by Wilson Barbers
The day that Marian Meredith moved into the small town of Rust City, Iowa, Hermione Shinn got on the phone immediately to warn every other woman within earshot.
The reason for her call to arms? The sheer stunning nature of Miz M. herself. Rust City had not seen a woman so out-and-out gorgeous this side of a televised beauty pageant. Girls around that part of Iowa tended towards pretty and corn-fed, not built like a beauty from an Al Capp cartoon. Marian had looks to spare.
Not that she accentuated them; if anything the girl tried to downplay her appearance. But there was no way you could hide the kind of top heavy hourglass curves she possessed. Too, her innocently sexy face and long blond hair were the kind that inspired schoolboy crushes in men who hadn't seen a blackboard in decades. With this package in town, was there any way to keep the men and boys of Rust City out in the fields where they belonged?
"What was Hal Wilson thinking?" Hermione asked no one in particular while she furiously worked her rotary dial. Wilson was the head of the library board, a recent widower whose rotund wife had died from complications in weight loss surgery. It'd been Wilson who'd interviewed all the applicants for town librarian, Wilson who'd hired this deadly female combination.
Marian Meredith, librarian.
Hal had to be going through some male thing, Hermione decided. His wife dearly departed, he'd been caught by the first shapely curves to parade before him. As mayor's wife and unofficial social director of Rust City, it was Hermione's duty to get to the bottom of things.
First thing to do: meet the little blond hussy. Easy enough. Packing together a picnic basket full of sandwiches and a homemade apple pie, Hermione headed for the duplex where Marian Meredith had been seen unloading her belongings. Putting on her most winning smile, the small-town ambassador rang the bell and chanted, "Welcome Wagon!" soon as Marian came to the door.
It was even worse up close. The young librarian looked even lovelier face to face. Flawless skin. Large yearning eyes. Sensuous lips. It was a struggle for Hermione to keep a bright face confronted with this living male distraction, but she soldiered on.
"Welcome to our town," she said, following the buxom blond into her sitting room. "Always such a chore moving in - so I thought I'd prepare a little lunch for you."
"How thoughtful," Marian cooed, setting her delectable rump onto a rattan chair. Even her voice was musical, dammit! "I really don't have a thing in the fridge!"
"Just bein' neighborly," Hermione responded, and she proceeded to pull her items out. Two pork sandwiches, potato salad, a can of Canfield's Swiss Creme soda and, of course, her prize-winning apple pie.
"A whole pie!" Marian said. "You know my weakness! Never could resist homemade goodies like this!" She rose and dashed into the kitchen, hips swaying like a pendulum, and returned with two small plates and silverware. "Care for a piece, Hermione?"
The townslady demurred, so Marian cut a single healthy slice for herself. The look on her face when she bit into it was almost childlike in its appreciation. She made short work of her piece, then picked up her first sandwich. "Dessert, first," she giggled. "Shameful, isn't it?" She bit into her sandwich and with her mouth full of bun said, "This is very sweet of you!"
"Nuthin' to it," Hermione said. The way this girl tucked into her food, you'd think she hadn't eaten in a week.
She spent the next half hour getting Marian's story. A recent college grad. Unattached. From the suburbs but glad to have a job anywhere in this budgetarily tight times. Marian seemed like a nice enough girl - if only she wasn't so stupefyingly gorgeous.
"Sure you don't want a piece of pie?" she asked Hermione as the visit came to a close, and when the townslady begged off, Marian rose and returned with a second good-sized piece of her own.
That should have been enough for Hermione, but - give the woman a break - she was still too stunned by the living Marian. It wasn't until the next day that the inevitable realization hit her: there was a way to neutralize this threat to Rust City stability. Pies!
Hermione had gone to the library to check out Marian on her first day at the job. The situation was worse than she expected. The general reading area was packed with young men who hadn't willingly cracked a book in years. And wasn't that Jackie Hackett's husband skulking over in the Periodicals Section?
"Hermione!" Marian called, large eyes glinting at the middle-aged housewife. "So nice to see you again!" She paused to stamp the books of a worshipful looking young high school senior, oblivious to the way he ogled her prominent breasts. "I really need to get your pie pan back to you! It was just so yummy!"
