chapter 15

"This is a good day", Helga told herself,
Thinking about her striped outfit and looking through the beautiful selection of clothes that Madame Melasandra helped to pick out. "The woman might be an obese cow, but she sure does know her fashion" thought Helga. As she reached for one of her many company credit cards, she remembered Tracey telling her to drop her name for a possible discount.

Aa casually as she could, Helga said, "Oh, by the way, Tracey sent me.

The fat woman looked her up and down on her horizontal outfit, chuckled hardly and said, "I should have known. Hey kiddo, no problem it's on the house. Now get on out of her before I change my mind, that's over $11,000 dollars you got there in fine merchandise.

Not wanting to test the fates, Helga politely thanked the woman for her help and for her generosity. However, as she headed for the door, she couldn't help thinking about what the fat woman had just said. "What the hell did she mean by, I should have known". Helga slowed her gait as she approached the front doors of the lavish establishment. She thought about inquiring into the cryptic comment but decided to quit while she was ahead.

Just before she was about to exit Melasandra's House of Eternal Beauty the fat woman said, "Wait, miss, you left your purse here and I just wanted to ask you one question."

"Oh, what's that?"

"How'd she get you to do it?", asked Melasandra wigh a devilish grin.

"Do what?", asked Helga with growing impatience for the big woman.

"Come on I know about Tracey and her girlfriends."

"Oh, you're a bit mistaken. We're coworkers, we're not a couple, or a thing", said Helga, throwing in some American slang.

"So why are you gaining weight on purpose?" asked the fat woman flatly.

"I.... I.....," she searched for something to say. "How does this woman know?", thought Helga in a nervous panick.

"Its just that she sends all of her girlfriends here for clothes and they always need bigger sizes within a few short weeks. She's a feedee that all. You know, she likes to see her lovers grow fat."

"Oh", said Helga trying her best to feign surprise when in actuality the afternoon's events all seemed to come into perfect clarity now that she knew Tracey's true and anterior motives.

"So how far do they get, usually?", asked a genuinely curious Helga.

"No need to worry about that", said the gargantuan proprietor, "If she's not porking you, you've got no need to worry about growing fat"

"No, we're not going out, but she is helping me gain weight for a specific project", lied Helga, not sure why she'd started down this path. "I'm here in America for the part of Carnie Wilson. Big money but I've gotta gain a little weight for the part", said Helga, hoping the owner bought her story.

Being a great poker player among other things, Melasandra kept a straight and even sympathetic face for her lying freeloader. Over the years, most of them had some reason or excuse for piling on the pounds, but this concoction was awesome. She wasn't gonna let her off the hook that easy.

"So when does production begin?"

"In six months", said Helga a bit shakily as she didn't want to have to spin any more lies.

"You better get to eating fast though, looks like you'll have to gain 100lbs by then, if anyone is gonna buy you as Carnie Wilson, but I can see it", lied Melasandra.

"Yeah, lots of calories and cakes to eat", said Helga half jokingly while growing hungry just from the mental imagery of fattening food going into her belly.

"Wow, well you better get to Tracey's house and begin stuffing yourself, you know, with all of her fattening feeding devices. You know, if you wanna make your deadline.", said Melasandra casually.

"Yeah sure", said Helga uncomfortably as she desparately wanted to leave.

"Sorry to keep you, I can tell you're hungry and in a rush not to get back to your girlfriend", teased Melasandra. "Any alterations are free and if and when you need to size up. It's free, but only for the first two months, not a second later.