“Hey, Christina,” Bob heckled. “Isn’t that the costume you wore
last Halloween?”
“Yeah,” Ken joined in, “the beached whale!”
They were carrying a cooler of soft drinks between them.
Christina looked down at her dark blue swimsuit, designed to make the
wearer look slimmer, stretched tightly over her 255-pound frame, and realized it
didn’t make any difference.
“You guys!” Stephanie pretended to scold them. Then she added in her
smooth-as-honey voice, “Christina wore a pumpkin suit for Halloween.”
“Same difference,” Ken continued. “Orange. Blue. Doesn’t
matter—it stretches as far as the eye can see.”
“Looks like we have the beach all to ourselves.” Lori sounded
disappointed that there weren’t more people to see her as she strutted around
in her string bikini that showed off her tan skin.
“I’m sure more people will show up,” Stephanie said. “After all,
it’s free food courtesy of Fisher & Company, and the weather’s
beautiful—a rare combination for a company picnic in
Bob and Ken set up beach chairs to reserve their spots on the sandy shore
of
“You were here early,” Stephanie commented to Christina as she popped
open a soft drink can. “When did you get here?”
“Just before you showed up,” Christina assured her. “Almost
everyone in our department signed up for the picnic,” she continued.
“So that’s…hmm...at least twenty people…and their families,
right?” Stephanie assessed.
“Does that mean there’ll be a bunch of little kids running around,
like last year?” Lori heaved a sigh of disappointment.
Even as she spoke, a van drove up and parked, releasing a family of five
complete with beach chairs and beach toys. “Now, don’t wander off out of
sight,” the mother called after the children who were hightailing it to the
water’s edge.
“I’m going for a
dip,” Stephanie said eyeing one of the other new arrivals. “Anyone want to
join me?”
“He’s married,”
Lori whispered with a sympathetic smile, “and a devoted family man. Believe
me. I’ve tried everything to catch his eye.”
Stephanie pretended to
ignore Lori’s warning. “How ‘bout you, Christina? Want to go for a swim
before we eat?”
Christina was momentarily
caught off guard by the seemingly kind gesture. “Thanks, but no,” she
replied politely. Then she realized Stephanie was using the same old tactic of
making herself look good by standing next to the fat girl. People did it to her
all the time.
“Whew! For a minute
there, I thought we were going to have to move our beach chairs back from the
water,” Bob said. “Law of displacement, you know.” He looked at Christina
and smiled. “You will give us warning before you venture into the water,
won’t you?”
Christina couldn’t
think of a suitable comeback. She had grown immune to blushing. She was used to
children staring at her like she was a freak. As more employees joined the
company picnic on the beach, Christina faded into the background. No one even
noticed that she didn’t come to fill her plate when the food was served.
She had worked among
these people for six years now, and not one of them had ever bothered to get to
know her on a personal level. No one knew that she preferred to be called by her
nickname, Tina. No one knew, or even cared, that she had spent her vacation
recovering from radical surgery that would cause her to lose weight.
“Hey, lady,” a little
kid confronted Christina, “can we bury you in the sand?”
“Sure,” Christina
agreed. “Just don’t cover my face.”
“Okay, lady.”
Christina lay down, and
the children began filling their buckets with dry sand and dumping it on top of
her.
“Here,” Christina
offered. “Wet the sand with my sports bottle.”
“Gee thanks, lady!”
One child smoothed the
sand with his shovel. “Gosh,” he said. “You make a great mountain!”
Several hours passed and
the children stayed entertained creating winding roads and castles with moats on
top of Christina’s body. The adults participated in, or observed, the beach
volleyball tournaments, as well as enjoying the warm temperature of the swimming
water. One by one, the children left with their families as the company picnic
wound down to an end just before sunset.
Christina parted the vast
sand scene as she sat up and brushed herself off. The beach was deserted as she
looked around and heard the last car drive away. She made her way to the empty
parking lot and opened the trunk of her car with her key. She removed the county
warning signs and the shovel, and spent about an hour putting them back in place
along the beach.
Mr. Fisher scurried to
greet her. “Thank God, you were able to come in today, Christina. Everyone
else called in sick. It seems
“Why, no, Mr.
Fisher,” Christina replied. “I didn’t see any signs anywhere. This is
terrible news!”
“I hate to ask you
this, dear, but I need you to fill in for Ken at the meeting with Mr. Grover
today. Do you think you can get up to speed with that, if I tap Ken’s computer
for his notes?”
“Don’t worry about a
thing, Mr. Fisher. I helped Ken with the research for this meeting. I’m sure I
can handle it.”
Mr. Fisher’s tense
expression softened somewhat with relief.
“I can take care of
Stephanie’s phone list today also,” Christina added. “As well as, Lori’s
typing and filing. I help her out most of the time anyway.”
“I didn’t realize
that,” Mr. Fisher mumbled. He turned to go into his office. “Are you sure
you can handle things? I have a call in to the temporary services pool, but I
don’t know when they’ll be able to send help.”
“Don’t worry about a
thing,” Christina repeated and smiled sweetly. “You can call me Tina,” she
added. “It’s shorter.”
Mr. Fisher nodded and
gave her one of his smiles that he reserved for the rare occasions when he was
pleased.
At the end of the day,
Tina was caught up with all the office work and had clinched the deal with Mr.
Grover. Mr. Fisher poked his head out his office door as Christina was preparing
to leave. “Tina, would you come into my office for a minute please?” he
asked.
Christina entered and sat
down in front of the large gleaming desk across from Mr. Fisher.
“I don’t know if
you’ve heard,” he began, “but I’ve been asked to move upstairs and
manage the department that Mr. Tillman is vacating next week when he retires.”
“We’ll miss you,
sir.”
"I’ve had my eye
on a few of the other employees in this department to fill my shoes when I
leave. But, until I observed your work today, I had no idea you were such a
qualified associate.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“As a result, I’ve
reviewed your personnel file, and I’ve decided to offer you the position of
department manager.”
“Oh…sir! I don’t
know what to say.”
“Say, yes, so I can
start moving my things upstairs.”
“Yes, sir,” Christina
replied. She couldn’t wait until everyone returned to work and found out about
her promotion. She stood up to leave the office that would soon be hers.
“Tina, are you losing
weight?” Mr. Fisher asked with a friendly smile.
“Yes, sir. Thank you
for noticing,” Christina replied.
“What say we celebrate
your career advancement at Archie’s on the corner?” Mr. Fisher offered.
“Ever been there?”
Christina had been there
a few times, but she doubted anyone had ever noticed. “I’m looking forward
to it, sir.”
“Then let’s go. Come
on, I’ll walk you to the elevator.”
Christina grabbed her
purse and gave Mr. Fisher a sidelong glance as he held the door for her. She
hadn’t noticed before that he had kind eyes, and he was actually very nice
looking for an older bald man.
“You can call me
Jim,” he said. “It’s shorter.”
Christina smiled and, for
the first time, didn’t worry about the way it exposed her double chin.
