The Brand (21 page)

Joelyn fell back against the wall and Andrea
fell back against Joelyn’s chest. They stayed like that for a long
while, stroking and caressing each other affectionately.

‘Have I told you that I love you?’ asked
Andrea in a quiet, serious voice. ‘I loved you for a long time
before I actually met you.’

Joelyn, overcome with emotion, wrapped her
hands around Andrea’s chest and cupped her breasts. She kissed her
neck. ‘You have?’

‘Do you love me?’

It is probably human nature that makes people
want to be loved, but Joelyn did not understand why for fuck’s sake
she and Andrea couldn’t just fuck and enjoy fucking with no strings
attached. She answered honestly. ‘I’m not sure, but I think I
do.’

‘I understand,’ said Andrea. ‘It’s your first
time with a woman, it can be very confusing. But no matter what,
I’m hopelessly in love with you, and I’m proud of the things you’ve
done. Do you know that you’ve been nominated nine times for this
year’s Grammy Awards?’

That certainly was news to Joelyn. Stuck at
the rehab facility in Arizona, and denied access to current
information, she was cut off from the outside world. She went
fuming to the head of the facility and demanded answers on why such
crucial information had been kept from her. She was directed to
pose those questions to her mother, who was staying at a hotel
several miles away from the center, to be close to her daughter in
case her presence was needed. The center’s superintendent phoned
Joelyn’s mother, and the older woman promptly came over to the
facility and was taken for a private meeting with her daughter in
the latter’s room.

When her mother arrived, Joelyn was lying on
the bed, in a sullen mood. She sat up and watched her mother sit
down next to her on the bed. ‘Why didn’t you tell me about my
nominations for the Grammys, Ma?’ she demanded indignantly.

‘I’m sorry, Joelyn. But it’s for your own
good. Those things are not important; your life is. I don’t want to
lose you.’ Suddenly, her mother’s tears rushed forth and rolled
down her face. ‘You need to stay here and think about your life.
When you get out of here you’ll have to get rid of the bad people
that surround you. They have made you a god to be worshipped by
millions of people, but you’re not a god. You’re a human being; and
stop thinking you’re better than other people, my child. Plenty of
other people have more money and a lot more talent than you have,
but they are humble and modest, because they appreciate that you
can be hot this moment, and wake up cold tomorrow and all those
people who proclaimed you a god will desert you and run to the next
big thing in town. Think about it.’ The old woman looked down and
her body was wracked by sobs.

Joelyn threw herself up against her mother’s
body and embraced her in a firm and strong hug. She wept bitterly.
‘I’m sorry, Ma. I’m very, very sorry.’

Together they cried. It was a long while
later that they let go of each other and wiped at their wet faces
with Kleenex.

‘I don’t want to lose you, my child,’ the old
woman repeated in a quiet voice, looking at her daughter. ‘I’ve
lost you before, and I don’t want it to happen again.’

‘You won’t, Ma,’ Joelyn said sincerely. ‘I
promise. And I’m sorry to have hurt you.’

Her mother smiled. ‘Your father and brother
and sisters send their love.’

Joelyn’s face lit up. She tried a smile. ‘How
are they? I really miss them…every one of them. How’re they,
Ma?’

‘They’re well, and they’re praying for you
recovery. Your family loves you, Joelyn.’

Joelyn’s eyes watered and the tears streamed
down her face. She was too overcome with emotion to respond. Her
mother pulled her to her bosom and held her close. ‘It’s okay to
cry, baby. It’s okay.’

‘I’ve done some bad things, Mama,’ Joelyn
cried. ‘I’ve hurt people. I am sorry…I want to go to the Grammy
Awards and say on live TV to millions of people that I am sorry.
And I want to tell them that I will change and be a good role model
for kids all over the world.’ She looked at her mother with a
tearful face. ‘You understand, Mama, don’t you?’

A mother’s love knows no limits. ‘I
understand, my beautiful child. You’re wonderful, and I love you –
always.’

