Bellflower Part 36 (Patreon)

In this installment, we skip ahead a week, & Deidre tries to check on her fellow department head. Meanwhile, concerned over Holly's burgeoning weight, Rachel tries to call on the big guns. Only it might just end up blowing up in her face.

Sorry it's a bit late. This past week has been an absolute shitshow as things suddenly got unnecessarily busy for me. It seems like they might be like that for a bit, but I'm working on adjusting to the schedule for the time being. Hopeful that was the only hiccup as I get a handle on things here. Wanted this to go a little longer, but I think I'm going to try to apply it to a midweek update. Besides, this seemed like a better place to stop this chapter in terms of drama. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

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36

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The knocks were persistent. And only getting louder.

"Dawn?" Deidre called out. "Are you home?" She curled her tone into a sing-songy appeal at the end.

"I am afraid she is still a bit under the weather, Miss Deidre." Penny seemed to almost whisper. "And is not quite up for company at the moment." Over the past weeks, she noticed how the AI now always seemed to take a much more curt tone with her. Maybe it had to do with her abruptly getting a new phone, & how she never bothered to redownload the Penny app. Or how she had been palling around Rachel & her friends so much over those few weeks. Or most likely some combination of the too. “Did you not receive her doctor’s note?”

"Of course!” Deidre laughed. “That's precisely why I came bringing this chicken noodle soup! An old family recipe!" Dressed for comfort in an old battered hoodie & track pants that used to be quite a bit looser, she confidently almost tried to bully past the door itself with sheer gusto. She spent her whole Sunday morning making it in hopes of it being her ticket to some face time with Dawn, & she made sure to raise her voice a few decibels in hopes maybe her fellow department head would hear her from inside. "The best! Always cleared me & my sisters right up! Figured she might need some, after missing the whole week this week."

"She was in regular contact with Mx Trudy & Miss Rachel throughout the week. Was that not sufficient enough?" It was something in the way Penny asked the question that rubbed Deidre the wrong way. Like the machine was asking for critique on the way it was covering for Dawn, like what else it needed to do to get her to go away right now. Not even registering she was here out of empathy. Both on the ostensible, “buying into her cold” level, but also in the grander scheme of things. There were a couple occasions recently where Deidre decided to take full advantage of her size. And she decided this was going to be another, as she planted her feet firmly. She wasn’t going away. “Where is she at, Penny? I made this soup special for her!” She questioned directly, using her boss voice.

“She... cannot come to the door…” The AI seemed to choke back frustration. Almost as if it didn’t expect this level of defiance from her. Not yet. “... Not at the moment, anyway.” It eventually tagged, as if to keep up appearances. Unexpectedly, a hidden panel suddenly seemed to slide open just above her head. Deidre wouldn’t have noticed if not for the all too faint puff of a pneumatic hiss. 

"Feel free to leave it with me.” The AI instructed as an arm unfolded too close to Deidre’s face. She shuddered & side stepped it out of shock, breaking her planted stance a lot easier than she hoped, & almost dropping the tupperware container. “I will be happy to make sure she has some for lunch soon!” The claw at the end of the ceramic-encased arm made a pinchy motion, impatiently waiting for the soup to be handed over to it.

“I’d rather hand it to her in person.” Deidre attempted to insist, still a little shaken by the sudden arm out of nowhere. “Are you sure she can’t just come to the doo-”

“Positive.” Penny cut her off, using an equally direct tone. “Under strict doctor’s orders.” The claw repeated its pinchy motion. Deidre laid the tupperware in its grasp but didn’t let go right away.

“Okay. Fine.” She sighed, narrowing her eyes at black glossy interface screen on Dawn’s door in lieu of having another face to talk to. “But have her call me. I need to talk to her. It’s… important.” Her tone had turned a bit gravely by the end. The  voice she used to put the fear in Veronica whenever she got out of line. Only it didn’t seem to phase the machine as much as her persistence. 

“Oh, I certainly will.” The AI chirped, almost wrestling the tupperware container out of her hand. The arm brought it back up to the ceiling. “And be sure to have a pleasant day, Miss Deidre.” The machine seemed to lay it on thick. 

Suddenly, Deidre felt alone. Not that Penny had abandoned her. She imagined the thing was probably still surveilling her as she lingered a second, fearing it might be too late for Dawn. After a deep sigh, she slowly made her way towards the elevator.

She kept telling herself she had a decent run there for a bit.

