FICTION
HER PENPAL
"Get out, whale! You're too large to stay here!"
That wasn't the first time a boy addressed her in a such rude way, but Jennifer, 15 yo, in that moment felt as badly as ever: the school year, given it was just starting, was going to be hard for her.
After that Summer in Italy, with her grandparents, she had got fatter than ever: those sweet woman, who was her gramma, stuffed her only niece, i.e. Jennifer, with lasagna, ravioli, cassata and polpettone all long the two-month holiday, so that she went from 190 to over 210 pounds...
"Probably" She thought "I'm the fattest one in the school!"
She sighed and toddled until the class room, after greeting some old friends, whose eyes popped, while looking at the new wide size of Jennifer: they didn't ask her any thing, but started to mutter, when she was far enough.
"Could they leave me peacefully?" The fat gal thought" Is it possible? Will I be accepted although I'm such a big girl?" Those troubles at the beginning seemed to be the only one all long the day: no one asked any thing also during the pause and later, in the last lesson hours, every thing went on ok.
Until...
When the bell rang lots of students stood up and went to have their own lunch in refectory... Also Jennifer did.
She carried on her table every thing that had an italian flavour, just to taste again the food she had loved for all her fantastic holiday, but whitened when Maggie, who was a total idiot, but loved to flirt here and there, set hust beside her, with two other gals.
"Hey, do you think a human being can eat so much?"
Jennifer had only spaghetti, fried potatoes, meat balls and a slice of apple pie in front of her.
" Only a cow could eat so much!"
An other girl exclaimed, while her two fellows were already laughing.
Jennifer tried not to cry, but she escaped, because of that terrible humiliation: that year looked as well as it was going to be a nightmare!
And a nightmare woke up Jennifer in the late night: she couldn't sleep in such a situation and she prefered to go in the kitchen to have a snack: it wouldn't worsen her obesity very much!
While she was coming back to her bed room, after eating a whole box of candies, she noticed that her p.c. hadn't been turned off and it would have been a pleasant thing to have a talk in that moment.
A hard discussion took up her, after stopping in a chat room: a certain "Moon Boy" was telling very wise things, relating to Jennifer's favourite band, while an other one, that the gal judged to be a ball of hot air, attacked M.B. in a very bad way... Jennifer meddled in the debate and took the side of the first boy, calling herself "Slender Girl", a name which sounded so ironic, later.
Half an hour later, the foe of her band stopped posting messages, while M.B. had finished since five minutes. Jennifer thought that interesting battle was ended and felt a little proud to have defended her beloved singers. Before leaving the desktop, just to have a look at, she refreshed her mailbox and -unexpected- a "M.B.Moon Boy"-titled message appeared in front of her, who clicked on that, full of curiousity.
She started to type as fast as she could: would have been on line yet, that boy?
The message was sent and five minutes passed. In the meanwhile Jennifer refreshed unusefully her mailbox every 30 seconds... Was he already gone away? suddenly a MB-titled message appeared!!! Her heart was in her throat...
And so on! Half an hour and two messages later Paul wrote:
Jennifer exitated a lot...
Paul asked.
Paul answered immediately:
Jennifer lied again:
Those chat ended later, when the sun raised and Jennifer's parents got up, but it started again the following evening, untill the heart of night!
And the day which follows...
And the next one...
So on!
Jennifer started to live a double existence...
During the day, from the early morning to the dinner hour, she was an obese gal, who was treated very badly by her schoolmates, and overcame the 220 lbs limit in November...
From the evening to midnight, she became "Slender Girl": she was a different person, other than the true Jennifer, who loved music and dance, had been a ballerina, admitted she felt "fat" because she weighed 100 pounds, laughed, joked and was happy while talking with Paul.
That boy sent her his pic. Jenny was surprised: she was even more hansome than he thought!
Jennifer gulped down her fear...It was true! and she couldn't put off that again!!!
Jennifer had been looking at her album for all the afternoon... The only photo that didn't show her large figure was taken when she was...peacefully sleeping in a cradle! A bad idia flashed through her mind...She could have sent Paul a fake...Could that English boy imagine that the skinny ballerina, immortalized in a cute picture, wasn't Jennifer??? That thought sounded great...It wouldn't have been difficult to find a dancing-ballerina image...An image that would have been placed in the worldwide web...And named Jennifer!!!
