Storiesonline.net
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                           Triptych Interviews
                               by aroslav

Copyright© 2012 by aroslav


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Description: A companion piece to "Model Student 2--Triptych." Read interviews with characters each week that reveal more about your favorites in the Model Student cast. Each interview is marked with a date and sequence (Before Chapter 1, After Chapter 2, etc.) Characters sometimes talk about sex, but no sex in these interviews.

Codes: slow sch
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Preface

About the Interviews

It's often struck me that we get introduced to a lot of characters in the course of a serialized novel and, because of the nature of the novel, we never really get to know them. During the writing of Model Student,  I was often asked if I'd write the next book from Kate's perspective, or from one of the other female characters. Well, that's difficult and would significantly change the story. But it did get me thinking about what readers don't know about the characters.

Part of my normal working process as an author is to conduct periodic interviews with my characters so I know where they're coming from since half the time I'm in the dark. Most of the interview is just so I'll understand the character and be able to write genuine reactions and emotions. But it never makes it into the book. It's just stuff I need to know.

Well, without putting in any spoilers, I decided to share some of these interviews with you, the readers.

So here is how it works: Each Saturday, I'll post an interview with one of the characters from Triptych. The interview will be appropriate to information in the chapters that were posted on Monday and Thursday of that week. They will be dated according to the timeline in the story. The first interview is with Tony and is here just to get the ball rolling. We know a lot about Tony because the story is told from his perspective. But, as I told him, not everything in his life is relevant to the story. The interview was conducted on Saturday, July 2, the day before Triptych begins.

Let me know if you enjoy these interviews or if they are a waste of time. Please don't suggest that I just spend my time writing the story, because I have to do the interviews in order to write the story anyway.

Oh. And there's no sex in the interviews, though occasionally a character will talk about their feelings toward the subject. Really. What kind of an old pervert do you think I am?

Here's to an exciting new adventure!

aroslav



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Tony

Saturday, July 2 (Before Chapter 1 of Triptych)

aroslav: Hey, Tony, thanks for taking time to talk to me while you are traveling.

TONY: Sure. It's not like we don't talk every day.

aroslav: Yeah. I really appreciate that.

TONY: What's up?

aroslav: Where are you now?

TONY: Camped at Indiana Dunes State Park. We'll get to Nebraska tomorrow.

aroslav: Well, I've got this new idea and I wanted to run it by you.

TONY: Who is she?

aroslav: Hey, I'm not just in the business of throwing women your way. This is serious.

TONY: So?

aroslav: So we tell the story from your perspective, right? But there are some pretty cool people involved. We don't really get to hear from them much. So I was thinking that I'd like to interview your friends.

TONY: You're not going to stalk them are you?

aroslav: Not unless I have to. I thought you could arrange introductions for me and give me a list of who to talk to. Well, let's be honest, I've got a list. Your fans are pretty much writing that script.

TONY: Okay. So who's first?

aroslav: You are.

TONY: Shit. Don't we like lay all my dirty laundry out for everybody to see in every chapter? Who wants to know more about me?

aroslav: Well, here's the thing. There's lots of stuff we don't know about you that will never be in the story.

TONY: So put it in.

aroslav: It's your life, but not all of it is relevant. Sorry to break that to you.

TONY: Don't go easy on me. I can still wipe up a racquetball court with your ass.

aroslav: How well I know. So first off, we found out in Model Student that you started drawing when you were about ten years old. Hadn't you done any drawing before that? Did this just come out of nowhere? What were the clues?

TONY: Which question do you want an answer to? Never mind. I'll play along.

So to start, it wasn't that I never drew until then. The refrigerator in our kitchen had as many drawings on it as anybody else's and I always got good compliments on my drawing. The significance of that day wasn't in starting to draw, it was in becoming lost in the drawing. I guess that it was when I discovered I was a little CDO.

aroslav:???

TONY: That's the same as OCD but the letters are in alphabetical order, like they should be.

aroslav: Cute.

TONY: No, really. You have to be a little OCD to be an artist IMHO.

aroslav: Are we texting this interview?

TONY: To the point. I'd sit down with my classmates, or with crayons at the kitchen table and draw pictures that were really pretty good. I drew a duck on a pond in kindergarten. It was complete with ripples on the pond and the reflection of the duck in the water. Technically, I guess that's the inborn talent thing. I can draw.

What changed that day when I was 10 was the relationship with the paper and pencil. That day, they filled my head. There was nothing else in the world. I saw them and I had to draw. I think I may have had impulses like that before, but this one hit when there were no other obstacles. I picked up the paper and pencils, walked out of the house, got on my bike, and went to the creek. I had an image in my mind of a rock and tree that I had to draw. I saw it and drew it about a dozen times. Then there was this chipmunk sitting on a stump watching me. I scarcely turned my head to look at him. He was busy with some nut he'd found that he was chowing down on and just sat there while I drew him. He was bigger than life in my eye. It's like I couldn't see anything else. And I looked at my other drawings and I could see that he'd been there all the time. I'd hidden him near the rock, next to the tree, in the grass. I'd draw one thing and the chipmunk would be hidden in the scene.

aroslav: Slow down, Tony. You're panting.

TONY: Yeah. You know how I get. Just talking about this stuff makes my fingers itch.

aroslav: So you felt the—what's Doc call it?—connection?

TONY: I made the connection. You know, feeling it is something that came later. I think feeling implies something conscious. Making the connection is subconscious.

aroslav: Have you noticed that sometimes you talk like someone much older?

TONY: Oh. You mean I'm pretentious?

aroslav: That's not what I meant...

TONY: I suppose I am. It was almost a game when Dumpling and I started talking with a real vocabulary instead of grunts. It's her fault. She's got a vocabulary like you wouldn't believe. She made me use mine. We'd sit in the loft and I'd say, "Shit!" and she'd say, "What does that mean,  Tony?" Of course, it wasn't enough to give a definition and say "excrement." She wanted to know what I meant when I said it. It didn't stop me from using common swear words, but when I was talking to her, she made me explain what I was thinking when I said them.

aroslav: Was it hard growing up in Nebraska for an artist?

TONY: Nebraska has a lot of fine artists.

aroslav: Like?

TONY: Joyce Ballantyne.

aroslav:???

TONY: Okay. I can tell you don't know who the hell I'm talking about, but every truck driver in America in the 1950s had a pin-up calendar with pictures she painted. Then she created one of the best-known advertising images there's ever been—the Coppertone girl with her swimming bottoms being pulled down by a little dog. Of course, she also did a huge number of portraits of celebrities, too.

aroslav: Any artists I might actually know?

TONY: Gutzon Borglum.

aroslav: You're making names up. What did he paint?

TONY: Sculptor. Mount Rushmore.

aroslav: Okay, we've gotten off-track. The question was about growing up in Nebraska.

TONY: Hey, don't blame me. One of Bychkova's final papers was on an influential American artist. I aced that one by using Borglum as my subject.

aroslav: Did you always think you'd grow up to be one of the famous Nebraska artists?

TONY: No. I was pretty lost in high school. All I wanted to do was draw. But who can make a living doing that? I'm not so naive as to think I can earn a fair wage drawing pictures. Nobody I knew in Nebraska did that. I figured I'd have to have a career. I still kind of think that way. That's why I'm going to study criticism at SCU. I figure that if I can't earn a living painting my own pictures, maybe I can earn one criticizing other people's. Bob Bowers does.

aroslav: Still, you went to PCAD to study painting. The whole SCU thing started later.

TONY: It was against my better judgment. If I'd been acting rationally, I've had gone to Lincoln and studied to be an art teacher. That was my first choice.

aroslav: That's always been a curiosity to me. Why did you move all the way out to Seattle to study art?

TONY: There were two reasons. First, they really recruited me. The final offer from UNeb was a Stafford loan and the name of a banker in Omaha. My folks could help me a little, but they weren't going to pay for my whole college education, and I couldn't see coming out of school in four years with $80,000 in loans over my head. This really nice woman at PCAD called me about every other week with a status report on some loan or needs grant that they thought they could get me. Even though tuition there is like double UNeb, I ended up with such a good financial aid package that I could do it on just my Stafford loans and about $5,000 from my folks.

aroslav: Makes financial sense. What was the other reason.

TONY: Beth. You know, she's really a phenomenal friend, and I'd do anything for her. Yes, I mean anything. We were in the loft of her barn, sitting above the horses in with bales of hay stacked all around us. That was our meeting place. We had all my school offers stacked around us. I got accepted to four different schools. PCAD was my "reach" school. When I applied, I didn't think there was a chance in hell that I'd even get accepted, let alone get recruited. But Beth started quizzing me about each one. Why UNeb? Well, it was easy, close to home, familiar. Why Clarkson? Visual arts program that is close to home. I could live at home and commute and maybe afford to graduate. Why University of Colorado? It's pretty. Why PCAD? Great school, good finances, and they want me.

Beth wasn't satisfied with any of my answers. She started eliminating them. Clarkson was strictly a fallback if I couldn't make it somewhere else. I wanted to be away from home as much as I wanted to be at college. UColorado was out because I hate snowy winters. UNeb was a cheesy copout and I really didn't want to be a teacher. What was left was PCAD, a school that wanted me to do what I wanted to do and would make it financially possible for me to do it.

aroslav: Then why such angst when you got there?

TONY: We drove out there with my stuff in the back of the car. You know how much stuff you can put in the back of a car when there are three people in it? Not much. As soon as we crossed the Rockies, it hit me that I'd made a huge mistake. I'd let Beth convince me that I was really following my dream by going to PCAD like she was following hers going to Wellesley. I realized that I didn't really have a dream that was worthy of this kind of commitment. She wants to change the world and I was going to paint pictures. She left for school a week before I did and I was already feeling like I was going to be abandoned to my own devices. I honestly just didn't think I could survive on my own.

aroslav: Then came the girls.

TONY: Kind of a last minute rescue. I still don't understand why so many good things happened to me in the past six months. I don't think I did anything to deserve it.

aroslav: What makes you so irresistible to all these women that are gathered around you? Beth, Melody, Lissa, Kate, Allison? Even Bree and Wendy and Sandra. I'll leave Amy off the list because she's gay and Sonia because she has a boyfriend. What makes Tony so irresistible?

TONY: You think I know? I didn't even know girls existed until six months ago. Not diminishing my relationship with Beth, but we were friends and we just never considered each other as boy and girl. I'm still trying to grasp it.

aroslav: But there must be some secret ingredient.

TONY: I'll just say this much—I try not to do anything to anyone that will hurt them, either physically or emotionally. I've been through that shit. I just won't do it to other people. Other than that, you'll just have to read the story.

aroslav: Makes sense. Just a couple more things. Birthday?

TONY: September 18. I'll be 20 this year.

aroslav: Year in school?

TONY: I'll be a sophomore this fall.

aroslav: Favorite music?

TONY: I listen to everything that has tonality. I don't usually like hip-hop because most of the artists are just trying too hard to be cool. Just doesn't do it. We were raised on country music out here, so I listen to that some. Love the classics because they aren't distracting. They lift you and carry you effortlessly and you don't have to listen to understand it. And, of course, I like rock. Dad listens to a lot of show tunes. Broadway stuff. It's okay, but not my number one. New age can be pretty inspiring, though. Trance music. Dub-step. Anybody else?

aroslav: And if there was an artist, living or dead, that you could meet, who would it be and why?

TONY: You mean besides Borglum? [laughs] I think Picasso. I know I don't paint anything like him, but when you look at his canvasses, you can see the connection. That's what people don't get about cubism. All they see are distortions—trying to see every angle at the same time. But it doesn't make a difference. You look at an eye that Picasso painted and you can see the passion with which he painted it—you can see how in touch with ... how in love with his model he was.

aroslav: Painting is what you love most, isn't it.

TONY: No. Painting is how I express my love. I think there's a difference.

aroslav: Life philosophy?

TONY: Leave the world a better place.

aroslav: Who should I call next for an interview?

TONY: Obviously you should talk to Lissa and Melody, but probably start with Beth. She's known me longest.

aroslav: Thanks Tony. We'll talk again soon.

TONY: Yeah. Every day.



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Beth


Saturday, July 16 (After Chapter 2 of Triptych)

BETH: Hello?

aroslav: Hi Beth. This is aroslav. Is this a good time to talk?

BETH: Oh. Yeah. Tony said you'd call. I've got a few minutes.

aroslav: Sorry we have to do this by phone. It must be eight o'clock there in Nebraska, right?

BETH: Yeah. What time is it there?

aroslav: 1968.

BETH: Funny.

aroslav: We're two hours different. It six here.

BETH: So what did you want to know?

aroslav: Well, I'm interviewing the people who are important to Tony and just trying to get to know them better. We could start with your full name.

BETH: Elizabeth Ann Carpenter. Tony calls me Dumpling, but absolutely nobody else does.

aroslav: Birthday?

BETH: Veterans Day. I'll be 20 this year.

aroslav: Ever get confused about that? I understand that Veterans Day is still a pretty big deal in Nebraska.

BETH: I have great honor and respect for those who have served our country in the Armed Forces. I might not politically agree with the reason they are sent to war, or even that war is an appropriate response to any political situation, but the men and women who serve their country honestly and bravely deserve every thanks that we can give them. I'm proud that my birthday is a day dedicated to honoring those who have served.

aroslav: It sounds like you've given that speech before.

BETH: Anytime an asshole asks me the question.

aroslav: Point taken. You are really my only contact Tony's age that grew up with him. I know you are living in the Boston area during the school year, but can you tell me a little about growing up in Nebraska?

BETH: Well, Fremont isn't a big city like Omaha, but it isn't Podunk, either. We've got pretty much everything that everyplace else in America has. Walmart, YMCA, the Mall. We're the antique capital of the Midwest, which might not sound like much, but there are some pretty amazing old things in those stores.

aroslav: So what did you do as a kid?

BETH: Stayed inside and read books. Um ... it's not like there's nothing to do, but I wasn't exactly Miss Social when I was growing up. I was always overweight and knowing it didn't help. Seemed like there was no reason to shape up because no one liked me anyway. In high school I reshaped my image, if not my body. I forced myself to be social, was on every committee I could get on, was on the student council ... you know. Everything except dating. Except once or twice, you know.

aroslav: What about Tony?

BETH: Oh sure. There were several of us who were on the outside looking in. Kent, Wayne, Catherine ... we all hung around each other when no one else would. But don't get me wrong. I did lots of stuff in school. I edited the yearbook, was in Future Teachers of America, was in charge of decorating for the prom, sang in the church choir. Whenever someone needed something done, I was the one they called on. I was even class president one year.

But I was still isolated. I was valedictorian, but that just made it harder to let people know I wanted to go out. People figured I was smart because I didn't have anything else to do. I didn't really date much in high school.

aroslav: Not even the prom?

