chapter 4

February 24th, 2012, downtown Sacramento

Angie strolled in the local bakery where she could never afford to buy anything. She walked through the displays a few times and tried to remember the layout of the place. It was very big as far as bakeries go. Mostly people used it to buy items for big parties. But the shop was populated mostly by upscale housewives looking for expensive calories to burn off later on a treadmill.

"Have you got all this mapped out now, Herbie?" Angie whispered to herself. She had a hard time thinking thoughts that were meant only for the device she kept in her pocket so she either talked or whispered.

"I still wish you wouldn't call me Herbie, Angie. But yes, I have a very thorough 3D map of this location now, including the back rooms and storages. See, I found the blueprints from a server ran by local authorities and..."

"Herbie, shut up please. You're babbling straight into my brains." Angie murmured as she discreetly walked out the main door.

Back in her small apartment, Angie took off her jeans, put on some stretch pants, made some coffee and set up an empty plate next to her cup of coffee.

"Ok Herbie, do your thing. There was this amazing looking red velvet cake. I want a generous slice of that on my plate." Angie commanded.

Herbie didn't say anything, but almost instantly a huge slice of red velvet cake appeared on the empty plate.

Murmuring with delight Angie took a very generous forkful and sipped her coffee. Yes, this was the best use she had come up for using the strange device she had named Herbie. She had tested him (it, she reminded herself) for days and done some petty shoplifting and transferred a bit of money out of an ATM until Herbie had told her it would attract a lot of attention to steal money. Oddly enough law abidance wasn't built in to the device. To this Herbie had just commented slyly that he was a prototype after all.

After days of frustration, Angie had finally asked Herbie what she should use him for that would make her happy. The device had politely asked permission to go through her mind and see what would be such a thing. Herbie had sounded a bit flustered and tired, but got back to her with an answer after half an hour. "I'm cutting a few bends here Angie, but plainly put: food makes you happy. You've never had money to buy all the foods you like and in the quantities you'd like."

Savouring the last bits of the big piece of cake, Angie smiled, patted her puffed out belly and had to admit Herbie had been right. She loved good, expensive food. In fact..

"Oh Herbie do you remember that key lime pie there? It looked so so good..." Angie didn't even need to finish when a big chunk of said pie appeared on her plate accompanied with a tiny puff of air moving against her hand.

The piece was bigger than she had thought, but in the end she was glad. It went down very easily and she had even forgot to pour more coffee. Her legs swung with pleasure as she scooped the pie in her mouth with a dreamy look on her face.

"Oof I had no idea things this good even exist. I really shouldn't have more, but..."

This time she didn't even need to say what delicacy she was thinking. Herbie just picked it from her mind and suddenly there was a fresh, warm blue cheese, olive ciabatta on her plate, real butter slowly spreading in the warm bread.

"How did you do the butter?" Angie squealed with delight as she lifted the hefty bread to her lips.

"The image in your mind was of the ciabatta with butter in it so I took the liberty to pinch some from their storage and added it. The time-space calculations were immensely complex, I'd like you to know." Herbie announced more smug than usual.

A girl might get used to this, Angie breathed and leaned back on her kitchen chair, rubbing her aching belly. She couldn't remember ever being so full of amazing food. She knew she should feel bad about being such a glutton. But she didn't. In fact she felt great, almost sensual she realised a bit startled. Angie had always considered herself almost asexual. Suddenly she wasn't so sure. The feeling was exhilarating.

The next day Angie went into a chocolatery with exquisite hand made chocolates. Afterwards she laid on her bed high from all the sugar. And almost nauseous from fullness. Only almost though. The smile never left her face as she fell into a slumber her hands on her small but firm pot belly.