Feeling cold, sleepy and a little sore and not wanting to sit on the open wound that was her rump, Samantha lay on her side, curling her legs back at the knee, trying to keep them out of the way of her mum who was moving things around and wiping down the surface.

“Well,” Amelia regarded her, head tilted thoughtfully and finger on her chin, “it’s an effective method of slimming but I can’t see it catching on!” Samantha giggled and looked down at her own belly. With nothing inside her to hold it out, it had sunken back and hung a little loosely.

“Plus it’s only temporary!” she reminded her friend. “By the time I have the stuffing in me, I’m probably gonna look pregnant!”

“Yeah that’s a point!” Amelia observed, looking genuinely thoughtful for a moment. “I haven’t started my periods yet but they can’t be far away!” During the previous term, they had been given several classes on puberty, sex and reproduction which had been received with equal amounts of interest and giggling, so both girls were confident that they knew the ins and outs of how that sort of thing worked. “Don’t want to risk getting pregnant!” She glanced over at Josh who blushed a little sheepishly but continued to take pictures.

Pregnant girls, she knew, were forbidden from cooking, as were women with minor dependant children so an accidental pregnancy resulting from her “spit-practice” would effectively result in having to delay her spit-roasting itself for the best part of nineteen years and that was not a prospect she relished at all!

Sure, Amanda had been okay with the idea of waiting five or six years until she became eligible to cook but at that point she would be seventeen or eighteen years old at the absolute most, still a prime roaster! But who, Amelia thought sadly, would want to eat and old, saggy thirty year old?

“Maybe I should ask my mum if I can go on the pill?” she suggested. “Or get fixed like that cat!” she giggled.

“That might be the safest!” Samantha teased her, her voice starting to sound a little weak. “Remember what Mrs Menzies said? You have to remember to take the pill at the same time every day otherwise it doesn’t work reliably!”

“Oh yeah…” Amelia conceded. “Well I’ll ask if we can go see the doctor about it. Maybe I should get formally registered first? The rules have got to be a bit different for registered meat-girls, right?” Samantha just nodded in response. Laura could see that her daughter, despite being in good spirits and apparently enjoying herself just as much as she had hoped to, was fading fast. The girls at the butcher’s shop had been beheaded less than a minute after their gutting was complete so she had not had an opportunity to observe what effect having most of its insides pulled out had on a young girl’s body over the next half hour or so, but she could tell that if Samantha was to get her wish of going in the oven alive, they would have to work quickly.

“Okay!” she announced, setting the bowl of offal down next to the sink. “I can go through that in a few minutes. For now, we need to get this turkey stuffed! Did you still want to do the honours?” she asked Amelia who nodded enthusiastically. “Okay then, let’s have you back on your knees, turkey!” Samantha rather weakly rolled onto her front and Laura assisted her by lifting her hips so that she could tuck her knees underneath, leaving her rump raised and ready to stuff. Rather than trying to hold herself up on her increasingly shaky arms, Samantha folded them in front of her and used them as a chin rest, very much like a girl who was about to roast in Piggy Pose.

“So, what do I do?” Amelia asked as Laura brought over and set down the bowl of stuffing while Josh continued to make sure the entire process was well-documented.

“Just grab handfuls and put it in to begin with.” Laura instructed. “Then, when it starts to feel a bit full, push it in as far back as you can until you can’t fit any more.”

“Don’t forget the onion!” Samantha reminded them, her voice quiet but full of urgency. “I hope we weren’t supposed to have kept one from the ingredients? I’m sure the recipe said to use all three?”

“It did, don’t worry!” Laura assured her. “I have another one for that. I’ll get it peeled and ready while Amelia stuffs you.”

“What onion?” Amelia asked, a little confused, taking up her position at the business-end of the turkey and scooping a big handful of stuffing out of the bowl.

“To stop the stuffing falling out of the big hole in my butt!” Samantha giggled.

“Oh right!” Amelia laughed, resting her other hand on Samantha’s meaty rump cheek. “Ready?”

