chapter 1

Charlotte Thompson was on her way, somewhat glumly, to the The Lotus, a very posh and pricy five-star restaurant on the other side of town in the business district of Newton’s Port, Rhode Island. She had been invited to a lunch with her daughter and Mrs Thompson’s feelings were.. mixed. Of course she was happy to see her daughter, it had been more than two years since Amanda had moved out and they had not left on the best of terms. Even as the Lotus began to come into view, her heart’s beating began to pick up the pace, hands gripping the steering wheel of her car calmly but tensely all the same.

Charlotte still often thought about the incident that she now referred to in her mind as “Weight Gate”. It had been the last straw in her and Amanda’s relationship. The day that Charlotte, always a trim and fit woman, had finally pushed her more than plush daughter over the edge. And it had all started with the bathroom scale.

Charlotte, ever the dutiful mother, had tried to be… gentle… this time around in her commentary, knowing Amanda’s skyrocketing size and ballooning hips were a delicate subject for the self-conscious then-22 year old.

“Honey!” She had begun. Amanda had been stood in front of her, head downcast in embarrassment as she stood on top of that scale, her hereditary brown hair cascaded down her shoulders. The bathroom scale… The bathroom scale that maxed out at 300 pounds. A bathroom scale that, as of that morning, had finally read “ERROR’. Charlotte had been in shock. Amanda had pleaded that her career life was far too stressful and demanding and that comfort eating was all that she had to cope with. Charlotte could hardly manage a grimace at the excuse, but she supposed her daughter did have a point.

Amanda, although young, was an active participant on the City Council of Newton’s Port, and her career constantly had her on her feet, dancing with litigation, being pressed and grilled at aggressive conferences, attending meetings with the big wigs. And with all of that high-mounting stress pressing on her seemingly 24-7, food always seemed to be a constant reprieve.

Every conference hall had a vending machine. Every rally had a catering crew. Every press meeting had a craft services table. Amanda’s chubby hands always seemed to find their way to the nearest morsel and that morsel always seemed to find its way to her waiting maw.

Charlotte had tried her best to sympathize, but when was enough enough?

“You need to get your weight under control!” She had barked just a little too harshly.

And then came the words that Charlotte regretted, that she direly wished she could take back:

“Or- or… Find somewhere else to take up so much space!”

Amanda had heard the last straw, and wobbled out of the house furiously, vowing that the next time they met, she’d have made such a name for herself in the political world that her mother would have no choice but to be proud!

And that had been it thus far. Sure, they still chatted here and there, birthdays and holidays and all that, but it was hardly like it had been when her “little” girl still lived at home.

But Charlotte understood that Amanda was a very busy woman nowadays. What with having recently been elected as Newton’s Port's youngest ever mayor and all.

'That's right,' Charlotte mused, 'she's not just my little Amanda anymore. She's Mayor Thompson now too.'

The election had been somewhat of a landslide and, for Charlotte, it spoke volumes to just how imposing a politician Amanda must have really been. Charlotte had been impressed with Amanda’s ability to give speeches and downright shocked with how her daughter handled questions thrown at her. But what was even more shocking for the ever-concerned mother was the sheer size of the young woman on the screen. Well, sure, the camera adds a few pounds, but the newly accepted Mayor Thompson that had waddled into view on her television to give an acceptance speech looked like she had picked up a few hundred. Amanda was big when she and her mother had had their initial falling out over it, but this Amanda... this Amanda was... well...

Huge.

In the past two and a half years, Amanda had more than doubled her weight. She was IMMENSE. And she seemed to be growing by the month if not the week. Every appearance of speech that Charlotte was able to catch on public access tv seemed to show a plumper, wider, thicker Mayor Thompson. Part of this little lunch date, for Charlotte at least was to finally see the damage in person.

She pulled into the Lotus parking lot. Exiting the car, she braced herself and briskly walked toward the double doors, anxious yet eager to finally take in her new daughter's size in person. After mentioning her name and party to the hostess, a rather fat and curvy young woman herself, she was taken to a private reserved room in the back.

'Just one of those political perks, I guess,' Charlotte thought to herself.

After brushing aside some rather obnoxious beads that hung from a wide doorway, Charlotte moved to adjust her hair and get her bearings.

"Hi mom," she heard from across the room, with a voice almost as light and sweet as ever despite the several, several extra hundred pounds that afflicted the frame of the source’s origin. Charlotte looked up at her daughter and her jaw nearly dropped. Yes the voice was the same, slightly deeper sure but still instantly recognizable. And there, settled across two wide, plush divans she was using as chairs, sat Mayor Amanda Thompson, in all of her nearly 650 pound glory, in the midst of one of her “regular” meals.

The "Hi Mom in question was muttered through full cheeks; Amanda was hardly one to interrupt the flow of a good meal. She never had been.

Charlotte took her daughter in in her pear-shaped entirety. 645 pounds was no joke. The megaton mayor took up a fascinating amount of space, each cheek overflowing its wide divan in all directions and each thigh so incredibly thick and barrel-like that Charlotte wondered how her poor baby even managed to swing one leg over the other. Not that Amanda did too much walking, nowadays. Sure, the plentifully proportioned politician was still far too proud to have resorted to mobility scooters but anyone who knew their new beloved mayor was aware that Amanda greatly preferred sitting to standing. And she even more greatly preferred eating to anything else.

It was rare that anyone saw their new mayor without a plate or a skewer in hand. She ate during interviews, she ate during speeches, she ate during ribbon-cuttings... It had gotten to the point where watching their mayor expand before their very eyes had become so commonplace for the Newton townsfolk that they'd started to see it as another adorable little quirk more than anything else. In an openminded coastal city like Newtown’s Port, the young mayor's near-constant binge eating was seen as heartwarming and even admirable. Here was a woman who got what she wanted, whether it were new sanctions on the board or seventeenths at the buffet. Sponsors and suck ups alike knew that the way to this politician's heart was through her heaving, rumbling stomach and after realizing that food technically didn't count as bribery on paper, the "favors" started rolling in. Even at City Hall, Amanda was bombarded daily with fully furnished gift baskets, meal vouchers for buffets and corporate-owned restaurants, fully catered luncheons, anything to keep in the mayor's potential good graces. Even this particular outing had been fully sponsored and paid for by some firm or another looking for a favor down the road. And Amanda was sure making short work of the spread put in front of her.

Amanda had eating down to such an art form that it was distracting to watch. Charlotte wouldn't have thought that arms that big could move so fast, clearing out entire trays (Amanda was far too prominent a figure for plates) before those trays were quickly replaced by a team of ever-diligent and silent waiters. The massive forkfuls, spoonfuls, sometimes even handfuls she shoved into her mouth were expertly chewed and swallowed after hardly any bites, their masticater far too consumed with ferrying the next mouthful to her gaping maw to take time to savor the meal anymore.

'I could have sworn I taught that girl to chew her food 22 times,' Charlotte tsked inwardly. Not that she had ANY doubt now that Amanda knew what she was doing when it came to food consumption.