"I heard that you can help guys put on weight real quick and easy," Jack said told the shopowner. "I heard it from one of the guys in the locker room at school, they said you got something that made 'em get real big real fast just in time for the football season. Y'see, I got two older brothers at home, and I'm kind of the runt of the litter. Ever since my ma passed it's been just pa and us boys, and I'm sick of feelin' so little compared to the rest of 'em!"
"You've come to the right place," Lee said with an air of certainty. "I indeed have many ointments for helping with weight. Some people want to lose it, others gain it - it's all a matter of personal preference, really, and it's our specialty to help you modify in just the right ways. One moment, please." Lee ducked behind a curtain and quietly rummaged through the back storage, to the tune of ocassionaly clinking glass containers and shuffling footsteps. Jack tried his best to keep his hopes in check and give himself a reality check - while it would be nice to think that this kind of stuff was possible, a nagging voice in the back of his mind told him that it would only lead to heartbreak. The guy who'd been bragging in the locker room HAD been pretty buff, but Jack could hardly remember him ever having been any different. The more Jack thought about it, the fuzzier his memory got, and he felt the beginnings of a headache coming on.
Before he could get too lost in thought, Lee emerged victorious from behind the curtain, holding a small jar filled with a thick white substance, almost like butter or mayo. "This will solve all of your weight problems, sir. Only a touch will be necessary to begin with, as a little goes a long way. I trust you'll find the effects to your liking, just as your school friend did. Now, you may not claim to believe in all this just yet, but I assure you, the potency of this cream is quite significant. As with all of our products the impacts work both backwards and forward in time. Only those who are predisposed to believe in the potential impacts of our creams will have the slightest notion of a change. All others will act as though your new body is just the same as it has always been. It is very telling that you even made it so far as to come to this shop. It means you have the natural tendency for these arts."
Jack scoffed a little at this notion. He wasn't so sure about all this - it was getting a little bit too freaky for his tastes. He was starting to second guess why he'd come all the way down here, or what he thought was going to happen.
"Now, this is important. Start out slow at first. It's just like in cooking, you can always add more salt, but you can't take it out once it's in. Just a bit at first will do the trick, rubbed into your skin. If you add too much too soon you won't be able to go back to the way you were. Be careful with how much you're exposed to over time as well. While your glimmer of predisposition is promising, it can easily be overwhelmed if you surround yourself with too much of this ointment's impacts, and even you may lose grip of how you used to be."
The serious way that Kim Lee explained this whole situation to Jack was starting to make him uncomfortable. He couldn't imagine that an overpriced jar of mayonnaise that small could seriously cause any harm. At this point he wanted to just bolt out of there, with or without the jar. He nodded solemnly to the salesman in order to make it seem like he was taking this all very seriously.
"So, uh, you haven't mentioned a price yet..." Jack mumbled, trying to think of a potential excuse that could get him out of there quickly. "You know, my financial means are somewhat limited considering my student status and whatnot," Jack added, hoping that Mr. Lee would take the hint and let him go for that day.
"Oh, I won't charge you today. Consider this a student referral discount. Anyone who comes after hearing tale of others who have benefitted from my products deserves at least some perks from that. We can consider pricing for future purchases." Lee smiled as he extended the jar out to Jack.
"Gee, uh, thanks, sir. I really appreciate that. It's hard to say no to the price of free..." Jack mumbled, smiling uncertainly. He took the jar and left the store, hurrying home.
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Jack walked in the front door long after dark. He hadn't realized how long he'd been in that ointment store, and the walk home had been a slow one as he turned over in his mind everything that he'd been told. His two brothers were the only ones still up, sitting at the kitchen table and still sweaty from a long day's work out on the farm. Pa must have already gone to bed, turning in early like usual.
"Hey there string bean, what kept you out so late?" Jack's brother Dallas was always riding on his back about how much time Jack spent away from the farm. Ever since his two brothers had dropped out of high school to work on the farm with Pa full time, they really gave Jack a hard time. Jack was 18 now, and his brothers could not for the life of them figure out why he still was putting himself through unnecessary education when they had dropped out each at 16. Pa never worried Jack about it, and always said that his continuing his studies made him proud, but with his brothers now 23 and 20 respectively, Jack knew that his studying seemed like a thorn in their sides. Dallas continued his ribbing, "All those teachers and books working you too hard?"
"Aw, you know damn well he ain't REALLY workin,'" Allen retorted before Jack even got the chance to explain himself. "Real work results in some of THESE," Allen flexed his muscles in his tight tshirt, stretching the fabric with his tanned skin. "What Jack does is just fiddle with his pens and papers, which is why he looks so scrawny." The two brothers guffawed to one another, laughing as they always did at a joke about how skinny and lanky Jack was compared to their ripped heavyweight wrestler bodies. Jack would never understand why HE had to be the one to take after their slim, slender mother, while the other two seemed to have nothing but their father's heavyset farmhand genes running through them.
Jack ignored their jokes and trudged straight to his room. "G'night,' he muttered as they continued to laugh, recycling old joke material that they'd used for years about exactly HOW skinny in fact he was.
Tossing his backpack onto the bed, the small jar of ointment rolled out of one of the pockets, coming to rest gently on the edge of the bed, waiting for him. As his brothers worked themselves up into a laughing fit that he could still hear through the walls, the craziness of the whole situation was starting to seem a whole lot less intimidating. Wouldn't it be nice if this were something that were REAL for once? So that he could actually fit in with the rest of his family and not be so dang skinny and waifish? He had to try, just to know for sure one way or another.
He grabbed the jar and slipped into the bathroom. Stripping his shirt and pants off, he looked at himself in the mirror. With each breath, he could see each clearly defined bone heave and set, and the skin stretched all over his body not in the full, healthy way that Allen's hugged his muscles, but in a shallow taut way like canvas. He wanted to be big like his brothers, like his Pa, so that he could make them all proud of him and he wouldn't be the butt of the jokes for once. Slipping his hand into the cream, he shuddered at how cold it felt to the touch. Ignoring Lee's admonition to apply only a little to begin with, he took a thick handful and rubbed it between his hands as it squelched and wetly plopped. If there was any truth to this nonsense ointment, he had to know for SURE, and he had to have pretty good clues. Besides, the jar was still nearly full, so he could always apply even more later if there were any signs of improvement.
He rubbed the cream all over his body, letting it absorb into his skin. He waited, gazing intently into the mirror, for something - ANYTHING- to happen, but after a few moments too long, he sighed dejectedly to himself, upset that he even thought about believing all that hocus pocus. Leaving the jar on the bathroom counter, he walked back into his room and curled up in bed and fell asleep.
When he wakes up, he's: