A town taken by its stomach

Chapter IX – Leading the city toward greatness?

Mayor Donaghue, after having heard of a new craze in the city had wanted to inspect it personally. It wasn’t much after that he had to admit that this new trend was one of the best things that had ever happened in Tranquility.

So much he was interested in it, that, for a few weeks, he even began to follow specific courses of the H&U doctrine at the Scram HQ in order to be always on top of this new lifestyle.

As he concluded his courses, he felt himself reborn, with a new view on life as the H&U regulated their lives. For that reason, he enforced a new rule to those under his administration, each of them had to be following the same lifestyle. It was the best way, after all.

The previous day, as he returned home in the wee hours of the morning, he soon found his beautiful daughter sprawled on the couch in the living room, as he stared at her healthy figure, already he could see how good the results were for those following that H&U life. Under his stare, Senna snored loudly, as her titanic belly rumbled and gurgled as it digested all that his precious little daughter had gorged upon during the day.

Giving her a quick peck on the head he left her there to rest, knowing full well that it was extremely tiresome to be following the new lifestyle. Still, as much as Senna could live so carefree, he had things to do, so after a quick snack, he rightly went to bed, preparing himself for a new day.

In the morning, he wasn’t particularly surprised in seeing his little Sen, stil deeply asleep on the couch. Smiling in seeing her growing so healthy, he quickly demolished his breakfast and left, making sure to let the maids know that Senna had to be nurtured as the day progressed.

Leaving his house, he moved quickly through the city, via the use of a personal scooter, and reached his office at the Mayor towns hall. As he entered, he noticed with a smile that his people there were already following the same doctrine he had.

As he entered the main building, in fact, he met with the receptionist at the acceptance desk. She had been with him for the past two years, having received the place, mostly to her looks than to her capabilities. When he had hired her she was a freshly out of school, sickly thin girl but, as he passed her desk with a wordless greet, he saw that she had already started to look like a real woman was.

Almost covering the same table where her terminal was, the girl had fallen easy prey of the lethargy that had seemed to fill the town hall. She had grown abysmally huge, moving from her original 140 pounds to becoming the opulent 450 pounds beauty that was currently in the middle of mowing down a massive two feet subs from ‘Scram’.

But John was already moving forward, slowly and steadily, toward the lift that was soon going to bring him to the fourth floor, where his office was located. As he tiredly emerged from the elevator, he soon found himself leaning against his personal secretary desk, breathing hard as he tried to recover some precious breath, now that he was in the safe harbor of his office.

His secretary, Miss Julie Hawthorne, slowly leaned forward, pushing the bottle of Scram energy drink toward her boss.

“Here… Sir. This… will give you… the needed… boost.”

“Thanks…*huff*… Miss Hawthorne.”

As John drank down the entire bottle, Julie slowly typed her way into the latest report she had on her machine.

She was one of the oldest employees of the Mayor and, when she had been freshly hired, she was one of the most hardworking women in his office. But, as the Mayor had applied the mandatory regulation to follow the H&U lifestyle, everything changed.

Julie, at the beginning had had some trouble in following said regulation, finding that the large meal breaks and constant snacking, had a negative impact on her work. The mayor, worried that his image could be destroyed as one of his own employees was not following what he proclaimed as right, turned for assistance to the kind people of Scram. They acted rather quickly, which the Mayor took it as a sign that they thought highly of him, as they moved a team to the town hall for a supposedly mandatory health exam.

During the exam, to which Julie found herself unable to avoid, she suddenly found herself in front of a rather strange doctor. The woman in front of her was wearing a rather large lab coat, which held her corpulent figure quite tightly, although it seemed that it was a pretty recent change since the woman moved rather clumsily within the temporary infirmary.

“Welcome Miss Hawthorne, right? Here, have a seat, Miss.”

“Th-thanks…”

The woman, rather slowly, sat herself behind a desk placed strategically in front of Julie’s seat. The woman, then, reviewing some papers on her desk, turned toward the young secretary while holding a sincere smile on her face.

“So, Miss Hawthorne…Can I call you Julie? Thanks.

I’m Sarah Wellington, and today I’ll be the one examining your health parameters. As I see here from your dossier, I can’t see any particular allergy or illness. Is that correct?”

“Well, yes…”

“Good, that’s very good…Although I had hoped to be able to say the same about your current situation.

You see, I’m in this field for many years, now, and I’ve managed to develop a pretty precise eye analysis of my patients. And in your case, Julie, I can see that something is very wrong.

Here, let’s try with a first test. This first test will check your eyesight through the latest device that technology can offer. Put this on…”

As she said that, she passed onto Julie some kind of helmet made of plastic, with countless little spies all over its surface. As Julie put it on, she heard the voice of the doctor calling to her, although she couldn’t see anything around herself.

“Now, as soon as the device will start, it will quickly provide a rapid scan of your eyes structure, identifying your eyesight and any other issues that may be related to it. I’m turning it on…”

Suddenly the machine began to whirr softly, as Julie could vision was restored. As she looked around she realized she was seeing much better with that thing on, than ever before. Sarah, instead, leaning against her terminal, was quickly checking the results of the scanning.

