The Pearfect Storm, Chapter 1: Things Keep Happening (Patreon)

The beginning of my 7th stuck story, The Pearfect Storm.

CHAPTER 1: THINGS KEEP HAPPENING

First there was only supposed to be a hurricane. 

Then came news of a polar vortex.

And now a blizzard.

Any one of those would have been bad enough, but that they all coinciding with Halloween was particularly devastating to Julie Chen, who had just finished her perfect costume. 

She had stumbled upon a green tube dress in her size online, finding anything in her super fat size was a rare enough occurrence that she had to order it instantly. But when it arrived and she tried it on, she had to admit, staring at herself in the mirror, that she looked like a pear.

Julie had always been fat and she had always been bottom heavy. But in the last ten years since graduating college and moving to the city, she had grown considerably and unmistakably pear shaped. Her hips and and thighs were fairly traditionally wide and thick for someone pear shaped, but it was her belly that made her look exactly like a pear. Her soft and squishy belly hung down her thighs, the vertical crease down from her belly button gave the impression of two distinct spheres, giving her hanging belly the appearance of the rounded bottom of a pear. 

Encasing her wildly disproportional body in a tight green wiggle dress drove the similarity home.

She was immediately inspired to make a fascinator to drive the point home, using a stick she found in the park for the stem and making a leaf out of felt she mounted everything on an old white pillbox hat with veil that she found at the vintage shop and used some hair dye to dye them green.

Julie had never had a Halloween costume come together so quickly and effortlessly, almost by accident. 

With Halloween cancelled this year, Julie felt cheated out of her best costume yet. She didn’t have much hope that the dress would fit next Halloween. It was exceedingly rare that any item of clothing still fit her a year later, especially something as snug and clingy as the green dress, as it was she would consider herself lucky if it still fit on Halloween.

Living in the northeast her whole life had hammered into Julie strong storm preparedness routines. Even when there wasn’t a storm brewing she always kept her apartment well stocked with basics, pastas, grains, canned goods, just in case. When the first word of the hurricane down the coast came up the news, Julie started stockpiling. She filled her freezer and her fridge and cabinets and pantry and when the first news report on hurricane panic buying hit the airwaves, she was proud that she was already done.

News of the impending hurricane broke shortly after Julie had just finished her big Halloween candy shop. It was her first Halloween in the new apartment and she had no idea how many kids would buzz and walk through the building, so better safe than sorry, she overbought. Since living on her own she always stocked full size candy bars for Halloween. Her parent’s weren’t big on Halloween, leaving a bowl of cheap sweets on their front steps with a sign and the lights off. She vowed at a young age to always be “the cool house” with decorations and full size candy bars.  

She was bummed that no one would see the decorations on her apartment door and while she said to herself that she didn’t know what she’d do with all this candy, she knew really that she was going to eat it all.

Before the hurricane even reached the shore, news broke of the polar vortex and the blizzard soon behind. Authorities were telling people to prepare to be holed up for more than 3 weeks before the city would be safe again. Grateful that she was already well stocked up, Julie still brought home extra bags of snacks from the bodega, something salty to balance all the candy bars. 

One of her friends on the group chat shared a meme about being homebound with Halloween candy was the “perfect storm for getting fat,” she rolled her eyes, too annoyed to remind her thin friends to maybe not share their fear of looking like Julie with Julie. 

At the same time she was worried what being snowed in at home eating for three weeks would do to her already considerable figure. She’d spent a good portion of her monthly budget stockpiling food, she wasn’t sure how much would be left for a new wardrobe after.

Her setup to work from home during the storms left a lot to be desired, her desk was small, her monitor smaller and her dining chair wasn’t nearly as ergonomic as her office chair. 

Her last order to arrive before the storm hit was a yoga ball. The weight limit on the ball was 330lbs, she didn’t know what she weighed exactly but she knew she weighed more than that. Since she couldn’t find any with a higher weight limit, she just hoped that was a standard disclaimer and they were actually rated for more. A yoga ball would be better for her back than her dining chair, and maybe a daily yoga routine would help her keep from going stir crazy… and keep her in the same dress size.