Fat for Christmas

Chapter 1

The moment I set foot into the bake shop, it was as though I was instantly transported into a magical world, where all of my cares, worries and inhibitions just melted away. The aroma of freshly baked breads, cakes and pies filled the air and tempted my senses, drawing me ever closer to this inner sanctum of deliciousness. The old-world looking shop was decked out in boughs of evergreen as though it were the Christmas holiday here throughout the year, the scent of pine further adding to the comforting aesthetic.

“Can I help you, sweetie?” said a very bubbly woman who seemed to materialize out of nowhere. Looking down at the short and very round woman wearing a holiday-themed blue and white sweater, I was instantly mesmerized by her cheeriness. She had the brightest colored red hair I’d ever seen, wavy and cut short, bobbed just above her shoulders. Her cheeks were so plump and rosy that she looked like she could have been related to Santa Claus himself; her bespectacled blue eyes glistened in the dim light of the shop, and her thin and tightly pursed lips bent up into a charming perma-smile were painted as red as the day was long.

“Um, I think I might be lost,” I said to her sheepishly, my head still trying to wrap itself around the overwhelming quaintness of my surroundings, “I was trying to find the offices of a Mister Alex Bronson. My name is Deborah Monroe.”

“Oh, well Alex owns the building,” answered the perky young woman, “but he doesn’t usually hang out here. You’ll typically find him out on his ranch.”

“Oh, I see,” I said, “do you happen to have the address?”

“Oh you can’t miss it,” said the lady, “you just head straight out on the main road here, stay due west for about fifteen minutes and you’ll see it on your right. The Double-B Ranch.”

“Double-B, huh?” I asked, perplexed by such an unusual name.

“That’s the one,” said the lady, “as a matter of fact, maybe you could do a favor for me, since you’re going out that way anyhow.”

“Oh, well I don’t know, I –”

Before I could get another word out, the plump lady wobbled her way over toward the glass counter and pulled out three large and delicious looking pies. “Alex ordered two pies from me for the Winter Fest holiday party he’s having later tonight. If you could bring them over to him for me, you’d sure save me a lot of hassle. I have so much work to do around here to get ready for the holidays.”

“Um, okay,” I said hesitantly, “I guess I could do that.”

“Thank you, sweetie!” the woman beamed. “Just tell him they’re from Shirley over at the bake shop.”

“Okay, Shirley,” I said, “but you said two pies. There are three here.”

“The third one is for you, sweetie!” said the woman with a wink and a grin, then she poked me in my ribs. “You look like you’re nothing but skin and bones. We gotta fatten you up a bit!”

“I beg your pardon?” I said incredulously, reacting a bit defensively to what sounded to my ear like criticism.

“Oh that’s just how we do things out here in our little country town,” Shirley said, looking up at me, her cheeks seeming to get a bit rosier, “we take care of each other and we keep ourselves and one another very well-fed. Here, take this bag of cookies to munch on too!”

“Oh, that’s really not –”

“Ah! I don’t want to hear it! You take these cookies and this pie – they’re on the house! And when you finish these you can come right on back here; I’ll have plenty more for you, sweetie!”


Exiting the shop, I loaded the sweets into my car and made my way out toward the location where Shirley said I would find Mister Bronson’s ranch. Naturally, I tried to resist digging into the bag of cookies for as long as I could, but my efforts proved to be futile as the temptation of the enchanting aroma was much too strong for me to avoid. By the time I reached the edge of town I had already polished off half the bag. The cookies were so mouthwateringly scrumptious, I knew that there was no way I could stop myself from eating the entire bag.

Before long I came to a large wooden sign on the side of the road that read “Double-B Ranch.” The exchange that I’d had with Shirley at the bake shop was so odd, that I couldn’t help but wonder what else was in store for me here.