The mother and daughter went to talk to
the facility’s chief officer and subsequent to that meeting, a
special reprieve was granted to Joelyn Smith to attend the
55
^th
Grammy Awards ceremony at the
Staples Center in Los Angeles. Upon her humble request, a big
screen TV was set up in the Arizona rehabilitation facility’s
communal room for all the patients and staff there to watch the
live broadcast of the Grammy Awards. Joelyn did them proud by
picking up five awards, including the four most coveted ones: Best
New Artist, Song of the Year, Album of the Year and Record of the
Year.

In her acceptance speech for the first award
to her for that night, Joelyn said: ‘Thank you very much, you’re
kind…’ She seemed overwhelmed by the large number of people and TV
cameras focusing their attention on her, but she recovered quickly.
‘…I’m at present undergoing treatment for drug and alcohol
addiction. I would like to thank everyone who has supported me
during this time of my weakness. I promise that when I get out of
rehab I will be a better person.’ She raised her Grammy up with her
right hand. ‘Thank you very much.’

In her second speech: ‘This is…um…turning out
to be a wonderful night for me. This is for my mother, who has
stood by me always, regardless of what I did. Thank you, Mama.’

In her third acceptance speech: ‘You’re
wonderful…Thank you…Mum, Dad, my only brother and three sisters…I
love you all. Thank you.’

In her fourth speech: ‘I’m running out of
words to say…You’re wonderful...and this is a great feeling. Thank
you very much.’

In her last speech. ‘This is for my fans.
You’ve supported me and never doubted me even when I let you down.
Thank you.’

Like all foolish men, Christopher Healey was
extremely proud of his genitals, and he lived under the
self-deception that his sexual prowess was superior to any other
man in the world. His penis was a marvel; many women could attest
to that, including one young one known to the world simply as
Jansen. She was irresistibly drawn to Chris’ sexual organ and still
astounded by its abilities even after they had been together for
many weeks. It was majestic and powerful. She just loved the feel
of its strength inside her. The two of them, at his request, had
tried anal sex, but Jansen had proved too small for the huge penis,
and the idea had been mutually discarded altogether. Of course,
Jansen was not to know that Chris fulfilled that sexual perversion
with other women who were available for a fee in any part of the
world he went to with Jansen.

In February, after her Australian Open
disappointment, Jansen decided to forego the ABN-AMRO World Tennis
tournament. She went instead to Amsterdam, the Dutch capital, with
Chris Healey for a week’s visit. Her coach fumed – with good
reason. He mentioned that Jansen was not in a position to be
picking tournaments she could or could not play in, because she was
not a proven force in tennis, and therefore needed all the practice
and experience she could get on a world stage. The words fell on
deaf ears.

After Amsterdam, the pair of Jansen and Chris
Healey went to Italy, where Jansen mixed business with pleasure.
Besides sight-seeing in Venice, she was there to do a photo-shoot
for L’Oréal with a professional photographer, whose pictures of the
tennis star would appear in magazines worldwide in the coming
month. Jansen and her lover stayed at the Hotel Excelsior’s prime
luxury suite, with seven large rooms, 15 big-screen TVs, a Jacuzzi,
its own wine cellar…

Chris Healey was certainly living large, at
the expense of his lover, and he was making no contribution
whatsoever to her life except for the provision of sexual
stimulation. She was under the spell of his magnificent penis. And
life went on.

In Venice, they celebrated his
33
^rd
birthday by having a candlelit
dinner on the terrace of their hotel suite. The hotel’s chef served
them a seven-course meal. For this visit to Italy, Jansen had left
behind her usual traveling chef, and ate to her heart’s content
various foods she had been denied the chance of eating by people
Chris said wanted to control her life. Together, they went to a car
dealer and Jansen bought for her lover a brand new Lamborghini
Aventador, which Chris ordered the dealer to customize to his
specifications. The dealer was only glad to please, and very
enthusiastic that Jansen, world-famous tennis star, had chosen to
make the purchase of the $400,000 beast at their dealership. It was
not their problem that Jansen would have saved herself a lot of
trouble by buying the same model in America. Jansen could do
anything with her money. They would customize her boyfriend’s Lambo
and ship it to New York. In the meantime, one of their employees
would benefit handsomely by photocopying the receipt of the
purchase and proving to local tabloids that the sale had actually
taken place.