BETH: A bunch of us went together. We had a big table, but no one was with anyone else. It was fun. It was best when Tony and I decided to try kissing, just so we'd have the experience. He's a much better kisser now than he was then, by the way. But I was giggling when I came back in and Marlene wanted to know what was up, so I went out with her to tell her what we'd done. She was going on about how she could never do that with a boy and she was so envious. So I said, "Here, I'll show you," and I kissed her. I don't know which of us was more surprised, but when we pulled away from that first kiss, she dove in and kissed me back.

I don't know if that woke anything up in her, but it sure lit a fire in me. I went to sleep a lot of nights comparing the memory of those kisses. Marlene and I are in way different worlds and there is nothing that would ever develop between us. I hear she's engaged and living in Omaha. But the sweet taste of a girl on my lips was all I needed to know; there was a future for me.

aroslav: So you lost weight.

BETH: I started. I'd dropped ten pounds before I got to Wellesley. Nobody noticed. It's hard to break habits when you are still in the same environment. Tony and I were both excited about college, but whenever we talked, we were eating a burger. I don't know why he never gained weight. I guess his dad kept him physically active and his mom always cooked the best, healthy meals. It was after I got to college that I was able to focus on dropping the weight. Barbara helped.

aroslav: Your girlfriend?

BETH: Yeah. We found each other the first week of school. It was interesting having a new best friend who was a girl. Most of the girls I knew in high school only hung around me to make themselves look more appealing to the boys. Tony was my best friend and we had always been there for each other in high school.

Barbara was concerned about her weight. Not that she needed to be. She's trim and beautiful. But she helped me get into an exercise routine and I started to drop the pounds. We didn't realize we were more than friends until November. By that time, the text messaging with Tony had dropped off. He didn't send me a birthday wish, the fuck. Well, we were both really busy in school, even though Tony complained a lot. He was getting a little depressing.

Then, suddenly I realized Barbara and I were holding hands when we walked to class and kissing when we said goodnight. By Christmas we were lovers and I was giving and getting more sex than I thought possible. We switched things around when we got back for Winter Session and roomed together. We stayed that way until they kicked us out of the dorms on Memorial Day.

Barbara said she thought I was a College Lesbian and that I'd go back to boys now that my body image was better. She broke up with me at the airport.

aroslav: Was she right?

BETH: I don't know. I don't think so. I like girls. In fact, I'd have to say I mostly like girls. I'm not repulsed by boys, though. It certainly didn't bother me any to kiss Tony this summer or when he ... um ... touched me. And I've had things ... in me ... before. Having the thing attached to a boy instead of a girl doesn't turn me off. But given the opportunity to bury my face in a hot, wet ... I think I still prefer girls.

aroslav: Are you getting back together with Barbara?

BETH: She's not coming back to school this fall. I haven't talked to her since we left for summer. She sent me an email that said she was taking a year off to go explore the world. It went to a distribution list. But, you know what? There's other people in the world.

aroslav: Speaking of the world, your major is International Relations, right?

BETH: Yes. I'd like to work at the UN or perhaps the State Department.

aroslav: Why?

BETH: There's really only one reason. Tony and I had this discussion maybe when we were in eighth grade. It all started out with us having a mutual bitch session at our favorite meeting place.

aroslav: The stream with the rock in it?

BETH: Okay, make that our favorite winter meeting place. It's too damn cold to hike to a frozen stream in the middle of winter. My sister is a horse-nut. She convinced my parents to buy her an Arabian mare. No ordinary quarter horses for her. Of course, to have a horse, you have to have a barn and hay and all kinds of stuff. We had the barn, but with a horse in it—and then two—the hayloft was kept well-stocked and it was surprisingly warm since we couldn't just leave the horses in the cold. Of course, they generate a lot of heat, especially when you add two or three more that we boarded. So by the time we were in eighth grade, the favorite meeting place was the hayloft above my sister's horses.

aroslav: Okay. We were actually talking about why you wanted to work at the UN or State Department.

BETH: Right. Tony had been teased a lot that day. I don't remember what it was this time. He was skinny. An artist. They thought he was gay. He was just easy to pick on. I found out that someone had said something really rotten to him and he'd run home. I didn't need to call him. I just waited until 4:00 and went to the hayloft. That was our meeting time. He was there already. He was sitting near the trapdoor where we tossed hay down to the horses and sketching what they looked like from up above. You know, horses look a lot different when you are up above them than they do when you are looking at them straight on. I never realized that until I saw the picture he drew.

I guess that's not the point.

The point is that we had a whole list of things that are wrong with the world. There's war. There's discrimination. Yeah—discrimination was real high on our list since we felt we were discriminated against. There's poverty. There's sickness. And there's a whole lot of just plain ugly in the world.

And Tony—he has a way of just putting it simply and making you think—Tony said "What're we going to do about it?"

aroslav: Did you solve the problems of the world and come up with a master plan?

BETH: Yeah. In a way, we did. We both agreed that somehow we'd make the world a better place.

aroslav: Sounds daunting.

BETH: Could be. In fact, I guess I had to convince Tony that he could do something. God! He's an artist. He's not going to go out and march on Washington or sit-in at the UN, or try to occupy Wall Street. Tony is going to be Tony.

aroslav: So what are you going to do?

BETH: We're going to leave the world a better place than we found it. That's all it really takes. We'll be nice to people. We'll be helpful in some way. He'll paint something beautiful and moving. I'll campaign for human rights. We will do what we can to leave the world a better place for our having been here.

aroslav: That sounds deep for a couple of eighth graders.

BETH: It wasn't as well developed that afternoon in the hayloft. I would be surprised if Tony even remembers it. But I know that because of who he is and the kind of person he is, he'll live up to his end of the bargain. I've chosen where I'm going to work. But I'll tell you something. If I negotiate a peace treaty between two warring nations and save the world from a nuclear holocaust, it will only come close to even with one painting that Tony does. He'll leave the world a much more beautiful place.

aroslav: You have a lot of respect for Tony's art.

BETH: Have you actually seen any of it? His art is something that ... how do I say this? He's a savant. Tony doesn't have any idea what his art does to people. He just paints because he's creating something beautiful.

Do you know he used to leave me secret messages in drawings he did? I'd find a sketch slipped through the vents in my locker, you know. He'd have drawn a flower or a picture of Mrs. Albertson, the principal, something that totally had nothing to do with anything we'd ever discussed. It had no meaning. Then I'd look at it and see a puppy-dog face in her cleavage or a beggar with a tin cup in the petals of the flower. Sometimes, I'd see myself, or other people we knew. And it was all so simple, yet hidden.

aroslav: It's not just his art. You're passionate about Tony, aren't you?

BETH: Get this straight. Tony was my best friend for ten years and we almost lost it when we went away to school. We both set our paths and went in opposite directions. I will never let that happen again. Tony is my best friend. Seeing him again this summer just made me realize that more. We've got different lives and loves. God! Have you seen his girlfriends? They are so hot! But I'll never let him get so far from me again that I can't just jot off a text to him or call him up and talk. We really screwed that up last year. I know Tony's partly to blame for it, but I could have done something.

Now there's three times as many reasons to keep in touch.

aroslav: What are you going to do?

BETH: I'm planning to visit this fall. Who knows? Maybe I›ll get my courage up a little.

aroslav: Beth, with all your feelings about ... what can I call it? ... social justice? ... the question still remains as to why you'd choose to work at the UN or the State Department. Why not run for public office? I think I'd vote for you.

BETH: Bullshit. If you did, I'd question the intelligence of the nation even more than I do now. Politicians are self-serving egomaniacs who have no more desire to serve than to become a monk. We can talk all we want about the principles that a candidate or incumbent has. It doesn't make a difference. They don't serve—at least past the first term—in order to act on their principles. Think about it. There isn't a single member of the Senate, House of Republicans, Presidency, or Supreme Court who needs the salary he or she is drawing. Yet congress continues to vote itself raises because to them it›s just like any other job or career. You try to climb as high as you can.

I'll run for public office when there is no income associated with it. When congressional representatives are forbidden to spend millions on campaigns for jobs that pay thousands. When holding public office is something people volunteer for instead of get paid for. When representatives are selected based on the population they represent rather than the dollars they raise. Then I'll consider running for public office. I will not engage in politics in any form.

aroslav: Yet, even the jobs you are contemplating are full of politics.

BETH: I completely admit to holes in my logic. But politics and religion are the two greatest evils the world has ever known.

aroslav: I want to thank you for taking the time to talk to me, Beth. Your comments have been insightful.

BETH: No problem. I think you give them too much credence. But would you do me a favor?

aroslav: What's that?

BETH: Next time you see Tony, tell him I'm thinking of him. We all need to hear that sometimes.

aroslav: I'm pretty sure he's thinking of you, too, Beth.

BETH: 'Bye.

aroslav: 'Bye.



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Lissa


Saturday, July 30 (After Chapter 4 of Triptych)

LISSA: Guess it's my turn to face the music.

aroslav: Come in Miss Grant. Thank you for agreeing to talk to me.

LISSA: Is this about a job?

aroslav: No. We'd just like to know a little more about you.

LISSA: I don't do modeling anymore if that's what you're hoping. Either fashion or art. Well, mostly...

aroslav: Hmm?

LISSA: I still model for Tony. And Melody. And Kate. But those are private sessions. I won't be modeling for classes anymore. That served its purpose.

aroslav: What was its purpose.

LISSA: [giggles] To get a certain someone to notice me as more than a competitor.

aroslav: That seems to have worked.

LISSA: I like the results.

aroslav: Could we start with some of the basic statistical information?

LISSA: 5'10". 34C-23-34. 125 pounds. Blonde hair, blue eyes.

aroslav: Thank you, but I was going to ask your full name, age, and birthday.

LISSA: That's a new one. 27 on August 2nd.

aroslav: That's just a couple days. Happy birthday.

LISSA: Thank you.

aroslav: Full name.

LISSA: I haven't used it in years.

aroslav: Just for the record.

LISSA: Allison Steele Grant.

aroslav: Your name is Allison?

LISSA: I shortened it to Lissa when I started modeling at age 12.

aroslav: Does that create any challenges with being confused with another certain Allison that we know?

LISSA: I've never shared my full name with either Tony or Melody, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't either. The only time I was ever worried was when Tony and Allison were alone together. I was afraid he might call her Lissa and I'd have had trouble with that. But he tagged her with the nickname Ally and that's so different from who I see myself as that it helped separate us. But it is kind of funny that we have the same name, we're close to the same size, but she's got bigger boobs, and I'm told she kisses a lot like me. If that's true, I guess I'm pretty good.

aroslav: Tell me about your parents.

LISSA: Alice Steele and Damon Grant. Sadly, I have only a few clear memories of them. They were good to me. I felt loved. I still get sad sometimes, but Jane and Jack stepped in and were so kind to me that they ... well, Jack, really ... were an instant replacement.

aroslav: What happened?

LISSA: A drunk driver entered the freeway the wrong way on an exit ramp. My parents happened to be in the first car he came to. Then about a year later, Aunt Jane got uterine cancer and died. It was so fast neither Jack nor I had a chance to adjust from one to the other. Suddenly Jack was everything to me.

aroslav: Jack is quite a bit older than you are. How did he move from being your guardian to being your husband?

LISSA: He's 32 years older than me and I didn't and still don't care. He and Aunt Jane never had children. Well, we found out later why she couldn't. Her ovaries were non-functioning long before they discovered the cancer. But she and Jack were my legal guardians. We talked about whether I wanted them to adopt me, but we all thought it was too soon after mother and father passed away. Then Jane was gone and there was never a question about Jack being able to adopt me. He continued as my guardian and also as my agent.

Jack worked in the industry as a representative for a long time and got me my first modeling job while my parents were still alive. He was very protective. My mother, he says, sat him down before that first gig and told him that she held him personally responsible for my safety and if anything ever happened to me she would hunt him down and eviscerate him. I looked the word up when I was 15 and Jack first told me about it. My mother was very protective.

aroslav: So in addition to having guardianship, he was also your agent?

LISSA: I don't think he ever collected a fee on my work, though. He insisted on giving me a financial report of my net worth every six months with an accounting of our travel expenses and living expenses. He had half a dozen other models that he rep'ed over the years and a couple of them were in far more demand than I was. I had a pretty good nest-egg when I retired.

aroslav: So how did it happen that he progressed from the agent-guardian relationship to husband.

LISSA: We were traveling nine or ten months a year—living out of hotel rooms and makeup trailers. Jack hated to go back to his house in Seattle after Jane was gone. Usually, he tried to arrange two rooms with a connecting door. He said I was a young lady and needed my privacy. But he always kept his side of the connecting door unlocked in case of emergency. I kept my side unlocked, too, but he never once came through that door.

I developed all the usual hormones and there were a lot of opportunities for short-term relationships to develop. It's not that unusual for models to develop an attraction to another model. We spend half our time getting dressed and undressed in front of each other on sets. There's not much modesty backstage at a runway show. I had a couple of affairs with girls when I was 17 and then was afraid that I was turning into a lesbian. In spite of all the information available, and even Jack's assurances that it was natural to be attracted to such beautiful people and for them to be attracted to me, I set out to prove I wasn't a lesbian.

After I turned 18, I started going through the door between our rooms. Jack was reluctant, but not to the point of pushing me away. I was 18, beautiful, and willing. No, actually, I was more than willing. I let my love for him change, and by Christmas that year, we were only booking one room when we traveled. We were in Paris a year later when I told Jack I was pregnant. Marriage in France requires residency for at least 40 days, so we rented a cottage at Deauville and proceeded to get all our papers in order. We were married on the Ides of March by the mayor, who as far as I can tell has no other duties. Jack insisted on a prenuptial agreement that kept my trust separate from our joint estate. Damon was born in July and has dual citizenship. We returned to the U.S. in the fall and I started taking classes. I still did an occasional local modeling job, but I lost interest in it pretty quickly. It was too hard with a child and school.

aroslav: Did you complete your degree?

LISSA: I got an associates' degree in Fashion Merchandising just after Drew was born. I'd already been working part-time for Forever Lilly, and they made me a buyer after I started full-time.

aroslav: When did you become involved in racquetball?

LISSA: When I was trying to get my figure back after Damon was born. Jack insisted. He said that I would regret it if I didn't lose the birth weight because I'd grown to identify so strongly with my body image as a model. I did the usual workouts at a gym and even had a trainer, but they were boring. So I asked what I could do that was fun. My trainer suggested tennis, but I found that too slow. Racquetball, though, is so much faster. It's exciting. I got pretty good at it. I started competing three years ago.

aroslav: Is it painful to talk about your divorce?

LISSA: Yes and no. It's sad that Jack and I didn't stay married. He's still very important to me. We were together for 11 years, married for four. He fathered my two beautiful boys and loves them so much it's beautiful. He made sure I was well-cared for, insisted that I buy a house and protect my investments, and then shared his property with me. The pre-nup only protected my assets from him. Under Washington laws, everything else was split equally and I transferred half my individual assets to a trust for the boys. I'm not rich, but I own a home and I know that between Jack and me the boys are well taken care of. I couldn't be starting a business without Jack there to share responsibility for the children.

aroslav: Tell me about the business. When did you start considering it?

