What If? Pt. 01

Mr. Julius interrupted her, "I'm happy for you, too. But now it's time for you to get back to class. I wish you the best. If there is anything else I can do for you, let me know." Carol went back to class thinking that this was almost too good to be true.

She arranged with her dad to be able to have the car to go to the mall as soon as he got home from work on Friday. When he arrived, Carol had supper all made for her parents. She had sampled things as she cooked them so was ready to go as soon as her father arrived. She went to the mall, went to the store, found the department and asked for Cheri. The sales girl she talked to said, "You must be Carol." When Carol nodded in the affirmative, the sales girl told her, "Cheri has been expecting you. I'll call her right now." With that she picked up a phone by the cash register, dialed Cheri, told her that Carol was waiting, and then said to Carol, "She'll be right here."

As Carol stood there waiting her eyes caught a woman walking toward them. She was impeccably dressed and had an air of confidence about her. "Yes," Carol thought, "That's the look my job calls for."

The woman walked right up to Carol, extended her hand, and said, "You must be Carol. I'm Cheri. I'm happy to meet you. I understand you need to be prepared for an important interview. I'm confident we can help you. Tell me a little bit about the job." She had received some information from Mr. Julius but wanted to make sure that she understood it correctly. After Carol told her a little more about the job, Cheri asked, "Did you have something in mind?"

Carol replied, "What I'm wearing is my best Sunday dress, and I thought maybe it would be satisfactory. But when I saw you walking toward me, I realized that clothing delivers a message. What you are wearing says that you are confident, competent and successful. I want to look that way."

"We try to have clothing that helps you deliver that message. Let me look you up and down for a minute here before I get you something that I think will work for you." After looking at Carol, she continued, "I think I have just the right outfit in mind. I'll be right back." She came back with a jacket, a skirt and a blouse. "Try these on," she said, "and see how you like them."

Carol came out of the dressing room. Cheri had estimated her size exactly. She looked in the mirror. "It does have that 'successful' look that I would like to have. However, I really like the look of what you are wearing. Is there any chance that I could try something like that on?"

"Sure," said Cheri, "but I think you'll see that we are two very different body types so that what hangs well on me does not hang so well on you. But I'll get you the outfit to try on." So Cheri did and as Carol was trying it on, Cheri went around the store to pick up some other accessories. By the time Carol came out of the dressing room to look at herself in the mirror, Cheri was back.

Carol had to admit that the outfit that looked so stunning on Cheri did not look as good on Carol. And Carol knew exactly why. It was the extra weight she was carrying. However, she did look professional in the clothing that Cheri had picked out for her and would feel good wearing it to her interview.

But Cheri was not done. She had come back with earrings, a necklace, a watch, a pair of shoes with modestly high heels and a shoulder purse. She had carefully chosen items that were of good quality but were in the price range of an administrative assistant. Carol put these items on and then looked at herself in the mirror again. She hardly recognized herself. She was not a high school girl. She was a successful young woman.

"Now," said Cheri, "how were you planning on paying for all this stuff?" Carol reached for the purse she had brought with her into the store, and explained that she had money she had received at Christmas and other money she had earned while babysitting.

Cheri explained that the store was having a promotion to have people apply for a credit card from the store. Anything they bought with that credit card would receive a fifteen percent discount. Payments would not start for 90 days, and anything purchased at the store during that 90 days would also receive the fifteen percent discount. Carol filled out the application on the spot and used her new temporary card to pay for her purchases.

Then Cheri had another suggestion. "She is not working tonight, but if you can, come back to the store tomorrow to the cosmetics department and ask for Janiqua. She knows more about makeup than any other person I know. Wear this outfit, and tell her I sent you and what you need it for and she will show you what you need and how to apply it so you will look your best. And, if I were you, I'd go to the cosmetology school on Monday and have your hair cut, styled -- the whole nine yards. Fortunately, your hair is relatively long, so you will leave a lot of options for them. Just don't change your hair color once you've settled on makeup.

