Stuffed

Eric Walters

orac
currents

Copyright © Eric Walters 2006

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage
and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission
In writing from the publisher.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Walters, Eric, 1957-
Stuffed / Eric Walters.

(Orca soundings)

ISBN 1-55143-519-5 (bound) ISBN 1-55143-500-4 (pbk.)

I. Title. II. Series.

PS8595.A598S88 2006    jC813'.54      C2006-900400-5

Summary
: Ian decides to take a stand against a fast-food multinational.

First published in the United States, 2006

Library of Congress Control Number:
2006921004

Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing
programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada
through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP), the
Canada Council for the Arts, and the British Columbia Arts Council.

Cover design: Lynn O'Rourke
Cover photography: Getty Images

Orca Book Publishers                   Orca Book Publishers
PO Box 5626, Stn. B                          PO Box 468
Victoria, BC Canada                        Custer, WA USA
V8R 6S4                                            98240-0468

Printed and bound in Canada

09 08 07 06 • 5 4 3 2 1

For those who make healthy choices in life.

Author's Note

I had just finished two presentations at Kortright Hills Public School in Guelph and was waiting to go out to lunch with the teacher/librarian and two students. As I sat there I watched them bring in lunch for hundreds of the students—Subway sandwiches. I thought about how this was a pretty healthy fast food. I started talking to the parent volunteer about a documentary I'd recently seen—
Super Size Me
—and the impact it had on me. From that conversation to the point where we sat down to have lunch, I had the whole outline for this book. Oh, by the way, we ate at Wendy's and I had a Number One combo—a burger with lettuce, onions and tomatoes, a side salad with no dressing and a medium Coke—and I didn't Biggie Size anything.

The credits started rolling up the screen. Behind the credits were pictures of people— overwhelmingly overweight people with rolls of fat bulging over jeans and busting out of tops, with triple chins, and wearing clothes big enough to be circus tents.

The lights came on and Mrs. Fletcher walked to the front of the classroom, turned off the DVD and clicked off the
TV
.

“That was quite an interesting documentary,” she said.

It was called
Stuffed
, and it was all about Frankie's, the gigantic fast-food chain. It was all about how their food was filled with fat and chemicals and how eating it could make people overweight, unhealthy, sick and could basically kill them.

“Comments?” Mrs. Fletcher asked.

“That was disgusting,” Julia snapped. Julia was one of my best friends. “Just disgusting!”

“It was pretty gross,” Oswald agreed. He was my
best
friend.

Two weeks ago he might have agreed or he might have disagreed with Julia. Now he did nothing but agree with anything and everything she said. Two weeks ago he and Julia had stopped being friends and started being boyfriend and girlfriend.

“It made me hungry,” Trevor said. A chorus of laughter followed his words.

“Hungry?” Julia demanded, sounding not only surprised but offended. “How could you possibly even think about eating after what we just saw?”

“I like Frankie's food,” Trevor said. “It's
tasty and big…really big…and I like big food.”

Trevor looked like he could have been
in
the documentary.

Julia opened her mouth to answer, but Mrs. Fletcher cut her off. “What do other people think?” she asked.

I thought that was pretty smart on her part— cutting Julia off before she said something about Trevor that we were all probably thinking but nobody should have said.

Other people joined into the debate. It was creating a lot of opinions—but then again, it was a pretty strong documentary.

The film was about some guy who lived on nothing but Frankie's food. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, he ate nothing but Frankie's. Sausages and coffee and hotcakes and hash browns for breakfast; burgers and fries and onion rings and Coke and root beer for lunch and dinner. Every day, every meal for sixty days. By the end he was fat and sluggish and depressed.

“What was the most interesting thing you learned?” Mrs. Fletcher asked the class.

“That they put sugar in everything, including the French fries and onion rings,” a girl said.

“I couldn't believe the amount of sugar that guy had eaten,” another boy said. “It was like a small mountain!”

There had been a scene in the movie where sugar—equal to all the sugar he'd eaten—was piled on a table. The amount of sugar was so massive it slipped off the edges of the table.

“What grossed me out the most was all that fat!” Julia said.

“That was sick!” Oswald agreed. “And I don't mean that in a good way.”

After the sugar scene they had glass jars filled with greasy, slimy fat—equal to the amount he'd eaten during the two months.

“Those were both wonderful visual displays. How many people are now less likely to eat at Frankie's?” Mrs. Fletcher asked.

Three-quarters of the class put up their hands.

