chapter 1

Our story opens in a later time when more and more Americans are either obese or overweight causing social tensions between those in shape and those “larger” Americans.
Several movements are gaining popularity as discrimination against people of “weight” is challenged in society and the courts.

The two main characters are Matt Fox, a highly paid marketing V.P. of a successful large men’s and women’s clothing chain and Jennifer Smythe, a young lawyer and former RN working for a cutting edge law firm in the obese discrimination field.

Our story begins with Matt being paged to his boss’s office. Matt thinks to himself, “this is not good, Mr. Himmle must be here.” Sure enough when Matt arrives, a very obese Mr. Himmle is waiting for him in an obvious bad mood.

“Matt!” snaps Mr. Himmle, “Why haven’t you gained the weight you promised in our agreement to hire you last year?” “I didn’t think it was important anymore, Mr. Himmle, I thought my performance here was enough, that my body type was no longer relevant.”
Mr. Himmle fumed, “I will be the judge of that! Our agreement was that you would be come overweight if not obese by the end of your first year of employment. It is obvious to me that you have not gained any weight or very little. Therefore I have no choice but to put you on involuntary leave for six months, if you have not gained at least one hundred pounds by then you will be terminated!” Matt jaw dropped, “Sir, I will be huge if I can that much weight.” Mr. Himmle sighed, “You just don’t get it do you? We cater to the obese and overweight, I have always insisted that our employees be in total empathy with our customers. To me that means being as Fat as possible!”

Matt tried to reason with Mr. Himmle, but it was to no avail. He was allowed to pack up some personal items from his office and went home.

Jennifer was a rising star in her law firm. She worked very closely with the most senior partner, Mr. Faber, who himself weighed nearly four hundred pounds. He was very fond of Jennifer.

Jennifer had met Mr. Faber through one of her patients at the nursing home she used to work at. Jennifer had been the exclusive nurse for a very wealthy client. Mrs. Morgan had come to the nursing with mobility issues do to weight gain. She liked Jennifer from their first meeting and easily confided in her. It surprised Jennifer that a woman as formidable as Mrs. Morgan would become obese. Mrs. Morgan told Jennifer that her adult children and dreamed up the scheme to fatten up their mother to point of immobility to gain more control over her vast wealth. Mrs. Morgan had always battled with her weight and the thought of just letting go and enjoying becoming fat had an appeal to her.
Mr. Faber being the family lawyer made sure that even though Mrs. Morgan was no longer in her home that she still was certainly in control of her faculties and finances.

Mrs. Morgan battled constantly with the nursing home’s dietitian a very controlling women, who Jennifer did not care for either. She was always trying to get Mrs. Morgan to lose weight, but Mrs. Morgan did not want any part of it.

One day Jennifer got caught by the dietitian bringing in food for Mrs. Morgan. The dietitian made a huge deal of it and the nursing home fired Jennifer. Mrs. Morgan had a fit, she threaten to the sue the home if they did not re-hire her nurse.

Mr. Faber became involved at Mrs. Morgan insistence. He met with Jennifer several times to get her side of the story and represented her in the matter.

Mrs. Morgan, Jennifer and Mr. Faber all felt that it would be best that Jennifer work somewhere else. Mr. Faber was so taken by Jennifer he wanted her to go to law school and come to work in his firm. Mrs. Morgan agreed and paid for Jennifer’s law school tuition, room, board and a stipend.

After graduation from law school and passing the bar, Jennifer Smythe, Esq. joined the law firm of Faber & Jones, LLC.

The same morning the Matt was given his ultimatum from Mr. Himmle, Jennifer also was being given a “figure changing” opportunity. The firm was asked to represent a group of obese and overweight women in a landmark discrimination case. Mr. Faber was to be the lead attorney, but it was important the associates involved could get along and be comfortable with the clients. Several associates met with them, but they either did not feel comfortable around very fat people or the clients did not like their attitude. Mr. Faber ushered in Jennifer, though she was quite petite and slim, her manner and genuine warmth soon won them over. Jennifer was selected to be on the legal team.

Matt Fox was about 5’10” and weighed at the beginning of our story 190 lbs. Certainly not fat, but a little heavy according to his BMI of 27. Matt ran every day to stay in reasonable shape, but he was a big eater and had always worried about his appearance. He now was as heavy as he had ever been. He was a bit of a FA, he occasionally stuffed t-shirts and under pants with towels or plastic bags to get a look at a bigger Matt. He was attracted to women with bellies and bubble bottoms. He appreciated a man with a big gut too.

Jennifer Smythe, was a petite 5’2” and weighed 110 lbs. She in the past had issues with her weight. Freshman year of college she gained the “freshman fifteen” and a little more ballooning to nearly 140 lbs. Though she liked the feel of a round tummy and bottom on her short frame, societies expectations on a Colorado campus soon had her dieting and exercising to lose the new pounds. Her mother and aunts were all quite fat and none seemed to diet or worry about their weight at all. This was one reason why Jennifer got along so well with her friend Mrs. Morgan.