"Now, are you going to walk out of the store like that, or should we bag it all up and you go home dressed the way you came in?" Carol decided to keep on the clothing she had just purchased.

"I do regret, though, that I fail to look as stunning as you do in that outfit," Carol said to Cheri. "Be honest with me, it's mostly just because I'm fat, isn't it?"

Cheri said to Carol, "Come back with me to my office. I want to show you something." When they got there Cheri showed Carol a picture. "Recognize that person?"

Carol looked at it for a while and then said, "That's you, isn't it?"

Cheri answered, "It's what I call the industrial size me. After I got into marketing I realized that I also needed to market myself. You would have been way more hesitant to buy from me today if, when you first saw me I looked all disheveled and frumpy. So I decided I needed to do something about my appearance. I keep this picture here on my desk with another one at home on my refrigerator and another small one in my wallet, just to discourage me from overeating."

"How did you do it?" asked Carol. "How did you lose all that weight?"

"I just did what they say -- Diet and Exercise, the best exercise being pushing myself away from the table when I have eaten enough. I couldn't afford a gym membership, so just bought an exercise video. I researched how many calories I would need to sustain my ideal weight, and then ate 500 calories a day less than that and kept at it until I became the person you see today."

"Thank you so much," said Carol. "Today has been a real eye opener for me. Right now I am beginning a new chapter in my life -- one that includes eating healthy and looking good."

Saturday afternoon she did see Janiqua who guided her in the art of using makeup, sold her what she needed and showed her how to apply it. Monday she made an appointment at the school of cosmetology to have her hair done. Tuesday when she came to school she caused quite a stir. She did not look like the typical student. She was ready for her interview.

Chapter 5 - The Interview

When Carol walked into the Vocational/Technical Education Center, Mr. Julius was at the front door waiting to see her. What he saw pleased him very much. She had taken his advice and looked even better than he had envisioned her. He had not thought of the hair, the makeup or the accessories. Carol would undoubtedly make a good first impression. He took her to the car that was waiting for her to take her to her job interview. As he held the door open for her to get in the back seat, he wished her luck. Carol was off to Wainwright Enterprises.

When they arrived the driver got out of the car and opened the door for Carol. He told her to go up to the fifteenth floor and when she got off the elevator, she would be greeted by Judy, who was Mr. Wainwright's administrative assistant. As soon as Carol got off the elevator she was greeted by a woman who was dressed in a manner not too dissimilar to the way Carol was dressed. She breathed a sigh of relief, glad that she had taken Mr. Julius's advice. The woman introduced herself as Judy, explained that she was Mr. Wainwright's current administrative assistant, and that both she and Mr. Wainwright would be interviewing her. She offered Carol something to drink -- a cup of coffee or a can of soda -- pointing to the coffee pot and the small refrigerator in a corner of the room. At that moment Mr. Wainwright came out of his office. He was dressed in a suit and tie, had dark but graying hair, seemed to be in his forties and must spend some time in a gym or engaging in physical activities because he seemed to be in good physical shape and filled with energy.

After engaging in a little small talk (How was your ride over? Etc.), they asked Carol about her background, what classes she had taken while at the Voc/tech school and what her goals were. Then they brought out a financial report from one of the departments of the company. They asked Carol to look it over for a couple of minutes, then started to ask her questions about the report and about how that department was doing financially.

Then they got out a spread sheet, asked Carol to look it over, and peppered her with questions about what was on the spread sheet and how to interpret it. Following that they gave her some raw data and asked her to enter it onto one of their standard spread sheets. Mr. Wainwright took her into his office and dictated a letter to her and then sent her out to Judy's desk to type it out for him and send it back to him on his computer.

After they had put Carol through her paces, Mr. Wainwright had Judy come into his office. They asked Carol to sit at Judy's desk and answer the phone for about 15 minutes, after which time Mr. Wainwright and Judy would have completed their work and would be able to get back to the caller.

