Chapter 16: New Helen
*Everything is within your power, and your power is within you. – Janice Trachtman*
Yesterday when they had gotten together at Jaxon’s house for Sunday dinner, Helen’s adult children, had told her that she should take some time for herself. It was what she wanted to hear for years. She wanted to be noticed. To be appreciated. And finally she was.
Jaxon even gave her a gym bag with goodies. Inside was the outfit that she had bought and two more. There was a cute pink water bottle that declared ‘I’m a mom of three… you don’t scare me!’ There was also a motivational workout and food log. In addition to everything else, there was a gift card to the local sporting goods store.
“You’ve got this, mom.” JD told her.
Jolene seemed off. More quiet than usual. But midterms were right around the corner and Hank dismissed their concerns.
“My girl is going to be the best teacher this town has ever had.” He had boasted and said that he was going to get her the best school ring ever seen.
She had just smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
Bunny had been called into the office for an emergency. Neither Jaxon or Ty knew any details. Neither seemed concerned.
Helen wanted to let them know that she knew about the three of them. But really, what do you say? Glad that you like giving it to your wife and my son.
Not exactly something that she really wanted to know the details about.
So, she didn’t say anything.
And when they got ready to leave, JD handed her the keys to her little Kia and said that he’d see her at home. That’s when she found out that Jaxon, Bunny and Ty bought JD a second hand pickup from Jaxon’s boss. She had objected but Ty stopped her.
“It’s his Christmas, birthday and graduation all rolled into one. Plus, in July when he goes to boot camp, we get an extra car. We added it to our insurance, so don’t worry about it.”
She felt so blessed at that moment. That night, when she started to cook dinner, JD had asked if he could help. He would be moving out soon, he should know how to do more than just PB&J and frozen pizza. He had even cleaned the kitchen!
This morning when she arrived at work, several people said that she looked like she was glowing. Helen wasn’t used to this kind of treatment. She enjoyed every moment of it.
At lunch, she had her vegetable tray and tried to convince herself that she was full. She was not. Helen had been eating much smaller portions and denying herself any sweets. But when Steve announced that cupcakes were in the break room, she found herself eating four.
And then feeling shamefully disappointed in herself.
Why couldn’t she just have one? Or none? Why did she have to go overboard with it?
Helen was still chastising herself when she pulled into the gym parking lot. It had been years since she had been to a gym. Somewhere around high school when P.E. was still required.
Carrying her new pink gym bag, she walked into the Golden Iron. Surprisingly, it did not smell like body odor and funk. There was a mural of a beautiful large blonde woman on the wall behind the reception desk. Under the woman’s smiling face was written ‘She was my Golden light with an Iron will.’ Golden and Iron were stacked together creating the gyms name.
“Hi!” the girl with bubble gum pink hair and bright blue eyes smiled happily at Helen. The girl was average size and a little pudgy around her middle. She wore a gray shirt with the gyms name on the back and pink leggings with black and pink hi-tops.
“Hi. I’m Helen.”
“Hi Helen, everybody calls me Pinky.” She held her hand out and Helen took it. “I love your bag.”
“Thanks.” Helen blushed slightly. “My son got it for me. I work for TRAAC…”
“Oh! Yeah, let me get my dad.” She went into a glass walled office and then came back. “Go on in. He’ll get you set up and then I’ll show you around.”
“Okay.” Helen said going into the office.
“Helen, right?” the man said hanging up the phone and standing up to greet her. “I’m Joel and this is my gym in honor of my late wife.”
“Is that…?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He smiled and glanced at a picture on the wall. “Sit down and I’ll give you our story.”
She sat in the very comfortable oversized chair and sat her bag on the floor as he sat down and placed a brochure on the desk.
“My wife struggled with her weight for years. After our youngest, Pinky, it got worse and her doctor kept pushing her to go to the gym or something. Every one that she went to, she felt uncomfortable surrounded by gym rats and toothpicks. Shortly before her death, we discovered that she had thyroid cancer. I opened this gym for people who are like her.”
“I completely understand how she felt.” Helen admitted.
Joel smiled at her. “I’m hoping that you will be comfortable here. We focus on total health. Pinky is a certified dietician. We have two trainers on staff at all times. Several of them have primary jobs. We have four fire fighters, two teachers, a couple of county deputies and a few city cops.”
He handed over the brochure. “We do not tolerate body shaming of any kind. If you experience it, please let the staff know. We will address it. We have a three strike policy. If we have to address you three times, your membership will be revoked and you will be banned for a minimum of 12 months.”
“I’m sure that Katherine went over our discounted rates.” He handed over a contract and they went over it. She completed the form and he put her information into the computer system. He took her card out to the front desk and ran it for the first monthly fee. Then he activated a key card and handed it over.
Walking her out, Joel handed her over to Pinky. She handed Helen a pink lock. “Don’t tell my dad, I’m not charging you for the lock. It’s our last pink one.”
“It helps if you wait until I’m out of earshot.” Joel teased as he walked back into his office.
“He knows that I’m horrible about giving away the locks.” Pinky laughed.
“Let me show you around. As you can see, we have a track upstairs.” She pointed to the track that ran along the edge of the building.
“It is a full quarter mile. Behind that wall is the basketball court. We also do classes in there, I’ll get you a schedule. Obviously, these are the free weights and weight machines. If you need any assistance, just grab one of them in the shirts.” She pointed to a couple of guys in the corner wearing blue shirts like her own. On the back of their shirts it read TRAINER.
The man in the black shirt waved back and blew her a kiss. “That’s our masseuse. He’s a flirt but changes boyfriends more often than I change underwear. The other guy is Purnell, he’s one of our trainers and is a full time fire fighter.”
Pinky pushed open the door to the pool room. “We have four current pools and one lap pool, not Olympic size but we have two lanes. No diving in any of the pools, they are only four feet deep. Current pools can be set to different strengths and have a thirty minute timer. Locker rooms are over here.”
Pinky led the way into the women’s locker room. “Both have five shower stalls, we do not provide anything for your shower other than the stall and water. Everything else, you need to bring. We ask that what you bring in, you take out, please don’t leave anything long term.” There were three rows of full length wooden lockers with padded benches between them.
“We have three beauty stations with plugs and holders for hair dryers and curling irons and beauty bar lights.” Pinky flipped a switch and entire area with the table and chair was lit up with round light bulbs. Shaking her head, she flipped it back off. “I always forget how bright that is.”
They walked out the other door and back into the main area opposite the reception desk and office. “Next to my dad’s office is the equipment room. We have floats and kickboards for the pool. We also have boxing dummies that we use for self defense class taught by my sexy husband. He’s mine, you can’t have him, but check again tomorrow, he may be available.”
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