Belly

Ginger gulped, her fingers hovering over the tabs on the website. "Cadwallader Pretend Pregnant Belly Order Form" the top read.

Questions asking what gender she wanted were easy. She wouldn't give birth to real babies so she randomized it. Questions asking for quantity and size were easy too: she maxed it out with quintuplets and 2XL, giving her a 90 inch waist with a pregnant stomach that weighed 120 pounds.

Then came the hard part: shape. "Hmm, Bowling Ball Shape, Ball Shape, Barrel Shape, or Carring Low?" Ginger read out loud, looking down at her own petite figure. For all the  fantasizing she'd done about one day being pregnant, this was never something she thought too hard about. Thankfully, there were a few pictures of models with each kind of belly and when Ginger saw the big, round shape of the "Ball" model, a shiver went down her spine. She clicked that one.

The questions started getting even more granular. How long do you want the pregnancy to last? When does it reach full-term? When does your belly drop? "How many times does it drop?" Ginger read out loud with surprise. "I guess if it's artificial, they can kinda do what they want...let's say three drops, to be fun." Ginger grinned privately and felt her mouth getting dry and her lap getting wet. Somehow, all of these very specific questions were turning her on.

Looking through, Ginger tried to interpret the other questions. How long did she want it to last? Ginger maxed it out again at three years. But as for questions about full-term, Ginger assumed that meant when does it reach maximum size. As much as she longed to be absolutely bursting with babies, Ginger though it best to ease into her massive size. She was a small young woman and didn't want to snap in half as soon as she put the belly on. Ginger said she wanted to be full-term the usual nine months into the pretend pregnancy, dropping one month before that, then two other drops a year apart.

"When should labor start?" Ginger asked herself. "I don't want it to last that long, right? I'll say 12 hours before giving birth...make that a day before." Next came when she wanted her water to break and when she wanted to be fully dilated to push. "Damn, these are detailed questions! I guess I'll have my water break right when strong contractions start and I'll be fully dilated in the final hour of labor."

Then came a question that really made Ginger's face flush: how painful do you want your contractions to be on a scale of 1 to 10? Ginger ran one hand down her slim belly, resting right above where her womb lay dormant. She wanted to click "1 – Mild" and have a nice, easy childbirth but then again...if she was going to pretend to be pregnant, she should go the whole nine yards. Ginger chose "5 – Hard," deciding "10 – Excruciating" wasn't typical for all women in labor anyway, though she might want to give it a shot if she liked this.

After a few more basic questions about address and payment, Ginger ordered her Cadwallader belly for an easy price of $39.99, not counting shipping and tax.

A few weeks later, Ginger got a big cardboard box in the mail and she eagerly tore into it. Inside was a plastic, heavy pregnant belly with velcro straps in the back. Ginger stripped down to her underwear and pulled it on, cinching up the velcro against her bare skin. After a while, her smile faded as she felt more or less the same.

"Oh, right!" she remembered, hurrying to her computer and entering her code into the Cadwallader belly for activation. A low hum came out of her belly and then it suddenly fused with her body. The cold plastic was now as soft and warm as her own skin and she could feel a few gentle fetal kicks coming from inside her. "It works! It really works! Wow, this is heavy already...wonder how much harder this will get when I'm full term."

A pop-up on her screen gave Ginger from FAQs about how the belly worked and told her it was safe to go in the water and a reminder that Braxton-Hicks were common and not to worry when they come.

"Wonder what I should do now?" Ginger said to herself, stroking her belly lovingly. "Eh, might as well take it for a spin." And Ginger headed into the town, surrounded by men and women of all ages, all happily rubbing their Cadwallader pretend pregnant bellies. Ginger smiled until a sudden urge filled her as she passed a hot dog cart. "Right, cravings. This is all going to take some getting used to."