LISSA: A couple of years ago ... actually three. It was my first open tournament and I was competing in the 24-and-under age group with my brand new Division A ranking. I got clobbered in the third round. But it was great fun and I spent a good bit of time expanding my wardrobe from the various vendors who were displaying in the tradeshow. Each time I looked at a clothing exhibitor I thought, "Oh, if that were my line, I'd..." The seed was born and I started thinking about what I'd actually do with a line of sportswear. As I traveled representing Forever Lilly, it was easy to make contacts with various manufacturers and I spent some time learning the ins and outs of having a clothing line. I never imagined it on the scale of what we are planning now, though. I thought I'd have a little table at the exhibitions and sell a few outfits.

aroslav: Sounds like there's a lot riding on Opens this year.

LISSA: Yes, but we're stacking the deck. Don't you just love the sound of The Ice Queen and Tornado Alley Ames in mixed doubles?

aroslav: Really? I didn't know a college player could play in the U.S. Open Championships.

LISSA: Racquetball is an interesting sport. It's not a varsity sport recognized by the NCAA. It's called a club sport. Usually, a college player only plays intercollegiate tournaments, though the Ektelon National Singles Championship has both collegiate and non-collegiate divisions. Most colleges don't "send" players to Opens. But the higher ranking players and those who have exceeded their eligibility at the college sometimes foot their own bill to go to Opens. Since Tony is going as my coach, we thought he might as well play, too. It will be good experience as he goes into the intercollegiate season and will give him some chops as he organizes SCU's club.

aroslav: Do you tour with the national team?

LISSA: It's optional. I am usually able to get to a couple of matches. Last fall I toured a lot, but after Christmas I really wasn't interested in being away that much.

aroslav: Tony and Melody?

LISSA: Well, I'd be lying if I said they didn't make me want to be home more. What a great reason not to get out of bed in the morning. But it was really the boys. I was away too much.

aroslav: Tell me about being a parent and a single mom.

LISSA: God. Nobody told me. I love Damon and Drew. They are the most important people in my life ... bar none. I would do anything anytime I needed to for their health and well-being. That being said, I'm still thankful every day that Jack is in their lives. Since we've been divorced, he has taken on even more of a role than I have in their lives. We share custody and rotate back and forth each week unless I'm traveling. I get them on Friday after school until the next Friday after school and then Jack takes them. It's really nice to have my first day with the kids be the weekend. It makes it exciting for all of us to get together. That's the opposite of what a lot of kids in this situation get. They get dropped of Sunday night and all they can think about is school the next day and you have to get them to bed early and make sure their homework is done. This way is much nicer for all of us.

aroslav: How do Melody and Tony fit in to the family?

LISSA: Of course, they're great. The day Damon interrupted Tony just as he was getting ready to paint and I heard Tony tell him that his family was more important than any picture he had to draw, I ran to the bathroom and cried for half an hour. But, it's so hard for them—I mean Tony and Melody. Melody picked up so much slack while I was sick and then when we got back home, but she's not the boys' nanny. Jack and I split the cost of Molly because we'd both be overwhelmed otherwise, and we've been with them since they were born. Tony and Melody are only 19 and they get involved with me and it's instant family. I expect them to act like Jack and me, but no matter how much they love the boys, they don't have the same frame of reference.

It's the one thing I struggle with most in our relationship. Not about sharing the boys with my life partners, but about how unfair it is to saddle them with this kind of responsibility when they are in college. Even an unplanned pregnancy can be easier to cope with than being 19 and realizing you have two kids aged four and seven and you can't go out with your buddies tonight because you have to pick up the boys. Or worse, you can't paint or get to class on time or get an assignment done. Who can possibly cope with that?

aroslav: With that different frame of reference that you have—being a little older, having life experiences that they don't have including children, divorce, and travel—why did you ever become involved with them in the first place?

LISSA: Have I mentioned the fact that I'm not known for making good decisions? I think with my heart. Sometimes with my pussy. I opened the door between Jack's and my room on my 18th birthday. I closed it the day we filed for divorce. I'd built up a lot of pressure on myself not to make a bad decision again and it earned me the reputation of Ice Queen both on and off the court.

Tony and I had been tossed together at the club when we posted for racquetball matches. I liked him right away. He was a brooding artist—what girl isn't going to fall for that? But he was an intense player, too. Still, even though I was thawing, I hadn't melted until I met Melody. I never thought I'd come between them, but I thought they'd be fun to play with. Turned out Melody thought so, too. So I helped her seduce Tony with the understanding that we'd all get together. In fact, I discovered just how good a seductress Melody is. Who was seducing whom?

But after that first weekend together, I knew we'd all changed. When I saw Tony's mural painting, I was lost. It scared the hell out of me and I tried to back away from what I saw and what I felt, but they wouldn't let me. I tried a couple more times, but each time I felt so wounded that I couldn't help but go back to them. I'll never leave them again—never try. I love them so much that my heart breaks when we're apart. I know who Lissa Grant is, but I also know that she is so much more when she's Lissa and Tony and Melody. I'm in love.

aroslav: It sounds wonderful.

LISSA It is. I hate to cut this short, but I have a date tonight and Tony and Melody are waiting for me. Can we finish?

aroslav: Lissa, thank you for sharing so much with us. And good luck with the new business—and with your date tonight.

LISSA: You're welcome. I can't wait for the next chapter in our lives to unfold.



-------

Amy

Saturday, August 6 (After Chapter 6 of Triptych)

AMY: Hi. I'm Amy.

aroslav: Welcome, Amy. Thanks for participating in our interviews.

AMY: Sure. What's this all about?

aroslav: We'd like to get to know all the people who are important in Tony's life.

AMY: You think I'm important in his life? I'd rather be important in, say, Melody's life, if you know what I mean.

aroslav: I know, but we'll talk about that a little later. I'd like to start with basic information, if you don't mind.

AMY: It's your nickel.

aroslav: Name, age, and birthdate?

AMY: Sure. Ask the tough questions first. Amalia Eden Garnet. Just call me Amy. Age 19. I'll be 20 on December 12.

aroslav: Is that German? I thought Garnet was...

AMY: Welsh. But the first two names are as Bavarian as my parents could come up with. When you live in Leavenworth, everything is Bavarian.

aroslav: So your Welsh parents gave you a German name.

AMY: I have a little sister named Gertrude. Can you believe that?

aroslav: Civic duty?

AMY: They own the local drive-in. It serves schnitzel.

aroslav: That brings us to your summer job.

AMY: No kidding. In the summer I work as a car-hop at the Alpine Hut Drive-in. It's an A-frame Swiss Chalet kitchen with two wings of drive-up spaces where, for most of the summer, four of us girls skate up to cars, take the driver's order, and bring food to them.

aroslav: That sounds very 50s.

AMY: It's pretty campy, but actually it's kind of fun. And I learned to skate really well.

aroslav: You like to skate?

AMY: Oh yeah. I've got big plans for skating.

aroslav: Really?

AMY: Roller Derby. I'm trying out this fall. I mean, what a great combination—two of the things I love most: skating and girls.

aroslav: Do you have a skater-name picked out yet?

AMY: I thought about Pussychologist, but they've got some rules about how explicit you can be. It's a family sport, after all. I'll figure it out.

aroslav: You're pretty gung-ho on girls. Ever have any experiences with boys?

AMY: I'm a gold-star lesbian. The closest I've ever been to a boy is the kissing contest with Tony. That's the only boy tongue that's ever been in my mouth. And I'd French a poodle if there was a contest.

aroslav: You're pretty competitive.

AMY: Oh yeah! I even considered taking up racquetball when I saw how good Tony was, how interested Melody was, and how hot Lissa was. But I don't think I'd get any closer to either Melody or Lissa by making a fool of myself on the racquetball court. So I figure I should capitalize on my strengths and do the roller thing. But I'm still jealous of him and can't help competing for Melody's attention when I'm with them.

aroslav: You still want Melody?

AMY: Duh! I won't do it—cross the line, you know? I promised last spring when Sandra and I had to patch things up between them. But I still want her. Fortunately, there are other girls just waiting for attention.

aroslav: Care to elaborate?

AMY: Uh ... no. Not yet. Let's just say I've got my eye on someone who has her eye on me and if we can work through a couple of obstacles, I might have a pretty fun autumn.

aroslav: I'll look forward to hearing about that. Speaking of autumn, tell me a little about school and what you're studying.

AMY: Technically, the program at PCAD is called Advertising Graphics. But that isn't what it used to be. Almost everything is computer-based now and most of the drawings I do are on-screen with a graphics pad and stylus. I've learned most of the graphics software and thank heavens for student versions! I'd never be able to afford that stuff if I had to pay retail. I've got a special savings account that I put a little of my earnings in so I can afford to buy a super-hot graphics computer and all the software when I graduate. It's going to cost about eight grand by then.

But it's not what used to be thought of as graphics. I'm studying programming for websites and the various software for that, too. You have to understand social media and search engines. Where somebody like Tony studies Art History for his Humanities component, I get a class in Marketing. It's a different world these days.

aroslav: Different from... ?

AMY: Oh. Uh ... From, like, when you studied stuff and all.

aroslav: Let's not talk about ancient history. You still draw, though. You took the Figure Drawing class last year and you had to test to get into it. Also, your illustration is part of the Rhapsody Suite, right?

AMY: Actually, it really pisses me off when people think they can do computer graphics without having any art ability. Really. Just because you can write HTML doesn't mean you can illustrate a website. They just copy and paste stuff and expect that will win them some kind of design award. They still look at Wired magazine and think that's cutting edge. Twenty years ago, maybe. Nothing against the content there, but it's so first generation.

I want push the graphic envelope in new ways and if you look at all the breakthrough artists in any media over the past hundreds of years, they were all masters of the preceding artform before they made their mark. I don't want anyone to ever look at a website I designed and say "Yeah, but she can't draw."

aroslav: Have you designed a lot of websites?

AMY: I've got my own domain and I redesign it every two or three months. I've done a few of the commercial sites back home. They're a little restricted, though, because of the Bavarian Village theme. I'd like to do something where I could really break out of the rut of the standard commercial website. I need a client that will let me play with graphics and user interface. I just want to blow people away. Of course, I'll probably have to finish my degree and then work for free somewhere before I ever get to that point in my career. People figure that just because it's online, it's free. Once I pile up some awards, then I can start charging a premium.

aroslav: You're pretty keen on getting awards for what you do.

AMY: Awards are just buttons that go on your website when it comes down to it. I don't just want a site that looks pretty, though. You like books, right? Well, how hard is it for you to find and purchase the book you want? If you don't know the name of the book or author, how do you find the book? You can't just go down the shelf of mysteries like you would at a bookstore, looking for a cover that attracts your attention or a name that sounds familiar. And if you find a book you want to buy, how easy is it to pay for your purchase and start reading? If it says "one-click," it should be one click.

aroslav: You want to work on my website?

AMY: How much you willing to pay?

aroslav: Let's move on. Tell me more about your family.

AMY: See? I knew it. Okay. Mom, Dad, Gertie, and me. Our name is Welsh, but like most families, we've got a lot of everything in us. There is some German back there, and English. I think some great ancestor was a Huguenot. We've lived in Leavenworth most of my life. It's a really nice town. I know I make a lot of jokes about the Bavarian theme, but it's a mountain village that really has a lot of civic pride. And where else can you really celebrate Christmas for a month and a half. I wish I could get out of school at Thanksgiving instead of in the middle of December so I could be there for the whole season.

aroslav: Speaking of seasons, it's hard to roller skate in the winter. What did you do for fun?

AMY: Skiing. We're only half an hour from Stevens Pass and as soon as the snow starts, Gertie and I are up there all the time.

aroslav: Are you close with your sister?

AMY: MmmHmm. We're only two years apart. She's a senior this year. I'm hoping she'll come to the city and live with me next year. I love the kid. She helped me get through high school when a few people decided that gays and lesbians should be bullied without any recourse. A gay friend of mine was beaten up behind the school and the authorities did nothing about it. But Gertie was always there for me. I took her to the prom as my date.

aroslav: Are you implying an incestuous relationship with your sister?

AMY: Hey. It's not incest if there's no dick involved.

aroslav: I don't think that's how the law reads.

AMY: Law-schmaw. Here's the thing. Unless someone physically catches us in an incestuous act or one of the parties files a complaint, there is no legal case. Even if I confessed to incest—which I'm not, by the way—I can't be convicted of it unless someone with direct knowledge of it testifies against me.

aroslav: Any other laws that merit flouting?

AMY: Yeah. Of course. Bigamy. Defense of Marriage. Online gambling. Traffic cameras. Not that I'd actually disobey any of those laws, but they are pretty stupid. I mean really ... why would we consider it reasonable to pass laws about the definition of a word? There should be laws that defend the people in a marriage, but that's not what DOMA does. Should the legislature be in charge of the dictionary? "Hey. The word computer only applies to devices with an Intel processor that have a screen, keyboard, and mouse." Why not? It makes as much sense as DOMA does. But what's that make my iPad? If I want to marry my lover, why should the State have the right to tell me I can't because we're the same sex?

And why shouldn't Tony, Melody, and Lissa be allowed to marry each other? There's nothing in the State bigamy laws that says anything about marrying without the consent of an existing spouse. It just says you can't do it. But they can all live together and sleep in the same bed. They just can't visit each other in a hospital, or be responsible for each other's children, or open a joint bank account, or be covered under the same health insurance policy, or have a stupid piece of paper that says they are married.

The State Legislature—and by extension, the voters in the State—have entirely too much interest in what goes on in other people's bedrooms.

aroslav: Are you an activist?

AMY: I'll march in the Gay Pride Parade. I'll vote for people who respect people more than institutions. I'll vote for gay marriage. Does that make me an activist? I'm just like most people. I don't have time to be an activist. I have a job and homework and friends. I have a life. Devoting your life to changing the minds of stupid people just makes you one of them. No offense. Really, if that's what floats your boat, go for it. I just want to live my life. And as long as no one else gets hurt by it, just butt out.

aroslav: Let's talk about your friends for a minute, Amy. We only ever see you in context with Tony, Melody, and Lissa. Who else do you hang out with?

AMY: Well, Sandra and Kate, of course, but you know all about them. My roommate, Jo, and I had a great time last year. She's moving to an apartment this year and I'll miss her a lot. Kevin and I often go out together and then spend our time trying to pick up girls for me and boys for him. The options are limited until you're 21 and can actually go to some of the venues that cater to gays. We had a great time dancing at the Timberline on one of their 18+ nights. We even got lucky. Mostly, though, it's the people I meet in school and at my job. We all have a good time or we hate each other's guts. Or both. That's one reason I want to start skating here. I really need to see some people who aren't in class with me.

aroslav: Any significant other?

