Free INITIUM NOVUM: Part 1 by Casper Greysun Page A

tomorrow. And possibly the day after,”
Ruth adds, not sure if her estimate is an exaggeration or
not.
    “Well, I don’t want to count calories. Who
cares if we gain a pound? Like, whatever.”
    “If we eat that entire cheesecake, it’d be
more like five pounds,” Ruth states, again unsure about how right
she is.
    After ordering their cheesecake, the two
sisters catch up, gossiping about the many individuals they both
know. The pastry arrives at their table, along with two lattes.
Meanwhile the two are so enthralled by their snippy social
commentary on the lives of others that they barely notice the large
man sitting on the table opposite to them.
    Milton, with his wet shirt still clinging to
his fat body, takes a deep breath and holds it as he eases his
gigantic posterior into the small seat. After successfully
squeezing his ass first, then torso, in between the seat’s
armrests, he finally exhales and opens his menu, sighing longingly
as his eyes skim over his options. Less than a few seconds later he
waves a waitress over and orders.
    Heather is oblivious to the big man’s presence
until a waitress crosses into her peripheral sight. Believing that
the cake which the server carried toward them was for them, she
ogles both the cheesecake and the girl bringing it over. It isn’t
until the waitress places the cake in front of Milton that Heather
realizes it is not for her. As she’s turning her attention back to
her sister, her eyes catch a glimpse of Milton’s obese frame.
Instantly, she’s struck by a déjà vu unlike any other she has ever
experienced before. She’s almost certain that she has never seen
the man before, but somehow she knows him. She knows that their
lives are intertwined, but she cannot figure out the link they are
bound by.
    Heather watches on as the man lifts an
unnecessarily huge piece of cake onto his fork and then shovels it
into his mouth. She tries her best to place his face in her
memories, but it is to no avail. A slight nudge from Ruth snaps her
out of her current focal point.
    “Didn’t know you were a chubby chaser,” Ruth
says in a whisper, alluding to Heather’s unflinching gaze,
mistaking it for attraction.
    “What?” Heather responds, truly at a lost as
to what her sister had just insinuated.
    “Stop staring at him,” Ruth
advises.
    “Holy shit,” Heather says, finally looking
away. “I didn’t even realize that I’d been staring at
him.”
    “Yeah,” Ruth begins with a smile. “Whatever
floats your boat.”
    Catching on to what her sister had been
getting at, Heather smiles, breaking the solemnity of the moment,
and plays along.
    “Floats my boat? Look at him, he is the boat.
I’d float on him.” The two girls laugh. This causes Milton to peer
over at them. There is no way that he could have heard them, and
yet he knows the girls’ giggles are at his expense.
    Milton used to be self-conscious about his
weight, but that was long ago, before the issue had gotten out of
hand. Back before he was a “fat shit,” as his wife so often calls
him, he had cared about what he ate and how much of it he was
eating. Not anymore. Now he just doesn’t care about his steeply
declining health at all. His self-esteem is the result of the
reality he now lives. People refer to him as a “fat shit” because
he is one, or at least he feels he is. Truth is, Milton had
attracted this lifestyle. Though his thoughts and behaviors, Milton
invited, into his life, his present state of morbid obesity. All
the negativities which bred more negativity had, at one point, been
attracted to Milton’s existence through Milton’s own personal
energy. If he had adopted a healthier outlook about his weight and
his food choices back before he had ballooned to more than three
hundred pounds, Milton’s self-defeating attitude might not exist
today. Now, that same negativity is strong and consumes him
entirely, much like the cheesecake he plans on devouring
presently.
    “You know, I have two