chapter 4

Heather Pence woke up with a start. She felt as if she was just now coming out of a thick fog. Things seemed clear in her mind for the first time since....since she stepped onto Opoloo Island. What surprised her was how much of a struggle it was for her just to get up. Normally she quickly and easily popped out of bed and hit the ground running. But now it took a great deal of effort and she couldn't figure out why until she looked down at her belly. It wasn't gigantic or anything like that but it was definitely larger than it had been before. This puzzled her until her memory started to fade back in and she recalled eating like a pig, literally like a pig out of a trough.

She couldn't figure out the whys and wherefores of what was going on, all she knew for sure was that NOW she had the makings of a pot belly that hadn't been there before. There were flashes of her eating almost uncontrollably, which would definitely explain her bigger belly, but she had never in her entire life eaten that much. It was SO unlike her. And yet, as her right hand instinctively went to her rounded waistline and she patted and thumped a good sized pot belly, the proof of her overeating was right there for the world to see. There was definitely something wrong in Denmark.

She made wobbled her way to the front door, opened it, and who should she see by Dr. Daniell from Diehl Nutrition. "Good morning Miss Pence, it's good to see you up and about again!", said the good doctor cheerily. "And allow me to officially welcome you to Opoloo Island.". Dr. Daniell's chirpy nonchalance irritated Heather no end. Something out of the ordinary had happened to her, a somewhat large belly hanging over the waistband of her pants was evidence of that, and yet here was the man in charge and he doesn't even mention the obvious.

Dr. Daniell may have read her mind because at just that very moment he said by way of explanation, "You may wonder what has transpired the last two weeks!". THAT was the understatement of the year!!

"I'm afraid we may have misled you, Miss Pence. You probably have guessed as much but I'm here to confirm your suspicions. You were not hired to be a Field Research Compliance Officer, in fact, Diehl has never HAD any such position. To put it bluntly Miss Pence, we essentially brought you here as a human guinea pig. Let me explain.".

Lame excuses or weak attempts at a cover-up were the last things Heather wanted to hear. But she also knew a major research corporation wouldn't have gone to the trouble of putting her through this, what could best be described as an ordeal, without a logical explanation. She was at least willing to listen. She nodded her head in agreement and Dr. Daniell went ahead with his story.

"Opoloo Island has been inhabited near as we can tell for over eight hundred years. The earliest settlers were either Melanesian or Polynesian. We think the earliest settlers arrived here after being thrown off course by a typhoon. At any rate, they settled on the island and found a wide variety of lush vegetation growing profusely in the wild. That, plus the fresh water from the lagoon made the island a perfect place to settle down. Now from what we can put together from the native story tellers, the original settlers were thin and athletic. They walked, swam and engaged in all sorts of physical activities. But shortly after eating the food and drinking the water on the island, they became indolent and desultory. The food was there for the picking, the water was there for the drinking, so they stopped working and just sat around and ate. It wasn't long before everyone on the island got incredibly fat and lazy, which was totally out of character for them..

Dr. Daniell continued his narrative:

Diehl Nutrition discovered this island quite by accident. We had been looking for natural food supplements, since there's increasing resistance to chemically produced food additives. We scoured the whole of the South Pacific looking for various plants and flowers that we could incorporate into our product line. Well, our corporate yacht was blown off course during a typhoon and ended up here. Fortunately, we had a linguist on board who was able to translate the native dialect and that's how we heard the story of Opoloo Island.".

"Well, that's all well and good Dr. Daniell, but what's all this got to do with ME?, asked Heather incredulously.

"Yes, you're entitled to an explanation Miss Pence. As you can see, all the natives here are quite obese and do very little in the way of physical exertion. They incorporate a lot of high fat foods in there diet, which may explain why all the natives here are amazingly obese. However, we have subjected each of them to rigorous physical examinations and the findings are amazing. The average life expectancy here ranges somewhere between 110 and 115 years. There is no diabetes or other nutrition related diseases that you'd expect to encounter in a totally obese population. The average cholesterol level here is something just below 100 and the average HDL level is above 65 and the average LDL level is 10. We are at a loss to explain it. We're operating on the assumption that there is a genetic predisposition to such good health, which would nullify the marketability of any nutritional supplement we can develop here. We brought YOU here as a test subject to see if the health benefits of what grows here on the island can be transferred to a non-native population. We want you to stay here for six months so we can measure the effects of the native diet on a non-native. We will pay you one million dollars tax free for you participation!"

Heather was shocked and angry. She was also intrigued. She had always fantasized what it would be like to be a fat woman, but was always afraid to let herself go because of the potential health hazards. Here was the opportunity to perhaps live out her fantasy with the attendant health risks. And there WAS the small matter of a million dollars tax-free.

Dr. Daniell was about to go into a pre-prepared sales pitch when Heather interrupted him. "Doctor, you'll just be wasting your breath.", she said pausing just long enough to give Dr. Daniell cause for concern, "I'll be more than happy to be your test subject. But a million dollars just isn't enough, do you think Diehl can spare, say, five million?".

Dr. Danielly gulped, but since his instructions allowed him to go as high as ten million in compensation, he heartily agreed.

Heather Pence was about to experience the discreet charms of Opoloo Island!