Minimum Wage, part 1: Carnival Clown

Gavin knew he shouldn't complain. With the economy in its current state, he was lucky to be able to find a summer job, and it wasn't unusual for parents to require their kids to work as a condition of car and party privileges. He just wished he could have found something in the IT field, as opposed to making balloon animals for snot-nosed kids. The pay was lousy, the costume and makeup were hot and heavy, the locker room smelled terrible, and every popped balloon meant a crying child and an irate parent yelling in his face. Worst of all, the work was just dull and unchallenging. Nothing interesting ever happened.

Well, almost nothing. To his left he spotted a pretty young woman with long blonde hair approaching with toddler in tow. Her tight white shirt nicely presented her pert breasts, and her blue jeans clung tightly to her lithe, shapely legs. Since their was no formal "line" as such, she just stood to his left and waited her turn. She turned around and squatted down to wipe a spot off her young son's overalls. Bending at the hips pulled the back of her waistband away from her body, and Gavin found conclusive proof that she wasn't wearing panties.

"Ya mind making my kid a rabbit, buddy?" Gavin snapped to attention and reflexively pulled out a balloon from his hip pouch. From his early childhood, he vaguely remembered carnival clowns struggling with squeaky valves on helium tanks and then trying to fit a tiny, floppy long balloon on a furiously hissing nozzle, every time a request came in. This tank, on the other hand, was state-of-the-art. There was no valve on the tank itself. Instead, the hose ended in a black silicone nozzle about two inches long, with a bulge at the base. After sliding on the balloon, he held it in place with his right thumb and forefinger while simultaneously applying pressure to the squeeze bulb. When the balloon was filled, he gave the hose a tug with his left hand, and the slick nozzle squirted out of the balloon's mouth, while his right thumb and finger sealed the opening so he could tie it. The only minor inconvenience was that since he needed both hands to tie and shape the balloon, he had to retrieve the hose from the side of the tank after every request. Otherwise, his job couldn't have been easier -- or more boring.

He was eager to get another eyeful of the woman, so he squeezed the nozzle a little too hard, overfilling the balloon, and the excess pressure ejected the nozzle from between his fingers.

Kendra was tending to her son's clothes when she felt something fall down the back of her jeans. Startled, she stood up, and immediately experienced the strangest sensation she had ever felt. A feeling of pressure, like gas but more insistent, bloomed through her abdomen. As she tried to comprehend what was happening to her, she also became aware that her snug jeans had somehow become positively skin-tight around the hips.

She still felt something down the back of her pants, and her questing hands found a hose... like the one that teenage clown had been using. Quickly putting two and two together, she grabbed it with both hands and yanked upward. It didn't even budge. Although the nozzle itself was slippery, she had taken in several inches of the hose, and her ballooned buttocks held the textured-plastic surface in an iron grip, squeezing the squeeze bulb harder than it had ever been before.

Frantic now, Kendra focused her attention on the front of her jeans and tried to open her fly. Unfortunately, her waist and crotch had also expanded from the pressure, and her jeans closed with a hook, not a button. Every second took her further from being able to exert the necessary pressure to pull open her pants.

Gavin was struggling to shape the overfilled balloon without popping it and getting chewed out by yet another irate customer. Finally, he decided to just toss it and fill another one properly. He blindly reached back to where he had been accustomed to find the hose, and felt only the side of the helium tank. Looking behind him, he noticed several things at once. First, the woman who had been tending to her son's clothes was now struggling with her own. Second, her lower body had expanded from shapely to downright voluptuous, with rounded hips, substantial thighs, and a bubble butt, and her jeans had drawn in to hug every curve. Finally, the hose to the helium tank had lodged down the back of her pants.

Gavin quickly ran over and yanked on the hose. This got Kendra's attention. "Turn off the valve!", she yelled. "There is no valve!", Gavin replied. Desperately, he grabbed the hose in both hands and kinked it, trying to cut off the flow of gas. This worked for about half a second before the built-up pressure forced the hose out of his hands.

Kendra suddenly became aware of a new development. A sudden tugging sensation on her shoulders prompted her to glance downward and notice that the expansion had found another outlet. "Oh, no!" Quickly, she reached back under her shirt, but it was too late -- her expanding breasts had locked the hooks in place. She hoped that her bra would at least give out quickly, but it was not to be; her sizable and sensitive breasts required a lot of support, and the double-reinforced full-coverage brasserie she had chosen could probably have stood up to a couple of bowling balls. She grunted in distress as the tenacious garment dug into her back and sides.

Gavin thought better of trying to undo the girl's jeans, and decided to have another go at extracting the hose. Gripping it firmly in both hands, he pulled upwards with all his might. What happened next surprised both of them. Instead of budging the hose, which was locked tighter than ever, Gavin actually lifted Kendra off the ground. He knew that despite all his efforts at the gym, he was nowhere near strong enough to lift a grown woman. He also realized that he had precious little time to end this situation gracefully. Although, now that he could handle this woman, there was a new option available to him.

Running around to Kendra's front, he grabbed her by her ankles and pulled backwards. "Wh-what are you...", she protested, but Gavin pulled until the hose was taut, and then kept pulling. As he pulled, he took stock of Kendra's condition. Her crotch pressed at the front of her jeans, and her thighs had bulged to the point that, despite being spread, they touched for several inches. Her basketball-sized bosom was still locked in a death struggle with a bra that showed no signs of giving up.

With one more mighty tug, Kendra's rear released its grip on the hose. Startled by the suddenness, Gavin stumbled backwards, arms flailing, and landing on his back knocked the wind out of him, causing him to release Kendra's feet.

She tumbled upwards, flipping end over end, for a moment, but air resistance brought her to a stop about fifteen feet above the ground, and her body righted itself. For a few agonizing seconds, she hovered in place. Then, ever so slowly, she began to rise. "HHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLPPPPPPP MMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!", she screamed, drifting away, already beyond reach, still fumbling with her jeans.

Gavin was fired the next morning. His questions about the woman's fate were met with hard, cold glares from his supervisors, and he was advised not to make inquiries or speak to the media if he ever wanted a job in the county again. Fortunately, the economy had taken an upturn while he was wasting his summer making balloon giraffes, and he found he had several opportunities to pick from, including a cushy tech-support job paying $20 an hour. His parents were therefore rather surprised when he turned them down, instead taking a job at a gas station filling tires for full-service customers. When they asked, he explained that working for minimum wage had "expanded his horizons" and given him a new, higher view on the world.