You guys think you got a problem, well picture this, a small round balloon glued to a much larger round balloon with four of those long balloons that clowns blow up to make balloon sculptures at children's parties hanging off the big balloon. On the front two large balloons, same size as the top balloon, glued on. That's me. I'm five foot seven inches, pale white, black hair and 250 lbs. Obese is a word. No one wants to spend any time with someone so fat, which leads to anxiety and depression, which causes my eating disorder which makes me so fat.
It's not like I got a lot of control over it, it's just a condition I've had. I've been to counsellors and psychologists, joined weight loss organizations and a lot of other shit and it just doesn't take. Who wants to be near a fat woman? All I've had from these people is "it's your fault you're so fucking fat." They don't say it like that, but they all say it. Then one day it changed for me.
I catch the same subway car at the same time, from the same station to go to the same building in the city to do the same legal secretary job I had been doing since high school, all with the same people on it, day after day. I know, boring but it's safe and keeps me fed and housed. A few months after I started that job, a girl got onto my subway car two stops from me, got off the same stop and walked to the same building I did. She was a larger girl, nowhere near my size but large, taller than me, African American, pretty and blind. I watched her and she never faltered in a step. Everyone on the subway car got to know Grace and we got a bit protective of her actually. She always sat in the same place and if a casual rider got on and went to sit there, they would be asked, politely, to sit somewhere else. Only one ever objected, but backed off when she was told that seat was always saved for the blind girl at the next stop. Seems even the worst Karens are not going to disrespect a blind person.
I would follow Grace, not stalking her, but we were going to the same building. We sometimes caught the same lift, she worked on the seventh floor and I was on the fourteenth. At the start of 2020, just before the virus hit us, I was almost alongside her, walking past a construction site. The cold wind was gusty but not too bad when it surged, we both curled up to it and pushed on. Suddenly, there was a weird grinding noise and a loud ping, I looked up and the crane that had lifted a load was struggling against the wind. The load had shifted and hit something, it began to fall. Grace was oblivious so I screamed out "Down!" and she froze. She was really confused so I grabbed her and pulled her to the ground. She wasn't going to remain standing with my weight pulling her down.
There was this huge crash and Grace screamed, I thought she might have lashed out but in that moment we were hit by a shower of debris. We both screamed. I felt this huge whack on my right ass cheek just as we were smothered by this cloud of dust. It didn't cover us for long, the gusting winds blew it away quickly but that didn't stop us from coughing our lungs up. Everyone around us was in the same position, we were surrounded by people struggling to stand, to breath. I had my right arm around Grace and my left was under her. I flexed my hands to see if they were still working and Grace said, "I hope you're the woman who told me to get down!" Then I realized I had a handful of her breast.
"Oh shit! I'm sorry, I was checking to see if things were still working."
"Oh, my tits are fine, thank you," she said in a deadpan, straight faced manner, "But I would prefer to get to know you better first."
I helped her sit up. It was cold and windy, there hadn't been any rain or snow for the last four days, so while covered in dust and debris, we were, at least, dry. "I'm sorry, here, let me help you clean up a bit."
"What the fuck happened?" she asked. I told her her and we could hear sirens coming from all directions. She coughed and I asked her if she was okay. She said "Yeah, just a mouthful of dust coming out of my lungs. You?"
"Apart from a sore ass, I'm fine."
"Well, tell your guy not to be so hard on your ass," she deadpanned.
"No boyfriend, I got hit by something on a cheek."
"Oh, I can rub it better for you if you like. No boyfriend, you're very pretty, so why no boyfriend?"
"I'm not that pretty, and I'm not interested."
She stopped at that, "Can I touch your face?" She asked, "I can't see you, so touch is the only way I can feel what you look like. I don't normally ask anyone for this, but given our circumstances."
I know this is something of a trope, and it's something the blind really don't do with just anyone. Usually only for very few people, close relatives or friends, so I said, "Sure. if you like."
"Thank you." I took her hand and put it on the side of my dust covered face, it was strange, that's for sure, as she felt all over it. "Besides, I'd like to know what the woman who saved my life looks like." She touched me for a short while and said, "Very pretty indeed."
I said nothing, but I must admit, I squirmed a bit. We were just covered in dust and she was now a gray color, dammit concrete dust. That means lime in our lungs. Fuck! That's why we were coughing. It'll probably be nothing but it will also mean a lot of medical time off work getting checked out. "We'll have to stay here," I said, "Police and medical will want to talk to us. We're covered in concrete dust."
"No point talking to me," Grace said, "I didn't see anything." With a perfectly straight face, deadpan delivery, I couldn't help but laugh. "Nice laugh too," she said, "But who are you?"
"Me?" I hadn't told her my name then, "I'm Jill, I'm on the same subway car as you and work in the same building."
"And you've never talked to me before?"
"No, never had the need,"
"What? I had to be covered in dust before you'd talk to me?" In that same deadpan delivery.
"No," and I have no idea what came over me, "I just needed an excuse to touch your tits."
She laughed, "Damn, you really didn't need a falling building to introduce yourself."
"No, I know, but people don't want to get too close to the fat kid."