She was an undergraduate at Georgetown
Her father was a successful, ambitious, and wealthy man

She and he had an arrangement
That was based on total candor

Mid-evening her would call her from New York
And she would give an accurate report:

If she had kept her weight below 108 pounds that day
Then her father would pay for all the students on her floor

Food and drinks of the highest quality
Theoretically each such night could be a little spring break for the crowd

This paternal largesse made her a very popular girl
Even though she was reluctant to partake

Because the next day if her weight was more than 108 pounds
Then there was the silence on the other end of the phone

A cold, hard, calculated silence
That would make her sick to her stomach

It was for her own good
He reasoned

If she didn’t develop the requisite self-discipline
How could she ever become an über-model?

–from novel-in-progress, Our Heroic and Ceaseless 24/7 Struggle against Tsuris