chapter 5

The natives on Opoloo Island greeted Heather with open arms. They had been told that she had been held captive by an evil father who wanted her all for himself and kept her scrawny and thin to make her unattractive to all other men. Naturally they were abhorred by such perversity and wanted to do everything in their power to make it up to Heather. They set her up in a thatched hut of her own. She was allowed to roam free over the island, but when it came to feeding, she was not to lift a finger, all would be provided for.

Supper that first evening consisted of curds produced from the goat's milk mixed with a flour-like substance ground from one of the native plants and then baked. It smelled a bit like the kind of meat loaf you might get in a greasy spoon diner but it had the consistency of banana bread. Served along with this were bananas roasted in an open pit, coconut, mangoes, and a variety of native fruits and vegetables that had been roasted along with the bananas.

At first, Heather was alarmed at the quantity of food that had been prepared for her. There had to be enough to feed a family of four. She was SURE she couldn't eat it all and she was afraid that if she left anything it would offend her hosts. She sat herself down on the ground and crossed her legs gingerly as her newly acquired belly was slightly in the way and started to eat.

She started with the strange loaf. At first it didn't taste much like anything but the more she ate, the better it seemed to taste. She would have sworn it was the best prime rib she had ever eaten in her life. The more she ate, the more she WANTED to eat until the whole platter the loaf was on was gone. She then started in on the bananas and fruits and vegetables. By this time she felt absolutely ravenous and scooped and stuffed the food in front of her into her mouth with total abandon, losing whatever "civilized" sense of etiquette or decorum she had been raised with. Sooner than she could have imagined, all the food was gone. Instinctively, she smiled contentedly, patted herself on the belly and let out a loud belch, which caused her hosts to beam approvingly in the knowledge that the meal was a job well done. Not surprisingly, Heather became terribly sleepy. So she curled up right on the ground and fell into a deep, relaxing sleep.

In the middle of the night, Heather awakened with a deep and intense hunger in the pit of her belly. Surprisingly, she felt around and lying right next to her was a large bunch of bananas and a bowl of what seemed to be some kind of porridge. One by one she ate every banana in the bunch (there had to have been a couple of dozen of them) and slurped down the porridge in a single gulp. She let out a loud belch and an even louder fart and then rolled over and went back to sleep.

In the morning, Heather arose only to find a huge platterful of what looked like an omelet with a stack of what seemed to be pancakes covered with what smelled like coconut syrup. She dove into the food, stuffing everything into her mouth without even bothering to look to see if there were any utensils. She had only one thought in mind, to fill her belly and fill it she DID. In fact, she was so busy stuffing her face that she hardly noticed that her belly had grown so big that she popped the bottom button on her blouse and her butt had expanded so much that she split the seams on her pants. A couple of women passed by her hut and they smiled and nodded knowingly. Heather may have come to Opoloo Island a stranger, but she was fast becoming one of them!!