“Ready and waiting!” Samantha grinned. “Get stuffing!” Putting her hand up her friend’s butt and sliding her slim arm in all the way to the elbow felt weird at first, understandably, and a little gross, especially when she pulled her arm out to see that it was covered with a kind of bloody mucus, but she knew that that was not going to be a clean and tidy job. That was her excuse for taking off her clothes, after all, even ‘though putting on the apron would likely have been protection enough and there had certainly been no legitimate practical reason to take off her undies! Still, she was fairly sure that nobody had been taken in by her excuse for even half a second and it was clear from the fact that Josh and Laura had made a bet that they had more or less expected her to strip off at the first opportunity!

A second handful followed the first, then a third and a fourth, each one feeling easier than the last as she started to get into a routine.

“How much to do you reckon will fit?” she asked Samantha, rather pleased that, as with the gutting earlier, her friend could not see exactly what was going on.

“Dunno.” Samantha responded honestly. “It looked like quite a lot came out?”

“Well the recipe did say it was for a girl your size!” Laura pointed out.

“Or a large elf!” Samantha reminded her with a giggle.

“Quite!” chuckled Laura. “So I’m sure Mrs Claus did her research and knows what she’s doing! Is it starting to feel full?” she asked Amelia. Laura could feel the sensation of something being inside her once again, as well as the stinging around the cut now that the numbing of the ice had worn off and the soreness caused by Amelia’s arm constantly going in and out but it was not really bothering her. She felt too weak and tired to really be bothered by anything. She certainly was not yet feeling stretched like she had expected!

“Starting packing it in, tight as you can.” Laura instructed.

“Pretend you’re building a snow-man inside me!” Samantha quipped, making her friend giggle. In truth, comical as the image was, the metaphor did not really make a whole lot of sense but it was the best that Samantha’s brain could come up with in her current state and Amelia understood well enough the point she was trying to make.

While Amelia worked, Laura retrieved another onion from the fridge, slightly smaller than the ones that had been used in the stuffing mix, and took it over to the sink to peel and wash. Once it was ready, she left it on the draining board and came back over to check on progress.

“That’s it!” Laura encouraged Amelia as she shovelled more and more handfuls of stuffing in, pressing it hard into what was already there, making Samantha shudder a little but more from the impact of each fistful being added to the last than from any real discomfort. “Keep going!” she encouraged, walking around to the other end of the table. “Nearly done!” she assured Samantha, “Then we can get you into that nice, warm oven!”

“What about the potatoes?” Samantha asked a little sleepily. “And the Emily meat?”

“They won’t take as long to cook as you.” Laura reminded her. “So we’ll put those in later. Don’t worry!” she grinned. “We won’t forget!” Samantha seemed pleased by this and smiled dreamily. “We’ll leave your hands free for now too,” she told her nearly-stuffed daughter, “so you can have a bit of fun if you want to until you go to sleep. We can turn them into turkey wings later! Can you try to lift yourself up for me?” she asked. Unsteadily but with her mum’s help, Samantha straightened her arms and lifted the front of her body, bringing her hips up level to match.

“My tummy feels heavy!” she told them, but it was an observation rather than a complaint. “I feel like the wolf in that story!”

“Ah but you’re filled with something much tastier than rocks!” Josh reminded her, knowing exactly which fairy tale she was referring to. Indeed, in contrast to how it had looked just minutes earlier, Samantha’s belly was now swollen as if straining to contain all the stuffing that had been packed into it.

“I must be full now, right?” the sleepy turkey asked, managing to support herself on one arm while she rubbed her belly.

“One more handful I think!” Amelia grinned. “Then yes!” Laura collected her onion, holding it at the ready. “There!” the near-naked brunette grinned in triumph. “All full!” Laura pushed the onion into the hole which seemed to swallow it, leaving only a ring about an inch wide visible, but it clearly made an effective plug.

