Tracking Time

At his urging she'd had the hip, thigh, abdomen, and butt sculpting by liposuction as well as the lip procedure on the same day. A full five days later she was not experiencing mere discomfort, nor even simple pain. Her body was now perfectly shaped and encased in Lycra, but she was in agony. Total and complete agony. She did not blame God or herself for the pain. She blamed Dr. Strong for lying to her. Next, she blamed her ex-husband for being a jerk and going through with the divorce after she very nicely said she'd have him back. After that came her decorator for being late, her lawyer for not doing better on her behalf, and her fifteen-year-old daughter for not loving her nearly as much as she should.

Because of her stupid lawyer and stingy husband, Cheryl's apartment was only six rooms on Park Avenue and Seventy-fifth Street instead of ten rooms on Fifth Avenue below Seventy-second Street. Because of her decorator's tardiness, the smell of paint was still very intense and made her sneeze frequently. In her postsurgical condition, Cheryl's every sneeze threatened the inside of her plump new lips and made them feel as if they might burst free from their fan of stitches and split open like ripe plums. It was not unlike sex after childbirth.

Which brought her to her daughter, Brandy, who should have hurried home right after school yesterday to take care of her, order soup for her from the deli, and complain about her father. Brandy was a disappointment on all fronts, particularly on the father front. She did not complain about him at all. Cheryl found this stoicism abnormal, not to mention unsatisfying to herself. Not only that, Aston Gluckselig, the love of her life at the moment, was way over fifty, was heavy, and didn't have as much hair or height as her ex-husband, Seymour. Aston's balding head came to her forehead when she wasn't wearing heels, and to her chin when she was. On the good side, he was a very prominent man, extremely well known among the UN crowd. He was a lawyer. He made millions of dollars, and he loved her. The only thing that stood in the way of their marrying was that he was waiting for his aged mother to die and his last child to graduate from college before breaking the news to his second wife that he was divorcing her for another woman. Luckily Aston's mother was ninety-eight.

Cheryl did not blame herself for fucking him in the private swimming pool in the garden of his house at the exclusive Round Hill Club in Jamaica the first night they met. The pool was surrounded by flowering oleander and had seemed quite hidden, but in fact happened to be only a few feet from the bedroom where her then husband, Seymour, turned out not to be sleeping and, worse, not at all blissfully ignorant of what was going on. In spite of Cheryl's certainty in her heart of hearts about her husband's own years of cheating, he faked a huge heartbreak thing and made a big stink, threatening to kill them both. His lawyers advised him to choose divorce as an alternative action. She offered to forgive him, to no avail. Now he had whores all over the place, and she hated his fucking guts for being such a hypocrite.

The phone stopped ringing, and Brandy stood by the bedroom door peering in.

'Mom, is it okay if I go to school now?' she asked.

'Brandy, thank God you're up.' Cheryl groaned and removed the frozen gel pack from her aching lips.

'I've been up for hours. Can I go to school now? They called. I said I was on my way.'

'I didn't hear the phone ring. Come into the light where I can see you.' Cheryl didn't feel at all well.

'There is no light.' Brandy hit the light switch, turning it on.

Cheryl yelped. 'Shit, are you trying to kill me?'

Silence from the kid. That really hurt.

'I'm bad, baby. Really bad,' Cheryl said, hoping for love.

'You aren't going to die, are you?' Brandy said sullenly. 'If you die, you know Dad will get me.'

'No, of course I'm not going to die. I just hurt all over. The prick doctor lied to me. He told me this would be a piece of cake. And I still feel like shit.'

'You want something to eat, or another painkiller before I go?' Brandy studied her mother. 'You don't look great.' Brandy reached out to touch her. 'Maybe something's wrong with the surgery. Should I call the doctor or something?'

Cheryl squinted into the bright light, then jerked away, squealing, 'Don't touch me. I'm all right.' Then, angrily, 'Where were you last night?'

'With Dad, doing my homework. Remember, Tuesday's my night with him.'

Cheryl didn't remember anything like that. 'I've been lying here in agony, worried to death about you all night. Don't you remember you were supposed to come home and take care of me yesterday?'

'I thought you had a nurse taking care of you,' Brandy replied.

Cheryl had sent her away two days ago. She changed the subject. 'How is your father?'

'Fine.' Brandy rolled her eyes to the ceiling.

'You didn't tell him about the surgery, did you?'

'He wouldn't be interested.' Brandy studied her nails, a horrible color, almost black.

'Are you sure you didn't tell him?' Cheryl demanded suspiciously.

'He doesn't care, Mom. You could have a boob job the size of California and he wouldn't give a shit.' The voice of a heartless adolescent.

Cheryl groaned. So much for the family she'd given her entire life for. Her bastard of a husband leaves her for twenty-year-old whores, and her daughter twists the knife.

'Was the bitch there?'

'Which one?' Brandy giggled.

'Jesus, how many are there?'

'Just kidding. She wasn't there. I told you it was our night.'

Cheryl closed her eyes against the hurtful fantasy of her daughter and ex-husband in an intimate tete-a-tete in the dining room of the Central Park West apartment twice the size of hers that she knew cost over four million dollars exclusive of the lavish, but utterly tasteless, furnishings. Brandy had reported that he'd bought only the most expensive modern Italian furniture, everything shiny and slick, the sofas and chairs in those weird shapes. And there were no antique accessories like she had. Absolutely none. He'd left their entire life, their whole history behind. There was nothing soft even in Brandy's room there. Not a plant, not a pillow. Nothing. He'd scattered the money freely on nothing at all. Cheryl was sure he'd fucked the decorator, fucked the woman from the carpet company. He'd fucked the paraprofessional in his divorce lawyer's office, then the divorce lawyer, even though she was older than Cheryl herself. The man was a fucking maniac. Talk about childish revenge.

All of her miseries stabbed at Cheryl's gut. Something bothered her about Brandy's report of last night. Cheryl wanted to call her on it. She wondered if the kid was now lying, too. Brandy lied about everything. She gave her child a sharp look. There was nothing wrong with Cheryl's eyes. 'Jesus, what the hell is that?”

'What?' Brandy said.

'That outfit is bad, Bran.'

Brandy was wearing a pink fuzzy sweater the size of a hanky. She had a small frame and breasts large enough to nourish all the children in a well-populated state. The breasts stretched the sweater way out of shape and hiked it high up on her midriff. Her jeans hung low on pudgy hips and were pegged tight down to surprisingly coltish ankles. Cheryl groaned some more.

The daughter she'd prayed would come out more like her than her father looked like a refugee from a road show production of Grease. Here they were in a new millennium, with beauty aids more advanced than at any other time in history. And of all the daughters in America, she, Cheryl Fabman, had to have the only one who wouldn't do a single thing to fix herself up. Brandy's short brown hair was, well, brown, flat on top, flat on the sides. Her chubby cheeks showed no sign of bones anywhere. Her eyelids were pale and virtually lashless-her eyes pitifully small for the brilliant blue that was the only thing Cheryl could claim as hers. And worst of all were the breasts-the breasts! The least Brandy could do was camouflage the freaking breasts just a little. The sight of her daughter looking like such a poor imitation of a tart was so disturbing it was almost enough to distract Cheryl from herself. Her daughter was a disaster, a complete disaster. She couldn't bear it.

'What?' Brandy's lips were stuck together in a pout.

'Trust me on this. The outfit makes you look fat. What are you eating? I told you no fats. No sugar, Brandy. What's in your mouth?'

'Nothing.'

Cheryl sat up a little. 'Something's in your mouth. What is it?'