chapter 3

The rattling of the door woke me and for a few seconds my heart pounded in my chest as I did not recognise my surroundings. I still felt woozy from the after effects of the tribe's strange beer and although my stomach was no longer painful, it was still full. I had no idea how long I had been asleep; my watch was gone. Quickly checking my pockets, I found my wallet and telephone had vanished too. I realised that nobody knew I was here and I had no way of communicating with the outside world, but I did not have time to dwell on the thought because the door opened and Jess walked in smiling sweetly at me. Once again, I noticed the two chaperones take up their position by the only way out of the hut.

"Did you have a nice rest, skinny boy?" she asked as she walked across the room. I did not have time to answer before she continued. "Don't get up yet - I need you to remain laying there for a minute." I felt a streak of stubborn resistance and began to push myself off the mattress, but Jess laughed.

"If you don't lie down yourself, the chaperones will hold you down," she said. I looked up at the two burly men, and the way they grinned at me made me realise they would quite happily physically restrain me, so I reluctantly obeyed and Jess knelt beside me.

"That's a good skinny boy," she breathed in my ear and she began to press on my belly, making interested grunting sounds. Although I still felt full, it was clear that my stomach was no longer stuffed; a fact that seemed to concern her greatly.

"Can you forgive me?" she asked with a trace of sadness in her voice. "It is only the first day and I am failing you!" I honestly thought she was about to start crying, and strangely, that made me feel bad.

"Why do you think you are failing?" I asked.

Jess sniffed, fighting back her tears. "I was supposed to keep you stuffed and make you fat," she sighed. "It fulfils your desires and this proves I will be a good wife. But your belly is not full so I think you will stay too thin!"

"These things take time," I said, only realising how ridiculous I sounded as the words left my mouth, so I quickly added, "and anyway - I don't really want to be fat!"

"But you said this was your dream life! Why would you lie about that?"

"I wasn't lying!" I replied, a little too defensively. I looked into Jess' deep, dark eyes, brimming with tears, and added lamely, "It was a joke."

For a few seconds, Jess looked confused, and then her face changed to an expression of annoyance. She was still trying not to cry, but now it was anger and frustration rather than disappointment that fuelled the emotion.

"I cannot believe you are so ungrateful!" I wish she had shouted; the pure disappointment in her voice was the worst thing I had ever heard. "Do you know how hard it was to smuggle you in? Do you understand the effort we went through to get you here? And now you say it was a joke?!"

Embarrassed, I muttered: "I did not ask to be brought here like this!"

"But you did!" hissed Jess. "You did! You said: 'I would do anything to be with you if you will make me fat'. You said that to me!"

I winced at the words as I recalled putting that in one of the e-mails I sent her.

"Don't you want to be with me, baby?" asked Jess sadly. "Is this because I did not feed you enough yesterday? I knew I had failed you!"
I was having real difficulty keeping up with Jess' mood swings between sadness and anger, especially as my head was still foggy. I found myself sitting up and putting my arm around her shoulder pulling her close.

"You certainly have not failed me," I said. "I was stupid to make a joke and wish I could do something to put it right." Jess turned to me and smiled.

"Then let me feed you again," she whispered; the hope clear in her voice. "You may enjoy all the food and you may grow to love me feeding you." I smiled at her unintentional pun, but she did not seem to notice. "And," she added, "I will not be embarrassed in front of the tribe. I need a fat man at my wedding; I cannot get married with a skinny boy!" I looked at her big brown eyes, and could see the worry there. Without really knowing why, I nodded.

Jess grinned excitedly and turned to the chaperones, saying something in her native language. One left and returned a few minutes later with a strange coloured rope. It was marked off in sections, each slightly bigger than the span of my hand from my thumb to the tip of my little finger. I looked at the large hands of the chaperone and assumed it was their hands which had been used to measure the distance. There were twelve markers and the rope between the first six was coloured a pale red. Between the next five yellow, and between the final two a bright green. Jess asked me to stand and when I did, she looped the rope around my waist and pulled it tightly until it dug into my skin.

"Four and a half," she said. "That is very disappointing. You are in the red section; I said you were a skinny boy, but we can soon change that!" Jess made another comment in her own language and one of the chaperones disappeared again. While waiting for him to return, she directed me to table and chair and motioned for me to sit. As before, she sat on my knee, our noses almost touching and her eyes in line with mine. I was almost hypnotised as I gazed into them.

The chaperone returned with a large bowl of yellow mush. I looked at it suspiciously. It was clear that it contained a lot of greasy fat as there was a thick layer of congealed oil glimmering on top. Jess looked at it approvingly and mixed it back into the rest of the mush and then lifted a spoonful to my mouth. The smell was not pleasant; all I could tell from the scent is that there were definitely bananas in there. I balked as she pushed it against my lips.

"Open your mouth baby," she whispered, but I could not bring myself to taste the mixture. Jess nodded to the chaperones and they grabbed my arms. I had not noticed before that the chair had hoops of rope on the back. Within seconds, the were wrapped around my wrists and as I tried to pull my arms out, they just got tighter. I very quickly stopped struggling and they put similar loops around my ankles, leaving me practically unable to move on the chair.

"You see, baby," said Jess, "I put a lot of
planning into how much I would force feed you." The chaperone pulled back my head and dug his thumbs into the side of my jaw until I opened my mouth. As soon as I did, Jess slipped a rubber ring behind my front teeth. I could bite down to close my mouth, but it was a great effort and as soon as I relaxed, the ring forced my mouth open again. Jess waited patiently for me to realise how hopeless my situation was, and eventually I just sat there with my mouth open. Jess immediately scooped a spoonful of the mixture into my mouth. It was not particularly nice, but not as bad as I thought it would be. Jess kept pushing it through between my teeth, and I had to force my mouth closed to swallow but as soon as it re-opened, she filled it again. The mixture was very rich and stodgy and I could feel it sitting heavily in my stomach.

"This is a mixture of grains, nuts and banana, mixed with honey, and then fried in butter," explained Jess. "Over-feeding you this mixture will make you gain a lot of weight really quickly! So, if you are a good skinny boy, I am only going to stuff you with it once a day."

"What do you mean?" I asked. Jess giggled at the difficulty I had with speaking while the ring was in my mouth.

"If you eat and drink everything you are given without complaint to make sure you keep your belly full, and then you keep eating even when you feel full, to make sure you fatten up nicely, I will only force feed you this mixture at night before you go to bed.

"And that is being good?"

"Yes. If you leave the smallest morsel uneaten, if you do not gain weight or if you fatten too slowly, then this will be your punishment." She waved her hand in the my direction and I realised she meant I would be strapped into the chair. "Can you imagine being force fed this mixture six times per day?"

I had only had about half of the bowl and already I felt sick. Neither the richness nor the grease sat well in my stomach, and the flavour was becoming increasingly unpleasant with each spoonful. I shook my head - I certainly didn't want to only eat this every day.

"Good," smiled Jess. "Remember, the faster you fatten, the sooner we get married!"
I nodded, resigned to my fate and awaited then next awful spoonful.