When the story of Jansen’s frivolous spending
in Italy broke out and was syndicated worldwide, her tennis coach
was not concerned about the financial aspect of that story, but he
was profoundly worried that Jansen was spending far too much time
with the good-for-nothing Healey and getting distracted from
playing tennis. Speckman voiced his concerns, and a very heated
argument ensued between him and Jansen, after which she fell into a
sulking silence and refused to talk to him until he apologized to
her and Chris. Speckman, for the sake of progress, and being the
mature man, apologized and the matter came to pass.

In the beginning of March, Jansen went to
the
BNP Paribas Open in
Indian Wells, California, and played with such appalling mediocrity
her coach was attacked by fits of rage, threw tantrums and
exchanged heated words with her by turns throughout the match,
until he left the court in the middle of the last set, when it was
obvious Jansen had already lost the match and been knocked out in
the first round of the tournament.

‘A 2-time US Open champion!’ Coach Speckman
fumed afterwards. ‘And you play like a 9-year-old kid at an
academy! This is not how I taught you to play tennis.’

‘I’m under pressure to win, and you know I
don’t play well under pressure,’ Jansen reasoned.

‘Pressure! What pressure? You’ve won a Grand
Slam title twice, for heavens’ sake! And you go into the tournament
and you’re beaten in the first round by an unseeded inferior
player. How is that possible?’

‘Very.’ Jansen folded her arms across her
chest and responded insolently. ‘And it just happened. Better live
with it, Gary.’

‘If you could learn to shut your mouth – and
God knows what else – and focus on your game, you’d be a better
player.’

That remark, delivered on a soft voice,
reduced Jansen to tears. She slumped down onto a chair and wept
bitterly.

Speckman sat down opposite her. He was livid
with anger, and he wanted to storm out of the room, but he was a
better coach than that. And he had realized throughout their long
relationship that sometimes he needed to take charge of Jansen’s
life in order to get the best tennis performance out of her. He let
out a long, deep sigh, forcing his rage back to the dark cave from
which it had emerged. ‘What’s going on, Jan?’

She sobbed quietly and did not respond.

‘What’s happening to your life, Jan? Maybe
you need to take a break and ask yourself that question. Sometimes
when the train’s moving too fast, brakes have to be applied, or
it’ll crash and kill a lot of people. Do you understand me?’ he
asked gently.

She nodded and stared sorrowfully at him.
‘Maybe I’m not as good as you want me to be,’ she sobbed. ‘How come
I can only win the US Open and no other tournaments? I’m not good,
Gary, and you have to admit it.’

‘Listen to me.’

She stared attentively at him.

‘Do you want to win games?’

Jansen nodded silently.

‘Do you want to win other Grand Slam titles
besides the US—.’

She interrupted quickly. ‘Of course I do,
Gary. You know that.’

‘And I presume that you also want to claim
the Number One spot in the WTA rankings?’ He checked her eyes and
she nodded her head. ‘Okay, this is what you need to do. Calm down
and relax. Take some time to meditate on certain aspects of your
life. Clear your mind of doubts. You are surrounded by plenty of
people. You know who is good for you and who isn’t. Get rid of the
wrong people, and keep the good ones. If you want, bring in people
who know what they’re doing. Remove all the useless hangers-on who
are of no benefit to your life. Make your decisions resolutely and
stay committed to those decisions. Jan, sometimes you need to make
sacrifices in order to get what you want out of life. The sooner
you understand that, the better.’

Soon after that, it was announced to the
world by Jansen’s publicist that Gary Speckman had ceased to be
Jansen Vermuelen’s coach and that Christopher Healey had been
appointed to replace him.

It was reported that the end of the long-term
relationship between Jansen and her coach had been an amicable
decision, and that the two of them remained friends. Still, people
in the sporting world, and plenty of other people not directly
linked to the sporting world but interested in anything to do with
Jansen, were very keen to know the inside story – not the polished
public relations nonsense. Newspapers, radio stations, magazines,
TV shows and freelance journalists all contacted Jansen’s ex-coach
to interview him. Speckman declined many enticements, but
eventually appeared on a prime-time syndicated TV talk show.