Chapter 1

It took about an hour to finish breakfast, but in the end I had established a new record (16 pancakes), and had eaten plenty of hash browns and sausages as well. In a food stupor, Laura led me to my easy chair and watched as I fell in. It was not 5 minutes before I was asleep, the huge meal digesting slowly.

I felt a light tapping on my shoulder and woke up. "Come on sleepyhead, time to go to the party," said Laura. I looked at my watch, and was shocked to learn that it was quarter to two. I righted the easy chair from it's horizontal position and extracted myself out. I saw Laura looking at me out of the corner of her eye. She was expecting me to struggle a bit, to huff and puff a little as I stood, but I didn't give her the satisfaction, not yet. It was an effort though, and I knew it wouldn't take too many more meals until I would be forced to use different tactics to get out of chairs.

"I put your swimsuit and a shirt on the bed for you," she said, turning away. Although I could not see her face, I thought I detected a jovial tone in her voice. I soon found out why.

On the bed was a new swimsuit, looking almost the same as the shorts that she had me wear for the weigh in. The only difference were that these were dark blue in color. I put them on, and looked down at my bulging belly. Again I tried to suck it in, but Laura had done her work too well. It remained still and unmoving. I shrugged and pulled on the t-shirt. As I tried to pull it down over my stomach, I was surprised to find that it stopped at a point just above my sternum.

I heard a noise and turned around. Laura was there, and as she looked at me her face lit up into a huge smile. She pointed toward the full length mirror and I turned and faced it.

When you have a mental picture of yourself and how your body looks, it is shocking to look in a mirror and see something radically different looking back at you. Laura seemed to be thinking the same thing. "There's something different about you, honey," she said in a questioning voice. "Let me see if I can figure out what it is." She circled me slowly, her finger on her chin, appraising my body. Despite myself, I smiled and looked at her. She kept on her game face, and slowly came to a stop in front of me.

"I think I've found the problem", she said. She moved in front of me and put her hand on my belly. She then started patted it from the bottom, causing my new pounds to jiggle. "It looks to me that since you retired, you've been getting fat. You've been lazing around, not going to the gym, and eating huge fattening meals three times a day. And to top it all off, those pies you've been scarfing down right before bed are really starting to show".

She took a step back and looked at me, still retaining her straight face. "You realize that if you continue in this fashion, you will grow an immense belly. It will balloon out bigger and bigger until you can no longer buckle your own belt. You will grow huge love handles to support that gigantic belly, and your butt and even your chest will grow soft and flabby." She moved forward again and patted my belly. She finally broke into a smile, got on her tip toes and whispered softly in my ear. "And I'm going to make sure it happens, and I'm gonna love every minute of it."

She moved away and gave me a slap on the butt. "Really like the suit, and the shirt suits you," she said. I looked back at the mirror and took a second look at the shirt. It was one of those cut off shirts popular back in the 80's that was made to show off your taut belly. In my case it did just the opposite, framing my bulging stomach for all to see.

I had been so focused on my stomach at my first glance that I hadn't noticed that the shirt had writing across the chest. "Growing", it said, with an arrow pointing down. "You really want me to wear this to the party," I asked, sounding desperate? "Most certainly," answered Laura. "The ladies will love it!" With that she took my hand. "Ready to go," she asked, flashing me an innocent look. I shook my head and smiled. "Might as well get this over with," I answered. I heard her giggle beside me as we both started walking toward the door.

We got to the car and Laura reached into the back seat, grabbed something, and threw it toward me. "Put this on please," she said. I looked at the garment, and it took me a few seconds to figure out what it was. It turned out to be a light, poncho-type rain jacket. When I put it on, it draped down to me knees. I looked over at Laura and saw her big grin. "Presentation is everything," she said. I shook my head, got into the car, and drove the few miles to the party.

When we got to Rob and Wendy's house, we heard everyone laughing and talking in the back yard by the pool. Rather than knock on the front door, we went to the side gate, opened it ourselves, and walked to the back. "Hello Everyone," said Laura, loud enough so that everyone paused in whatever they were doing and looked toward us. There I was, Laura at my side holding my hand, with every eye at the party on us. It seemed Laura had made sure that we were the last to arrive, because seven other couples were there, along with some new people I didn't know.

As I looked, all the faces that were staring at me changed from startled looks to big smiles. "Hey Laura, what's hiding under that poncho?" asked Patty, one of the lady feeders. Prompted by Patty's comment, everyone else started yelling, with the general purpose to get me to take off the poncho. "Patience, Patience," said Laura, making hand signals to quiet everyone down. When everyone was quiet again, Laura asked, "Do you want Mike to take off his poncho?" Everyone immediately responded with a resounding "YES".

After a few seconds, Laura took my hand and lead me behind a small clump of bushes that hid us from everyone at the pool. I took off the poncho and straightened up, still out of view of everyone but Laura. She looked at me, and with a mischievous smile leaned across and kissed me on the cheek while giving my belly a pat. "Ready," she asked. I nodded, and she lead me around away from the bushes.