Chapter 28 - (part twenty-one -- continued)

For the most fleeting fraction of a second, Lina recalled a confection that she had tasted exactly once in her life…on her 10th birthday.

It was a rare treat, and the most decadent-tasting thing she had ever eaten up to that point…a cake with the most wonderfully vivid pinkish-orange-ish frosting, with a flavor like the sweetest nectar and the richest cream blended together, and pieces of glazed fruit of an even more vibrant hue on top. She had never tasted anything like it, before or since. Cake had always been just cake to her, but this was something magnificent. And on the side, to match, had been ice cream of the same flavor, with little flecks of fruit throughout.

It all came back to her as Mim made a jubilant pronouncement.

“Gliesian butterbell!” said Mim triumphantly. “Ah, so that’s it!”

For Lina, who had always been a picky eater, this was the singular treat she had ever thought she could eat for the rest of her life and be perfectly content, the one thing she could have allowed herself to gorge upon.

But that was before the blight hit. Lina half-recollected the news stories from years before. The problem eluded the brightest botanical minds, and soon Gliesian butterbell became, if not entirely extinct, then certainly at least no longer a viable commercial crop.

The "Gliesian" in its name referred to the tropical planet Gliese 832c, to which it was indigenous, while "butterbell" was the name given to both the sizable fruit and the gorgeous fragrant flower that bore it. The fruit itself was uniquely shaped, with fleshy rings around its circumference that resembled nothing so much as rolls of fat.

“Gliesian butterbell!” Mim was practically singing the words now, and with great glee. “Gliesian butterbell! Well, Lina, you really do have exquisite taste. And the delicious irony! It's one of the most incredibly fattening foods ever discovered. Gliesian butterbell!"

“But it doesn’t exist anymore,” countered Lina.

“Oh, but it does!” said Mim decisively. “We had our most brilliant botanists on the problem from the beginning. It took years, but they managed to save it after all! And now it’s a hearty crop again. I’m so glad. It would have been such a shame for it to go extinct.”

Mim was already speaking via vidlink with someone in the kitchen. “Can you whip up some Gliesian butterbell pudding for our dear scrawny guest…with some refeeding formula blended in?”

“Right away,” came the reply.

It arrived on a shiny silver tray in a fancy, capacious dessert glass with an elegant spoon beside it.

Mim sat next to Lina and deliberately and theatrically waved the spoon about and held the dessert glass tantalizingly in front of her. “Is this what you want, Lina?”

Lina’s eyes were wide, her mouth watering.

Mim dipped the spoon into the dessert glass and held it under Lina’s nose. “Here it is, Lina. Your long-lost heart’s desire. I bet you thought you’d never see the likes of it again, hmm? It’s right here. Literally under your nose. You can’t possibly tell me you don’t want some.”

Lina was trembling all over now. She wanted to swipe the dessert glass from Mim’s hands and pound down its contents in in one gulp. Only some last vestige of restraint prevented her from doing so.

“I know what you’re doing!” shouted Lina. “And I won’t play along! You can’t make me beg for food!”

Mim held the spoon held it up to Lina's mouth, but Lina turned her face to the opposite side and pressed her lips tight even though at that moment she wanted the butterbell pudding more than anything else in the whole galaxy.

Mim continued to taunt her. She popped an overflowing spoonful of the creamy concoction into her own mouth and cooed rapturously. “So incredibly smooth,” she purred as she narrowed her eyelids in delight. “You’d better have some, Lina, before I eat the whole thing.”

Mim repeatedly gestured to Lina to offer some of the coveted dessert, and each time instead consumed a spoonful herself.

Minutes passed and somehow Lina still managed to remain steadfast.

But then her stomach rumbled once more and she began to feel desperately, wildly, excruciatingly ravenous. She was sure she was starving. She was sure she would crumble into dust at any moment. Unless…

At last, a single tear rolled down each of Lina’s cheeks. She began to sob softly. “Could I...could I just have a little bit, please?” she said in a tiny, helpless voice.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” teased Mim. “I couldn’t quite make it out. It almost sounded like you might have been asking for something. A little bit of my Gliesian butterbell pudding, maybe? Did I hear that right?”

The tearful Lina nodded meekly.

“I don’t know, Lina. I just don’t know. All this time we’ve spent here, and now you’re just going to give in?”

“What do you WANTfrom me?!” screeched Lina.

And so it had happened. The very thing that Lina had vowed to herself she would not let happen, had in fact happened: She had lost her composure completely.

“Remember: If you eat, you’re ours,” Mim reminded her. “Give in and eat our food, and you belong to Fatropolis. That was the wager.”

“Please! I can’t take this anymore! I need to eat something!” Lina pleaded.

“I don’t think you’re serious about this,” said Mim.

Lina felt immense anger and her immense rapacity surging inside her. She was sure she was going mad with hunger. She was breaking.

“You bitch!” Lina bellowed. “You absolute BITCH!” She was infuriated by Mim's indifference, her resolute maliciousness, her arrogant smile. And Mim, for her part, continued to look on coolly, though it seemed she was doing her best to hide a smirk.

“That's not very nice, Lina,” Mim replied imperturbably. “And just for that, we'll tack on an extra 100 kayjees to your mandatory minimum weight.”

“No!” sobbed Lina. “No! Please! It isn’t fair! I'm sorry! Don't do this! It's not fair!”

“It doesn’t have to be this difficult, Lina. It’s never had to be this difficult. You know what you want. Stop putting up such a fuss.”

Lina was nearly hyperventilating. Her eyes were closed tight. “Please. I’m so hungry,” Lina said in a low, quiet, desperate voice. “Just make these hunger pangs go away. Please. I’m begging you.”

“Are you sure?” asked Mim.

“PLEASE!” shouted Lina. “I’m sure! I’M SURE! I need something to eat!”

“Be aware that you have asked for this of your own volition.”

At last Mim popped a spoonful of the pudding into Lina’s mouth. And quickly again another. And another.

She relinquished the dessert glass and the spoon to Lina and let her feed herself. Already Lina was simultaneously shoveling the dessert into her mouth and sobbing a deep sob of relief intermingled with defeat.

Lina looked down at the empty dessert glass ruefully, realizing what it meant for her.

Mim was beaming. “I TOLD you that you’d take the first bite,” she gloated, kissing Lina on the forehead.

Mim was already linked to the kitchen again. “Bring our skinny young lady a sweet feast she’ll never forget. Chilled butterbell pods; triple-whipped butterbell mousse; butterbell shakes and butterbell cakes iced with butterbell frosting. Don’t skimp. If it’s butterbell she wants, then let’s pump our pretty little guest full of it. She’s worked up quite an appetite.”

“No! I can’t!” protested Lina. “I only wanted a taste! Don’t do this to me!”

Mim paid her no mind, but simply patted Lina’s belly as they waited for the robotic dessert cart to arrive.