AMY: I hooked up with a few people over the past year, but no one for more than a little mutual pleasure. I've got big hopes, though. I met a girl last spring and we've been texting each other all summer. It's getting pretty intense. If we weren't a thousand miles away from each other, I think we'd be together. We'll see what happens this fall. Hope springs eternal.

aroslav: Well, best of luck to you Amy. You have a lot of passion for living and we'd love to see more of you.

AMY: Pervert. Come to a posing party. But ... uh ... bring your girlfriend.

aroslav: Thanks.



-------

Bree


Saturday, August 13 (After Chapter 8 of Triptych)

aroslav: Welcome. Come on in.

BREE: Where's the camera?

aroslav: What?

BREE: Are we going to talk first or do I just get undressed and diddle myself?

aroslav: Bree?

BREE: I'm not doing sex unless you're paying me full scale.

aroslav: This isn't a porn audition.

BREE: Looks like it. You at a desk with a computer and me on a sofa opposite.

aroslav: I'm just keeping notes on the computer. You didn't really think I was auditioning you for a video, did you? Don't you know what kind of a scam that is?

[Silence]

aroslav: Okay, let's move on. We're interviewing Tony's friends to find a little about what makes them tick.

BREE: Tony said I was a friend?

aroslav: Do you want the direct quote? He said, "You haven't talked to anyone from SCU. Why don't you interview my friend, Bree?"

[Silence. A tear streaks down one cheek.]

BREE: I've been so terrible to him and his girlfriends. I can't believe he called me a friend.

aroslav: Maybe we can talk about that this morning. You had a pretty rough night last night.

BREE: Yeah. Can we start with something easy? I could just take off my clothes.

aroslav: That would make it very hard for me. To conduct the interview. Just please give me your full name, age, and birthday.

BREE: Brianna Lynn Jacobson, age 21. My birthday was June 21, the longest day of the year. My dad reminds me of that at every birthday. This year it was my golden birthday—21 on the 21st.

aroslav: Did you have a big celebration?

BREE: Me, myself, and I had our first legal drink. That's three drinks. Then we each had another. Then I went home and puked. All alone.

aroslav: Your father... ?

BREE: Out of town. We "celebrated" the next weekend. He bought me my first legal drink and then I went home and puked.

aroslav: I'm seeing a pattern here.

BREE: Except that I only had one drink. The weekend before I was sick for two days. Not like a hangover, either. My skin got all blotchy, I had migraines, my nose was stuffy, and I felt faint. Alcohol intolerance, the doctor said. Genetic, but it doesn't always show up right away. I guess my drinking days are done already.

aroslav: There are worse things.

BREE: Yeah. Living with yourself. Ask me something else, please.

aroslav: So, you're a year ahead of Tony in college, right?

BREE: Technically two years, but I'll only graduate one year ahead.

aroslav: Tell me about that.

BREE: When I got out of high school I left home. I enrolled at Arizona State in Tempe. I flunked out. I did nothing but party from the day I left home until the day they threw me out of the dorm. My alcohol intolerance was probably part of what was affecting me more than other kids. I was blacked out a lot. Usually woke up with a sore cunt. Dad...

[Long pause]

aroslav: Take your time.

[Tears]

BREE: He looked so disappointed in me. That's all I ever do is disappoint people. He put me in rehab for the summer and when I got out I found out I was enrolled at SCU. He's on the faculty there, so I guess he pulled some strings. But he watched me like a hawk. It was like being in high school again. He checked my homework every night, okayed who I went out with, what I wore, and what time I had to be home. He wouldn't let me get a driver's license and he didn't even give me the code to the security alarm, so I couldn't just leave and come back when I wanted to.

aroslav: That sounds pretty harsh.

BREE: I got all A's in my classes. I guess in a way I got my confidence back, too. By the end of the year, he was looking at my homework, but really didn't comment on it much. My second year at SCU he lightened up a bit and suggested I try out to be a cheerleader. I thought it would please him if I did well. Our relationship improved, but he still looks at me as if he's disappointed in me.

aroslav: Shit. I'm sorry, Bree.

BREE: 'Sokay. That's just the way I feel most of the time.

aroslav: All the rumors about your behavior and the way you ... well you kind of threw yourself at Tony...

BREE: The rumors all come from the reputation I had coming back from AZU. Don't ask me how people found out. Before I knew it, my reputation was that I'd slept all the football players on the team.

aroslav: Had you?

BREE: Only the varsity. Asshole. No. And the one that I did sleep with didn't help my reputation any. I mostly didn't go out with anyone else until I met Tony. I guess I didn't go out with him either.

aroslav: Tony seems to bring out the predator in you.

BREE: What a kind way to say slut. I wanted to ... I just don't know how ... Shit!

Tony is the first guy I've ever known that didn't just want to get in my pants as soon as possible. He's never made a pass at me—even when I was standing in front of him naked. He's always been kind ... almost always. And I don't know how to deal with that. And my dad adores him. He's so proud of Tony. I just wish...

[Blows nose]

Do you know what happened last night? I made an ass of myself. I called him and Kate names. I asked him what was wrong with me and he...

I've never been so humiliated in my life. And I deserved it. I saw what a stupid whore I looked like throwing myself at him. I could have died. I wanted to die.

And then he came back and talked to me. He apologized. Fucking hell! He apologized to me!

And you know Kate? She called me this afternoon. After what I called her and how I treated her date. She walked me to my room last night and made sure I brushed my teeth and was in bed. Then, she called me today to see if I was all right. She invited me to go out for a Coke next week. Why can't I be nice like that? I am such a shit I don't want to live anymore.

aroslav: Whoa! Bree, are you telling me you're suicidal.

BREE: All I'd have to do is drink a pint of whiskey. Probably wouldn't take that much. I didn't even need a drink last night to make a mess of things.

aroslav: Bree, why are things so bad for you? What happened?

BREE: My mom. She died.

aroslav: When did that happen?

BREE: When I was 16. I should be over it by now, right? I should just grow up.

aroslav: How'd it happen?

BREE: She died in childbirth—isn't that the shit? Who dies in childbirth these days? Why was she even pregnant? She had me. I wasn't enough for her.

aroslav: You know that having another child isn't something people do because they're disappointed in the one they've got. Tell me about it.

BREE: It was a surprise. Mom thought she was going through menopause. The doctor told her she was pregnant. They'd never abort a child, even though the doctor told her it was risky. Everything seemed to be going fine. She was healthy as a horse. I was even adjusting to the idea of having a little rugrat around the house. I'd only be there a couple more years.

Mom always kind of held me together through adolescence. She'd explain what was happening to my body. She taught me how to wear makeup that didn't look like I was just covering up my freckles. She taught me how to style my red mop of hair. She helped me choose flattering clothes when my boobs started to grow. And she kept Dad and me from killing each other. I guess I got on his nerves even back then. He certainly got all over mine.

Then all of a sudden she was dead.

She was a fitness instructor at the Y. Absolutely perfect health. She was leading a class and went into premature labor in the middle of the class. There was blood and water on the floor of the exercise room and she had a heart attack right there and died. By the time the ambulance got there, the baby was dead, too.

aroslav: That seems so bizarre. Death in childbirth is so rare.

BREE: Mothers are dying in childbirth in the United States at a higher rate now than any time in the past four decades. I dug up everything I could about it, the whole time asking, "Why? Why? Why?" And the answer was that nobody knows.

aroslav: It must have been a terrible blow for both you and your dad.

BREE: Without mom there, I didn't know what to do. I started getting wild, going to parties, getting drunk. Sometimes drugs. And sex. Without mom there to buffer us, Dad and I were yelling at each other all the time. I got out of here as quickly as I could and went to Arizona.

aroslav: Tempe is a lot different than Seattle.

BREE: Hot kitty litter as far as the eye can see. I had no idea how fast a redhead could get sunburned.

aroslav: Your dad seems like a nice person. Can't you work things out with him?

BREE: I try. He tries. We work together on recruiting trips and usually we get along. I just feel like I'm always being compared to the bright young talent that we recruit and found wanting. I so want to get my life together.

aroslav: Maybe you should move out on your own again. You've learned a lot.

BREE: I can't leave him all alone. I did that once. It wasn't just me that went off the deep end that year. Dad was in pretty bad shape, too. As much as we irritate each other, we need each other.

aroslav: So what are your plans?

BREE: Talk. That's what Tony said to do. That's what Kate said this afternoon. I'll try to talk to him without getting wigged out. Tell him how I feel.

aroslav: Listen.

BREE: What?

aroslav: No. When you talk, listen. From what you've said, he's got as much on the line as you do. He never really figured out how to be a parent without your mom there.

BREE: Okay.

aroslav: Bree? Get some counseling. You don't have to go through all this alone.

BREE: Yeah. That's what Tony and Kate said, too. Um ... Do you mind if I ask you a question?

aroslav: Not the usual way an interview's done, but go ahead.

BREE: Why does it suddenly seem natural to refer to Tony and Kate? I just got used to Tony and Melody and Lissa. They aren't breaking up are they?

aroslav: Don't get your hopes up.

BREE: I'm not! It would be terrible. Melody hates me. I understand that. I deserve that. Lissa just rolls her eyes when I'm being a ... whatever. But with Tony, they're perfect. I really don't want anything to happen to them.

aroslav: I'll put you on my list of fans. But let's get back to you. What are your plans this year?

BREE: I've kind of floated around with my education. Lots of exercise science and physiology. I'm really thinking hard about entering the physical therapy program. I could be in school a long time. You have to have a master's minimum and it looks like they'll be requiring physical therapists to actually have a doctorate soon. But I like the way the body works.

Sometimes I stand in front of my mirror naked ... yeah, savor that image ... and I just look at how my muscles work and how one bone is connected to another. If I have an ache, I try to identify exactly what muscle is sore or if it is in an organ or skin or bone. The nervous system is an amazing complex of message centers that interrelate to each other. Why does a certain touch cause pleasure while a seemingly identical touch can cause pain?

Only the ache I'm feeling right now—I can't find it when I look in the mirror. If I could just see it, maybe I could fix it.

I'm going to take Human Anatomy this fall and possibly double my major in exercise science and pre-physical therapy. I figure the racquetball team will give me my own little group of specimens to watch and practice on.

aroslav: How'd you happen to be at the party last night?

BREE: The cheerleaders decided to help raise funds for Tent City when it comes to SCU this fall. I got involved before I decided not to cheer this year and they let me stay on the committee. That's why I was at that party last night in the first place. Might have known that Tony would be involved with it already.

But I'm just going to try to be a better person. I don't like who I am very much.

aroslav: I have a feeling we're going to hear good things about you in the future, Bree.

BREE: Thank you, doctor. You've been very helpful.

aroslav: Bree, I'm not a therapist. Get help.

BREE: I will.

[Looks around]

BREE: Want to do that video now? Do you want me over here on the sofa or standing up?

[Silence]

[Laughter]

BREE: Gotcha! See ya!

aroslav: Later, Bree.



-------

Melody


Saturday, September 3 (After Chapter 10 of Triptych)

MELODY: Melody Renee Anderson, age 19, born 23 January, sophomore, Student ID Number 9113507.

aroslav: You're not a prisoner of war, Melody. I'm not going to interrogate you.

MELODY: No sense of humor. Oh well. Whatcha wanna know?

aroslav: Thanks. Are there any teens present who can hold a conversation without making me feel like an antiquated ass?

MELODY: Aww. I'm sorry. I don't think you're an ass.

aroslav: Oh?

MELODY: Just antiquated.

aroslav: [sigh] Since we already have the vital statistics out of the way, why don't you tell me about school to start with? What's your major?

MELODY: Textiles.

aroslav: What does that include?

MELODY: Weaving, knitting, braiding, knotting, crocheting, needlepoint, dying, and pretty much anything that has to do with cloth or putting things on cloth, including screen printing, dye sublimation transfers, and dye discharge.

aroslav: That sounds very craftsy.

MELODY: Ugh! You too? You sound like my dad.

aroslav: Oh dear, I hope not. Is he terrible to you?

MELODY: No. He's great. Well most of the time. But he really wanted me to be an artist. When I tried to explain that art and design were compatible and that my chosen medium was fabric, he said that was a trade and if I was determined that was what I wanted to do, he at least wanted me to have a rounded art education so I would have something to fall back on.

aroslav: That sounds backwards. Don't parents usually want their artistic kids to have a trade to fall back on?

MELODY: Dad wanted to be an artist and ended up an advertising executive. He blames it on not having had a good art education.

aroslav: So he wants you to be what he isn't.

MELODY: [sighs] Yeah, I guess so. That's the reason I'm at PCAD. It's the school he wanted to go to twenty-some years ago. But that's okay. I love it here. It's got a great textile program. I do enjoy the other art classes, even if I can't paint like Tony and Kate. And face it; this is where I met the love of my life ... er ... one or two of them.

aroslav: How did that happen, by the way? From what I gather, Tony never asked you out because he thought you had ... let me see..."a big scary boyfriend."

MELODY: Never did. Simon, over in the theatre production department is a big dude, covered with tattoos and piercings. There's some overlap between costuming and textiles/fashion, so we were in the costume shop a lot first semester. He's a very protective big teddy bear and absolutely refused to let any girl in the department walk to the dorms after dark without an escort. But we were never an item. He is so completely gay!

aroslav: That's an interesting story. When'd you get interested in Tony?

MELODY: Oh. Orientation weekend. He probably doesn't even remember it. There was a group tour of the SAM [Seattle Art Museum] as kind of an introductory event. Everyplace we went, we seemed to be standing next to each other. So I checked him out pretty thoroughly.

aroslav: Have a good conversation or something?

MELODY: Nope. Never said a word. Just stood back and drooled. I don't think he noticed me at all. So from that day on, I started putting myself where he could see me. I even found out that he was in the Figure Drawing class, which is usually a sophomore class, but had a few freshmen in it who were approved and it had one slot open. I enrolled on a non-credit basis the first week of school.

aroslav: Stalker-chick?

MELODY: Maybe a little.

aroslav: Why wait till second semester to make your move?

MELODY: I kept thinking he would eventually see me and ask me out. Then there were Sandra and Amy. The first time I thought I'd just sit with him at lunch after class, they both just plopped down with us and all of a sudden we were four friends who had lunch together every Friday. And Sandra made it no secret when he wasn't around that she was into him. I didn't want to ... you know ... interfere? And Amy was making it obvious that she was interested in both Sandra and me. I know I'm bi, but Amy just doesn't fire my jets—though god knows she tries. I don't think Sandra even had a clue that Amy was interested.

aroslav: Wow! So much social intrigue. What finally made you make your move?

MELODY: When Tony posed. Oh my god! I never thought he'd do it. I just thought it would be a way to flirt with him in class to suggest that he pose. When he came out and there he was in ... Let's just say I had trouble concentrating. I came back from holidays absolutely determined that I was going to get something going with him.

aroslav: So you wanted to be with him from the beginning?

MELODY: Ummm. Okay. God's truth? I never thought it would go anywhere long term. He's so terminally shy and I'm so ... not. But one of the things I wanted when I came to college was to experience everything. And, I'd never experienced a guy.

aroslav: Wait. You'd experienced a girl?

