Flour #Wattys2016

Chapter 1-Flour

Middle of August and the fat sizzled on the plastic seat of the bus. Lifting up a leg Antonella felt the skin grab on to every molecule of the torn ecopelle. Ripping, peeling each inch away she finally managed to move ever so slightly to the right. Enough to give air to the underparts or at least the underparts that still weren't attached to the seat.

A look of disgust from her neighbor, a fidget to stay clear of whatever might seep from below. She didn't dare look but she knew the thoughts that were running through their minds..pig, pork, blob, odor...how could anyone just let themselves get this way?

More movement, movement of trying to get away from....from what?.... from fat...no not fat but an obese girl, sweating copiously, as she tried to unstick her thighs from a plastic seat in the burning heat of a packed bus in the middle of the day of a broiling August heat wave.

Her stop was coming up. The part she dreaded the most. She had to move, get up from the seat and struggle to one of the doors. She reached over to pull the string that rang a bell for the driver, the passenger next to her cringed as she reached over his head and tugged the worn string...ding..so light an airy the sound. She reached down and grabbed the plastic bag containing the days groceries, wrapped it around her wrist and heaved her body in an upright position. People tried to move out of her way, but it was useless, the bus was packed and she was titanic. She knew that they were trying to move because they didn't want to touch her or better yet they didn't want to be touched by her in any way. She was soaked and sticky.

They squeezed their bodies into areas that didn't exist just to let her by...she didn't look at them, she set her eyes on the door. The bus screeched to a halt, groaned and the doors cranked open. One last effort and she was in front of the doors. Her foot touched the first step, second and finally she felt the melting asphalt of the b road...she was out. Behind her people poured out of the bus like a drain that had been unplugged of some nasty clog....her body.

The white plastic bag was ripping into the folds of her wrists and she carefully untwisted the plastic handles and changed wrists. She walked fast, fast for her and kept her eyes on the step that she was about to take. She felt the people around her, the slight breeze as they passed was the only evidence of their existence. She saw no faces but she knew that they saw her...they moved to avoid her.

Last minute shoppers were hurrying to get home for pranzo... there was not much time before the sounds of rolling shutters took over, but shopkeepers were doing their best to serve quickly so that they too could close up shop and escape the heat for at least a few hours.

She headed straight for the forno , her last stop before home. Entering she felt the warmth of the yeast, she breathed in the aroma of fresh baked bread. A bell over the door announced her entrance. A woman with a small child attached to her hip shoved a brown paper bag filled with grissini into a large shopping bag, twirled on her heels and almost smashed into her.

"A domani..I'll see you tomorrow Michele" she sang out. The child looked at Antonella and hid his face in his mother's neck.

"Buon giorno..good morning" the mother barely moved her mouth as she looked straight through Antonella.

"Buon giorno" Antonella kept her head down and her eyes glued to the floor.

"Signorina Baratelli" Michele the baker raised an eyebrow, a secret code that his regulars knew meant it was their turn to be served.

"Buon giorno Michele, il solito, the usual please." She didn't look at him as he stuffed a fresh brown paper bag with five rosette and three libretti.