Chapter 5 - part three (continued)

Though she had barely exerted herself and hadn't done much of anything all day, Sarah just wanted to nap. After lounging around for a while, Sarah fell asleep. She was interrupted a couple of hours later by the ringing of her phone, which was across the room. Sarah dragged herself off the futon and stumbled to the phone. She was afraid it might be Paul, but the phone indicated that it was Amy--one of the two friends with whom Sarah was supposed to have gone on a roadtrip over the summer. Amy lived out-of-state. She and Sarah had met in high school and had been best friends ever since. They had both taken jobs in other cities after college, but they kept in touch and got together as often as they could.

"Hi, Amy," said Sarah groggily.

"Is everything OK? You sound out of breath."

"Yeah, fine. I just woke up."

"Napping at 6:00? It must be nice."

"Yeah yeah yeah," Sarah replied with mock indignance. "Well, it's good to hear from you."
"Long time, no talk. So what's going on?"

The two friends caught up. Sarah explained to Amy about her post-breakup depression, her procrastination in finding a new job, and the general slump she had been in for the past several months. She mentioned nothing about her weight.

"Listen, I'm going to be in town soon," said Amy during a pause in the conversation.

"You are?! When?!"

"In three weeks. You want to meet up with me?"

Sarah was eager to see her friend, but immediately she began to worry: What would Amy say about her size? Amy was a fitness freak who had to work very hard to maintain her weight. Sarah had a feeling Amy would be disappointed in her. Sarah considered formulating an excuse about not being able to meet up with Amy, but she decided against it. She wanted very much to see her friend, and the fact was that Amy was going to see her fat whether she liked it or not.
Sarah took down all of Amy's flight information. She made plans to pick up Amy at the airport on the evening of Amy's arrival.

Sarah also took the opportunity to broach the subject of her weight gain. "There's something you need to know. You won't recognize me. I'm fat now."

Amy laughed. "What, you mean you gained like two pounds? C'mon, how bad can it be?"

Sarah sighed, "No, I mean it. I'm really fat now."

"You, fat? Yeah, right. I'll believe that when I see it. You've always been tiny. I'm sure you're exaggerating."

"Well, you'll see. Don't say I didn't warn you, though."

"Whatever!" scoffed Amy.

She changed the subject, and the two friends continued chatting for another hour. Sarah enjoyed the conversation and hung up the phone with a smile.

When she had gotten off the phone with Amy, Sarah read for a while, tidied up her apartment a bit, and then turned on the TV again. Then she began to think about seeing Paul at the store earlier in the day. Soon Amy was going to see her as well. Everyone was going to know what a blimp she was!

As Sarah sat there worrying, The Munchies, as they had so many times before, arrived on the scene to offer her solace with food.

"Go away!" said Sarah, vaguely recalling that the little imps were responsible for her present situation. "I'm already as big as a house!"

"We just want to make you feel better!" said the Munchies.

"You just want to make me feel fatter is more like it," snapped Sarah, crossing her arms defiantly. "Well, I'm not falling for your little tricks anymore."

"C'mon, a snack is exactly what you need," coaxed the Munchies.

"NO!" yelled Sarah.

"Just a little something to tide you over," said another Munchie.

"Absolutely not," said Sarah.

Ignoring her spurnings, the Munchies gathered around Sarah and began to lift her up. "Oof!" they exclaimed, their pudgy arms straining under her weight. "You're so huge we can hardly lift you!"

"Put me down! Stop!" said Sarah, trying to push them away, but the Munchies were already carrying her to the kitchen.

Despite her protests of moments earlier, Sarah unwrapped a pound cake that she had bought from the store that afternoon. She set a knife and a plate on the table and took a quart of chocolate milk from the fridge.

She paused and tried to talk herself out of it. "What am I doing?" she said. "I can't eat this! I'll..." But the Munchies pushed her down in the chair. Sarah sat stubbornly for a minute, determined not to give in.

"You can't hold out much longer," teased the Munchies. And they were right.

With a sigh of resignation, Sarah cut a slice of pound cake and dipped it in the chocolate milk. She swallowed it in two bites. Then she immediately had another slice, and another, and another, until the cake was gone. The Munchies encouraged her, cheering and whistling.

"Room for more?" said one of the Munchies, tearing open a bag of cookies in front of Sarah.

"I really shouldn't," she said demurely.

"Nonsense!" replied the Munchies.

"I'll just have one," she consented.

"Eat as many as you like," said the Munchies. "We won't mind!"

One cookie became two, two became four, and before she could realize just how full she was, Sarah had finished the entire bag and swallowed the last drops of chocolate milk. The Munchies applauded Sarah on a job well done.

Sarah sat for a few minutes in disbelief, wondering how she had managed to stuff herself again even though she hadn't been the least bit hungry. She had no idea how she could have been so easily persuaded by the mischievous blobs, and she was disconcerted by her lack of willpower.

The Munchies gathered around Sarah and lifted her up again, carried her into the living room, and lay her down on the futon. One of the Munchies hoisted himself atop Sarah's enormous paunch as though he were climbing a hill.

"Hey! Cut that out! Get off of me!" scolded Sarah.

"What a nice, soft, gigantic gut you have!" teased the Munchie. The others laughed and patted it as well, giggling as Sarah's flesh jiggled.

"It's not funny!" yelled Sarah.

"Sure it is!" said the Munchies. "It's hilarious!"

The Munchies broke out in song. The Munchie that straddled her enormous tummy began to joggle up and down to the rhythm. Sarah watched helplessly as her blubbery belly bounced in time with their chant.

Hello, Sarah, how's it going? Glad to see that you're still growing!
You're bigger than you've ever been! Remember back when you were thin?
You had such a tiny waist--far too scrawny for our taste!
You were thinner than a rail; you looked so underfed and frail.
But we had lots of tricks in store. You're not so skinny anymore!
When we first met, you were bored and blue. So this is what we did to you:
We made you munch, bite by bite. You munched until your clothes got tight!
We made you munch, you couldn't stop. You munched until your buttons popped!
We made you munch, you couldn't quit. You munched until your seams all split!
We made you munch, you couldn't cease. You munched until you got obese!
We fed you cookies, cakes, and pies, pizza, chocolate, shakes, and fries.
We fed you candy bars and sweets and lots of other fattening treats.
You put on pound right after pound; we made you flabby, soft, and round.
And you kept overindulging; now you're positively bulging!
All day long you stuffed your face. Now we've put you in your place.
You used to be thin and athletic. Sorry we're not sympathetic.
And we won't apologize for more than doubling you in size.
Your metabolism's out of whack; you'll never get your figure back.

You had your chance, now it's too late! We're glad we made you overweight!
So goodbye, Sarah, it's been fun. But it looks like our work here is done.
We've got other folks to visit. But it's really not so bad now, is it?
You're done with counting calories; free to eat as much as you please.
Stop worrying about your figure. You can go on getting bigger.
We did our job; we're proud of that! You're permanently BIG and FAT!

At this the Munchies cheered and guffawed as they took turns patting Sarah's blubber. Sarah just lay there languidly, feeling like a beached whale....