cynical reactions of Mark Wilson and Valerie Scott, as Steve and Dan returned to tell a tale of being almost run over by a giant car, which had simply passed harmlessly over their heads.

"Maybe you were lying down, tired and thought it was a giant car," said Mark, "I'm a scientist engineer. There could be lots of explanations."

"I thought it was a normal sized car too, when we first saw it from a distance," said Dan, "It was pitch dark, except for the headlights."

"My reaction too," said Steve, "But then it got closer, and I felt something was obviously strange about the angle of vision from me to the headlights, and the scale of everything. Then it just passed over us. Even the wheels on either side were taller than my house."

Mark made some crack about fairytales, which Barry recalled, as he also remembered that Fitzhugh would be needing his moral guidance in the near future.

After an encounter with a giant cat, a giant entomologist and his wife and a giant dog in a garbage dump, they returned to the Spindrift and collapsed on some make shift sleeping arrangements.

Would he have to live the whole timeline again?