His daughter’s fat legs, which were pushing the elasticity of her leotards to its limits, sickened, revolted and embarrassed him.
These feelings would never be aired though.
How could his wife, who was in charge of meal planning in their home, allow his children to grow out of control? How could his wife tell his obese daughter that she “looked like a perfect princess!” in her ballerina outfit, when she was one cupcake away from a polyester explosion? Her enormous thighs always touched each other, even when she was walking.
For weeks he sat at his daughter’s ballet classes, obsessing on these issues, and watching his rotund daughter unable to keep up with even the simplest of ballet routines or exercises. For weeks he heard her wheezing and saw sweat pouring down her face and out of her armpits. It took all his strength not to look away in horror and shame.
Because many of the young girls in the ballet class were above average weight, this lessened the severity of his embarrassment. Most importantly, this allowed him to rationalize that his daughter was just slightly overweight.
That all changed one day, when The Jenkins Girl joined the class.
This day’s class started as they had for three months. He sat on the side of the dance floor on a folding chair. He watched the same girls, including his baby-whale-sized 12 year old, line up and start their stretching.
Suddenly, there was a loud WHOOSH sound as the main door opened. All heads turned towards the noise and that is when they first saw her, The Jenkins Girl.
If God himself had a perfect design in mind for a ballerina The Jenkins Girl was it. Within moments, all of the parents were staring at her, and, without trying, The Jenkins Girl completely destroyed all of the rationalized layers of denial that these parents of obese children had been maintaining in their minds and their hearts.
The Jenkins Girl took her place in line and suddenly all of the other girls looked deformed and abnormal. The other girls looked like they belonged in formaldehyde-filled scientific jars, evidence of genetic testing gone wrong. Their fate should be dissection to ascertain what exactly had caused such disgusting mutations. Her presence made it clear that they did not belong in a ballet studio.
The Jenkins Girl did not wheeze or sweat like a dock worker. Nor did she need rest periods and snack breaks every few minutes as the deformed obese girls in her ballet class did. She effortlessly followed the instructor’s guidance and only needed to see a stretch or dance move once to perfect it herself.
Within minutes, the slender instructor began to gravitate towards The Jenkins Girl and ignore her classmates. The Jenkins Girl’s thighs did not touch when she walked. The Jenkins Girl was the most like the beautiful, slender, feminine and graceful instructor.
The Jenkins Girl did a perfect split after seeing the instructor demonstrate it. The other girls just stared, mouths agape.
The Jenkins Girl Spoke “Come on everyone, do a split just like me and the instructor!”
The other girls looked at their parents seated on their folding chairs. Their parents, with silent stern looks, demanded that their daughters also do a split just like the instructor.
There is nothing more unsettling or uncomfortable than watching obese young girls, wearing 2-size-too-small ballerina outfits, attempting a full split.
Some of the other girls’ leotards ripped during their attempts.
Some of the other girls pulled muscles they had never used and began to wail in pain.
Most girls flatulated, some more than once, as their full weight bore down on their pelvis.
When it was over, only The Jenkins Girl and the instructor remained on the dance studio floor. Both still in a perfect split position. The other girls had long since retreated, most crying, into their parents’ arms.
The instructor spoke “I want everyone to look closely at The Jenkins Girl’s form. This is how you are supposed to do a split. I expect everyone to be ready to do this next week.”
Even though their daughters’ condition were mother-induced, there were quiet, but stern, murmurings as mothers whispered words of disappointment and embarrassment in their daughters’ ears. The mothers and fathers one by one left the dance studio with their enormous daughters.
There would be many dinner conversations that revolved around The Jenkins Girl that night. Many of her obese classmates would cry themselves to sleep.
All the while The Jenkins Girl simply and innocently lived her life with nothing but love and acceptance in her heart.
This would not be the last group of girls, and later in life, group of women, who because of their own shortcomings and genetic imperfections, would come to hate……..
The Jenkins Girl…
To be continued….
