chapter 21: finale

It'd been months since Zoe Smith had last taken any pleasure in walking. Two years of lazy living and heavy eating had left the girl hopelessly unsuited to nearly all forms of physical activity.
Even so her mother insisted on taking her for regular walks. She would goad the girl with promises of ice cream and then force her to walk a whole 15 minutes to get her cold, delicious treat from a stand at the nearby park.
To most this would have been but a light and pleasant stroll. To Zoe, however, it was a gruesome challenge. Short of breath and damp with sweat, the girl's weight caused her knees to ache. Every step she took set new, unwanted, ripples running through her soft layers of fat. Her jiggling flesh and the burden upon her feet both constant reminders of how far beyond control her body had grown.
By the time she could, finally, settle her increasingly debilitating girth down upon a sturdy park bench Zoe was an exhausted mess of a girl. Sweaty and gasping to catch her breath, it would take her several minutes to regain her composure.
As Mrs. Smith left to buy the girl her ice cream Zoe, breathing a sigh of relief, glanced across the park. She could tell she was being stared at. These days she always was. As her figure had spread people had stopped seeing her as just another ordinary young woman. She had become a spectacle, a thing to be gawped at and gossiped over.
Though rarely directed straight at her Zoe had heard all sorts of comments from all sorts of people.
"That poor girl," those more tactful might lament; "it must be awful to be trapped in a body like that. And she's got such a pretty face too."
"Dear god she's fat!" Those less so might exclaim. "How much do you have to eat to get that big? Some people just have no self-respect."
"Hey, look at that whale over there!" Those lacking any hint of that particular virtue might laugh. "I think somebody needs to lay off the fries."
She'd heard them all, over and over again, until they'd started to sound very much the same.
At times like this Zoe found herself almost wishing she might grow too large to go outside. If she was too heavy to get to her feet, to hefty to walk on her own, she would never again have to bother with anything but her beloved fatty foods. She'd be free from any responsibility, any pressure to do anything. She wouldn't have to think, wouldn't have to worry. She would have only to eat and sleep. The thought put a dreamy smile on her face.
Said smile swiftly faded when, some way away, she saw a pair of familiar faces moving towards her. It was Patrick, accompanied by his mother and a petite, chestnut-haired woman Zoe had never before seen. Pretty and slight, she hung off his arm, gazing adoringly at him as the two of them walked side by side. Though they didn't seem to have noticed Zoe the three of them were all heading, slowly, in her direction.
Lowering her head the hefty girl prayed that her former fiancé wouldn't recognise her, that he wouldn't make out the familiar girl hidden under all her many hundreds of pounds of fat.
Daring a glance at Patrick as he passed her Zoe saw on her former beloved's face a grimace of revulsion, of wide-eyed astonishment at her sheer size, but no hint of recognition. He did not seem to have realised that the obese glutton seated before him was, in fact, the same obese glutton that he'd once been engaged to marry.
The three of them having passed her Zoe was about to breathe a sigh of relief when, suddenly, Mrs. Aldridge halted and turned back towards her.
"Why," she exclaimed; "if it isn't Zoe Smith! I barely recognised you."
"Hi Mrs. A," Zoe said, forcing a smile.
"Dear god, you've grown. I see you've been eating well?"
"Yeah, I guess." Zoe said, moving her arms in a vain attempt to cover her vast, hanging belly.
"Um, excuse me, who is this exactly," Interjected the girl with the chestnut hair, her eyes wide at the sight of Zoe's immense body.
"This is Zoe Smith," said Patrick; "we, um, used to date."
"Seriously," Said the girl, not quite seeming to believe her ears. "No offense, but she doesn't really look like your type."
"Yes, well," Patrick said, awkwardly rubbing his neck; "she used to be very different."
"Poor Zoe here has rather let herself go over the last couple of years." Mrs. Aldridge smirked. "You should've seen her when she and Patrick first started dating. She used to be such a beautiful girl."
"Must've been some time ago." The slender woman said, her comment seeming more thoughtless than mean. "Anyways, aren't you gonna introduce me?"
"Oh yes." Patrick said, seeming to collect himself. "Zoe, this is Therese, my girlfriend."
"Pleasure to meet you," Therese grinned, extending a slender hand.
"You too," Zoe responded, reaching out her own thick, sausage-like fingers.
The girl was short and skinny, her figure almost boyish. She was a slight young woman with subtle curves and lean, graceful limbs. She had about her a slender, effortless elegance such as Zoe, even at her thinnest, could only have dreamed to achieve.
"So, you and Patrick really used to date?" The girl asked, an enthusiastic smile on her face.
"Yes," Zoe responded.
"So, um, what happened?"
"Well," Zoe said, running a hand over the heavy belly that hung down between her wide, spreading thighs; "I got fat."
"So," Mrs. Aldridge interrupted, addressing Zoe; "what have you been up to? Found yourself a new boyfriend perhaps?"
"Not really," Zoe said, her voice quiet and small. She did not look up at Mrs. Aldridge. "I haven't really been up to much at all."
"Just stuffing your face?" Mrs. Aldridge smirked.
"I guess."
A hint of a wicked smirk on her face Mrs. Aldridge seemed about to say something more. She stopped herself, however, when she saw a chipper Mrs. Smith bouncing back towards her daughter, a large waffle filled with four scoops of ice cream in her hand.
Her smirk settling into a warm smile Mrs. Aldridge greeted the other woman.
"Why hi there, fancy running into you here. It's been a while. I see your diet's been doing wonders for you?"
"Thank you," Mrs. Smith grinned; "it really has. I feel like a whole new woman."
"You look like one too. And you're not the only one. It looks like Zoe's, um, changed quite a bit as well."
"Oh yes," Mrs. Smith giggled; "she just can't stay off the food these days. She's such a hungry girl. She just eats and eats all day."
"So I can see." Mrs. Aldridge smirked.
"So, what are you doing here?" Mrs. Smith asked, a friendly smile on her face.
"Oh, just out for a stroll. We saw dear Zoe here and figured we should stop to say hello. We were just about to move on actually."
As they said their goodbyes Zoe gazed at Patrick and Therese. Watching as the two of them walked off, their arms intertwined, she dug into her oversized ice cream. The cold, sugary, fudge-drenched treat filled her up like little else could.