At which point, bells started ringing in Hermione's head. If what she said was true, then Marian had eaten a whole pie by herself in a night! Mind racing, Hermione returned home and called every member of her church women's auxiliary. It was Jackie Hackett, a plump farm wife known for her rhubarb, who volunteered to bring the first day's basket to Marian.
And so the women of Rust City aligned together to deal with the menace of Marian Meredith. Every night, the young librarian received a visit from one of her neighbors, each bearing different yummy gifts. When someone noted that Marian had started to take her lunch at Susie's Cafe, Susie started doubling her servings. The low-cal sugar mysteriously disappeared from the tables during Marian's lunch hour; the two percent milk became whole again.
The women of Rust City studied Marian with the intensity of a National Geographic photog in the wild. Every favored item was noted and logged. When it became clear that the busty blond had chocoholic tendencies, a library volunteer started bringing in bags of bite-sized candy bars and emptying them in a bowl on Marian's desk. They'd all be gone by day's end. When Pert Preston brought a pint of Dean's ice cream for pie a la mode and Marian put two scoops on her slice, it was duly noted.
As they worked on their recipes, each housewife looked to their grandmothers' cookbooks for ways to increase their cooking's caloric value. Marian happily consumed it all. "Perhaps it's the country air," she confided to Hermione one night. "But my appetite has never been so strong."
Young Marian Meredith seemed to relish her new relationship with the women of Rust City. Free meals at night, snacks brought into work, lunches with twice the fattening power of any other served at Susie's - she accepted it all without a qualm. Next step in the campaign: a private coupon book printed and mailed to the curvy librarian, offering free sundaes at Gene's Parlor. The day they arrived, she was spotted at the drive-thru, seated at a picnic table and spooning down a banana split.
"Her weakness. Overeating," Hermione crowed to the rest of the women's auxiliary. Her plan had been in effect two weeks, and already the results were becoming visible. Marian's dresses were observably tighter, and while this may have made her momentarily even more of a distraction to the town's males, Hermione knew it was only a short-term thing. In time, the only place Marian would be drawing appreciative looks was the county fair pie eating contest.
Three weeks into her campaign, Hermione ran into Hal Wilson. It was at the Elk's Club All-You-Can-Eat spaghetti supper, and, naturally, Marian had been sent a complimentary ticket. Hermione was appreciatively watching the zaftig librarian go for her third plate when she heard Hal clear his throat behind her. "Lovely woman, isn't she?" Hal asked as the townswoman turned towards him. "I really appreciate the efforts you ladies have been putting into making Marian feel welcome. She's quite an asset to the library."
"Just small-town hospitality," Hermione said. She smiled up at Hal, momentarily wondering what he was getting at. The widower habitually kept things close to his chest; his marriage had been one of the least gossiped about in town.
"You're being modest," Hal said. "A lotta small-town women would have shunned a girl as good-looking as Marian. It's a credit to see you gals taking her under your wings like this."
Hermione batted her eyes, thrown by Hal's compliment. The thirtyish widower was tall and lean, with the well-dressed looks of a young bank executive - though in reality he owned the town's farm implement store. More than one unattached member of the women's auxiliary had made a move on him, but he hadn't responded to any of their overtures. Perhaps he was still getting over his wife.
"Keep on being neighborly like this," Hal said. "I really think that Marian will grow to be a big part of this community."
"I hope so," Hermione answered, and she grinned inwardly. Across the room, Jackie Hackett was unveiling a dessert cart that was conveniently rolled within reach of Marian.
Next step in their campaign was a little trickier. As the librarian continued to pack on the pounds, her clothes were showing the strain. A month and a half in, Hermione broached this subject with Marian.
"Love your outfit," she said, as she passed a cream puff over to the ever plumpening blond. "Where d'you get such nice clothes?"
"This?" Marian blushed, indicating her form-hugging sun dress. "Before I left for my job, I did some shopping at the mall in Schaumberg. My folks subsidized it, and I was able to get a lotta nice stuff. Most of it has gotten a little snug on me, though."
