Chapter 10

Melody dressed in a conservative outfit for her testimony before the NAMC. Dr. Barton greeted her with a friendly smile and warm handshake outside the conference room the committee had booked for their weekly meetings.

After greeting him, she stood up straight, with her hands by her sides, wordlessly showing off her new, shapely form, to the charming young doctor she had met a few days earlier.

"Wow! You look great. Are you happy with the results?"

"Oh, yeah!"

"Out of curiosity, did you bring any pictures of yourself from before the therapy began?"

"I did. Would you like them now?"

"Not quite yet. Honestly, I'm not sure we're going to want to see them, but I was wondering if we'd get a sense of the 'before-and-after' on your path to your current body size."

"That seems fair. I've got one question for you, if you don't mind."

"What's that?"

"Since I'm a journalist, may I report on my testimony, or will it be classified until the committee finalizes its findings?"

"It'll probably be classified but we can confirm that with Cynthia Bloomfield. She's the --"

"The chair of the committee. I know. She was introduced at President Stanford's press conference a couple of weeks ago."

"I forgot you were there!"

"That's all right."

"So ... How do you feel about this?"

"I'm ... I guess I'm kinda nervous."

"That's normal." The door to the conference room let out a low creak as he opened it, revealing a cavernous room that featured numerous chairs around a large circular table. "Please. Why don't you sit right here?"

He escorted her to a table near the podium and she sat down. She looked around the room and saw four men (including Dr. Barton) and three women, chatting amongst themselves.

As the conversations died down, one woman stood up and smiled. "Hello, Melody. My name is Cynthia Bloomfield, and I'm the chair of this committee. I'm glad you could take the time to speak with us today."

"It's my pleasure, Madam Chairperson."

"Now, Melody. We have had some discussion as to whether we should swear you in, and ultimately we decided that we should. Is that all right?"

"Yes, that's fine."

"Do you have a preferred text that you'd like to swear in on?"

"How about a dictionary?"

"We can do that."

One of the men stepped forward and held out a dictionary. Melody put her right hand on the dictionary and raised her left. He asked, "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"

"I do."

"You may be seated."

"Thank you. Do you mind if I ask your name?"

"Edward. Edward Harper."

Melody ran her fingers over the back of his hand and said, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Harper."

He paused for a moment before returning to his seat. Melody noticed the pause and realized how easy this whole process is going to be.

The chair of the committee stood up again. "Please state your name and occupation, for the record."

"My name is Melody Brigham. I'm a journalist."

"And, we understand that you have recently undergone genetic breast augmentation, is that correct?"

"Yes, it is."

"Very well. Would you care to explain to us, for the record, why you wanted to enlarge your breasts?"

"Well, I guess this goes back to when I was a teenager. I remember being jealous of my best friend because her boobs -- am I allowed to say it that way here?"

"That's fine. Just be yourself. Don't worry about the words you use as long as they're your own words and you're honest."

"Thank you. Anyway, my best friend had D cups and I kind of stopped growing at a B-cup. And I was a little bit jealous of her, I guess."

"Was it just her breasts, or was it more than that?"

"Honestly, I don't really remember. We both got asked out by a lot of different guys, but, well, I -- I guess I just wanted to be better endowed. Do you know what that can be like?"

No one answered her question.

"Well, anyway, I finally got up the courage to do something about it, so I saved up some money and then, after a little bit of counseling by Dr. Eisenstadt, we agreed to start the therapy."

"Dr. Eisenstadt was your doctor? Dr. Jason Eisenstadt?"

"Yes. I believe he was one of the pioneers in the process."