The Weight of Lightness
Jason, arms crossed and clearly unconvinced, shook his head before asking:
— Come on, man… how did you do this?
Larry sighed, leaning against the table, as if accepting there was no point in dodging the question anymore.
— You work with us, Jason. You know exactly why. You know how she talked to me, how the insults never stopped. Everything was fair game — my body, my habits, my performance. I might’ve been a bit out of shape, but that didn’t give her the right to keep tearing me down.
He let out a small smile, less mocking now, more reflective.
— I was having a terrible day. Mind overloaded, self-esteem at rock bottom. I stopped at a random restaurant just to eat something and clear my head. That’s when an old woman approached me and asked if I could help her, if I had anything she could eat. End of the month, salary already spoken for… but I reached into my pocket and gave her what little I had.
Jason listened in silence.
— She just smiled — Larry went on — and said, “Don’t worry. A good deed always comes with a reward.”
He opened his arms, as if presenting the final result of an impossible trick.
— And here I am. Feeling lighter, healthier, free from half the worries I used to carry. Except, of course, for the small detail of having to parade this sun-kissed body through the company hallways every single day.
Larry laughed again, this time with a quiet, knowing irony in his eyes.
— Meanwhile, Clarisse is there… in my old position. Actually working. Holding the job of the guy she loved to humiliate. Doing, all by herself, the work I used to do for her without complaining, without hesitation.
He adjusted the robe around his body, leaned back, and closed his eyes for a brief moment. For the first time in a long while, there was no one there to tell him he wasn’t enough.
— I guess, in the end, it wasn’t just a body swap — Larry said with a shrug.
— It was a shift in perspective.
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