Dutch Girl, The

Many years ago, there lived in Haarlem, one of the principal cities in Holland, a sunny-haired girl with a gentle disposition. Her father was a sluicer, a very important position. It was his job to open and close the sluice gates as then need arises. It is also a very hard job, for water pressure must be maintained at all time. Should one sluice gate break, the angry waters of the sea would overwhelm further sluice gates and overflow the dikes. As most of Holland is below sea level, such an event would be catastrophic. Watchfulness is required of everyone in Holland, for no dike can have a leak.

One afternoon in autumn, this sixteen year old girl had gone to give cakes her mother had baked to an old woman, whom she had befriended quite some time before, who lived in the country on the other side of the dike. She spent the entire afternoon there, helping the old woman with chores, and only left in the evening with a stout basket full of eggs and fresh milk, and a light heart.

After a while the basket began to grow heavy in her arms. The beautiful girl's walk slowed and she soon realized that she would not make it home before the sunset, for her shadow was growing long. She remembered stories of what happened to people in the forest at night, and realized she still had to pass through some woods, and quickened her pace.

Soon, the girl began to slow again. Twilight was fast approaching. Most sensible people were already in their homes by now. Surely her mother had already locked the door and cursed her for being a foolish girl out late. The girl slowed a little more, then stopped. She thought she heard a sound. The girl put down the basket and looked at the dike. There, water was leaking through a hole in the dike. Basket forgotten, the girl ran to the dyke and put a finger in the hole, but her finger has too small to plug it. She tried blocking it with her whole hand, but she could not fit it in the hole, and water leaked aroung the side when she covered the hole with her palm. The hole was too high to try blocking it with her foot, and her mother would be so disappointed if she got her clothes wet. The civic minded girl did the only thing she could think of. She stuck her lips over the hole. The salty tasted made her want to gag but, for the good of Holland, this had to be done. She just hoped that somebody came by soon.

Nobody came and soon the girl gave up hope of a short stay. The water filled her tummy to bursting. It bulged under the corset, pushing out on her dark green skirt. She kept hoping that someone like her had gotten caught on the road late, but as the darkness deepened she realized that she was the last person on the road. Her corset creaked at the pressure. If it burst, her mother would be most displeased.

Interesting and unusual things started happening to the girl's body. She didn't know what to think of them, so at first she ignored them. After a while, though, it became an issue she simply could not ignore. Her tummy was completely full, sticking out abruptly with a gentle curve down between her legs. The girl felt it with her hands and almost took her head away to look before remembering the disaster that might befall her homeland should the dike break. Down the curve of her stomach to her most private places her hand went. She was amazed that even that was swelling. Around her turgid legs to her backside her hand travelled next. Her rounded hips leading onto the the mountain of her behind and eventually into the valley nestled between those hills. The corset kept her waist slender, but above that was another story. Her blouse strained against that nestled within. Fighting for space in the increasingly tight blouse, her breasts caused problems with her breathing. She could only manage short breaths through her nose between swallows. Her arms filled the arms of the blouse so that seams were starting to pop.

Anxiously, the girl turned her eyes upward, for that was her only way to even guess the time. The sky was still black, and dotted with stars. Silently, she cursed and tears started to flow. Why did this have to happen? Was Holland not a wonderful country? What she not a proper young lady? What sort of punishment was this? She shivered, for the night was far from warm. The shake caused a miniquake in her body, which only made the tears flow harder. Why couldn't anyone come along the road to help her in this predicament? Cold was invading every part of her body. Silently, she wept.

Morning found the sunny-haired girl in a sorry state. Her blouse had burst most of the seams and hung from her neck in tatters, her skirt had torn open, and her body was tremendously distended. Her corset, however, was still tight around her middle, crushing her waist to a cruel twenty inches. The poor girl could not bend her arms, nor her legs. Her breasts were tight and round, scraping roughly against the dike with each involuntary movement. Her chest ballooned into a near shpear. Below her compressed waist was another sphere somewhat larger that the first. Down to her knees, the girl had no legs. Her belly button, exposed through a tear was like a little mountain. The tear ran from her corset, half way down the length of the skirt, ending just after where her hair started growing again. She was at least as wide as the basket she had been carrying the night before. That is how the clergyman, on his way to the church, found her.

Immediately he ran to her side. "In the name of wonder dear," he exclaimed, "what are you doing?" The girl's eyes cracked open. She motioned with her hand to the dike and the clergyman's eyes light with understanding. "Hang on my dear, I will get help." he called over his shoulder; and help he did get.

After a few days, the girl was mostly back to her normal shape and size. Her skin was not so tight anymore, nor her breasts so high on her chest, nor her tummy so flat. She wore the same corset. The doctor assured her that she would be fine. The hole in the dike was repaired.

Everyone who had seen the strange sight agreed that the story, in truth, was unfit for common consumption. They invented a little boy to take the girl's place. Privately, the girl was rewarded for her pain, but the story about the boy flourished.