An Interactive Fiction

How Ann Marie lost the same 25 pounds again, and again. Please help her.

Ann Marie had lost some twelve-hundred-and-fifty pounds over the course of some fifty years
Not at once but
In an eternal draconian struggle with the same
Twenty-five pounds.
Fiercely attacking this poundage with
Doctors of various specialties
Psychiatrists, hypnotists, and a
Variety of obesity gurus.
She had subjected herself to various weight-loss schemes, pills, and mixes offering
Fat people miraculously gone
Skinny
Proudly wearing bathing suits.
She had herself been a before and after picture
More times than she could count her lifetime of calories.

Yet despite it all,
The lure of a potato chip, pecan pie or
Mousse au Chocolat would
Overcome her resolve which had allowed her to
Duel against corporate America, wrinkles, and ill-tempered offspring.
She could control almost anything in her
Destiny, but
The lure of a provocative food destroyed all restraint.

What was she to do?

She began each day thinking thin and thin-king each day
Was the beginning of the rest of her new
Life. But —
As soon as anything turned sour,
A bit less than perfect; i.e.,
A nose pimple, an erratic child
An error in any calculation
She became obsessed with the idea of
Something welcoming and good to
Eat.

Now she worked with women who forgot
Lunch. But – not Ann Marie, for
As soon as the big hand hit 12 and the
Little hand affectionately touched it,
She became fixated on what she would munch-lunch
On.

Since her grandparents had miraculously
Survived the pogroms in Russia
She thought she might be the victim of a DNA
Alteration producing panic over
Starvation. This was the only way
She could justify these obsessive
Cravings.

As for a plate of cookies
One was never enough. If she had one
She had them all and this was her
Downfall.
Married to Jack Sprat
(He took a bite of a cookie and
Saved the rest for later)
Loving him mostly,
She detested this stingy part
Of his personality.
For him a box of cookies could
Last forever.
For her it was a matter of completion
And, to her credit, she always completed a task.

On Thanksgiving Day
She brought home
A twenty-five-pound turkey
She realized suddenly the visual horror of this extra weight.
She stared at the menacing bird that
Stared back at her. "I’m this turkey,"
She thought "I could feed a family of four … with leftovers."
She felt self-loathing and disgust at her excess
Submerging her misery by
Eating a large bowl of nutty cranberry
Sauce
While waiting for the bird to deservedly
Roast.

One day she relieved her
Crotch itch by buying big pants.
She stopped her blouse buttons from
Separating by
Buying over-sized blouses.
Catching a glimpse of herself in the
Mirror she hated the largesse of what
She saw and promised
Herself that tomorrow could/would be another
Skinny day-starter.

But the very next day in the
Cafeteria line
She was obsessed with the smell and look of shoestring fries
Passing the celery by without a
Whiff.
Again and again, this behavior re-occurred
There was no hope for Ann Marie
For once she had surrendered to potatoes at lunch
Her diet-day was ruined.

With abandon
She gorged herself on
A Banana Split
3 scoops of coffee ice cream
4 puffs of whipped cream
7 mixed nuts
8 ounces of hot fudge — never enough
1 cherry on top
She ate this alone
Shielding her pig-out from her human workmates
Who previously had thought so highly of her.

Yet, ever hopeful — that night,
As she sinned herself to sleep
With some left-over Halloween frozen Reese’s Pieces,
She vowed to think thin.
And as she prayed the Lord her soul to keep
She whispered aloud to herself,
"Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my skinny life."

Would she make it a thin one?