Chapter 1

Lee woke naturally, without the rude interruption of the alarm. The birds were singing outside his window. He rolled over and squinted at the clock. 8:27 am. He debated sleeping in, as it was, after all, the first day of summer vacation. On the other hand, it was the first day of summer vacation and he didn’t want to waste any of it.

Dressed and washed, he wandered into the kitchen. Although Lee enjoyed eating, he disliked cooking. He also found it easy to lose track of time and frequently skipped meals. Recently, he had splurged on a new, high-tech gizmo called the Robot Kitchen. It claimed to be able to reconstitute organic waste into delicious food. Lee wasn’t quite sure how it worked; it was all a little Star Trek. He had it installed the machine but hadn’t got around to setting it up. This morning would be a perfect time to do that, he decided.

First off he had to step on the accompanying scale. Lee was surprised to see the dial stop at 168 pounds. He’d been a trim 145 pounds when he first moved to town three years ago. Well, he wasn’t that surprised. He’d made up for the occasional missed meal with pizza binges and chocolate bars. He patted his little belly affectionately. He didn’t mind the extra weight. In fact, he found it made him feel more mature, manlier, even sexier. When the Robot Kitchen asked if he wanted to set it for weight loss, he hit the button for NO.

Once he had it all programmed, he attached the tracking disc to his arm. It would feed information to the machine about his nutrient levels, his energy requirements and so on. The Robot Kitchen would take that information and create healthy, balanced meals for him and remind him when to eat. He grinned. It was going to be perfect while he was working from home this summer.

Lee’s day job was as an art teacher at the local elementary school. His true passion, though, was sculpting. He walked into the workroom to see his as-yet-untouched blocks of marble shining in the sun spilling in through the window. He was itching to pick up his tools and start carving, but his wrist disc beeped. Breakfast first, then work.

The Robot Kitchen had prepared a fruit smoothie and a plate of English breakfast sausages and a mound of spiced home fries. It looked good. It smelled good. Still, it came from a robot. Lee took a bite of a sausage cautiously. It was delicious! He swiftly cleaned the plate.

He went into his work shop and concentrated on his art until about noon, when his wrist beeped again. This time there was a generous portion of moussaka waiting for him, with a crisp Greek salad smothered in feta cheese and a slice of baklava. Lee felt stuffed afterwards. He decided to take a stroll over to the local coffee shop for a break.

His favourite waitress, Melody Morris, was slinging coffee and baked goods as usual. At nearly six feet, Melody was slightly taller than Lee himself. She was generously endowed with muscle and fat as well. Lee swallowed as he watched her gracefully manouvre her bulk between the tiny tables. She was a goddess, an Amazon. Her long dark hair swung behind her in her customary single braid. She laughed with the customers heartily. She was friendly enough to Lee, but she never seemed to notice him. Not the way he wanted her to notice him.

“What can I get you, Mr. T?” she asked, flashing him a smile. Most people called him that, as his last name was Thomas. One of the grade six students had started it and it just caught on.

“I’ll have a large coffee, plenty of cream and sugar, Melody.”

She nodded and poured.

“You going back East this summer?”

“No, actually.” he replied. “I’m sticking around this year. I’ve got a big project on the go.”

“That’s nice,” she said, handing him a mug before turning to talk to another customer.

He picked up a copy of the local paper and idly picked at the crossword puzzle. He could never seem to get beyond the smallest of small talk with Melody. Despite the fact that this was a small town and the dating pool was small, he didn’t register on her radar.

He’d registered on the radar of other single women in the area. The slinky divorced moms making eyes at him in parent-teacher conferences, the skinny young thing who worked at the library -- but the fact was, he wasn’t interested in tiny women. He was drawn to generous, ample figures. Always had been.

Lee wondered if Melody was the same. He’d met some of the men she’d dated in the past and they were all, well, big guys. Maybe she preferred a man who wasn’t a twig.