Bulky - Inktober inspired short (day 3)

Finally, the heat was ebbing out of the weather. More slowly than it had in the past, but there was a definite note of autumn as the sun got lower in the sky. Jake was walking down the sidewalk, taking in the cooler air and admiring the first Halloween decorations, when he bumped into someone full on and staggered back several feet. 

“Hey! Watch it, jeez!” He grumbled, brushing at the coffee that had gotten spilled onto his hoodie. It was his favorite one, despite it being several sizes too big. He was so worried about the coffee leaving a stain that it was several minutes before he even looked at whoever he’d run into. 

Apparently he’d gotten the better end of the collision, the person he’d run into was laying on the ground about six feet from him. Her long gray hair was tousled and a cane was laying in the middle of the road. Jake felt aghast, especially as a car came zipping down the street and ran the cane over, snapping it cleanly in half. The old woman was clearly in pain, but Jake was struck with indecision and didn’t immediately go to her aide. By the time he made a motion in that direction a young couple had hurried over and were helping her up. 

“My god, ma’am, are you alright?” The young woman was saying, there was a note of anger in her voice that Jake thought probably wasn’t directed at the elderly lady. The young woman glared over her shoulder. “You should be ashamed of yourself!” She practically spat.

“Hey, it was an accident!” Jake babbled, the words tumbling out in a rush. “I didn’t mean to!” 

“Excuses,” the young woman murmured in a tone dripping with venom as her partner hustled into the road to grab up the pieces of the old woman’s cane. “And why didn’t you help her up!?” 

“I was…I…” Jake couldn’t think of anything satisfactory to say, his face was getting red and he was starting to feel defensive. But none of his thoughts were stringing together in the right order as shame battled irritation for prominence in his mind. 

“You sure manage to take up a lot of the side walk for someone with such a lack…of bulk.” The young woman said, her tone even nastier than before and putting a strange emphasis on the last two words. Maybe it was a trick of the light, but Jake thought he saw a small flash of purple glitter around the necklace she was wearing. Her partner walked back up to her and whispered something in her ear, the young woman handed her bag over to them. 

Jake was dimly aware of the young woman’s partner repairing the old woman’s cane with some duct tape that was in the young woman’s purse and murmuring an apology, but Jake was finding it hard to focus on anything but the angry young woman in front of him. He shook himself and finally found his voice. 

“M-ma’am, I’m sorry, I can…I can pay for a replacement.” Jake said, his voice shaking from the mixture of disgruntled feelings directed at the young woman and shame over having caused such a scene. 

The young woman scoffed, as if she thought he was only offering because he’d been put on the spot by having witnesses. But she didn’t say anything else as the old woman assured her she was fine, and accepted a pair of twenties from Jake, assuring him that she bore him no ill will. She went on her way, the hastily repaired cane doing the job though it bent slightly when the old woman put her weight on it. 

When Jake turned back around, meaning to give the young woman a piece of his mind, he saw that she and her partner were gone. They must have slipped away while he was watching the old woman leave…

***

Jake spent the rest of that day in an uncomfortable mixture of guilt and anger. He hardly noticed that he was “rage eating” again, a habit that he’d managed to break in middle school before he got chubby. But it was back now…with a vengeance. He’d ordered three large pizzas and was almost through the second one before he realized how much he was eating. After that, try as he might, he couldn’t stop himself from continuing. By the time he was ready for bed he’d finished all three, and polished off a bucket of ice cream he’d found in the fridge…but didn’t remember buying, strangely enough. 

He woke up the next morning ravenous, and lumbered down to the kitchen feeling extremely sluggish. He didn’t bother with clothes just yet, food was more important. The staircase felt oddly claustrophobic, and he was dimly aware that he’d had to turn slightly sideways to get through the kitchen doorway. When he arrived at his pantry he found it stocked with a veritable smorgasbord of ready-to-eat breakfast foods, again which he didn’t remember buying on his last grocery run. A logical part of him balked at this sight, but his stomach demanded he fill it up. He started eating, not bothering to bring the food out of the pantry. He just ripped wrappers away and gobbed down their contents. 

It was nearly lunchtime when his stomach felt satisfied, and as he exited the pantry he caught sight of his reflection. He was huge! The words “lack of bulk” rang in his head, and he remembered the way the young woman’s necklace had flashed…but suddenly he didn’t have the energy to be bothered by that, or the fact that he looked like he’d grown to three times his normal weight overnight. His stomach was roaring to be filled again. He squeezed his bulk back into the pantry and continued his feast.