MELODY: Um ... yeah. Just a little play-time in high school. My girlfriend—that's girlfriend as in BFF, not soulmate—was as curious as I was. I spent a weekend at her house when her parents were out of town and we woke up in the morning with our faces looking like glazed donuts. It was a fun weekend and we tried it a few more times, but we both knew that we were just best friends and not really lovers.

aroslav: Okay. Back to getting together with Tony.

MELODY: After that first weekend that I met him, Tony just seemed like the right guy to do the job. I thought we might be like my girlfriend and me—just willing to explore and experiment. If he turned out to be gay or something afterward, I'd still have the experience. I feel so bad about thinking I was just going to use him.

aroslav: That sounds like Beth's rationale.

MELODY: Maybe that's why I like her so much. We really are a lot alike. But I'm glad it turned out the way it did. Let's face it. If Tony wasn't my boyfriend, I wouldn't have a girlfriend either.

aroslav: Ah yes. Lissa. How did that come about?

MELODY: Man, you are a voyeur, aren't you? Well, in the same way that Amy doesn't fire my jets, Lissa does. That first day I met her ... oh wow. I went to the club to watch Tony play racquetball because I figured that was how I'd manage to seduce him. And then she showed up to play. I sat outside that court fantasizing about Tony and me together for the first time, but every scenario kept having Lissa in it, too. So I said, oh hell. It's all fantasy anyway, I'll just fantasize about her, and then Tony was always there. When she invited me in for a shower and hot tub at the club ... I was a goner. There I'd been watching them for an hour while they got sweaty on the court and my chair had a wet spot on it. Then I get to go sit around naked with Lissa for half an hour talking girl-stuff. Believe me; her interview about Tony was much more detailed than yours! There just wasn't much to tell her yet. She gave me a ton of pointers on how to seduce him.

aroslav: She wasn't interested herself?

MELODY: You'd have to ask her, but um ... well ... that wasn't the only time we talked.

aroslav: You met again before you went out with Tony?

MELODY: Yeah. A couple—well, a few—times. Really nice times. I mean, really nice. She's the one who shaved me before I posed for Tony.

aroslav: Are you saying you'd already been lovers with Lissa before you and Tony got together?

MELODY: Y ... yeah. That's how I knew all about Lissa's house and we set up the arrangements for our weekend posing session. Lissa helped me put the right food in the fridge and showed me where to set up our studios, and everything. We'd ... um ... already agreed that we'd ... like to get us all together ... if it worked out with Tony. Lissa'd had her eye on him for a while, too.

aroslav: You and Lissa seem uncommonly open to additional liaisons with people outside your ménage. Can you explain that?

MELODY: No. I mean, sure I can, but I don't know if it makes any sense. We just found that it was so easy to accept each other as a trio that it didn't seem to be a stretch to think of us as more than three. I mean, I don't know if we'll ever be a foursome or moresome. That takes a lot of work. But at the same time, we're so in synch that when one of us gets excited, another gets wet. We aren't really wandering around looking for others, but Allison was just too much fun to resist. And Kate is ... so dreamy. I don't know what it is about her, but we all just want to smother her with kisses and protect her from the boogeyman.

God I love Kate! She's just so ... adorable. [sighs] I could just sit and hold her hand forever. She makes me want to play dress-up like I was twelve and she was my dolly. [more sighs]

[shakes head] Okay. Beth is sweet. She's known Tony forever and Lissa and I were probably the extension of him that she needed to really let herself express her fondness of him. You know, Allison loves us all but thinks sex with a girl is too squicky, and Beth loves Tony, but only wants sex with girls. It's too bizarre.

aroslav: What about Bree?

MELODY: Bitch! Don't get me started. I know that she's cute and we look a lot alike in some ways. But she pushes every one of my buttons—no ... all but one. We'd have serious problems if Tony decided he wanted to do something with her. I mean, I know that they're going to see each other with school and racquetball, and she can be really fun as part of a group, but intimacy is just plain out. She makes another pass at him and I'm going to have a pair of pretty green eyeballs to decorate my mantle, 'cause I'll have scratched her eyes out. I think I feel about Bree the same way Lissa feels about Clarice. It's not a rational thing.

aroslav: Okay. Anybody else on your radar?

MELODY: The other cheerleader—Sonia? A perfect goddess and sweet as well. But you'd have to take the boyfriend with her and no matter how good looking he is, I just can't see myself with another boy. It's kind of bizarre, I know, but I can imagine several different girls' tongues that I'd like to feel lapping my juices, but no other boy's penis I'd like to feel inside me. I really can't imagine how Amy thinks she's going to handle that.

Are you okay? You look a little uncomfortable?

aroslav: Fine. Just needed to shift my ... weight. Go on.

MELODY: Oh. Wendy. What a spitfire. She's got more attitude and energy than any girl I know. And she's always there to help. I worry about her a little bit. I don't know what's been going on this summer, but she's gotten awfully thin. I'd like to know her better. We're going to have another party this fall. Who knows what might happen?

aroslav: I know this might be another sensitive subject, but how do you feel about your parents' divorce?

MELODY: Sad. Confused. Worried. My parents have always been there for me. I know that Daddy reacted badly to my love-life, but he's just being a dad. I bet if you asked a hundred dads how they'd respond if their daughter was in a similar situation, sixty-five of them would say the same thing as my dad and of the other thirty-five, thirty would be lying. You know, Tony's folks are amazing and wonderful and I love them. But I bet if Tony was the girl in this situation, they wouldn't have responded as positively.

I overheard my dad talking to one of his buddies a couple of years ago. The other guy had two sons. What he said pretty well sums it up. "If you have a son, you only have to worry about one dick. If you have a daughter, you have to worry about all of them."

But as controlling as he sometimes is, he's always taken care of Mom and me. He worked hard and put his dreams aside. I don't think he really likes his job. But he does it to provide for us. I guess he's in his mid-life crisis. Men are so hard to understand. I just know he still loves Mommy, but it's like his brain has disconnected from his heart.

My mom's putting up a good front. She wants to show how independent she can be even though Daddy has made most of the big decisions in life up till now. She's never taken that much responsibility on before. I know she gets depressed and I wish I could just bring her out here so I could take care of her. She has to get some kind of closure out in Boston first, though.

aroslav: Parents can be difficult.

MELODY: Yeah, I'll bet you think you'd be one of the remaining five, don't you?

aroslav: No comment. Melody, how are you ever going to handle all the work with the new business and school?

MELODY: Hey! Those guys at Facebook did it, didn't they? You think you have to program computers to become a millionaire right out of college? Doing this fabric and clothing is such a rush, I don't care if I flunk out of college. I don't think I will, mind you. I just wouldn't care if I did.

aroslav: You and Tony have art and school in common. You and Lissa have fashion in common. Tony and Lissa have racquetball in common. Is that the way it works?

MELODY: You always want to make it simple, don't you? We're not together just because of what we have in common. Sure, it's wonderful to share conversation and ideas about a common interest. But Tony and I have Lissa in common. Wouldn't that work? Sometimes it's what's different about us that holds us together. Lissa's a mother. I mean, how different can that be from either Tony or me? But you just watch her with those boys for an hour and try not to fall in love with her. I know she shares custody and it might sound like she's always off selling or competing, but her time with Damon and Drew is precious.

And Tony ... well aside from the obvious difference ... he's so physical. I don't mean big or rough. I don't think Tony even has a clue about how in tune he is with his body—or how incredibly sexy that is. And caring. Compassionate. Oh, I know he gets depressed easily. And he's chaotically disorganized. And he becomes so hyper-focused that you can't get through to him. And did I mention loving? The reason I can't imagine having another penis in me is because of what's attached to the one I've got.

I love them. I love Tony. I love Lissa. I'd share them with another girl—with some caveats. Like that I get to play, too. But I'd never, ever let them go.

aroslav: Thank you for talking to me today.

MELODY: That was easy. What comes next?

aroslav: Well, I see if I can make your career dreams and your fantasies come true.

MELODY: YES!

aroslav: Let the record show that she is bouncing up and down and dancing in place.



-------

Allison


Saturday, September 10 (After Chapter 12 of Triptych)

ALLISON: You chose a great time for this. Couldn't we have talked sometime when I was sure and positive and knew what the hell I was doing? This is like the most confusing time of my life and I'm in rehearsal and have my senior project to do and ... Heavenly days! Can't anything be simple for once?

aroslav: Hi, Allison.

ALLISON: Breathe. That's all I have to do. Just take a deep breath.

[Pause]

ALLISON: Well if you was a gentleman, you might ask me to sit down, I think. [Thick Cockney accent]

aroslav: Please have a seat, Miss...

ALLISON: Doolittle. Miss Eliza Doolittle.

aroslav: Ah. In rehearsal are we?

ALLISON: First show of the season. We open "My Fair Lady" next weekend. Reciting lines helps me relax. Sometimes I get a little frantic and start talking a mile a minute. Then you can't get a word in edgewise. There was once that I went for an interview and the guy only asked me one question and I talked for half an hour and never did figure out what the interview was supposed to be about. I just get started and rattle...

aroslav: Allison?

ALLISON: on and on.

aroslav: Allison!

ALLISON: Sorry! It's nice to meet you.

aroslav: Thanks for taking the time. How about we start with simple information. Name, age, birthdate, college, major. That sort of thing.

ALLISON: Okay. I'm Allison Janine Perkins. I'll be 22 on the 25th of October. I'm a senior at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. I'm majoring in Theatre with an emphasis in Acting and I'll have a minor in Music with an emphasis on voice. I'm about five credits short of a minor in Dance. Just can't put the schedule together.

aroslav: Wow! Talented.

ALLISON: If I was that talented, I'd be at a performing arts school instead of a State university. But I'm getting a lot of opportunity here. Playing Eliza is a good one. Wide range of vocal challenges from accents to music. Transforming from the Cockney guttersnipe to the sophisticated lady without appearing to just throw a switch is a challenge.

aroslav: Have you always been interested in theater and performance?

ALLISON: Yes. I was in my first play in kindergarten and was the only performer who actually had her lines fully memorized. I started singing solos with the church choir when I was ten. If I'd lived somewhere with more opportunities, I'd have insisted on dance lessons, but the best I could get was the minister's wife teaching "Worship Through Creative Movement." It was a strange combination of gyrations and sign language set to the music of popular hymns.

aroslav: I take it religion was also an important part of your life when you were growing up.

ALLISON: Major. Don't get me wrong. I'm not religious. But I went to church every Sunday, sang in the choir, and had perfect attendance in Sunday School for fourteen years. I guess a little of that is still in my system. It will take years to flush it all.

aroslav: Did you study the Bible a lot?

ALLISON: Memorized it. And ... yeah. Studied. I used to study the Bible every day, but then I discovered Sudoku.

aroslav: ???

ALLISON: Turns out that I like puzzles that have an answer.

aroslav: So you've turned your back on religion in favor of brainteasers?

ALLISON: [sighs] No. It's still there. I still go to church, if I'm not up too late on Saturday night. I still listen to sermons and try to believe. But it's so contradictory to life. Okay. I can't find anything in the Bible that says you can't have sex. Oh, if you're married, there's a bunch of things that say you shouldn't commit adultery. But there is no Bible verse that says you shouldn't get a little tipsy or high and fuck the director of the show you're in. Uh ... Not that I ever did that ... exactly. Shit!

aroslav: Who was it?

ALLISON: The stage manager. Stop looking at me like that. Do you have any idea what theater is like? Last year I did summer stock in a little theater in Maine. It was so cold there at night that we about froze our tits off. And there was this one space heater. Not in a dressing room, mind you, but in the stairwell where we all waited for our cues. So that's where we dressed. And undressed. And made-up. And made out. It was easy to go from that stairwell to a guy's apartment. And we'd play dress-up. And dress-off. I'm not a tramp. I only ever did one guy a season.

aroslav: I'm scarcely one to judge. Why so much trouble with women, though? I mean, it's obvious that when you kiss Melody or Lissa you get turned on.

ALLISON: The Bible! No. Not the Bible, but the preacher. They always told us homosexuality was a sin. I don't believe it, but I believe it. And when I feel so tingly, I feel so sinful. I'd do Tony in a heartbeat, but no matter how much I wanted Melody and Lissa or how much I loved them, I never could bring myself to really be with a woman.

aroslav: Could? Has something changed, Allison?

ALLISON: Mmmm. Oh. Well. I think ... yes.

aroslav: What?

ALLISON: Well, once you've done it, you've done it, right? Hell's not going to be any worse if you do it again. You're just as guilty once as twice, so why not?

aroslav: You've done it?

ALLISON: We were sleeping in the same bed and she convinced me that we didn't need to get dressed before we crawled in because we'd been in the hot tub together and we were all naked, so what difference did it make to just stay that way all night? After all, it was just us girls. And she was so sexy and cute. And she kisses like ... Oh man! She's so soft and...

aroslav: Who?

ALLISON: Do you know what she did to me? We crawled into bed and she said, "Give me a goodnight kiss, please?" And it was so sweet. We'd kissed before, I mean with Tony, but let's face it: it was our hands on each other's tits, not Tony's. So we kissed, and our hands got busy. I was just touching her tits; nothing else. But they're so full and round and luscious. I was thinking how like mine they were and what I liked done to my nipples and so I was just pinching them a little and she was breathing in my mouth and I was feeling so good. I didn't realize for I don't know how long that it was her hand in my pussy and not mine.

aroslav: Allison, we don't do sex scenes in the interviews.

ALLISON: This isn't a sex scene. It's important. She was just fingering me and I was getting more and more turned on and was just moaning into her mouth as our tongues were exploring each other and I was pinching her nipples. It was easy to just forget that the fingers in my pussy belonged to a woman. And all of a sudden she stops and pulls away. Then she starts pecking at me lightly with my eyes closed. And while she's giving me these little chicken kisses, she's whispering, "You've tasted yourself before, haven't you, Allison?" And I just moaned some more and nodded my head. Then she brings her wet fingers to my lips and starts rubbing them and I can smell my arousal because it's, like, right under my nose. So I start licking her fingers and pretty soon they're in my mouth and I'm sucking on her fingers and trying to get all my juices cleaned off.

[panting]

And you know what she says then? She says, "Yours or mine?" Just like that. And then, as if she was going to have me compare them she touches my lips with her other hand and it's just as wet as the one I just cleaned off and it smells just as good and ... Oh god!

aroslav: Allison? Are you okay?

ALLISON: Oh god, yes. So okay.

aroslav: And you just licked her fingers then?

ALLISON: Her fingers and her lips and her tits and her navel and her pussy and the little space between her toes and behind her knees and under her arms and behind her ears and...

aroslav: Who are we talking about?

ALLISON: Beth!

aroslav: You had sex with Beth?

ALLISON: Labor Day night when we were at Tony and Melody and Lissa's house. We made love. A few times. And we fucked a few times. We didn't really get much sleep that night. [sighs again, more deeply]

aroslav: Are you all right?

