Kat's eyes darted back to the fat statue and she found herself moving closer to investigate. The statue was such a contradiction to Kat. In a world where everyone wanted to be thin, this statue almost made Kat want to be fat. The girl that was depicted was unbelievably beautiful and seemed so confident with her body. Her pose was relaxed and her face beaming with happiness.
Kat reached out to caress the soft, cold stone but hesitated. She glanced furtively over her shoulder to see how her brother was faring with his research. He was already hunched over pages of his notebook, scribbling down notes. She blushed at the idea of her brother seeing her doing something so impulsive, but she turned back to the statue and immediately began to touch the cold stone.
She recoiled her hand as an almost electric feeling filled her hand as she made contact with the statue. She withdrew her hand quickly, letting out a yelp of pain.
"Are you okay?" Nathan called from where he was writing still hunched over his notebook.
"Yeah," she said, looking at her hand, "I must have pricked myself or something on this statue."
"Statue," Nathan repeated, an obviously excited tone entering his voice, "Let me see!"
He quickly began picking his way through the cluttered floor, stopping for a moment with he accidentally tripped over a piece of rubble. Still cursing under his breath, he approached the pedestal, looking at the statue Kat had touched.
"That's Yondela, the goddess of bounty," Nathan began explaining, "Or at least I think it is. I've never actually seen images of her before, but she does meet the description. It was said Yondela would choose an avatar to represent her from among the young girls in the civilization, and that they were required to give a portion of all their food to this girl who would eat and grow fat. From my research, it's said that the fatter the girl was, the better the harvest would be, and so they would often fatten her up to the point of immobility in the hopes of a better harvest. Of course, the girl was well taken care of since she was the avatar of a goddess, so she probably didn't complain."
"Really," Kat asked, "Why would they believe that? That doesn't make any sense."
"I know, right?" Nathan exclaimed, becoming increasingly animated, "But that's what they believed. The crops were their life and so they sacrificed some of their own crops to the goddess. This allowed the girl to grow even fatter as the crops were given to her. At the end of the harvest, the fat girl would be sacrificed to Yondela as thanks for the harvest and a way for Yondela to renew her covenant with the people. That way, the spring harvest would be even better."
"Ugh," Kat said, wincing, "That's barbaric. So what would happen if they didn't sacrifice the girl?"
"Well, I'm not sure," Nathan said, shrugging his shoulders, "There isn't evidence that that ever happened. Though I guess the girl would just keep getting fatter and fatter."
"But wouldn't it be the same deal? If they sacrificed their crops and the harvest was bad, they'd have to sacrifice the girl anyway…But I don't get it," Kat said, "Why were they committing ritual suicide?"
"I guess you could say they were very superstitious," Nathan replied, "Survival was incredibly difficult back then since they didn't have any of today's modern tools."
"But why offer their crops to a girl," Kat asked, "I mean that's pretty weird, right?"
"But the girl was said to be an avatar of Yondela," Nathan replied, "It was a representation of the goddess. And so when they were fattening up the girl, they were fattening up their goddess."
"Why would a goddess want to be fat," Kat asked again, becoming very frustrated now.
"Hey," Nathan said a bit too sharply, "I'm not really sure. I'm just reciting what I read from this."
"Sorry," Kat said, backing down, "I guess I just…I don't know."
Both of them jumped slightly as Kat's stomach suddenly let out a loud growl. Kat glanced sheepishly at her brother, "I guess it's time for lunch. I didn't realize I was so hungry."
"That's what happens when you skip breakfast," Nathan chided.
"Yeah, well who was it that wanted to leave at the ass-crack of dawn," Kat shot back, "It wasn't like you really gave me time to do much this morning."
"Well, um, I guess I was kind of rushing you this morning," Nathan said, glancing down at the ground, "Still, that's why we brought food with us."
"Yeah, yeah," Kat said, glancing around for someplace that looked safe to sit down while her older brother did the same.
A few minutes later, the two siblings were munching on the lunches they packed. Nathan had made sandwiches while Kat had brought along some granola bars in her pack. To finish it up, they'd both brought some homemade brownies as a delicious dessert. When she was finished Kat began packing her lunch sack back into her backpack. She sighed and leaned back a little bit, waiting for her brother to finish his lunch.
As she waited, she began to feel strange.
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