Animal Acts- Excerpt

Today she's buying chicken legs. They have wrinkled yellow skin and bumps where each feather was plucked. He says yellow means the bird was healthy. Someday I'm going to scream at her. I'm not going to buy anything again today. I drop the package of meat I've chosen. I didn't notice until I dropped it-I had picked up beef heart. I don't know why I still shop here. I'll have crackers and soda for supper. I'm going out at 5, then a guy's meeting me at my place around 9:30. I have to get up for work at 7, and have another date at noon. Most men at least say they like my smile. I wore braces for three years.

She tells the butcher he has the best legs in town. He says the loin roast isn't bad either. She's wearing pink stretch pants and a yellow T-shirt with a suitcase-sized purse over her arm. Her ass is huge too. My father probably still slaps my mother's behind sometimes, as some kind of joke. The butcher is talking while sharpening his cleaver. I feel ill.

This has been going on for a while, ever since I first saw her at the meat counter, the day after the last time I saw my father. She was smelling all the packages of ground beef. Then she laughed and hoisted her purse onto her should and point with a sausage finger to a steak that was a little out of reach. "He likes it rare," she said to the butcher. "I stop cooking it when it's still the color of his face." The butcher held the package up next to his own red face. "I see you're a raw-meat man too," she said. "And I'm a big eater," he answered. "Watch it, I'm a married woman!" she laughed, "with kids!"

My father just called to invite me to dinner and talk this over. I said, "How can I eat over there…I'm a vegetarian and you can't endure a meal without meat." Neither of us said anything for a minute, then I hung up.

I was in the hospital with food poisoning again yesterday. I considered calling my boss's lawyer and suing that grocery store, but I haven't bought anything for a long time. Then I was trying to remember if my boss even has a lawyer. He would if he knows what's good for him. He was supposed to come over last night. I wonder how long he knocked on the door. Then when he got home he probably told his wife he decided not to work on his book that evening in the office after all. Or he could've said he finished a chapter and was so happy with it he thought he'd come home early and celebrate. He always calls her and says he's writing his book when he comes to my place. He works on his book twice a month, one a week at the most-I didn't mince words. I told him what I tell everyone-monogamy only pretends to exist, why take the trouble to pretend? Some people can't understand that. Why bother explaining-what more could I say? " I'm considering what's best for me too, Dad-I've decided what I want and what I'm willing to do to get it."

"You sound like a whore, young lady." Maybe my boss found a whore last night. Once I told him I was going to call his wife back and tell her the truth. He said, "Whose side are you on, anyway?"

That's the trouble. There are more than two.