ALLISON: I could use a smoke. Only I quit. That's why I took up racquetball. I had to get my lungs back. The first year of college was pretty wild. I could have ruined my voice. Then I'd spend my life with a raspy voice, singing in smoky bars for tips and drinks—gambling my life away and selling my body until I died of consumption.

aroslav: Uh, where are you?

ALLISON: Carmen. Manon. Dulcinea. Bess. You name it. Sorry. It's just a dream.

aroslav: You dream about being a tragic heroine?

ALLISON: Well, of course! Those roles have all the best music. Man, I could nail those.

aroslav: What are you doing for your senior project?

ALLISON: A one-woman show based on the writings of James Joyce. The entire second act is Molly Bloom's soliloquy from Ulysses.

" ... I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes."

I'm going to play it lying in bed naked, exactly the way Tony painted me.

aroslav: That's pretty daring. I'm assuming you have big plans for after college.

ALLISON: Yes. Who doesn't? I've got my eye on a cashier's position at Walmart.

aroslav: Seriously.

ALLISON: It's a Walmart in Seattle.

aroslav: You really want to be with Tony, don't you.

ALLISON: No. Yes. I want to be with Tony and Melody and Lissa. Or ... if not with them, at least near them. I know I'm not going to be "one of them." But you know, I really like them. I mean I love them. It's not like I have to be part of their household, but I'd like to be near them. They brought the me out of me.

So, of course, I'm looking for real jobs out there. There's some good theater going on there, and opera. There's this guy who heard me sing in Chicago. Tony gave me his card. Geez! If the guy only knew that I was stretched out naked on a bed in front of Tony while he was standing outside the door listening—Well, anyway, it turns out this guy is legit. When I got home this week, I called him. He has a light opera company in Portland and cooperating agreements with a few other West Coast companies. I'd never sing at the Met, but I can do light opera. Of course, I'd love to do musical comedy, but regardless, I know that I'll end up in a chorus working my butt off for union scale. But I love doing it. I just love the stage.

aroslav: That's interesting. How'd you get involved in racquetball? That seems out of character for a diva.

ALLISON: Why thank you. I don't think anyone's called me a diva before. Let's see. I left Eureka to go to the big city of Manhattan ... Kansas. People for miles around come to Manhattan for a drink because it's in one of the twenty-five counties in Kansas that allow people to buy a drink in a bar that doesn't sell food. But ... you've gotta be careful. Clay County, right next door is still a dry county. No on-sale liquor at all. Still, most of the kids—especially underage—opt for three-two beer. That's beer with less than 3.2 percent alcohol. From personal experience, I can tell you that it takes exactly one-and-three-quarters pitchers of three-two for me to be shit-faced. That's how I spent a lot of my freshman year. That and smoking. And sex. Just with my boyfriend. My freshman boyfriend. Well, I was a freshman. He was a junior. I did my first stint as a camp counselor that summer and was absolutely knocked on my ass over how out of shape I'd become. And no smoking at a YMCA camp. I decided that I needed regular exercise and a reason for clean living. I looked at the various campus activities and discovered racquetball. I loved it. I'm no Lissa Grant, but I can punish a little blue ball pretty severely.

aroslav: What are your plans for that?

ALLISON: I want to keep playing. I saw Lissa win Opens last year. What an inspiration. This year I'm going as a player instead of a fan. I'm not in the same class. I'm rated Division B. I really screwed up my games at the Intercollegiate National Championships last spring, but I'm not going to do that at Opens. I am ready to play. Racquetball. Of course, I'd like to play with Lissa and Melody and Tony, too. But I'm really there to play racquetball. Yeah.

aroslav: What do you think of their new line of sportswear?

ALLISON: I'll be one of the first women on the courts wearing an Ice Queen outfit. They're really cool, and kind of sexy. Just knowing that Lissa will be wearing a matching outfit when she plays makes me ... You don't need to know that, do you.

aroslav: Probably not. How do I wish you luck?

ALLISON: Well for my show opening tonight, it's "break a leg." Please don't suggest that for Opens though! Try something like, "Move yer bloomin' arse!"



-------

Kate


Monday, September 19 (After Chapter 15 of Triptych)

KATE: Hi. I'm Kate.

aroslav: Nice to meet you Kate. I'm aroslav.

KATE: Are you some kind of professor?

aroslav: Sort of, but that's not why I'm here.

KATE: They said an interview. What do you want to know?

aroslav: All about what makes you Kate.

KATE: Are you a stalker?

aroslav: No. Just a friend of Tony's.

KATE: Okay. But you are kinda old and creepy.

aroslav: Noted. Now how about we start with your full name.

KATE: Katarina Mirela Holsinger.

aroslav: That's a nice German name.

KATE: Austrian surname. A hundred years ago. Great-great somebody emigrated from Austria.

aroslav: Okay. Austrian. What's the rest of your ethnic mix? You have such an exotic look.

KATE: What's that mean? Exotic. I think it's from Shangri-La, or maybe what you say about a belly-dancer. Are my eyes funny? Do I wear a grass skirt?

aroslav: Whoa. Sorry, Kate. It was meant as a compliment.

KATE: I know. I'm kidding. I do have funny eyes and have been known to wear a grass skirt ... at my grandmother's request. Let's see. My great-grandfather Paul was the son of Austrian immigrants just after World War I. He was drafted for service in the Second World War and to avoid prejudice, they sent him to the South Pacific. He was part of the occupation of Okinawa. That's where he met my great-grandmother, Akemi. She was a war-bride and didn't speak a word of English when he brought her back to Wisconsin. They lasted about one winter and she was begging to go back home. So the story is that he moved back to the South Pacific, but he wouldn't go back to Japan, so they ended up in Hawaii.

My grandfather Ken grew up there and married a Hawaiian girl named Iolana. They moved to San Francisco to be hippies and ended up in a commune in Oregon. That's where my father, Oke was born. Assuming my grandfather was actually his father, that would make him half Hawaiian, a quarter Japanese, and a quarter German. Of course, he married a Romani gypsy named Vadoma who was living on the commune, which makes me half Romani, a quarter Hawaiian, and an eighth each Japanese and German.

Okay? Exotic enough?

aroslav: I couldn't have made that up. How did your mother happen to come to America? Or did your father meet her in Romania? It's so unusual to hear of a Romani who isn't with her people.

KATE: Frankly, she's never told me the details. She keeps it hidden. She may even be an illegal alien. What I know is that her attitude was and continues to be fiercely independent. She was contracted to be married after first blood, about twelve or thirteen. She ran away. Somehow she managed to come to America, and crawled into the commune. She's never left. It has the same kind of community feeling that the Gypsies have, but is more conservative about the care of children. She married Dad when she was eighteen. I was born the next year.

aroslav: How old are you Kate?

KATE: Um ... Don't tell, okay?

aroslav: Just between us.

KATE: I just turned eighteen.

aroslav: ??? You are a sophomore in college this year. That would mean...

KATE: I wasn't quite seventeen when I started at PCAD. I never told anyone. I just tried to act like everybody else.

aroslav: Does that have anything to do with why you waited so long to ... uh ... be with your Triptych?

KATE: Especially Lissa. I didn't know if there were any statutory laws about being with a minor and I didn't want any of them to ever think they'd taken advantage of me because I wasn't as old as they are. But then I turned eighteen.

aroslav: Wow! What a smile!

KATE: I'm happy.

aroslav: How did you get into college so young.

KATE: All kids in the commune are home schooled. When the Moms decide they can't teach us any more, they send us to college or put us to work.

aroslav: The Moms?

KATE: Pretty much any girl over eighteen is considered a Mom, usually literally.

aroslav: So you are...

KATE: I'm not going back. I don't want to be a Mom.

aroslav: Maybe we'll come back to that. Let's talk about art.

KATE: Okay. I love to draw. All I ever wanted to do was be an artist. From the first time the Moms put one of my pictures on the refrigerator, that's all I wanted to do. I have a footlocker full of my drawings and six portfolios of paintings. I'll draw anything. I'll draw a picture of you right now if you want.

aroslav: That's okay. I'm a little pencil shy. What is your favorite subject?

KATE: To draw? Anything. I like people, but I also like to draw buildings, landscapes, still life ... anything. But what I really like is detail. Like, look at your desk.

aroslav: Okay. It's pretty messy.

KATE: Describe it.

aroslav: It has a printer, my computer tower and monitor, keyboard, mouse, cable modem, router, scanner, piles of papers, a few books, a stack of poker chips and a couple decks of cards, a box full of business cards, some pencils and pens, a ruler, thumb drives, checks...

KATE: You know what I'd draw? I'd draw the stack of poker chips. See how they aren't centered in a perfect stack? They're crooked. And look. There's one white one in the pile of red, three up from the bottom. You can see its reflection in the wood grain of your desk—on that little spot that's clear. I'd make a picture this big of just that little stack and the reflection.

aroslav: Let the record show that you held your hands about eighteen inches apart. Wow. If you were drawing me, what would you draw?

KATE: Your mustache.

aroslav: Got it.

KATE: No. Just the left side with your upper lip and just the edge of your lower lip with the one unclipped hair that curls over it.

aroslav: Let's get back to you, shall we? When did you realize you were bisexual?

KATE: ???

aroslav: Liked both boys and girls.

KATE: I know what it means. What makes you think that?

aroslav: Well, you are obviously attracted to Tony and to both Lissa and Melody.

KATE: That's different. I'm not really attracted to boys. Or to girls.

aroslav: But...

KATE: I'm attracted to Tony, Lissa, and Melody. They're wonderful. I'd do anything for them.

aroslav: Their sex is irrelevant?

KATE: I don't know how to say this. It just isn't important. I don't mean sex isn't important. I mean ... Oh crap ... Yesterday ... Oh my god.

aroslav: There's that smile again.

KATE: You know, there was a science fiction book years ago that I read when I was about twelve because I'd read everything in the commune by that time. It was probably my grandfather's. So this human woman goes traveling in space as an anthropologist or something and is put among a people who have kind-of foxlike fur and tails. Nice people and she falls in love once or twice and interspecies relations don't seem to be a problem. But at one point, she has to ask if the adolescent she's been traveling with is a boy or a girl. Her guide says "It hasn't decided yet." It was like the kids had to decide if they were going to be male or female. So cool!

So I figured, that's what I'd do. Someday, I'd just decide whether I was a boy or a girl and that would be that. Then these grew and shot that theory all to hell.

aroslav: For the record, you are holding your breasts.

KATE: Yeah. I got boobs. Doesn't feel nearly as good as when ... Oh. Okay. Boobs. That was fine. I started bleeding, too. So I was definitely female. But I grew up with all kinds of families. There were Dads that lived together, Moms and Dads that lived together, and Moms that lived together. And sometimes they switched around. So I figured someday I'd fall in love and that would be that. I didn't know if it would be female or male or billy goat. Everything else would work out.

aroslav: So with Tony and Lissa and Melody it isn't important what sex they are.

KATE: Why would it be?

aroslav: Well, then tell me about your first sexual experience.

KATE: You mean when Tony kissed me? Could we open a window? I'm awful hot.

aroslav: Yes. No. I mean, the first time you kissed a boy, or a girl.

KATE: That's what I was talking about.

aroslav: Tony was your first kiss?

KATE: Mmm.

aroslav: How did you discover you liked Melody and Lissa then?

KATE: I kind of fell for Melody and Lissa first—or maybe at the same time. That day that Tony painted the mural? I couldn't take my eyes off of what he was doing. You know—don't tell him, but—he doesn't paint detail all that well. There's always little stuff that's missing. Like there's a little scar on Lissa's right hand that he completely left out of the painting.

But ... When he painted them ... I was ... It was ... I was so overwhelmed with the love he had for them. Every stroke of his brush said he loved them. And I got caught in it. I watched him for hours and Doc Henredden never said a word to me. Sometimes he was standing beside me, just watching, too.

It dawned on me by the time he was finished that Lissa was looking at Tony with that same feeling. And when Tony turned around, I saw it in his eyes. I was ... It was ... I wished I knew who the other girl was ... because I didn't know it was Melody yet ... because I was in love with her, too. There was never a time when I loved one more than the other two.

Oh, listen to me. I'm talking about love ... as if I know anything about love. I just ... I want to be connected to them ... like I was with that painting. I wanted to be part of that picture. Like I was yesterday.

aroslav: Do you need a tissue?

KATE: Thanks.

[sigh]

I'm not a virgin any more. I wonder sometimes why I waited, but oh my ... it was worth the wait. I was so overwhelmed I passed out. I want to make love to each of them individually because when we are all together it is so intense that I short-circuit. Poof! I blew a fuse and everything went dark. I think I'm going to kidnap Melody tonight and hold her hostage in my room.

[giggles]

Do you know how beautiful she is down there? I want to paint her pussy. I mean paint a picture of her pussy. It is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen! Are all girls that beautiful? I couldn't really see Lissa when we ... when I ... you know. It was dark.

aroslav: Let's take a breather from such an intense subject. How did you like your first year at college? What were some of the high points?

KATE: Besides kissing Tony, Melody, and Lissa? I felt grown up. I was scared out of my mind most of the time, but I was determined that I'd find a way out of the commune and I wasn't going to end up a Mom. I went back for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was like I was visiting an alien world. Not like they are weird or anything. You know, until you are eighteen, there is a strict hands-off policy. No Mom or Dad will do more than give you a hug. But when I went back, I could see them looking at me. They were already trying to figure out who would be my husband. That's why I'm not going back. Now that I'm eighteen, I might not ever leave.

I told Mom. Actually, she started it. That's when I found out about how she was contracted for marriage at twelve. She said it was all right if that's what I wanted in life, but she'd help me escape—just like she did—if I wanted. I wanted.

College showed me possibilities, but just living in the city showed me even more. There is so much to do in the world. I love the Moms and Dads and the brothers and sisters in the commune, but they are so wrapped up in their little world that they don't think about the rest of the world. They live in paradise. I volunteer at the local food bank twice a month. I go to movies. I go to concerts. I have a job. I mean, I'm not rich. But I don't want to spend the rest of my life making candles and having babies and growing pot.

Ooops. I shouldn't have said that. It's not like they grow pot on the commune ... exactly. They're really careful about the laws, you know?

aroslav: Let's strike that from the record.

KATE: Thank you.

aroslav: So, would you say you have a social conscience?

KATE: I think I'm learning what that is. All I've figured out so far is that the world is bigger than me.

aroslav: That's more than many of us have figured out. You seem to be very sensitive to what other people are feeling. Can you tell me a little about that?

KATE: Mom used to say I was too sensitive. But if I wasn't that sensitive, my baby sister wouldn't be alive. I begged Mom to take her to a doctor right away. Her appendix burst on the way. They got her to the hospital just in time. I knew something was wrong. I didn't know what it was, but I knew it.

aroslav: Is that like your mother?

KATE: Mom is Mom. No one is like her. She could have told that Sunday was sick if she'd been looking at her cards. But she couldn't tell by looking at Sunday.

aroslav: Are you angry with her?

