chapter 2

By the time Kevin got home from the party, it was well after midnight. He was still angry from the way his wife had performed in front of the people that he had to work with every day. Kevin took his image seriously and he was aggravated that his "other half" had turned into an unseemly, ungainly, eating machine who was a few solid binges past no longer being able to weigh herself on their scale which registered up to 300 lbs. He knew that the next day at the office, no one would even mention the party in front of him to avoid further embarrassment, which would be even more humiliating. This had to stop.

As he walked past her bedroom, Kevin could hear the sounds of Nancy snoring. After one of her eating escapades, sleeping with pressure on her swollen stomach was physically painful. To try and make herself more comfortable, she would prop herself up with pillows so that she could sleep half-sitting which seemed to reduce the strain on her bloated belly. With the extra fat around her neck and the heaviness of her chest, buttressed in this position, Nancy would snore through the night. She was suffering from sleep apnea, which her doctor attributed primarily to her having gained so much weight. This caused Nancy to stop breathing for brief moments several times during the night. She would then gasp her next breath in a snort which would disturb her sleep. While she wouldn't remember this in the morning, it was one of the reasons that she always felt exhausted.

Kevin went into the kitchen to get himself a glass of water. Sitting on the counter was a box with two out of twelve doughnuts remaining. In disgust, he opened the garbage to get rid of the box before these last two could find their way into his wife's mouth. At the top of the garbage were an empty pie tin and an empty pint of ice cream. Kevin thought it’s a wonder that his wife doesn't die from insulin shock or even explode. After stuffing herself at the buffet, she had still felt the need to stop at the market on the way home and pick up an arsenal of desserts with which to assault herself. She would not be denied.

Although repulsed by the thoughts of his wife's behavior, Kevin figured he had better look in on Nancy to make sure she was all right. He checked her pulse and her breathing was slow and steady. Her clothes were strewn cross the floor and she was still wearing her bathrobe. Kevin figured that she had just made it into bed before passing out. Otherwise, he figured, the two doughnuts wouldn't have been left sitting in the box on the counter.

Looking at this behemoth supported by her throne of pillows, with her distended gut rolling with her labored breathing, Kevin shook his head sadly. Somewhere in there was the woman that he had loved and married seven years earlier. Unfortunately, it seemed as if he could no longer see her or make contact with her. It was as if she had been slowly consumed over the past two years by this other creature. This had to stop.

Kevin headed into the guest room where he had been sleeping for almost a year: There had been an argument; he had moved into the guest room, and neither one of them had made any effort to change this arrangement. Their sex life no longer existed. The last time they had tried to make love was the same night that Kevin began sleeping in the guest room. Since that night, they had been in a holding pattern. They tried to get along to the extent that their relationships with the outside world remained stable.

Kevin and Nancy both had their careers and were both successful. It was just that they no longer seemed to be able to connect with each other. Kevin was busy with his law practice; he was comfortable financially, and he was ready for children. Nancy was busy with her investment management business; was more than comfortable financially; and she refused to even talk about children. Instead, she ate.