Swallowed water

Jenna adjusted her vest one last time and grinned across the raft at her best friend, Lily. “Piece of cake. Just paddle and don’t fall in.”

The river, of course, had other ideas.

Halfway through the rapids, the raft clipped a jagged rock. The jolt sent Jenna tumbling into the foaming water. She tried to hold her breath, but the current slammed against her chest and a mouthful of river gushed down her throat. Then another. And another.

By the time Lily grabbed her life vest and hauled her toward shore, Jenna’s belly had swollen into a bulging globe under the straps. The vest pinched at the edges, her middle puffing out between the buckles. Each frantic kick only made her gut slosh louder.

*Glrrrshhh—whooomp.*

Lily dragged her onto the sandy bank and froze. “Holy—Jenna, your stomach! It’s… huge!”

Jenna groaned, clutching the mound that rose like a barrel from her waist. “I think I swallowed half the river,” she wheezed. The surface of her belly gave a visible ripple, as if the water inside shifted to prove her right.

---

Back at camp, Jenna lay sprawled on her sleeping bag with a towel turban around her damp hair. She’d tried lying on her back, but the weight of her middle pressed her spine flat into the ground. So she rolled forward, belly first.

It wasn’t just big — it was massive. A swollen sphere that lifted her chest and hips off the ground so she perched on top of herself like she’d been set on a giant beach ball.

The second she shifted her arm for comfort, her stomach lurched beneath her.

*Shhhhlorrpp—fwwwup—glooooshhh.*

The water sloshed side to side, the dome rippling like a stretched water balloon. Jenna winced. “It’s like lying on a tide pool.”

Lily, cross-legged beside her, couldn’t stop laughing. “It’s like you brought the rapids back with you. Every move—” she poked Jenna’s side, and the belly trembled with a rolling *whuuump* “—and you sound like a whole riverbed.”

Jenna groaned into her towel. Each breath pressed her down into the mound, squeezing out another heavy *blorp.* She gave a half-hearted smack to her own middle, and ripples rolled outward before bouncing back into her ribs.

“I sound like plumbing gone wrong,” she muttered.

“You look like you could float the raft all by yourself,” Lily teased. “Forget paddles—just bounce us down the river on your belly.”

Another *gluuuursh* rolled through Jenna as she tried to wriggle upright, only to sag back down. “Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up,” she said, face red but smiling. “Next time? I’m keeping my mouth shut the whole way.”

The mound beneath her sloshed in reply, loud enough to echo off the trees.