chapter 7

Joanna rather reluctantly drove to the airport to pick up her mother. She hadn't been looking forward to this visit from the moment her mother called announcing her coming arrival. What made her impending visit even worse was the news that her "picture perfect" older sister Titania was to accompany her.

She hadn't seen her mother or sister in over a year and there was a reason for that. It seemed that no matter what she did or how much she accomplished, Joanna could never stack up against either her mother or sister. Joanna won an Illinois State Scholarship, her sister got a full ride scholarship to Harvard. Joanna graduated from MIT with a Master's degree in computer engineering. Her mother won a MacArthur Genius Grant for $1.1 million dollars. No matter how high she reached, she always seemed to come up short. Now how would these two paragons of perfection react to her fat, flabby body? This was NOT going to be a fun two weeks.

She got to the airport just as their flight arrived, so she had to wait a bit as they were deboarding the plane. She looked up at the clock in the receiving area. Ten minutes went by. Then ten minutes more. Then twenty. Surely the plane had to have emptied by now? And all she could see were two distinctly overweight women talking to each other and constantly looking at their wristwatches. Finally, Joanna walked up to the pudgy pair and asked them if they had seen anything of two rather tall, thin, striking looking women. And that's when Joanna received the shock of her life. The minute the older woman opened her mouth, Joanna knew at once that it was her mother. And doubtless the other fat girl with her was darling Titania.

"Wouldn't you know it!", Joanna said to herself as she attempted to embrace either woman. "Here I get fat and gain well over a hundred pounds, and my mother and sister outdo me by at least an extra fifty pounds." Yes, it was true. Clara and Titania Kirshner had both blossomed into truly gargantuan women. Joanna was sure there was a story behind this amazing transformation and she way dying to find out what happened. But all she could think about as she escorted the plentiful pair to the short term parking lot was, "How are all of us going to fit into my little Mazda Miata?". She was still thinking about it as she turned around to see her mother and sister stop off at a soft pretzel stand and devour what was the last of the pretzel emporium's inventory! All Joanna could think was, "There may not be enough food in my grocery store to feed all of us for two weeks.". But that's a story for another time!