KATE: No! Mom is the most wonderful person in the world. She's funny and talented and psychic. I had my cards read by a woman in Pike Place Market in the Underground last year. Oh my gosh, she was so bad. It was like going to a movie and seeing a fortune teller. She spouted off all this rubbish and used the one thing she got right to validate her opinion on everything else. Mom is not like that. She doesn't read the cards, she reads people and just uses the cards to form the story. I love my mom and I'll keep going to see her as long as I can get Tony and Melody and Lissa to go with me.

aroslav: Other than paint, what's your favorite thing to do?

KATE: I love movies. And concerts. And the zoo. A concert and a movie at the zoo would be the perfect night. Especially if there was, like, sex afterward.

Oh, and I love the ferries. Almost every weekend, I go down and catch a ferry to Bainbridge or Kingston, or Bremerton. I tried Vashon Island once, but it's hard to get anywhere there without a car. It's miles to town. Oh, and I took the ferry to Victoria, BC once. They almost didn't let me back in the country because I didn't have a passport or a driver's license yet. I had my student ID and they finally agreed that I could come back. That's when I decided to get a driver's license. And now that I'm eighteen, I'm applying for a passport. I hope I get to use it to go somewhere sometime.

aroslav: What about the Seattle addiction to coffee? You like Lattes?

KATE: Only in the morning ... or when I haven't slept and have to stay awake for class. That's one of the things that I continue from the commune. I have about twenty different herbal teas in my room—one for every possible occasion. Got cramps? I got tea. Got a head cold? I got tea. Can't sleep? I got tea. I've got tea to help me remember things, tea to cure a cold, tea to boost my immune system, tea for a sore throat ... I don't have time in the day for coffee!

aroslav: Anything else you want to add?

KATE: Just ... I know I said I didn't want to be a Mom, but ... I only mean that I'm not ready to be wed, bedded, and pregnant. I like kids ... really. Like Lissa's boys. They are the best, most precious ... I just don't want to have babies right now. Not my own.

aroslav: I understand. Thank you for all the time and information you've given us, Kate.

KATE: You're welcome. I guess you're not so creepy after all.

aroslav: Thanks.

KATE: You're still old, though.



-------

Gypsy


Saturday, September 24 (After Chapter 15 of Triptych)

GYPSY: You're new at this, aren't you?

aroslav: Me? I do this...

GYPSY: Relax.

aroslav: I was going to ask you...

GYPSY: Your questions will be answered. Cut the cards.

aroslav: Okay. I wasn't intending to have a reading.

GYPSY: Yet you shuffled for five minutes. Are you afraid I stacked the deck?

aroslav: Can you do that?

GYPSY: Card.

[A card is turned]

Five of hearts. Proof positive that I can't stack the deck. It has nothing at all to do with your question.

aroslav: Except to prove your point. What would the card say under other circumstances?

GYPSY: If I were reading you? Why that you crave multiple relationships and believe you could keep them all in perfect balance. But, of course, you would have to stand on your head to do it.

aroslav:???

GYPSY: The card is upside down.

aroslav: Let's get to the first question.

GYPSY: Third.

aroslav: Name, age, and birthday?

GYPSY: Nine of diamonds. Have you noticed that the index in the bottom right corner is upside down? It looks like a six.

aroslav: Is that significant?

GYPSY: One question at a time. Reading from left to right, it would say 9/6, but read the other direction, it's my birthday—6/9. Age 37. My name is Vadoma Tshilaba Holsinger, nee Dzugi.

aroslav: Vadoma, tell me...

GYPSY: Call me Gypsy. You can't really pronounce my name correctly.

aroslav: You are more difficult than your daughter. I just wanted to know if there was a meaning to your names. They are Romani, are they not?

GYPSY: Eight of spades. You know a spade is a type of shovel? I dig. I dig for knowledge. Vadoma means to know and Tshilaba is a word meaning seeker of knowledge. I both know and seek further knowledge. Dzugi is an old Indian caste name for holy beggars or yogas. Many Romani surnames are from ancient Indian castes. In some traditions, those castes are jealously preserved.

aroslav: We've heard that you ran away from home when you were young and made your way to America. Let's start with why?

GYPSY: Three of diamonds. Personal questions often show me as a diamond. I'm sad to say it is often in the rough. When I was twelve, I was contracted for marriage to a man as old as my father. We were to be married two weeks after my first blood. I, of course, was already in love with a fair-haired boy of the Bodi caste. Hence the three. The day my first bleeding began, I left our encampment, lightly telling my mother I would gather flowers on the hillsides and be home for dinner. I went from the hillside to the valley to the mountain and by the time I was in the Czech Republic, there was a war that kept my clan pinned down where they were. I never looked back.

aroslav: But making your way all the way to America when you were ... was it twelve or thirteen?

GYPSY: Thirteen.

aroslav: ... when you were thirteen, alone, and without an adult seems amazing. How?

GYPSY: King of hearts. My lovely, precious king of hearts—though really, it was the whole family. Papa Aaron, Mama Peace, and their children, Davis and Darling. They were really David and Darlene, but I misunderstood the names with my limited English and their total lack of Romani. We communicated mostly through sign language and charades. I learned English as I traveled with them through Europe.

aroslav: They simply took you—an unaccompanied adolescent—with them as they toured Europe?

GYPSY: Nine of spades. We dig deeper and uncover little. They were latter-day hippies. They believed in ultimate freedom and the right of all people to live as they saw fit. They saw no difference between me at thirteen and their twelve-year-old son and fourteen-year-old daughter. They let us travel where we wished and we returned to their caravan at night. I was used to sleeping in a room full of people and traveling in a caravan. And while Aaron and Peace were liberal in their permissiveness, they were rigid in the division of generations. They would have let the three of us experiment with each other in any sexual activity we desired—though, truthfully, none of the three of us were that adventurous then—but they would never approach any of us sexually or allow another adult to approach us. I felt safe with them.

aroslav: How did they get you to America?

GYPSY: Ah. The deuce of clubs. I suppose that was what it took. Papa Aaron made phone calls from Paris. A friend—I never knew who it was—went to work for us. In two weeks, I had a genuine American passport and joined them on the return trip. The name on the passport was not mine, but the picture was. It was never used again after that trip.

aroslav: How did you find the commune and settle in Oregon?

GYPSY: Eight of diamonds. That was where Papa Aaron and Mama Peace lived with Davis and Darling when they weren't out traveling to see the world. That is where I met Papa Ken and Mama Iolana. Those people became the support structure that surrounded me. Six diamonds around me.

aroslav: I thought you were the diamond.

GYPSY: The center two. Me and that delightful, gawky boy Oke who stayed by my side but didn't say more than half a dozen words in the first two years I was there. By that time, Aaron, Peace, Davis, and Darling had taken off again. India I think. So I moved in with Ken and Iolana and Oke. From the moment I met him, there was never a doubt in my mind that I would marry Oke one day. That day was his eighteenth birthday. I was a few months older, but before he was nineteen, we had our little Katarina.

aroslav: Tell me about Kate.

GYPSY: Ace of hearts. That just about says it all. My firstborn. The instructor that showed me what real love was all about. Oh, of course Oke and I know real love. But there is nothing quite the same as the love a mother experiences with her child. She came out of my body. Do you know what a miracle that is? I held her to my breast and she took nourishment that I made inside myself. Not food that I grew and processed and cooked. I made it inside me! I imagined as she suckled at my breast that she was taking the food right from my heart into her little mouth. Little did I know that before she was more than toddling around the house I would be growing two more little ones inside me. They are special in themselves, but Katarina Mirela, my Lyubitshka, was my first.

aroslav: She seems very independent for a girl so young.

GYPSY: Did you know male cards can represent females? The king of spades. My daughter has a warrior's soul. She wants to conquer the world. And she will. But she is young and the king is an old soul. Eventually, her physical reality will catch up with her soul. That will be a day to celebrate.

aroslav: What do you predict for your daughter?

GYPSY: Three of hearts. Mmm.

aroslav: I've seen that card before.

GYPSY: I can only predict that my daughter will be part of a ménage a trois. To love and be loved. You know it is not that unusual. And I know how you love to write about them. For a lovely few years, when Davis and Darling had returned to the commune, Darling and I shared Oke and I loved her as much as anyone in the world. Of course, Darling and I shared Davis, too. I suspect Oke and Davis shared each other as well, but they never wanted to be together with Darling and me. I thought we would always be together, but Darling and Davis had grown up exploring the world, and there were laws that made living together in the United States difficult for them, even out here. The last time I spoke with them, they were on their way to Viet Nam where they planned to buy a house and help rebuild the country.

aroslav: Wait a minute. Kate's involved with three people, so it would be called a ménage a quatre. You're not suggesting that someone's going to leave, are you?

GYPSY: Hmm. I don't see that. They are very happy. This card clearly indicates involvement with two other hearts. Notice how the top heart points down but the other two point up. The card is reversed. The only trey that doesn't have a reverse is the diamond. That would suggest involvement with three others. The heart shows involvement with two others.

aroslav: How... ???

GYPSY: Ace of spades. Ah. Look at her! Proud. A sword in one hand and an olive branch in the other. Surrounded by stars. You know, I have two daughters. Oh my.

aroslav: Oh? Oh! Your readings aren't very specific, are they.

GYPSY: I don't think that was a question.

aroslav: I really wanted to know more about you. Can you tell me about your work with jewelry?

GYPSY: Ace of diamonds.

aroslav: You are the diamond. How appropriate.

GYPSY: And aces often represent the focus of a person's life. It's funny, though. I seldom work with stones. I work with metals.

aroslav: There is a beautiful painting above your mantel—one of Kate's, I think—that shows your hand working on a piece of metal.

GYPSY: Yes. The girl is very detail-oriented. She probably gets that from me. I like working the fine details of small pieces. I often buy the parts I don't want to make. I really don't like doing chains, for example. They are tedious and repetitive. So I buy the chain and craft the pendant or linkage. I work in symbolic images, often relying on Celtic, Eastern European, and Asian imagery. I do unique pieces for the most part, occasionally commissioned. I have a photo catalog of pieces I've done before and when someone orders one, I make it. The result, while like the photo, is unique. I don't manufacture on a production line.

aroslav: Can you show me an example?

GYPSY: You've seen one.

aroslav: I mean other than Kate's painting. I can't really see what you are working on in it.

GYPSY: You do know Tony, don't you?

aroslav: Of course. Wait...

GYPSY: The bracelet that he wears—a Celtic heart encompassed by a trefoil—was from one of my catalog pictures.

aroslav: Does he even know?

GYPSY: I doubt it—unless Katarina has told him. I'm sure she knows. The first piece of that design was what I was working on in her painting.

aroslav: There is such strong imagery about a threesome surrounding Tony. I worry about adding a fourth to his family unit. Does one need to supplant another in order for it to continue? With Tony and Lissa and Melody in a committed relationship, and having it symbolized by very "three-focused" jewelry, how does Kate fit in?

GYPSY: She did it with the Triptych. Are you asking me to do your work for you now?

aroslav: No. I just thought you might have some insight.

GYPSY: Ten of spades. Ten men stand in a circle, each with a shovel in his hand. They dig ten holes. As each removes a shovelful of dirt from his hole, he places it in the hole to his right. The holes never get any deeper.

aroslav: What does that mean?

GYPSY: I don't know. It is just a story that I like to tell.

aroslav: You like to tell stories.

GYPSY: Like you do. But sometimes the stories are not so far from the truth, n'est-ce pas? No matter how committed Tony, Lissa, and Melody are to each other, they've never really been just three. Think. There are already two children; that makes five. Katarina makes six, not four. And what of the others near them? Their future children?

aroslav: Future children?

GYPSY: Queen of diamonds.

aroslav: You?

GYPSY: Not this time. I'm past that. This is the pregnant queen. See how her belly is proudly displayed before her?

Don't panic. You have the same look in your eye as every man who just discovers that his wife is pregnant. It hasn't happened yet. You asked about the future. Someday, they will want to make their family larger. Their household may expand even further. The question is not whether it will change, but rather will you still be writing about it when it does?

aroslav: You are puzzling, Gypsy. Thank you for confusing my world, even further.

GYPSY: Don't worry. You'll get better with practice.



-------

Harold

Saturday, October 15 (After Chapter 19 of Triptych)

aroslav: Harold Anderson?

HAROLD: Yes. Please come in. I appreciate that you came to see me. I don't think I could have made it to Seattle. The trip to Minneapolis pretty much exhausted me.

aroslav: I hope your health is improving.

HAROLD: Not likely, but I still have some hope. So what is it you'd like to know?

aroslav: Well I usually start out with basics like name, age, and birthdate.

HAROLD: Okay. Well, my full name is Harold Joseph Anderson. Joseph was my father's name, but they chose not to make me be a junior. I was born on the Ides of March and I'm fifty-four years old.

aroslav: Why don't we start with a little of your history then. When I'm interviewing teens we go right to what they are doing today. They really don't have much history. But tell me first about your schooling and a little about how you got where you are today.

HAROLD: Sure. I always fancied myself an artist. I loved to draw and paint when I was a kid. So, of course, I investigated all the best art schools in the country. Pacific College of the Arts and Design was my first pick and Carnegie Mellon School of Arts was second. I was a dreamer. My grades in high school weren't the greatest and my portfolio wasn't extensive enough to be a good excuse. I had good technical drawing qualities, but was told that my art needed to show more development before I could be admitted to one of their programs. I think colleges in general were more selective then than they are today. At least I like to think so.

aroslav: Where did you end up?

HAROLD: That's a good way to phrase it. I ended right back where I started—here in Boston. My parents gave me a jolt back to reality when they told me there was no money to contribute to my education. Dad was disabled and they lived on a poor income from Social Security and piece work that Mother took in. So, if I wanted to go to college, I'd have to pay for it myself. I enrolled in Quincy College in a two year associate in arts degree program. I was able to live at home and commute, but in order to pay for the increasing costs of living independently, I took a job at a local advertising agency.

aroslav: How did that work out?

HAROLD: It turned out that I was better at selling agency services to advertisers than I was at art. I was only a teenager when I started there, but I was selling services successfully by the time I got my AA. Having an income was pretty amazing. I never transferred to a four-year college. I just kept working. I let the draw of having money and security overpower my dream of becoming an artist.

aroslav: Sad. Let's move to something that I hope was happier. Tell me about how you met Lexi.

HAROLD: Mmm. This story should probably be written down so Melody has it one day. She should know I wasn't always a stick in the mud.

aroslav: I'll do the writing. Tell me the story.

HAROLD: Alexandra was the boss's daughter. I first met her during the second summer I was working at the agency. She came in over the noon-hour each day to give the receptionist a break. It was her first summer job and she only worked about two hours each day. It was perfect for her. I always came back to the office over my lunch break as the advertising execs that I met were usually unavailable at that time unless you had the budget to treat them to a three martini lunch. I wasn't yet twenty-one, so I couldn't join them in their drinking. So I came into the office one day and there she was.

aroslav: Love at first sight?

