Contour Problem

I have text and want to create contour lines to the outside.  The word is eaten.  The font is Shalom.  The problem is that the two letter "e" will not contour no matter what I do.  I tried breaking the text apart, spreading the text out thinking that perhaps it was too close together.  Nothing is working and I really need to finish this project.

I would upload a pdf so you can see it but I don't know how to do that on this list.