Shortly after Carol sat down at the desk an employee came in, seemingly somewhat distraught, wanting to see Mr. Wainwright right away. Carol explained that He and Judy were working on something in his office, but they were expecting to take only about fifteen minutes. Carol remembered the coffee and the small refrigerator and offered the man something to drink. She then engaged the man in conversation, explaining that she was applying for a job and asking him for his opinion about working at Wainwright Enterprises. She followed that up with asking him for any advice he could give her as a new employee. As he revealed a little more about himself in answering these questions, she asked him about his family and his hobbies. By then Judy came out of Mr. Wainwright's office and Mr. Wainwright invited the man in. The man was head of the Human Resources department and had been

set up by Mr. Wainwright to come to the office as a disgruntled employee wanting to see the boss, just to see how Carol would handle the situation. Carol had defused the situation by offering him something to drink, assuring him that Mr. Wainwright would be free shortly and by engaging him in conversation.

The interview took longer than expected, in part, due to the fact that Carol was so competent that she was not afraid of their questions or intimidated by them. So, for instance, when they were

going over the financial report, after Carol had answered their questions, the three of them lapsed into a friendly conversation about that division of the business, how it was doing, and what its prospects were for the future. The time passed by quickly.

When they realized that Carol would not return to school in time to catch the school bus home, Mr. Wainwright told Carol that he would have the driver who had brought her there, take her right home. Then he said, "I have great faith in Mr. Julius, and I was heartened when he said he had a student that would meet our needs. Judy and I are delighted with you. You have exceeded our expectations. If I remember correctly, you graduate on Thursday evening, May 31. We'd like you to report to work here on Monday, June 4, at 8 AM. Come right up here to the fifteenth floor. There will be a desk waiting for you here next to Judy's. The first six weeks you will be on probation. During that time we can let you go even without giving you a reason. That is pretty much industry standard, and allows employers to dismiss people who demonstrate that their work ethic or work habits are unacceptable. Judging from your performance in school, I doubt that you will have any problem. After those first six weeks, assuming that you stay on the job, you will be given a raise. You will stay working up here and learning as much as you can from Judy so that when she retires at the end of December, you will be my new administrative assistant. At that time you will be given a substantial raise and put on salary. Is that what you thought you were signing up for?"

Carol wanted to run up to Mr. Wainwright and give him a hug, but she refrained. However, her voice betrayed her enthusiasm. "Oh, thank you sir; yes, sir; this is a marvelous opportunity and I won't let you down." Turning to Judy, "I won't let either one of you down. Thank you so much."

A little more small talk and Carol was taken home by the driver. Mr. Wainwright personally called Mr. Julius to thank him for recommending Carol and to tell him that Carol got the job. He also informed him that Carol would be taken directly home by the driver. She bounded into her home to announce the good news to her mother, changed clothes, and began to prepare a celebratory dinner for her parents.

Chapter 6 - The Next Year and a Half

Towards the end of May Carol contacted Cheri again to buy additional clothes now that she would have to show up at the job five days a week. "But at the same time, I don't want to buy more than I need, because I'm working on trimming down the "Industrial Size" me, just as you did. When she came to the store, Cheri thought that she could notice a difference already. Cheri helped her put together a wardrobe that she could mix and match and get the greatest amount of use and variety out of a relatively few items of clothing. By the middle of July, Carol was having to take some of her clothes to a friend from the Voc/Tech school to have the clothing altered to fit her smaller size.

She had a glowing review at the end of her six weeks of probation. Judy did retire at the end of December. While she was very sad to leave, she told both Mr. Wainwright and Carol that she was very pleased with the person who would be replacing her and had confidence that what she had worked so hard to help Mr. Wainwright establish would continue to operate smoothly even after she retired. Carol did get a substantial raise.

