A Spoonful of Jam! (Late I.P.)

A Spoonful of Jam! (Late I.P.)

“But Jody, you’re contracted to us and we have work lined up from companies who have specifically asked for you. Stick with us and you will still get to the top.” Said Lucy, quietly hoping the girl would agree but knowing she would not.

Jody made no secret that she intended to get to the top and she didn’t mind who she trod on to get there. She was so single minded that she was considered ruthless by some in her ambition to be the best, the highest paid and the most sought after model. She was so disciplined that where others were always fighting to keep their weight down she always stayed a size zero. It was for this reason that she was getting more work and was attracting the attention of the bigger agencies.

“I’m sorry, Lucy, but I have to think of my career and you do not fit in with my plans.”

Jody knew The Lucy Palmer Agency couldn’t do much more for her but then she had only ever regarded them as a stepping stone. So when The Walker Agency offered her a contract and a way out of her present contract with the Palmers she jumped at it. She felt no loyalty to the company that had plucked her from obscurity and given her a platform for her career to take off.

“But it was The Lucy Palmer Agency that gave you your first break.”

“Yes, and I thank you for it but you have also benefited so I don’t feel I need concern myself with the problems of your Agency. I have just a few years to make it and I intend to do just that.”

She could have stayed with the Palmers and taken them with her as she steadily rose up the ladder but they would have slowed her down so she decided to ditch them.

“So we are to be dumped in favour of The Walker Agency?”

“ I’m sorry but,yes, that about sums it up.”

“You realise we will probably lose those accounts that have specifically requested you?”

“I’m sorry but there is nothing I can do about that.”

“I suppose Walkers put their legal team to work on our contract with you.”

“Yes, they said you had left yourselves wide open so there is no point in trying to sue if that is what you were thinking?”

“We wouldn’t dream of doing any such thing. Our agency prides itself on helping our models to get to the top so we would never stand in your way.”

“No, especially as I’ve been so good for this agency.”

“Yes, I wouldn’t dispute that but remember we were the first to offer you a contract.”

“Well, anyway, I join Walker’s in two weeks and I am already booked for a ten day fashion shoot in Marbella. I’m really looking forward to that.”

“Well, it looks like there’s nothing more to say on the subject so Jody I wish you luck.
I’m off home now but have a good time in Marbella and I hope it works out for you with Walker’s but remember Paul Walker can be a ruthless son of a bitch.”

“Yes, I’ll remember and thank you, Lucy, I appreciate you taking it like this.”

“Don’t seem to have much choice, do I?”

With that Lucy Palmer left her office frowning but with a resigned look on a face that normally had a ready smile.

Jody meanwhile thought she would like to do a bit of gloating to the other girls on the books of the Lucy Palmer Agency. She couldn’t wait to tell them who she had been signed to.

Two weeks later Jody was off to Marbella where she had a very successful shoot and Paul Walker was very pleased with his new acquisition. In that first year Jody went from success to success. Her name was on everyone’s lips but in the following six months things were very different.

Companies were no longer asking for her by name as they were asking for two newer girls Paul had signed to the agency, Trina and Donna-May so Jody was just getting what she would call the dregs. She knew it couldn’t go on like that.

“I’m sorry Jody,’ said Paul Walker one day, when she had been called to his office, “If things don’t pick up with you we are going to have to let you go. The clients are all clamouring for Trina and Donna-May. No one is asking for you now and, frankly, we can’t afford to pay you top penny when you’re no longer our top model.”

“But I…I’ve been good for this agency.” She stammered

“Yes, you have but your trouble is your weight. You were a size zero when you came here but since you hit the big time you’ve let it get out of control.”

“I’ll diet. I’ve never had to worry about my weight before. I can lose it, I know I can.”

“Okay, I’ll give you one last shot. I’ll speak to our nutritionist and get her to put you on a strict and I mean strict diet and to get you back in shape these tablets might help.” Walker casually pushed the tablets across his desk towards Jody and she eagerly picked them up.

“Thank you Paul, I won’t let you down.”