“I think we need to get you in the pan before we stuff your other hole!” Laura suggested before realising a slight logistical problem. “Oh.” she frowned. “I guess you can’t really stand any more?”

“No, Mummy, I’m sorry.” Samantha admitted, slumping back down into her half-kneeling position, delicious, well-stuffed rump sticking up once more. “I don’t think my legs work properly.”

“Don’t worry.” Josh smiled, setting down the camera. Quickly, knowing as well as Laura that there was not really time to waste, Josh took his apron off then unbuttoned his shirt far enough down to be able to pull it off. He then put the apron back on but only around his waist, protecting his trousers but leaving his torse bare. “Come on, little turkey!” He picked Samantha up lovingly, sitting her on his hip as he had done so often when she was small, supporting her with his hands under her rump as she instinctively put her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder.

Touched by the tender scene of this final cuddle between father and stuffed, butter-covered daughter, Amelia picked up the camera and asked Josh to turn so that she could get a good shot then again to get one with Samantha’s back and rump in the foreground. Instinctively, Josh began to sing to Samantha as he had when she was little and he was trying to get her to sleep but, in honour of the occasion, in the place of a lullaby he sang one of her favourite classic Christmas songs, a rock anthem from the seventies, jigging her in time to the music but careful not to do so too hard lest he shake the stuffing inside her loose.

While Josh sang to and danced with Samantha, Laura quickly cleared off the prep table and brought the roasting pan over, using her hands to spread a thick layer of butter inside it so that Samantha’s skin would not stick.

“There we go!” she smiled. “All ready!” As lovingly and tenderly as if he were putting her to bed after a long, fun day at the beach or fun fair, Josh carefully lowered Samantha into the pan, laying her on her back.

“Can we do something about this?” he asked, supporting her head and suddenly realising that resting on the hard metal brim would not be very comfortable for her. Laura thought for a moment then, ever resourceful, grabbed the towel she had put around Samantha’s shoulders while wetting her hair and ran it under the cold tap until it was soaked through. She then rolled it into a thick, wet sausage and wrapped it in foil.

“Ta-da!” she held it up proudly. “Oven-safe neck pillow!”

“I knew we could rely on you!” Josh chuckled, lifting Samantha’s head so that she could put the improvised cushion in place then kissing her on the cheek. Laura then gently guided Samantha to bend her legs, tucking her feet into the end of the pan so that she could tie them together to keep them from flinging apart as she cooked but, as agreed, she left her daughter’s hands free for the time being. Taking charge of the camera, Amelia took several pictures from all angles of her friend in the roasting pan, still awake and looking around with a blissful smile on her face, but clearly not long for this world.

“Hope I’m delicious, Mummy!” Samantha smiled up at Laura in a dream-like haze. “Enjoy my fillet, Daddy!” Josh chuckled and leaned down to give her a final kiss on the lips then Laura did likewise. Reaching down past her swollen tummy, Samantha began to stroke herself the way she had done for almost as long as she could remember, knowing that it felt nice and helped her to sleep long before she had any understanding of what the sensations it provoked really meant. Nodding to each other, Laura and Josh lifted one end of the pan each and Amelia helpfully scampered over to open the oven door.

Barely awake now, Samantha saw the orange glow and felt the warmth emanating from within.

“It feels like a lovely hug!” she observed sleepily to nobody in particular. “Or a nice warm bath!”

“Well you enjoy it!” Laura smiled as they slid her inside then both crouched down to say their final goodbyes, sure that by the time they took her out for her first basting, their little girl would be nothing more than cooking meat. “Everyone’s really grateful to you and really looking forward to their dinner!”

“Good.” Samantha sighed blissfully. “I hope I’m yummy!”

“I know you will!” Josh assured her. “Sleep well, poppet.” He and Laura stood up and, together, gently closed the oven door before holding hands for a moment then hugging each other, not in sadness, as such, but with the shared feeling that in closing the oven door they had also brought a close to that particular chapter in their lives.


To be continued...