“Yes. I see…”

“Doctor? Anything wrong?”

“Well, Julie. As a matter of fact, yes. You have a slight miscalibration going within your eyes. The organs themselves are working perfectly but, there seems to be some information loss between your eyes and your brain.

Nothing serious, but still, you will have to wear glasses for the time being.”

Julie breathed a sigh of relief and already was going to remove the helmet when the woman stopped her.

“Please, Miss… Do not remove the device yet. It will now start scanning your head in search of any issues. This will only take a few minutes.

Just relax and breathe calmly… yes, just like that…”

Julie, soon felt herself as if she was floating in a sea of foam. Everything around her was so light and comfortable. As she relaxed, she began hearing a voice calling to her, a voice to which she couldn’t oppose.

“Julie?”

“Yes?”

“Can you hear me? Do you recognize this voice?”

“I can hear you… I… Is it myself? That is my voice…”

“Yes, Julie. This is who you are. You are a woman relaxed. You let the issues in your life to pass away from you. You need not to worry on everything.”

“Yes…I don’t have to be so strict in my life.”

“Exactly, Julie. Live life at your fullest. Enjoy what life has to offer to yourself.
Enjoy all its juicy tastes.”

“I…I will…”

“Remember Julie, take it easy. Relax. There is nothing worth in rushing things.
Enjoy a meal, or two, during your day. Take a bite out of life, munch on it and swallow its juicy goodness.”

“Mmm…yes…”

“You are the most important thing in your life. Be the biggest thing you can be Julie. Find serenity inside food. Food will always lift your spirit high, Julie.
Eat at it until you’re full to burst…and then push for more. There will never be enough eating for you, Julie.”

“Mmh…never enough…good to eat…”


Slowly, as if she was just waking up from a restful sleep, she found herself still wearing the strange device that Sarah had given her. Slowly she blinked and realized she was still in the infirmary, with the doctor leaning against the machine, checking the results.

“Mmm…There seems to be something here, Julie.

The device is telling me that your level of sugar and carbs are unnaturally low. I’ll prescribe you a treatment to be followed in order to solve the issue.

Is everything okay, dear?”

Julie, slowly taking the helmet off, was feeling strangely relaxed. As she gave the helmet back to the massive doctor, she couldn’t refrain from asking something to her.

“Ehm…Sorry, Sarah, may I ask you something?”

“Sure. Ask away.”

“Have you ever used this device on yourself? I mean… I feel strangely relaxed. I…I’m not sure I have ever felt this good before.”

Sarah, laughing a bit within herself, answered right away.

“As a matter of fact, yes. I’ve started using it on myself since four or five months already. Not only it is extremely accurate but, it also provides a relaxing stimulation to the user mind, increasing the sensation of relax throughout his body.”

Feeling somewhat reassured by this answer, Julie quickly answered a few more questions, until she was ready to go but then, she noticed Sarah’s badge.

As she focused on it she saw that it showed a nice looking girl, wearing a similar lab coat, but hundreds of pounds slimmer than the woman in front of her.

As Sarah realized what Julie was staring at, she let out a loud laugh.

“Yes, I know… I should update it, but it brings so many memories. I received this badge when I was freshly hired by Scram Corporation. After a six months internship, I was immediately transferred to the main branch and there I’ve met so many colleagues that I had met before on the field.”

Julie, having a double-take at the enormous nurse, looked rather surprised at that.

“Mh? I’ll have you know that I’ve been working on the field for quite a long time. Both in third country nations and in war zones.”

As Sarah said that, she slowly rose from her chair and tried to pose as if she had still the figure showcased on her badge. Which didn’t work out exactly as she had thought. As she began to rise, she found herself unable to complete the movement, forced to lean on her desk to use it as support.

As she finally managed to stand, though, she had issues also on her posture, finding extremely uncomfortable to place her hands on her, quite fat, hips. All in all, as she stood in front of her terminal, she was a sweaty, short of breath, mess instead of the epitome of health she thought herself to be.

“You…You s-see? I…I have…done so much…more… than simply…sit at a…desk.”

The Julie that had come into the office that morning, would have stared horrified by that show but, with the mental brain wash that she had just received, was left rather impressed by the Healthier woman.

“Yeah… Can see that. Sorry for not believing your words, doc.”

With a self-complacent smile, Sarah sat quickly down, unable to keep herself standing anymore as she grabbed a couple of energy bars from her desk. Chomping on them rather grossly, she then turned toward her patient.

“No problem, Julie. Just remember to follow the diet that will be emailed shortly to you. You’ll soon be as healthier as you can be.
Have a nice day!”

From that day, Julie’s attitude changed within the office.

Quickly loosening her cold demeanor, acting way more relaxed and gorging on every occasion, her entire being seemed to have completely changed.

Becoming finally the epitome of what the Mayor thought to be healthy.