An intervention failed

chapter 1: the beginning

It was a family intervention. Phoebe’s parents and 16 year old sister were in the living room, surrounding their obese 20 year old daughter and sister.

“Phoebe, you have gotten so fat! The size of an obese whale,” her mom explained, putting both hands on her daughter’s round gut and shaking it. Her sister snickered, at the mention of Phoebe being compared to the size of an obese whale. “You need to stop this! It’s gone too far!”

Phoebe bristles up in anger, defensive. “I’m fine mom. I weigh under 250 lbs and am not the size of a whale!” Even to Phoebe’s ears, she knew how unrealistic that sounded. It has been seven months since she stepped on a scale. Over a year and a half since her breakup with her boyfriend. She knew she had gain some more weight but was afraid to know.

Her mom looks in disbelief at her.

“Young lady, oh should I say big, fat, tubby lady,” Phoebe’s dad said sternly, poking his daughter in the belly. “You do not raise your voice at your mother.” Frustrated, Phoebe brushes her dad’s hand and waddles out of the room, leaving. Phoebe tries to pick up her pace, but her huge body will only allow her to go at a slow speed. Her sister laughs, while her parents look disgustingly at their fat daughter.
“If you want to eat yourself to a blimp, don’t bother coming home, Fatty,” Her dad calls out.
Embarrassed and frustrated, Phoebe slams the front door for good measure, as that’s all she could do.

She waddles along the block, huffing and puffing. She only stopped when she was three houses down, so her family couldn’t see her from the window, and she could save face. After 10 minutes, she started walking again, not sure where she was going. It was dinner time and she wonder what she would not only do for dinner, but where she would sleep for the night.

She passed by a construction site of a home, two workers still working. The owners had gone on summer vacation, and the house was being renovated by contractors. They stopped and looked at her and started whispering. Phoebe pretended not to notice, waddling, and thinking where she could go.

“Henry, look at the size of that pig,” one construction worker with sandy blond hair said, loud enough for Phoebe to hear.

Henry, the big burly guy beside him whistle. “Check out the junk in the trunk,”

“How about the junk in that belly!”

Turning red, Phoebe tried to pull her pink polo shirt over her hanging belly, but failed. The shirt was from the men’s plus size clothing section – that’s all she could fit into these days, after she outgrew the women’s plus size and maternity clothes. Her belly jiggled with each step. She tried to waddle faster, breathing harder and louder. It was sad to see she had taken only 8 steps, not even halfway pass the house yet. Henry and Tom, the other worker, watched this huge jello-like human, in a too tight pink polo shirt and grey sweats, waddle, with not only her belly shaking, but her arm flabs and double chin as well. She was a great sight to see!

The two guys came off the grass, towards her. Phoebe stopped, deciding what to do. She started to turn back.

“Hey, jelly belly! What’s the rush?” Henry said, already in front of Phoebe, and grabbing a part of her belly and shaking it. “Belly, belly!”

“Don’t, don’t touch me,” Phoebe stammered, trying to swipe Henry’s hand away, but she wasn’t as fast and Tom, caught both of her hands.

“Whoa, look at this! She’s so fat you can literally see her reacting in slow mo.” He jabbed a finger in her stomach. Phoebe yelped.

The two guys laughed. “We shouldn’t be out here, where we can be seen. Let’s take this piggy into the house. Sid is still working, but he’ll want to see what we caught for dinner; a real pork belly!” Tom jabbed his finger into Phoebe’s wide navel, and she squealed. The guys laughed. “Jelly belly, jelly belly” Tom taunted Phoebe, his finger still in her navel and moving his finger side-to-side, making her belly sway from the momentum. Phoebe felt tears welling up. She was stuck, frozen in place. Sure, she had people throw insults at her, but she never had anyone touch her most self-conscious body part: her belly button.

“Good idea, Tom,”, Henry said. With that, Tom took his finger out of Phoebe’s belly button, and each man took a hold of her arm and walked her to the house.

Phoebe tried to struggle, but the guys were strong. Tom also had shoved his dirty rag into Phoebe’s mouth, to muffle her from screaming.

“Check out her huge gut! It jiggles when she walks!” Tom said, stopping to slap it and watching it jiggle. “Hope it can fit through the door!”

The three made it into the house, with Phoebe’s big body grazing the door slightly. This house had a smaller door frame than others.

Henry closed the door and called out, “Yo Sid, check out what we got for dinner!”