"Nonsense," Hermione poohed. "But if you want, I know a seamstress who could do wonders with that dress."
"How much does she cost?" Marian asked. "Don't seem to have much money these days." Must be all those extra trips to Carl's, Hermione thought. Though her private coupon book had run out two weeks ago, the librarian still went on a nightly basis.
"She's very reasonable," Hermione said, and with that, one small obstacle toward the fattening of Marian Meredith was removed.
As if to underline this, Marian started eating even more. At work, she seldom was seen without a candy bar in her hands; she'd also taken to bringing in cans of salted snacks and keeping them in her purse and desk drawers. During her neighbors' visits, she even started making broad hints for bigger portions. "Love your key lime pie," she told Susie Howard on one visit. "What I wouldn't give for an extra one to put in the freezer, save for a rainy day." Susie dutifully brought an extra pie the following week. It did not, however, get wrapped and placed in the freezer.
Marian's appetite became a source of wonder to every woman in the community. In a way, Hermione's project had taken on a life of its own; no one talked about its original impetus. As Marian ate and grew from a plump young thing to a fat woman, the ladies of Rust City spent all their time struggling to keep up with her demands.
Then something curious occurred. Four months into the project, Hal Wilson started taking Marian out. By now most - though clearly not all - of the male population had ceased its collective gawking at the rotund young blond. Tipping the scales at 205 (a gain of close to eighty pounds), she retained her top-heavy shapeliness but in a considerably bigger package. Who'd have thought Hal would go for a woman like that? After all, hadn't his wife killed herself, trying to get down to a size thinner than Marian?
Even more astonishingly, the library board head was taking her out to eat! Driving to the county seat, he'd take her to the most expensive restaurant in the county - cheap at city prices but still pretty dear to those in Rust City. There, he always seemed to be encouraging Marian to order the most opulent meals possible, while Marian, not too surprisingly, was accepting his offers. Was the girl eating two separate dinners those nights? Looked like it.
He even seemed to be taking her clothes shopping, for suddenly, the Rubenesque librarian was showing up to work in totally new outfits. Wasn't long before these, too, were visiting the seamstress, of course.
The women of Rust city watched, and as one/two/three months passed, the couple became more of an item. (Heck, Marian was becoming more of an item daily!) When summertime bloomed in the small-town - and Marian changed into sleeveless dresses, the supersized librarian was on the verge of 300 pounds. A gain of 175 pounds in seven months! When would this end?
To be honest, the women of Rust City were starting to get a little tired of Hermione's project. But how could they call a halt to it? To a woman, they all found Marian to be a darling girl, even sweeter now that she'd more than doubled her weight, but lately it seemed as if her attitude had grown, well, somewhat demanding during their neighborly visits. Mouth full of food, she'd rummage through each basket as if disappointed in its paltry selection, then she'd smile between her bulging cheeks and say, "That it?"
Inevitably, the women of Rust City began to back away from what they'd begun. By mid-August, nine months into the project, Susie was serving Marian the same portions as everybody else in her cafe; by September, Hermione was the only housewife putting together Marian's nightly Care packages. Every other member of the women's auxiliary had suddenly remembered their nearly invisible families.
Still, Marian continued to gain weight. Undaunted by the policy change at Susie's, she simply doubled her order. When the volunteer chocolates stopped appearing in her bowl, she started buying economy sized bags of the stuff herself That fall, the library board approved a salary increase for Marian that covered her rising food bill.
Hal Wilson stepped in to fill some of the void, too. He started seeing the super-sized librarian more frequently, and he always brought plenty of food with him. Take-out meals large enough to feed a family of four. Gallons of ice cream. Cases of soda. And, of course, one or two pies.
By year's end, Hermione Shinn was exhausted and ready to call off the project herself. Three months of solo work on the basket brigade had her even missing her husband. It was obvious that the campaign was over. No way would Marian Meredith ever fit into the wardrobe that she wore coming into Rust City again. Over the year, she'd quadrupled her original weight.
If Marian was bothered by her extraordinary weight gain, she never showed it in public. When two of Rust City's more attention deficit youths shouted the classic "two-by-four" riff at her one evening, she simply smiled in their direction and told them that, of course, she was fat. When you ate as much as she did, there was no way you could not be fat.
