Bursting Through the Glass Ceiling

or "Inflation Fantasy in A Minor"

Frank stood alone in his new office long after everyone had gone home. He stood by the window, allowing the full moon to illuminate the otherwise darkened room. The office was huge and spacious--an extravagant waste of space, in Frank's mind. But it was the reward for his promotion.

As he looked over the city, he heard his office door open. Alicia Kyle walked in, carrying a bottle of champagne and two glasses. The company "babe," Alicia was a tall, well-sculptured woman, her long black hair and coffee-colored skin allowing her to blend with the darkness.

"I thought everyone'd gone home," Frank admitted as she crossed the wide distance toward him.

"I just thought we'd celebrate your promotion," she said in her soft, sultry, often musical voice. She set the glasses on his desk and popped the cork on the bottle.

Frank shifted his eyes about guiltily. "Uh, that's... really nice of you. Look, I know you were in line for this promotion--and if it had been up to me, you would have gotten it. You're the one who deserves it."

"I know," she said lightly, filling his glass.

Thinking she was joking, Frank laughed. He picked up his glass and swallowed the drink quickly. Alicia leaned against his desk, looking at him expectantly. "Not bad," he admitted. "What was that stuff?"

"Something my mother brought over from Africa," she said. "She was a witch, if you believe in that sort of thing."

"A witch? Actually, no, I find that hard to swallow."

"But you did swallow it." She smirked. "It has an interesting kick to it. I find women have no reaction to it, but men get a little... bloated."

"Bloated?" Frank looked curiously at her, not liking the direction the conversation was going. And then his stomach began to grumble. He looked down, just in time to see it suddenly bulging forward, as if a balloon were being inflated under his shirt. "Oh my god!" he exclaimed, looking back up at Alicia, who merely smiled at him. "What did you do to me?"

She didn't reply immediately, as her attention was drawn to his bloating body. His stomach continued to expand, pushing free of his shirt as it bulged farther and farther outward. Too stunned to do anything but watch, Frank saw his body was puffing out all over--his arms and legs filling up as if he were an inflatable doll.

Soon the rest of his body followed, stretching out as his body grew rounder and more ball-shaped. When he finally accepted what was happening to him, he lunged for the telephone, turning sideways because his chubby arms could no longer bend at the elbow.

"Ah ah AH!" Alicia said, pushing the phone away. Frank then tried to run for the door, but he didn't get far. His body had inflated so big and so fast that he took only a few steps before his legs were so stubby that he couldn't even move. He continued to puff up like a globe in every direction. Trying to run, he only wobbled a bit before falling on his rounded backside. He was unable to get up, unable to move. All he could do was watch himself inflate.

"Help me!" he begged Alicia, who merely watched with amusement as he grew and grew.

"I can't," she said simply. "There's no cure for this."

"Oh, god!" he repeated, his body swelling bigger and bigger with no sign of slowing down. "When will it stop? How big am I going to get?!"

Alicia spoke slowly. "Pret-ty bi-ig." A wide smile lit up her face.

"Why? Why are you doing this to me?" He could no longer see how big he was getting. But as his shredded suit tore off him, he could guess that he was getting really, really big.

"Because I can," she answered. "You said it yourself: I deserved that promotion. I don't know if I was passed up because I'm a woman or because I'm black, or maybe both. Doesn't matter--I'll have it out with our esteemed CEO later. After you pop."

"P-pop?! I'm going to pop?" His rate of growth slowed, but the pressure still swelled inside him.

"It's possible," she sang.

"Please don't! I'll give you anything! I can get you money! I--I'll resign so you can have my job!" His speech was punctuated with rubbery squeaking noises emanating from his ballooning body.

"You don't have to give me anything," she said. "I take what I want."

The next few moments felt like hours as Frank inflated, the squeaking noises getting louder and louder. The pressure grew more intense as his body puffed up bigger... bigger... bigger... ever closer to the limits of his elasticity. He began to accept the fact that he was going to burst like an over-inflated balloon.

But then, as suddenly as it began, the swelling stopped.

Frank waited tensely, expecting every breath to be his last. But the squeaking had stopped too, and it slowly sunk in that he was no longer getting bigger. A few seconds later, he broke the silence. "A--Alicia?"

"Right here," she said, appearing at his side. She put her arms around his swollen body, as if admiring his inflated size, or perhaps the feeling out how close he was to bursting.

Cautiously, Frank asked, "Does this mean I'm not going to pop?"

Alicia tossed her head back with laughter. "Oh, man!" she said. "You are one funny, inflated cracker!" With that, she picked up his round, spherical form as she would a beach ball and tossed him playfully in the air. Frank could only watch as the ground shot away from him. Soon gravity caught up to him, and he drifted back down to Alicia like a child's balloon. For that was now exactly what he was: Alicia's toy balloon.

Alicia caught him as he fell before throwing him back up in the air again. This time she threw him even higher--and then higher again. Each time he came down, she threw him harder, and she laughed excitedly as she had her fun. Frank could only watch with trepidation.

Finally she threw Frank so high that his inflated body lightly touched the ceiling of his expansive office. And as he drifted back down, the moonlight sparkled upon something in Alicia's outstretched hand.

It was a pin.

A small pin, but to Frank, it may as well have been a sword. He tried to flap his stubby hands and feet in a desperate attempt to keep himself airborne. But nothing could stop his ... "falling." (Sorry.) All he received for his efforts were some amused giggles from Alicia, laughing at his predicament and futile attempts to escape the inevitable. Resigned to his fate, Frank drifted farther downward. Alicia's wide, beautiful smile was the last thing he saw before his tight, thin skin touched the top of the pin--

Alicia put her feet up on her new desk, which she inherited following the sudden disappearance of her predecessor. She knew she had to be well-rested for her appointment with the CEO later that day ...