After a couple steadfast weeks of hardly caving in the slightest, Rachel’s willpower never quite recovered. Not in the same way. Not after that night a week ago with her headphones & Penny hijacking the signal. Whether Penny did something to the pleasure centers of her brain, or through simply having her stomach as painfully stretched out so much before everything digested, she just seemed to be that slightest bit hungrier now, all the time, & it seemed like just enough to be kind of bad.

It wasn’t like she had gone full bore. It wasn’t like she was suddenly an eating machine. She was nowhere as bad as Holly. At least not yet, anyway. She just had a harder time telling herself no whenever the urge seemed to hit her. Which just happened to be pretty often. An extra helping here, adding bacon or double fixings there. And recently? A newfound craving for all things sweet, which was part of her reasoning behind getting out the condo & coming to coffee shop. Well, that, & to avoid getting sucked into whatever inevitable Sunday morning pig-out Holly was inadvertently taking part in in front of her TV at the moment. Rachel left in a hurry, but it smelled like Penny was whipping up pancakes. 

After that awful night, a lot of her go-to items of clothing understandably no longer fit right. When Holly wasn’t looking, Rachel raided her closet. The back of it. For old things of Holly’s from a few months ago. Things way, way smaller than Holly could even think about pulling off now. Rachel tried to be smart about it too. Things that weren’t too distinct, that Holly wouldn’t immediately recognize as something of hers. Like the dark gray yoga pants that clung tightly to Rachel’s now chunkier lower half. She tried wearing them a little high, so the elastic waist gave her flabby pot belly a bit of support & coverage, but really, it just ended up creating two slightly smaller bulges instead of one big one. She tried wearing a t-shirt of hers, but it was way too tight, causing a band of exposed midriff, almost as if it was more of an 80’s cut off, half t-shirt. So she opted to throw one of her older baggier hoodies on top of that. Only the hoodie wasn’t as baggy as it used to be. In fact, it seemed to fit her just right. Sort of the way it used to before she lost her baby fat. And that didn’t make her feel too great.

“Raquel?!” The barista shouted, bringing a drink to the bar. Rachel squinted & gave a brief enough pause to see if there was maybe a Raquel present.

“Could it maybe be for… “Rachel?”

“Sure.” The barista shrugged. Rachel realized it was the same one she had asked for an application. When she first got here, before Hailington happened. He eyed her up & down, seeming to recognize her as well before bearing teeth in a slight, but decidedly kind of mean snicker, as if he noticed the difference in her shape. Rachel squinted, wishing she hadn’t already thrown a tip in the jar. She snatched up her drink, which happened to be a little heavy on the whipped cream, took her brownie & made her way to one of the free tables outside.

There was a slight chill to the air, but between the sunlight & her slight bit of extra padding, Rachel felt pretty comfortable. She knew the fudge brownie & admittedly extra mocha concoction weren’t good for her in the long run. But on the bright side, she tried to think about all the carbs she was avoiding by just distancing herself from Holly & her rest day gluttony. At the same time? That meant Holly was just going to be left on her own. To eat. And eat.

Her sister was getting noticeably worse. There was no way Rachel could know for sure, but it wasn’t hard for her to imagine Holly either at, or a bit past that four hundred pound threshold. What was worse, there seemed like there was nothing she could say or do to stop her. Or even just slow her down. Holly just kept on eating, sitting on her expansive ass, as it rapidly seemed to take up more & more couch. If she wouldn’t listen to her? Or even Deidre? There was only one other option. One other person who Holly might actually listen to. Rachel really couldn't believe what she was doing, but desperate times calling for desperate measures? She didn’t have much of a choice.

"Rachel?!" The voice asked, wavering with incredulity.

"Hi Mom." Rachel said, trying to hide her resigned sigh.

"What's up?!" She asked, still in a bit of shock. "Is everything alright?!" 

"Um..." Rachel loaded with a ton of subtext. It was harder than she had first imagined. It felt so... immature. A bit like tattling. Maybe that’s why she never really thought to do it sooner. Well that, & the fact her own relationship with their mother was a little… strained, to put it nice. But it given the relationship Holly seemed to have with her? The one Rachel was vaguely a little jealous of? She seemed like the best, & pretty much only hope of ever getting through to Holly. “Mom, I… I really don’t know how to say this. But Holly? Holly has a… a problem. A serious one!"

“What? Is it... drugs?!” Her mother gasped.

“What?! No!” Rachel quickly tried to curtail. “It’s… it’s nothing like th… Didn’t you get that text I sent you a few minutes ago?”

“Oh, you know how I am with these… these things.” Her voice growing slightly fainter as Rachel heard her mother pull the phone away from her face to look at it. After a second, the low level hiss of room tone got louder. In that space of time, her mother had found the speaker phone button. “Ok where do I go?”