“Those who didn't raise their hands, could you explain why it didn't affect you in the same way?”

“Frankie's food tastes the best,” a boy said.

“Yeah,” Trevor agreed, “especially the triple bacon cheeseburger melt.” Trevor's eyes were closed as if he was picturing the burger in his mind. I wouldn't have been surprised if a string of drool had come out of his mouth.

That was actually my favorite burger too—I liked it, but I thought Trevor was
in love
with it.

“And you still would eat one of those after watching the film?” Julia questioned.

“Why not?” Trevor asked.

“Did you fall asleep during the movie?” Julia demanded.

“Julia,” Mrs. Fletcher cautioned.

“But Mrs. Fletcher, that's the very worst thing on the whole menu!” Julia protested. “Each one has over twelve hundred calories and more fat than anybody should eat in an entire day! That guy gained thirty-seven pounds because of that burger!”

“It wasn't just the burgers,” Trevor said. “And besides, it's not like I'm going to eat there every day.”

“Trevor has a point,” Mrs. Fletcher said. “Now, this documentary focused on just one fast-food chain, but what about the others?”

“They're all the same,” Julia said.

“Are they?” Mrs. Fletcher asked.

“Sure they are. They all serve fried, fatty, sugary foods.”

“Yes they do, but don't most chains offer healthy alternatives?” Mrs. Fletcher questioned.

“Well…”

“Can't you get salads and fruit platters and yogurt, mineral water and juices at most of the other places?”

“I guess so,” Julia said.

“So at most fast-food restaurants it is possible to eat healthier, if not healthy.”

“But not at Frankie's,” Oswald said. “They don't have any of those things. It's like they're proud of being unhealthy.”

“Their commercials do brag about offering the biggest servings of fries, the largest soft drinks and the most gigantic burgers,” another person added.

“Ian,” Mrs. Fletcher said, and I startled in my seat. “What do you think about all of this?”

“Me?”

“You. You've been very quiet through this whole discussion.”

“Maybe I've learned that it's sometimes better to keep your mouth shut,” I said.

“Sometimes it
is
better. But not in
my
class. And it's good to have you back in class,” she said.

“It's nice to be back.”

This was my first morning in class after a two-day suspension—I still couldn't believe that I'd been suspended!

Disrespectful conduct
is what it said on the papers. What that meant is that I had an argument with my law teacher, Mr. Phillips. I'd made the terrible mistake of pointing out to him that he had no idea what he was talking about, that he was an idiot.

The jerk thought that because he was a law teacher he knew about the law. Both my parents were lawyers. My older sister and both my older brothers were lawyers. In my
house we talked about the law. My parents had hoped I'd be a lawyer too. I wasn't sure what I was going to be, but I was pretty sure what I wasn't going to be—I wasn't going to be a lawyer, and I wasn't going to be a law teacher.

In the end, even after I was suspended, the school agreed that I'd been right and Phillips had been wrong. Unfortunately, both my school and my parents agreed that I probably shouldn't have sworn at him and told him he was an idiot—even if he was. My father had said that if I hadn't sworn at him they would have fought the suspension.

“So, Ian, what did you think about
Stuffed
?” Mrs. Fletcher asked.

“I liked it. I mean, it made some good points. There were things he explained that I hadn't known. I'm not going to be eating at Frankie's…as often.”

“As often?” Julia demanded. “Don't you mean ever again?”

“Ever again is a long time. Besides, I like the triple bacon cheeseburger melt too.”

Julia shot me a disgusted look.

“I will never eat at a Frankie's again,” Julia pronounced. “Never, not ever.”

“How many people feel like Julia?” Mrs. Fletcher asked.

This time only five hands shot into the air. I noticed that Oswald's hand didn't go up. Lucky for him, Julia didn't notice.

“So the majority of you feel you will eat at Frankie's less often, but only a few of you think you will never eat there again,” Mrs. Fletcher said.

“Too bad it isn't more people,” Trevor said, and everybody looked at him in surprise. “Yeah, the less people that eat there, the shorter the lineups for those of us who do.”

There was more laughter. As Mrs. Fletcher tried to settle down the students, the bell rang to signal the end of class.

“You're all dismissed!” Mrs. Fletcher yelled out. “And please, enjoy your lunch!”

I settled into my seat at our table in the cafeteria and started pulling stuff out of my lunch bag. A peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich on whole wheat, an apple, a couple of cookies and a Coke. Not bad. At least nothing fried or fatty.