By Sue Montgomery
Each colorful square in the quilt was from clothing Sophie would never wear again. Over the course of six months and the shedding of 60 pounds, her closet was now filled with nothing but size 8.
Her girlfriends squealed at her flat stomach and slender arms. They set her up with single men they knew.
“How’d it go with Kenny?”
“You’re seeing him again!”
“Oh, he’s perfect for you!”
Sophie put her iPhone on Do Not Disturb and went to bed. She pulled the quilt up to her chin. In the morning, she brushed off all the crumbs from the Oreos.
Well done and timely with the rising popularity of weight loss drugs. I love how your ending shows how difficult change can be and how it can bring unforeseen and unwelcome consequences.
Thank you so much, Cynthia. It means a lot to me to hear from a reader. Yes, change is difficult and we never know what our response to it will be.
Oh no! I guess she couldn’t handle being the new Sophie. Change is very hard.
Oh yes! Sometimes change isn’t what we hoped it would be. Thank you for chiming in, Peggy. I appreciate your response.
This was so well done. The praise and adulation of her friends, the closet full of “perfect sized” clothes, but the woman in the end wrapping herself with herself and eating the cookie said everything about what she’d actually lost.
Thank you so much for your response. You understood everything I hoped to get across.
Giving up your self to please others, Ken is not what she really needed, eating your sadness-all very real and plain to see in your 101 words. Well done!
I so appreciate your response. I’m thrilled to have my story resonate with readers.
Very well done. Perfect ending told a story that was an excellent flash so subtle.
Thank you so much for your comments. It means a lot to me to hear from a reader.