ARTY: Things could be worse, y’know. Mum told me a baby got hit by a fallen lamppost and now he’s deady-bones and he’s just a baby so what right have I got, to be sad when… when…

LOUISE: Do you feel useful? Do you have purpose?

Pause.

ARTY shakes his head.

Would you like to?

Beat.

ARTY nods.

Life does not have to be this bedroom and Tim Tams and welfare dependency. Life can be you standing on your own two feet. Life can be pride, clocking in, clocking out, staring at the pay slip that you earned, being a part of something, and not just existing on the margins. You can be more than this.

ARTY nods.

Say it. Say, ‘I can be more than this’.

ARTY: I can—

LOUISE: Has the fat squashed your lungs?

ARTY: Actually I do have respiratory / problems—

LOUISE: I don’t care. You’re a man, not a mouse. Say it, don’t squeak it.

ARTY: I can be more—

LOUISE: Louder!

ARTY: [louder] I can be more than this!

LOUISE: Like you believe it!

ARTY: I CAN BE MORE THAN THIS!

ARTY has surprised himself.

LOUISE: How did that feel?

ARTY: It felt… good. Really… good.

LOUISE: You can talk the talk now let’s walk the walk.

ARTY: Oh, but I can’t walk very… oh, it’s a metaphor, isn’t it? Yep, I get it. Sorry.

ARTY beams.

LOUISE smiles back.

JOJO enters.

JOJO: Moon love, it’s time for—

LOUISE: Mrs Arthur—

JOJO: Call me JoJo, love, everyone calls me—

LOUISE: We’re working, Mrs Arthur.

JOJO: But it’s time for Arty’s morning tea and I’ll fetch a cuppa for you, pet. Don’t worry, we’ve got low-fat milk.

LOUISE: No, Mrs Arthur. We’re working. Arthur doesn’t need tea and Tim Tams because we’re working.

The two women stare at each other.

ARTY doesn’t take his eyes off LOUISE.

ARTY: Yeah, Mum, I’m working.

LOUISE walks towards JOJO.

JOJO backs away until she is out of the room.

LOUISE closes the door on JOJO, turns towards ARTY.

LOUISE: So let’s begin the work.

JOJO is confused, standing about like a dill.

She clocks the camera and remembers she is being watched.

She smiles, somewhat unconvincingly.

210 DAYS

DOCUMENTARY VOICE-OVER: Arthur Arthur is not alone.

Sound bites of overlapping broadcast news repeating obesity-related statistics, and associated phrases such as ‘obesity epidemic’, ‘ticking fat bomb’, etc.

In Australia, over two-thirds of men and nearly two-thirds of women are either overweight or obese.

PRODUCER: Cut to

Fat bodies waddling in shopping centres, their fat faces out of frame

DOCUMENTARY VOICE-OVER: The number of obese six to 15 year olds has trebled in the past decade.

PRODUCER: Cut to

Fat children eating burgers, fries, and ice-cream—zombies in front of the Xbox