Chapter 1 - a new place

It was such a relief when I finished my MFA in literature. I felt like i had been through the wringer of academia but that no more would I need to stress about what my professors thought of my writing style. Or if my prose was too droll for them. I was free and I was going to turn the tables. I was going to become a teacher myself. I didn't have the desire or drive to get my PhD so I wasn't going to be teaching at a University but that didn't bother me. I wanted to settle in at a nice and approachable community college. I wanted to teach to people who wouldn't necessarily be able to afford a 4 year university education but that still had a story to tell. I wanted to find and help polish, to borrow a term from Disney's Aladdin, diamonds in the rough.

It was with that in mind that I accepted a position at a small junior college in rural Vermont. I had never lived in the state but everything I had heard was about how beautiful it was and the JC had a lovely old main building. Really, it ivy growing over the old grey stone facade and a slate roof that even Yale would have found acceptable. I couldn't believe my luck when I was assigned a small but decidedly cosey office on the top floor all to myself. Unheard of for a new teacher. The roof sloped and created an odd space but there was a dormer window and the prior tenant had even left the most dignified old wood desk wand wing back leather char. Only if there had been a fireplace and a bottle of brandy out for me could I have been any happier.

With this glorious backdrop I settled into my new life. I loved my students and they seemed to feel the same about me. Everything was going as planned and I could not have been happier. I would teach a class or two 3 days a week, hold office hours meeting with my students and some former ones to help with short stories or the proverbial great American novel they were working on. Then I would sit in my darling little office, in my predecessors leather wingback chair and indulge my own love of literature, reading books of every kind. It was truly glorious.

In December I made friends with another young teacher Julia. She taught in the culinary arts department and had a background in French cuisine. In the local canteen I joked with her that she was destined to be the next Julia Child.

"I know can you believe that I picked French as my speciality?! Talk about setting the bar high" she said

"Yeah" I giggled "it would like having one of my students come and introduce himself as Hormer and hand me a manuscript about a fathers long journey home. Id have to tell the poor kid to start thinking of a pen name."

Julia chuckled and said "the odyssey is the last thing I think of when I hear the name Homer. My mind goes straight to some fat yellow cartoon character eating donuts, which in turn makes me think of my own pastry problem."

I raised my eyebrows in question.

"I've been working on my pastry skills" Julia explained "the culinary program has a decided donut hole in our dessert department. I want to fill it but I have to polish up on my own baking skills. So I have been making batches of all kinds of tasty numbers and there is only one way to know if they are good." She trailed off looking down at her decidedly soft midsection, grabbing each side of her cute pot belly and giving it a shake.

"Oh poor you!" I exclaimed "poor Julia has to taste her, what I am sure, are amazing pastries! I can hear the sighs of pity from the television audience now."

"Ha!" Julia retorted "fine if you think it's no problem to taste tray after tray of recipes I'll bring them up to your office and we can taste them together. Deal?

"Totally deal! Bring those babies on I can't wait to try them." I said confidently.

"Ok but watch out for the extra pounds those little babies bring with them" Julia warned.

"No worries here I think an English teacher looks out of place without a good bit of extra L Bs" I laughed but I could feel myself flush. Julia must have thought it because of embarrassment at the thought of getting fat but in truth it was because of how much that idea turned me on.

"Done. We start tomorrow." Ended Julia "Im going to go and pick out what I recipe I'm going to make." And with that she left.

Left me hot and bothered at the table dreaming of what I might look like fat.