chapter 13

It only took another three days for Marti and Katrina to reach their 100 pound milestone. Now at 258 pounds, Marti was an Amazon of a woman. Huge, pendulous breasts rested on a round, smooth belly, that melded into big, swinging hips and a bubble butt that stuck out well behind the rest of her. Katrina, at 255 and not quite as tall as Marti, carried more of her weight in a bulbous, jiggly belly. Just looking at her made Jack weak in the knees. It was a week later that Tina hit her 220 pound milestone. That hard body was only a memory, hidden under 100 pounds of fat, spread almost evenly around her. Jack made the appropriate payments, and they celebrated each time the 100 pound milestone was passed with gluttonous feasts, with copious amounts of tropical drinks.

After that, life settled down a bit. They all still ate together, and the girls all still ate very, very well. But there was less intensity to it. They had gotten used to huge meals, so they still ate hugely, but they didn't push themselves for that extra plateful like they used to. They also started spending more time on-line, rather than lazing around the pool. It was late August, and at first Jack thought that the heat bothered them. After all, they all had a nice thick layer of insulation on them. But it was Felicia who first broke the news that she was leaving. It was after breakfast and they were all washing down the eggs benedict with coffee and mimosas.

"My mama and papa are moving to Corpus Christi, and we are opening a Cuban restaurant. I have enough money," nodding at Jack, "to get the restaurant started." Jack and the girls asked her dozens of questions about it, like the building they were renting, how much they were paying, the theme (Cuban of course), how many employees, and so on. Jack didn't know a lot about the restaurant business, but Felicia seemed to have done her homework. The next afternoon they had a party for her, which meant a Polynesian feast and lots and lots of tropical drinks. By midnight, the girls were all weeping for losing their lovely Felicia. Truth be told, Jack got a little misty-eyed himself.

The next day, Jack transferred the last payment for the last four pounds that Felicia had gained. The staff brought three golf carts around, since two wouldn't be enough for them with their new girths. They all took the golf cart ride to the little airport where Jack had arranged for the charter flight to take Felicia to Corpus Christi. There were more tears and hugs, and Felicia got on the jet, turning a little sideways to make it through the door. The crew pulled up the stairs, closed the door, the jet fired up, taxied to the runway, and roared away. They all stood there for a few moments, and loaded back onto the golf carts to return to the resort. And lunch.

A week later, Tina and Marti showed up a little bit late for dinner. They glanced at each other, and at Katrina and me, glanced at each other again, and finally Tina spoke up. "Marti and I have both been accepted to university. We start classes in two weeks." Jack thought to himself that he should have seen it coming, but in reality he hadn't wanted this to ever end, so he'd ignored the signs. So he had Juan break out the champagne, and they toasted Tina and Marti, then they toasted their new universities, then they toasted, well, they toasted a lot of things.

Jack woke up with a raging champagne hangover, with Katrina asleep beside him. He wasn't quite sure how she got there, since he didn't remember much after all the toasts. They pulled themselves together somehow and stumbled to breakfast, since skipping meals just didn't happen. Moira was serving, which included mimosas. "Hair of the dog," she said, smiling at their obvious discomfort.

So, once again Jack arranged for a charter, and once again they convoyed on golf carts, and once again they hugged and cried. They all made sincere promises to never lose touch, which Jack only half believed, then Tina and Marti boarded the jet. A few minutes later, Jack and Katrina watched it disappear into the northwest.