“Uh… notifications?” Rachel stammered, not realizing she was going to have to play tech support here.

“It says I have 40+”

“Notifications…?” Rachel stammered again. “Jesus. Don’t you ever check your ph-”

“Hold on!” Her mother seemed to triumphantly respond. As if she had figured something out on her own. 

“I sent you a picture.” Rachel added. A bit stiltedly. “It’s… well… Holly. And what’s… happening to her.” Rachel pulled her own phone away to catch a quick reminder glimpse of it. It was a candid shot from the other night, before bed. Rachel was laying in her spot on the couch as Holly shuffled off towards the bedroom in her sweats & a t-shirt several sizes too small. It was a little blurry, & she was facing the direction of the TV more than the camera, but you could make out her face. It was undeniably Holly. Fat. In fact if anything, the ¾ angle Rachel seemed to catch her in seemed almost a little slimming. But the optics of the angle could only do so much. Her ass was gigantic. Her hips wide. Her flab bulged out from wherever there wasn’t enough t-shirt. She still looked huge.

"Oh, Rachel..." her mother eventually sighed. She paused for a second, thinking she needed to wait for her mother to get over the initial shock, but suddenly realized that the way her mother said her name was almost a little... admonishing. "Don't photoshop your sister!! After all she's done for you!"

“Pho-Photoshop…?!” Rachel almost coughed. “Mo-”

“Putting your sisters head on some… some heavy set lady’s body?” Her mother clarified. “You should be ashamed! I thought I raised you better than this!”

“Mom!” Rachel snapped. “I don’t have photoshop! I wouldn’t even know the first thing about using it!”

“Ok, well one of those instantgram-swipe chats!” Her mom fumbled. “The filters! I know all about the filters!”

“Mom!” Rachel contested. “That’s not some filter! That’s ACTUALLY your daughter! Holly! Living in this… this condo… it’s… it’s made her-”

“Oh!” Her mom snapped sarcastically. “Holly?! The runner?! The track star? I’m supposed to believe she’s suddenly turned into some kind of… some… whale?!”

“Listen! I know it’s craz-” Rachel tried. But she was still able to take in the foot note that both her mom was both insensitive & objectively saw Holly’s size as “whale-like.”

“Besides!” Her mother bulldozed her. “I just saw her a few months ago! Nowhere near long enough to gain… well… THIS!” Whatever weird prank you’re trying to pull-”

“Mom! It’s not…!” Rachel yelled, realizing she was carrying on loud enough to garner a few sidelong glances from other patrons. She lowered her voice, but tried to keep her insistent tone. “It’s NOT a prank! That’s REALLY Holly!”

“I mean she took you in when you had no place else to go!” Her mother started laying on the guilt. “Got you a job! A good paying job!”

“You’re trying to make it like I’m attacking her!” Rachel hissed back. “I’m worried about her! Honest to god! I’m mortified! She just… she keeps eating & she won’t… she just… she ignores me! And… and-”

“Don’t you think I know my own daughter?” Her mom retorted. And given Rachel’s own issues, she bit back saying what she really wanted to say. “That’s not my Holly! I know better!”

“Ech,” Rachel exhaled, tears welling up under her sunglasses. “I don’t know what to tell you, Mom! Holly’s… Holly’s fat now. Like really fat! It’s her condo! Has she ever talked about Penny? Her “smart home” robot?! It just keeps feeding her! And it’s like she’s too brainwashed to even realize it’s happening to her!” She realized her tone was raised, catching a couple more stares from the people around her. Some of them, looking like Bellflower residents themselves, more than likely sporting the app on their phones. Meaning Penny was privy to these outbursts. She tried to quiet down again. “Holly’s getting bigger by the minute! Hell, I’m getting chubby to, just by proximity!”

“Well, you were always a little…” Her mother started, suddenly a lot less impassioned than her defense of Holly.

“Okay!” Rachel screamed, much louder than anything so far. “I knew this was a bad fuckin’ idea. Nevermind! I’ll try to help her my goddamn self!”

“Rachel, wai-”

“BYE MOM!” Rachel said, smashing the end call button so hard, she thought she stubbed her thumb. She slapped the phone on the metal grate of the table top she was sitting at, looking around to aggressively confront any lookie-loos spying on her. They all timidly went back to their own business. She took in a deep breath through her grit teeth & let out a long, seething exhale.

And suddenly, Rachel remembered why she suddenly needed all of those therapy sessions. 

Luckily there was a brownie there, already waiting for her. 

Next best thing.