So anyway, the lesbians knew
all about me being fat and mumless and they put on their itchiest jumpers and
those boots that look like they take ages to lace up and stood outside the
school for a whole day and the next thing I knew a letter arrived from Walton
Secondary saying that ‘provision had been made for my special needs’. It’s a
shame they couldn’t have made provision for my special school uniform needs,
too. I had to wear a pair of my Dad’s old grey sweatpants that had gone all
pale where they’d rubbed at the crotch and some black Reebok’s without laces
because my feet are so fat they won’t squeeze into normal shoes. Of course the
headmaster said this was unacceptable and my dad said ‘Well, you try getting
clothes to fit that fat bastard' and then the lesbians came marching back in and
I suddenly had a ‘plus size suit’ and some too long shoes that squeaked when I
walked.
Really it doesn’t matter
what you wear when you’re as fat as me. All people see is too much. And too much of
anything makes people sick. Not me, though. Not now. After mum went to the
hospital and never came back I took out every meal in the chest freezer and ate
the whole lot in one go. One of her juicy cottage pies with the crisp brown
furrows of mash just how I liked it, seven of her handmade salmon fishcakes, three portions of the Bolognese only she could make
that way, some buttery mashed sweet potato, a bag of her green beans, two apple
crumbles… I didn’t even know what one of the bags was, some sort of stew. I ate it anyway.
As I forced it all down, it tasted delicious and sad all in one. With every
mouthful it was like she was with me, but also one mouthful further away. And
then it was gone and all I had to show for her life was the ache in my belly and I cried. Because even though I was full I
had never felt more empty.
And that’s always how food
makes me feel now. Full and empty. Empty and full.
So I don’t have to tell you
that school isn’t my favourite place. But I don’t really like being at home
either, not now. So maybe that’s why when people shout shit at me it just, you
know, bounces off. Sticks and stones wouldn’t even break my bones. I’m all
padding. Plus no one can hurt you when there’s nothing inside. Like when Kev
Wilson shouts ‘Oi, fat cunt’ or Sarah Hillman says ‘I’m not sitting next to the
lard bucket, he stinks’. Whatever. I don’t feel sad I just carry on feeling,
well, nothing. Nothing anyone says or shouts or throws at the back of my head
in science will make me eat any less or make me weigh any less. This is who I
am.
Or so I thought. Because
after three weeks of going to the school, a new teacher started. Mr Khim. He
was small, Chinese looking, but I later found out he was Korean. He’s our
new maths teacher. I don’t really like maths. Equations and formulas aren’t
really my thing. Sure I get it ‘If you’ve got a fat kid and he eats six pies,
three cakes and four hot dogs…' you’ll get an ever bigger fat kid. Whatever. I
see how it works, just not why I need it. I have a calculator on my phone.
But this Mr Khim, he walks
into the classroom and starts writing all these numbers on the white board.
It went on and on until he ran out of space. Everyone was laughing and shouting and
throwing stuff and he just carried on scribbling away until the laughter died down. And then
he said ‘Meet Pi’. And Mark Wallcroft shouted ‘We already did, didn’t we Fat
Bastard?’ and he got sent out the class and I pretended not to be pleased. In
truth classmates shout out about me so much, it just wouldn’t be practical to
throw them out of class every time. But Mr Khim was new so he didn’t know this.
And then he explained that
Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to it’s diameter. And though it’s a
constant number, we can never truly know the value of Pi because its digits go
on forever. For our homework he told us to learn the first 10 numbers. How
hard could that be, right?
As soon as I got home I
Googled it. I don’t know why. There was just something kinda mystical about the
way Mr Khim talked about Pi. As though it wasn’t just some number. But, like
touching… I don’t know, impossibility.
It turns out the pyramids
were all built to the same ratio. Seriously. Even the Bible mentions it.
There’s some bit in the old testament about the dimensions of Solomon’s temple
and some brightspark worked out it added up to Pi, or whatever. But the bit
that really made my head spin was this: maths geeks reckon it’s more
correct to say a circle has an infinite number of corners than to view a circle
as being cornerless. Right?
All that talk of square
circles made me feel dizzy. Because if circles have corners then what else isn’t as it seems? This was just one of my thoughts as I
lay on my bed surrounded by empty crisp bags and chocolate wrappers.
And then it happened. The
numbers appeared in front of me. Like a wall of digits before my eyes. And they hung
in the air so long I fell asleep scrolling through them. And when I woke up
they were still there and followed me all the way to school. I don’t know why I
hadn’t noticed them before.
3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164
062862089986280348253421170679…
But it wasn’t until I got to
school and we were back in maths and Mr Khim asked if anyone had done their
homework that it hit me. What I was seeing. And before I know it I I’m raising
my hand and I’m at the front of the class. I barely notice the laughter or the
balled up Post It note that pelts me on the side of the head. It’s as if I’m
possessed. 3: the number of times my mum shouted at me in her whole life, 14:
her dress size, 1: the number of times she let me see her cry, 5: her shoe size, 9: the date of her
birthday in June, 26: the date in August she stopped existing, 5: the number of freckles
that framed her smile, 35: how old she was when she had me, 8: her lucky
number, 97: the steps we counted together as we laughed our way to the end of Clacton pier, 932: the number of days it has been since she smiled that
smile and rubbed my head and kissed me and told me I was her little miracle and
more than worth the wait, 3: the number of times she stood up to my father and
told him to lay off me and wasn’t he ashamed to hit his son, 8: the number of
times she took me up to London on the train to visit the museums, 46: how old
she was when she took her last breath. I carry on for ages. Of course,
I don’t say any of that stuff. I just rattle off the numbers, all the time
holding Mum in my mind. The class is silent. Mr Khim's eyes are glistening. A calm
comes over me the way it does when my belly aches from eating and the pain tips
into something… I don’t know, almost touchable. And as the numbers swirl around
me I can feel her. Actually feel her.
Infinite: a mother's love. My name is Stephen, by the way.
Infinite: a mother's love. My name is Stephen, by the way.
(By BG)
So much emotion in this short story, I loved the contrast between the humour, the sadness, the anger, the hopelessness but most of all between the fullness and the emptiness. I found the line 'even though I was full I had never felt more empty' affecting. Great stuff Beth. Sally
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything Sally has said. I did try to post this a week ago but for some reason it didn't show up. Well done. There's something frantic about your writing. I like it, R
ReplyDeleteThis is brilliant. Like all contact with you; informative and entertaining. I particularly liked the final section where the numbers represented different experiences and memories. If I edited it I'd only remove Mr Khim having tears in his eyes.
ReplyDelete