“Okay, off you go and I suggest you get yourself down to the gym too. It can only help.”

“I will, I will.” Said Jodie and she almost skipped from Paul’s office just relieved he had not let her go there and then, which was what she had been expecting.

Jody caught the tube to Fulham where she lived and when she got off the train and was walking up the platform she bumped into Lucy Palmer who also lived in Fulham. Jody was surprised to find she was really pleased to bump in to her old boss, particularly as the Lucy Palmer Agency had really come up and had got several top flight models working for them.

“Hello, Lucy,” said Jody.

“Oh, hello Jody, where have you been hiding yourself and what companies are you modelling for now as I haven’t seen you in any ad campaigns,” said Lucy, who was shocked by Jody’s appearance. Her skin looked awful, her hair was thinning but what came as a complete surprise was Jody’s weight. She must be coming close to a size fourteen. She would never get top flight work at that weight.

“Lucy, we always got on didn’t we?” Jody said timorously.

“Yes, I think we did.”

“You wouldn’t have a place on your books for me, I suppose?”

“No, Jody, I’m sorry, we’ve got just about all we need.”

“That’s okay, I just thought with Paris fashion week coming up you might need someone else.”

They parted friendly enough but it was to be quite some time before Lucy saw Jody again and then she would experience an even bigger shock.

Paul Walker meant every word he had said to Jody and the nutritionist put her on a very strict diet which meant that Jody for the first time in her life was hungry. In fact, she was always ravenous and this gnawing hunger was making her feel very light-headed but the pills Paul had given her helped to stave off the hunger but she was taking more and more of them.

It was about six weeks after that meeting on the station platform before Lucy saw Jody again and she was horrified by the look of her. She had lost some weight but her skin looked grey almost ashen and her hair looked even thinner than before as she could now see her scalp. But what really upset her was that Jody didn’t seem to recognise her and to Lucy that implied that Jody was being given drugs to reduce her weight.

“Hello Jody, have you had any work lately?”

Jody just looked vacant before replying “No, I think Paul is going to let me go.”

“I don’t think that would be such a bad thing for you, dear. You don’t look well at all.”

“I’m fine, but he promised he would put some work my way if I lost weight. Well, I have but he hasn’t kept his word.”

A few weeks later Paul gave her a one day shoot on a bitterly cold day in January and worse it was an outside shoot but she couldn’t turn it down. Paul was getting increasingly impatient with her lack of success and she knew she was on a knife edge as far as he was concerned.

On this particular day, although bitterly cold, she had not been allowed to have any breakfast because Paul was also getting edgy with the nutritionist so she was trying to cover her back by reducing the amount of food Jody could eat.

Jody stood shivering violently as this was a shoot for summer clothes against a winter background so she was at that moment modelling a sleeveless dress but surprisingly she felt herself going from hot to cold then hot again and at the same time she began to feel very light-headed. It was after the crew had gone to the tea wagon that Paul and the nutritionist, Margo, heard the dull thud as she hit the ground.

“Get her up,” shouted Paul.

“She needs something sweet,” said Margo. I’ve got a jar of raspberry jam that I bought on my way here this morning. I’ll give her a spoonful of that and the woman went to her bag and came back with the jam and picked up a spoon left lying on the table from the Director’s earlier tea break. She got to Jody who was still lying on the ground looking very sick indeed. The woman opened the jar to give some to the girl.

“Hurry up and get her on her feet that girl has cost me a pretty penny so far and I don’t know why I’m paying you a good salary when I’m not getting the results I’m looking for.”

“Paul, it’s only a spoonful of jam it won’t do her any harm or make any difference to her weight.”

“That’s all the more reason for her not to have it then. Just let her lick the spoon that should be enough to get her up on her feet again if you say she needs something sweet then I can get this bloody shoot finished and be on my way.”

But the girl was not moving and she made no attempt to lick the spoon. The lack of food and the pills had taken their toll. Jody had for a short time reached the top but at what cost because she had died on that snow covered field while the people who should have known better argued over a spoonful of Jam.

End