She was still living at home. Actually, in June, shortly after Carol started work, her mother's health experienced a crisis. She had gone down into the basement for something, and had come up the stairs and was seized with chest pains by the time she reached the top. Fortunately her husband was home, who called 911. Her mother had experienced a heart attack. They did not have to do bypass surgery, but did the angioplasty on a number of coronal arteries. Before Carol's mom left the hospital, the dietitian explained that she needed to go on a heart-healthy diet. Carol was there at the time, and the dietitian looked at Carol and said, "And it looks like you are much the same body type as your mother, so you'd do yourself a favor by using this heart-healthy diet yourself." This became even greater motivation for Carol to continue with her diet and exercise program.

By December Carol was down to her target weight. She was still a relatively large woman: five feet, ten inches tall with broad shoulders, a large chest cavity, and wide hips. But now she had much more of an hourglass figure. The last two months she had taken to wearing a waist cinch. She would not wear it for her morning exercise routine, but after she took her morning shower, she put it on and wore it under her office attire. She continued to wear it even after she came home and changed into the sweats she often wore around the house. The cinch would come off at night when she did her evening exercises. Then she would shower and put on a softer cinch under her pajamas. She was determined to get her waist down to where she would have an hourglass figure. Carol was a little distressed that she lost so much fullness out of her breasts, so had consulted with a plastic surgeon about some kind of augmentation. The surgeon suggested that she was one of the few women who could use a rather large augmentation because of her relatively large chest, hips and height. But Carol wanted to play it conservative. She still had hopes that she might get married and have children and be able to nurse them, so she didn't want to do anything that might interfere with her ability to nurse. Nevertheless, over the Christmas break, when the office was closed down for the holidays, Carol did have some breast augmentation done and also a little bit of skin removed where the natural elasticity of the skin was not enough to tighten it up over places where she had lost a lot of fat.

Already in November she had started to replace some of her wardrobe and by the end of January, she had an all new wardrobe of clothing that fit her new hourglass figure. She also decided to celebrate her raise and reaching her target weight by having her hair colored so that now she was a very stunning blonde, with hair that hung down to the middle of her back.

But she was not meeting many men. She was up on the 15^th floor and only a select few executives came up there. They were usually middle aged and married. Carol did not eat lunch with most of the people. Instead, because her phone was set up that she could access all the phone lines in

the building, she would stay and man the phones while everyone else ate lunch. Then, when they all came back, Carol would go and eat lunch, and the head of the secretarial pool had the capability of answering Carol's phone while she was out to lunch. And many times she brought her lunch and ate it right there in the office. Saturdays she stayed home and did the family laundry and housecleaning . Then she would finally get out, only to do the family grocery shopping. Now that she was working, she paid her parents a little bit for room and board. On Saturdays, she would revert back to wearing the old sweat pants and sweat shirts that she always wore to do wash and cleaning. She just pulled the drawstring tighter on the pants to keep them up. Sunday morning they went to church, and after they came home, Carol would take it easy for the rest of the day before she had to go back to work on Monday. She was now a rather stunning woman, but did not really realize it because she was pretty much out of circulation and did not get much attention.

Right away in June, after graduation from high school, Ted went away to diesel mechanic's school. The curriculum was a full year curriculum beginning right away in June. Usually Ted drove home on the weekends. It was only about a two hour drive. That way he could work on cars on Saturday. He hoped to earn enough so that with what he had saved, he could pay for tuition, room and board and graduate from diesel school debt free.

There were not many girls is diesel school, so school administrators did not get exercised over the fact that there was a fair amount of porn in the dorms -- both magazines and videos. On the weekends a number of guys would go to a show bar where girls would strip and dance. Usually Ted did not go to these because he was going home on the weekends. But one weekend, just before a series of exams, he stayed over the weekend to get more last minute studying done. He was invited to go with some of the guys to the show bar on Friday night, and did so.