"Dear god she's big!" Therese exclaimed as soon as she thought Zoe might be out of earshot. "Did you seriously use to date that girl?"
"Well," Patrick shrugged; "she was still thin when I met her. She only started to blow up after we'd moved in together. She just kept eating and eating. By the time I dumped her she'd already put on over a hundred pounds."
"Poor thing," Therese said, shaking her head in sympathy; "some people just can't help themselves I guess. Still, she must've been eating a lot. I don't think I've ever seen anyone that fat in my life."
Mrs. Aldridge did not say much as Patrick and his new girlfriend talked. The two had not been going out long. Patrick had met Therese only a couple of months ago, shortly after he'd broken things off with Felicia.
Though the golden-haired girl had been both beautiful and sophisticated, and though she and Patrick had made for a very handsome couple, Mrs. Aldridge had, upon reflection, found that Felicia just hadn't been good enough for her dear boy. A woman who would so easily, and with so little remorse, steal another's fiancé from out under her nose couldn't possibly be worthy of her dear Patrick.
Therese was, in many respects, a better match. Graceful, beautiful, and from a good family; she and Patrick seemed a perfect pair. Though from time to time Mrs. Aldridge couldn't help but wonder if the girl wasn't a little too thoughtless, too ditzy and blunt in her manners...
Looking back one last time at Zoe Smith Mrs. Aldridge saw as the girl hoisted herself to her feet, an action that required considerable effort.
She still remembered very well when she'd first met the pretty young thing. Back then it hadn't been hard to see how Zoe had dazzled her poor Patrick. The girl's stunning figure had kept him too long from seeing her for the mediocre airhead she truly was.
The pedestrian little trollop had been foolish to think she could ever be worthy of Patrick. And now, at last, she had fully received the punishment her hubris had earned her: a body which, as far as Mrs. Aldridge was concerned, would repel any respectable man. A body that would have the girl regarded with the scorn and mockery she so richly deserved. Never again would Zoe Smith be able to make anybody believe that she was anything but a witless, weak-minded, butterball.
Watching as the girl waddled away, slowly shuffling her heavy body forwards, her drooping rolls shifting, shaking, and swaying with every step, Mrs. Aldridge had to admit that she had, at least in one respect, been wrong about Zoe Smith. The girl was far from common. Quite the contrary, she was uncommonly gluttonous, uncommonly lazy, and, more than anything, uncommonly obese.
A smirk on her thin lips Mrs. Aldridge turned her eyes away from the hefty young woman. She doubted she would ever see Zoe again, yet she knew the girl would never truly escape her grip.

THE END