Maybe the true dancer would have discovered that...
Maybe her friends...and her schoolmates! They would have said the truthy to that sweet Paul...What ashame then! No, the fake-idea wasn't good. Just before closing the album, Jennifer found a recent photo. It had been developped since a month or less, because it was taken the previous Summer in Italy!!! Jennifer and one Italian young lady, who looked as skinny as a rake, were chatting on a sofa... What an idea flashed through her mind again!!!
That night Paul received an e-mail titled: "Me and my friend".
The attachment was the well-known pic, taken in Italy. Jennifer knew very well that he would have thought that his pen pal was the skin-and-bones one!
And two days ago that picture was placed in an under-contruction site.
A lot of envelopes started to travel from Australia to US and throught the opposite route.
Candies, poems, pink-coloured letters, delicious bouquettes etc etc... You can imagine what trepidation Jennifer felt while opening her mailbox!
And Spring came.
That morning was April and a fantastic day looked to be going to begin... Suddenly a pink-coloured letter arrived from Europe...
A honey shower for Jennifer... Reader can imagine the white-coloured of our heroine! She cried.
Ops...she was in her classroom...Her brain-work was to be done secretely.
You admit that idea wasn't so bad... That night, Jennifer, just before sending Paul a message that sounded as "I'm no more skin-and-bones...I've some more pounds on my bones" went on the scale.
The pointer got mad...swung...and stopped! 234 pounds... A skin-and-bones gal can gain weight. Sure! But gaining nearly 130 pounds in two months is a bit too much.
After deleting the message she was going to send, a new idea enlightened her brain.
An awful idea!
Can a gal gain 130 pounds in two months? Nop!
Can that same gal lose 130 pounds in two months?Always nop!
That poor gal can, if she really want to, try to kill two birds with one stone! She would have lost as more pounds as possible, while she said to Paul she was getting "a bit" fat...
And she put away the biscuit-box she had on her desk.
Five weeks later a desparate mother was talking with Dr Williams.
"Doctor....I'm destroyed! My sweetheart doesn't eat any more...Nothing more than fresh vegetables without oil. You've seen her! She'll die by starvation! My creature...sigh! has lost almost thirty pounds since last April..."
The man wrote something on a paper and said:
"Don't worry...I guess this awful anorexic-mania is to face strongly! Give her vitamins and magnesium... Cook pasta and cakes every day... Jennifer will defeat her illness".
Seven days later, our friend was as hungry as ever... Mom had stuffed her with vitamins for a week and her stomach CRIED cause hunger. However Jennifer had a strong will... Her dieting-proposal went on an other day more!
In the eighth day morning she woke up and couldn't get up, cause an awful weakness.
Was she going to commit suicide? She thought she loved her life more than every beauty-idea and she couldn't ruine her fantastic health, given by God!
Three weeks later, the same day when Paul was going to come, she weighed and discovered that hated pointer stopped again at 234 pounds.
Was she too fat? Obviously you could not call her a slim girl!
what would have been Paul's reaction???
That guy hadn't sent e-mail for the last two weeks, because his p.c. had a lot of trouble. In the meanwhile Jennifer got only a short letter about the time and the place of the date.
As settled, she went to the station-square, where a lot of people were waiting for the same 2pm train coming from a big city.
Finally it arrived.
Where was Paul? Was he become invisible? Hadn't he come?
"Hi...Jennifer! How are you?"
Our friend had a look every where, but couldn't see her boyfriend.
"Hey, turn back...I'm here!"
Paul was there... Three steps far from her! And he was even more handsome than in his picture!
He jumped and hugged Jennifer, who was still astonished; how could he have recognized her??? It doesn't look she was...about 130 pounds, as she wrote in her last e-mail.
"American pen pal...why are you so strange? Am I a ghost?"
"Oh...sorry! I feel a little odd...You recogn.."
"I recognized you...although you're not really 130 pounds! What's the matter? You sent me a picture and I had that in front of me all long the day, while chatting with you..hour after hour! And I felt strange too, when I looked at the eyes of the slim girl...So lifeless... without gladness! And at yours...and at your smile...at your happy face... Darling, I guess I'd not have fall in love, if you hadn't been such a fantastic girl...
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