I was walking through a Safeway grocery store today, browsing for the ingredients to put in a nice stew. The store is in Clatskanie, Oregon, and I was on the way home from a sanity break at Astoria at the beach. It is a quaint little town along the Columbia River, in the center of Commercial Logging country. I've been living in the city for so long I must look completely like a city girl, like totally.

I had just picked up an onion, and a bell pepper, and turned to hunt for some Cottage Cheese when I almost ran into a huge, rough looking guy, and his face told me that he would tolerate no stupidity from a little girl like me. My God, he must have been at least 6'5" and was as wide as a bull. Expecting him to move over to allow me past him, was my first mistake. Trying to squeeze over as he passed, I heard him huff like a wild Elk. I'd been looking up but the look he gave me was so taciturn that I immediately looked down; wondering if I should be kneeling with my palms out on my knees, like a slave?

My innermost parts were happily quivering as I stole a glance at his huge shoulders while he stalked away. I had to shake my head to get my mind back in the game of cooking stew, not clutching his Zucchini.

I ran into two more such monster men, and they fogged my mind to the point that it was impossible to recall what I'd come in there after. My emotions were so strong that I began to muse about writing such an incident into a story. Embellishing the idea a bit, a nice fantasy about my being a small but invincible warrioress in that store and not taking anything from the giant men. My companion, larger and more mature than I, was not amused by my fantasy. " So, missy, you'd kill a dozen of those huge, um useful warriors just to make the point that you are tougher than them?"

"No I wouldn't kill them.". I said petulantly.

"Do you think they'd just allow themselves to be beaten by such a small slip of a girl?"

"You mean they wouldn't just let me win?"

"What do you think? To them you are just a tiny annoyance, at least until you proved your point by killing them."

"I wouldn't want that".

"I know you wouldn't, so if you were smart, you would bring someone like Karg to 'guard' you, and avoid trouble".

I thought about those huge men and the advice from my imaginary companion for the whole hour it took me to get home from "stew shopping". The places a girl's mind can take her when she is intoxicated by the smell of testosterone and diesel fuel ...