Sindy Hunter
Planetoid
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2023
- Location
- UK
Wendy Palmer gave a heavy sigh as she read the content of the bills that had just arrived that morning. Everyone had significantly increased from the last time they had been paid. She wondered if it was going to be possible to pay them and would need to ask her husband if he would be able to get more overtime at work.
Wendy’s life was not going as she had imagined years ago. She was a single child in a church-going, working-class family, and even though there was never a lot of money, the family got by. Wendy was happy as a child until she went to high school, where she was bullied. This caused her to comfort-eat, resulting in her putting on weight and being bullied even more.
On leaving school, Wendy started work as an office clerk, processing sales orders. It was there that she met her husband-to-be, Gavin Palmer, who was a machine operator. The two made an ideal pair and after a year of courting they married. Gavin was a portly person and the couple were known as the ‘Piggy Palmers’, a term that Wendy had heard when people thought she wasn’t around.
After a couple of years, the Palmers had a daughter, Helen. Everything seemed perfect to Wendy. Helen was a healthy happy child and she and Gavin were making good money. But history seemed to be repeating itself when Helen started to be bullied at high school and she too turned to food for solace. Then, just when Helen had graduated from school, the economic crisis hit and their lives changed dramatically in a very short period. The Palmers were working more hours but the drain on their income grew exponentially. When Helen started work her pay helped a little but costs just kept growing.
Wendy left for work from the rented apartment in which the family lived. She was running late after looking through the multiple bills. As she approached the bus stop she could see the bus was already there. She ran, trying to catch it, but was too slow and watched it pulling away before she could reach it. As a consequence, Wendy was half-an-hour late getting to work, resulting in a reprimand from her bitch of a supervisor, Jane Hill.
During the morning Wendy received a telephone call from her husband. He told her that he would be home early, explaining that the company had installed new equipment and cancelled all overtime. This was dreadful news for Wendy since she knew her husband’s overtime was the only way they could afford to pay the latest bills. Wendy knew there was one solution to the problem, but it would only be a short-term fix.
Wendy and Gavin had given Helen a sum of money to put towards a holiday as a present for her eighteenth birthday. Wendy hated herself as she called her daughter and explained the situation will the bills and asked if Helen could cancel her holiday. Helen agreed but Wendy could hear the disappointment in her daughter’s voice.
Later that day, Wendy was getting supplies from a cupboard next to the office drinks machine. Wendy could hear Jane Hill talking to one of Wendy’s workmates. “Did you see Piggy Palmer this morning? Christ, she was sweating and puffing like a train, I thought she was going to have a stroke… I wish the lump of lard had croaked… We wouldn’t have to have her disgusting fat body in the office”. Jane’s words were said with such venom that Wendy began to cry. She quietly went to the toilets and sat sobbing for some time.
When it was time to leave work, Wendy solemnly made her way home, not looking forward to the discussion she was going to have with Gavin and Helen. As she walked along the street towards the bus stop she noticed the doors to a church that she always passed, were open. Feeling so down and desperate Wendy went into the church and prayed, asking God for guidance and help, pleading for God to send a sign to show that he had not forgotten her and her family.
As Wendy left the church and stepped onto the pavement a young man on a bicycle whizzed past her. The young man reached out and snatched Wendy’s purse from her hand and then disappeared into the flow of traffic. Wendy stood shocked and aghast. The criminal act was the final straw of a very stressful day. She looked to the sky and angrily spat out “Really?” then tore off her crucifix from around her neck and threw it down a drain at the side of the road. Rather than going home Wendy had to walk to the nearest police station to report the crime and call her husband to come and collect her. As Wendy sat waiting for Gavin to arrive she wondered what she had done to deserve so much misfortune to fall on her and her family, and how would they ever be able to escape the dire straights they were in.