It was almost as if, inconceivably, the girl had started taking pride in her role as the fattest woman in town.
To those with eyes to see, Marian had retained her innocently sexy looks. At 503 pounds, she was a globular beauty. Her figure an astonishing 65EE-86-80, she'd taken to hiring the town seamstress to make outfits that suited her. Where once she'd tried to mask her thinner figure in professional women garb, the quarter ton librarian dressed almost provocatively. Who was she trying to impress? The answer to that one was obvious.
The same day that Hermione Shinn woke to the decision to call off her nightly visits, Hal Wilson proposed to Marian Meredith.
Kneeling in the parlor of her duplex, watching her polish off the two-pound cheese danish that he'd brought for breakfast, he offered her the life that he'd unsuccessfully tried to give his first wife. Smiling between her well-packed cheeks, Marian happily accepted his proposal.
When she'd first come to Rust City, she wasn't sure she'd be able to fit in. All her life, Marian had suffered the plight of the supernally gorgeous. Her looks pushed away other women, while most men were too awe-struck to summon up the courage to approach her. Those who actually did make a play for her were typically too egotistical to sustain anything. Yet the day she moved into Rust City, she was already making friends with the mayor's wife. And, then, the mayor's wife's friends. To top it off, they all were great cooks. Marian had always had a good appetite, but, living with her parents, had been unable to give into it. A year of life in Rust City, and she knew she'd never diet again. Even if she wanted to she probably couldn't - she'd grown accustomed to a life of near continuous eating. But she didn't want to, anyway.
She had Hal to thank for that. The fatter she became, the closer Hal got to her. Marian had grown to love the time he spent with her almost as much as she'd grown to love eating.
As he proposed, she examined herself in the parlor mirror. Her long blond hair was pulled back to show off her fat cheeks, triple chins and sensualist lips. Her breasts and belly loomed ahead of her magnificently, while her hips took up the entire love seat. (Most of her furniture was on its last legs, but that was okay, since Hal had bigger, sturdier furnishings.) Dressed in a floral print 9X blouse that was starting to gap at the lower buttons and a skirt with elastic capable of stretching to 90 inches, she thought of her future with Hal: a loving husband, a personal cook plus the chance to quit her job and join the library board instead.
She couldn't believe how wonderful things had turned out. She owed a lot to Hermione Shinn.
Fortunately, Marian was given a chance to repay the mayor's wife.
The day of their wedding, Mayor Shinn skipped town. While Hermione Shinn had been tending to Marian's gustatory needs, Paul Shinn had been stepping out with a plump young office manager at Wilson's Farm Supplies. He and the aforementioned zaftig secretary absconded with twenty thousand dollars, though Hal rather beneficently refused to press the matter with the authorities. "I almost feel responsible," he told the county sheriff, "she was my secretary, after all."
With Hermione's hubby gone from Rust City, Hal was the obvious candidate for his replacement. This made obese Marian Wilson the new unofficial social director of Rust City. She took to her role with the same sweet modesty she'd always shown. Ponderously waddling across town, her still growing form a familiar sight to everyone in Rust City, she'd smile angelically at all she met. In a full-length dress, she looked like the largest of a series of Russian nesting dolls. Jowls quivering, she'd politely ask each acquaintance how their life was going and attentively listen as she finished off a Hershey's Big Block.
Globular Marian Wilson had become the center of life in Rust City. At some point, townsfolk whispered, Marian would probably have to preside in this position from her home: at her present size, just the act of crossing the street made her break in sweat and start to gasp for breath. Still, even house bound, folks knew she'd be more of a townslady than Hermione had ever been.
As for Hermione Shinn, she discovered that her blithely ignored husband had also emptied their joint bank account. Busted! How on Earth was she going to make ends meet? Happily, there was an easy solution.
When Hal and Marian returned from their three-week honeymoon - a gourmand's tour of Windy City restaurants - they hired the jilted townslady for the one job they knew would always be in demand: Marian's cook.
What could she do? Of course, she took the position.
First day on the job, Marian asked for three of her apple pies.