HAROLD: Oh heavens no. More like a catfight about to start. I just walked through the front door and headed back toward my cubicle when I heard this voice ring out behind. "Excuse me, sir. May I help you?" I turned around and looked at her in disbelief. I'd never been challenged going to my own office, but then I noticed that Rose wasn't at the desk. "Who are you and where is Rose?" I demanded. "I'm Miss Locke and I'm filling in for Rose while she's at lunch. Who are you?" Well, I was a little taken aback. I just said, "I'm Harold Anderson. I work here." "Couriers are supposed to use the mailroom door," she snapped.

You can see where this is going, right? I had to explain that I was a sales associate and she doubted me because I looked too young. Not that she could talk. I think she was only sixteen at the time. I was four years older than she was. Apparently she checked me out with Rose and the next day I received a quite civil greeting of "Good afternoon, Mr. Anderson." I just nodded to her—after all she was just a teenaged receptionist substitute, but after I passed her desk I heard her mutter, "Still look like a courier."

aroslav: So I take it you didn't start dating right away.

HAROLD: Oh no. Her father would have killed me. We didn't have a truly civil conversation until two years later. I was invited to a celebration of her high school graduation—along with about two hundred other close friends and employees. There was a good deal of dancing at the party and I executed my obligation to have a dance with the graduate. I asked her what her plans were now that she was out of school and if she was going to college. "Oh no," she said. "I'll be taking over for Rose full-time now. She's decided to leave and have babies." She actually giggled at that. "Well, then, I suppose I shall have to see you more frequently," I said. "Yes. You might even need to take me to lunch occasionally. Just so I understand more about our customers," she mocked.

Well, as you can guess, we did go to lunch. In a few months, I plucked up the nerve to ask her out in the evening. Her father didn't object to me too much because I was raking in quite a pile of business for him. Three years later—after she turned twenty-one—we were married. Her father gave her the house in Lexington as a wedding gift. It had been his mother's home and he bought it from her when she moved to a retirement home. Note that I said he gave the house to her. In spite of being his son-in-law, we did not fully trust each other, even back then. I had to sign a pre-nuptial agreement regarding Alexandra's assets. Mass is not a community property state, so essentially what's mine is hers and what's hers is her own. It certainly doesn't make any difference now. She'll inherit everything by my will anyway.

aroslav: Did you eventually take over the business?

HAROLD: No. My father-in-law was right not to trust me. A few years later I got wind of two of my top clients considering a different agency. We'd always had a good relationship, but they were unhappy with some of the product they'd been getting lately. I talked to them quite frankly and they agreed not only to follow me if I jumped ship, but to put up part of the funding for a new business. I talked to Alexandra about it and she agreed, but refused to move with me. She said that if she stayed at her father's agency, it might mitigate some of the hard feelings that were bound to arise, but that after a suitable time, she would quit and come to work with me.

aroslav: When did that happen?

HAROLD: Well, it didn't, exactly. Before we got to that point, Alexandra quit to have babies. Or I should say, "baby." She had a difficult delivery that resulted in the inability to have more children after Melody was born. I was thirty-four years old and had a thriving business. My father-in-law's company didn't really suffer. It represented a minor blip in his agency revenues, but it was enough that he never forgave me. He made sure that I knew Alexandra was his sole heir and that his will specified that I would never have an interest in or any profit from his company.

aroslav: And you are still not speaking to each other?

HAROLD: I speak to him frequently—in spirit. He and Lexi's mother were on a flight from Boston to LA early one morning that only made it as far as New York.

aroslav: How terrible.

HAROLD: We all lost something that day. But, true to his word, Alexandra inherited her share of his business. Something that she has paid absolutely no attention to, but which the other partners continue to run quite successfully. Ironically, it is that very agency that recently purchased my company for a handsome sum. I doubt that Alexandra even knows she now owns the business that I created to compete with her father.

aroslav: Life is full of strange twists. Tell me about your relationship with Melody.

[Tears. Quiet, thoughtful tears.]

HAROLD: Sorry. I thought I was doing right. I really thought I was doing right. I gave her paints when she was only two years old. I taught her art and drawing and had her pictures on the refrigerator and in my office. The damned office kept me awfully busy, though, and I guess she suffered. I love my little girl. I just wanted the best for her. And of course, I know what's best, right? I'm her father. I pushed her to have the things I didn't have and couldn't afford. She wanted a nice fabric design business and I insisted she have a solid traditional arts education. I made sure she got into the school that I couldn't go to, even though it was on the other side of the country. Alexandra really didn't forgive me for that. I can't blame her. I haven't forgiven myself.

I admit that I responded poorly to her relationship with Tony and Lissa. I thought they might be taking advantage of her—distracting her from her studies. I was so afraid that she would end up like me. That in ten years she would wake up with a couple of kids, a couple of spouses, and a business that wouldn't let her be with any of them. I thought that, like me, she would wake up one morning and regret her life choices.

aroslav: What changed.

HAROLD: Well, I got sick, obviously. I was already sick when I found out about Tony and Lissa, but I was in that stage where I was determined to have my way. I would fight my illness my way. I would live my life my way. I would have my daughter behave my way.

Terminal illness—and I don't kid myself about the fact that I'm going to die—comes with a lot of counseling. Do you know that a dying person has to go through the same stages of grief that a survivor does? Anger, denial, bargaining, depression, acceptance. It's going to happen. And I guess that part of acceptance is reconciliation. I couldn't bear to die without making up with my daughter and her spouses. I just want so much for her to be happy.

[Tears. Silence.]

Alexandra and I had been growing apart for a while. I still love her, but we are different than we were. When Melody left the house, there was little to hold us together. When I found out I was sick, I decided to move out and fight it by myself. It would have been an unfair play on her sympathies to force her to care for a sick person. And ... I was afraid. I was afraid that when she found out I was sick, she'd leave me. I never intended to get a divorce. I thought a legal separation would be fine. We'd have our own lives and still be partners in caring for our daughter and I'd beat my cancer and we'd all be better people.

Prostate cancer. It's an old man's disease. So stupid to have it at my age that I wasn't even being tested for signs. They tried this treatment where they implanted radioactive seeds directly into the gland to shrink the cancer. What none of us realized at the time was that it had already metastasized. The prostate shrank, but I had the cancer in my bladder and bowel and testicles.

I found out in June that things weren't progressing the way we'd hoped. When I found out that Melody was moving back West with Tony and Lissa, I had to start saving what I had left. In August I sold the business. I went to Minneapolis in October to meet them there. I was so impressed with what I saw! Her fabric is beautiful. I wanted to do whatever I could to help them. They truly are a beautiful ... trio. No, it's not the life I would have chosen for my daughter, but it's the life she's chosen.

aroslav: But you still won't go back to Lexi.

HAROLD: Too late. She comes over three or four times a week, or we meet for dinner somewhere if I feel strong enough. I just tell her that I'm doing fine and turn the discussion to how our daughter is doing. She stopped the divorce proceedings. I've made sure her name is on my bank and stock accounts so there won't be any probate necessary.

aroslav: Anything I can do?

HAROLD: Write them a happy ending. I'm at peace, no matter where I end up.

aroslav:???

HAROLD: I'll know I'm in heaven if I can walk down the street and not have to stop and piss.



-------

Jack

Saturday, October 22 (After Chapter 21 of Triptych)

aroslav: Welcome, Jack. It's good to see you again.

JACK: Hey ya old goat. What's new?

aroslav: More of the same.

JACK: So you want to interview me for your story?

aroslav: Might have a bigger role for you someplace along the line. Do you mind?

JACK: Can't hurt.

aroslav: So, name, age, and birthday.

JACK: John Daniel Wade, also known as Jack. Born March 13, I'm 59 years old.

aroslav: How did Jack ever become a nickname for John?

JACK: I have no idea. [laughs] I guess John was just too long and they had to shorten it. In college, I tried to change it to my initials, J.D., but before I was a year out of school it was back to Jack.

aroslav: Well, that takes us back a ways, doesn't it? Tell me about college and the early years of Jack Wade.

JACK: That's ancient history. Let me see. I was an only child, named after my grandfather on my mother's side. Born in Angola, Indiana and lived there until I went to college. Didn't go far for that. I graduated from Notre Dame and can proudly claim to be one of the fighting Irish.

aroslav: You're Irish?

JACK: No. But I was raised Catholic and back in those days Notre Dame was the place to go. As far as I was concerned. And the image of Fighting Irish was pretty much wasted on me. I played some intramural basketball, but no varsity sports.

aroslav: What did you study?

JACK: I majored in marketing with a business finance minor. I was a dull boy even then.

aroslav: Not too dull, though. Didn't you meet Jane in college?

JACK: Not exactly in college. I met her at a ... uh ... charity auction. I bought her.

aroslav: That sounds a little kinky even for this story.

JACK: One of the fraternities held a charity auction. I don't even remember what it was supposed to support. They rounded up a lot of women, though, and guys on campus bid for the opportunity to take them on a date. There were hard and fast rules about acceptable behavior on the date, and even a list of acceptable activities. For some reason, she was auctioned late in the program and I had been outbid for every woman I bid on. I was determined not to let it happen with this one. She was a knock-out. Two inches taller than me and a professional runway model. We're talking the post-Twiggy era here, but models were still incredibly thin.

aroslav: How much did you pay?

JACK: $600. My opening bid was $500. The room kind of went quiet and Jane's eyes got huge. We were college students, after all. Some guy laughed and bid $510 just to see what I'd do. I bid $600 and everyone shut up.

aroslav: How to impress your date, huh?

JACK: The date was nice. We went to a local dinner club in South Bend with two other couples from the auction. We danced and I spent the night looking at her chin.

aroslav: Her chin?

JACK: I mentioned she was two inches taller than me. Well, in high-heels you had to add another three or four inches. She wrote home the next morning to tell her parents she'd fallen in love and knew it had to be love because I was shorter than she was.

aroslav: Did she continue modeling?

JACK: Yes. For quite some time. That's how I got into the business. After we'd been dating for a few months, she introduced me to her agency. Graduation was just around the corner for me and I was looking for a job. I hit it off with the owner of the talent agency and she suggested that I would be perfect. I worked for her for several years placing talent, models, actors, and singers. Jane joined me when she decided she'd had enough running around on stages and we opened our own modeling agency.

aroslav: I take it Jane was as beautiful as Lissa.

JACK: Let's say that Lissa came by her looks naturally. Her father, Damon, was Jane's brother and both of them were model quality. Damon never modeled. He was too busy doing engineering things. But Jane ruled the runway.

It was her idea to have Lissa model. That first gig was just a few months before Lissa's parents were killed. God! That just about killed us all. Alice, Lissa's mother, impressed on me in no uncertain terms that her daughter's safety and well-being was in my hands and she would personally hunt me down and eviscerate me if any harm came to her daughter. I have to tell you, I still think she would do that, even though she's been gone fifteen years now.

aroslav: You suffered a lot of loss around that time.

[sigh]

JACK: Jane and I never had children. It wasn't for lack of trying. We'd always doted on Lissa. When Alice and Damon were killed there was never a question about whether we would take Lissa into our home and our lives. The poor kid was twelve years old. But it was less than a year later that we found out Jane had cancer. It was so fast. We scarcely had time to say goodbye. And then there were Lissa and me. Her parents and aunt, my wife and in-laws were all gone.

But, having each other is what kept us going. I was a certified legal guardian and we just supported each other. Lissa said she wanted to do more modeling, so I went to work getting her jobs. In two years, we were on the road almost all the time and I had her tutored. She was seventeen when she got her GED. The friends she had in school growing up were a year behind her. And she was in demand. She had that look, you know? Stéphane Rolland loved her. That was before he started his private label. She was the only blonde model he would use.

aroslav: Jack, tell me honestly. Did you plan to marry Lissa? I mean, she was your ward.

JACK: I understand where your question is coming from, but it still pisses me off. No. I never intended to become involved with Lissa. Even now ... shit ... we've had children together and I still think of her as my little girl.

I recognized that she had a crush on me by the time she was sixteen. I'd read every parenting book I could get my hands on. I understood how girls became attached to fathers and father-figures. I recognized when she was flirting with me and I carefully channeled her affections in appropriate ways. We talked about how she was growing up and changing, and especially about the unrealistic world she was living in. There is nothing in any way normal about a model's life. You wouldn't believe how they are treated. They are manikins. Half the time they don't even know who it is that's stripping the clothes off their body, blotting away their sweat, touching up their makeup, dressing them, and pushing them back on stage. It's a brutal life and models develop a quirky image of themselves.

Let me tell you, there isn't a model alive that has a realistic self-image. They all think they need to lose weight, or have bigger tits or smaller tits, or be an inch taller. If a dress doesn't fit, it's the model's fault. If a designer's line isn't well-reviewed, it's because the model didn't show it well. It's cut-throat and back-stabbing. I worked full time to keep Lissa protected from that as much as possible. I praised her, but not just her looks. I talked about how well she'd worked a dress, how good she was with people, how clever she was when she deflected criticism, how smart she was to educate herself and get her GED when other models had simply quit school.

I listened to her when she had a crush on another model, and even when she had an affair with a young woman. And I kept deflecting her flirting.

I guess, in the long-run, that was my downfall—or the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me.

aroslav: The eighteenth birthday?

JACK: She already told you about this, didn't she? All those years, from when she was thirteen until she was eighteen, I'd been careful about booking adjoining rooms in every hotel we stayed in. I always left the door on my side open in case she needed something in an emergency. We actually practiced and drilled emergency procedures. What was an emergency? How do you respond? Where do you go? But in five years, the door had never been opened.

We were in Buenos Aires when she turned eighteen. I took her to Oviedo, unquestionably one of the best seafood restaurants in the world. At that time she wasn't eating any red meat because it was considered bad for her figure. That's a problem in Buenos Aires. It's pretty much the meat capital of the world. But fish is good. I bought wine but limited her intake. It's legal there at eighteen. We laughed and talked about the future, what shows were coming up and where we'd be in two months. She was the only client I was handling at that time and I never sent her anywhere that I didn't go.

That night, after I'd gone to sleep, the door between our rooms opened and Lissa came into my room for the first time. She didn't hesitate. She came straight to my bed and crawled in. I'm have strong principles, but ... Lissa...

aroslav: I think I understand. Were you surprised to find out you were going to become a father?

JACK: I almost had a heart attack! I'd just assumed that since Jane had never been able to conceive that I just didn't have the juice. I was fifty years old! But I wouldn't trade those boys for anything in the world. I quit working just so I could be with the boys.

aroslav: It seems that Lissa dumps them on you quite a lot.

JACK: I don't consider it that way. I share custody with Lissa because the boys should be with their mother, but I'd have them with me full time if it was just my choice.

And that's not to belittle what Tony and Melody mean to them. I was worried about what would happen when Lissa started dating. I knew she would. But I was always afraid of what kind of man would come into their lives. Or woman. Damon and Drew and Lissa and I all lucked out. Tony and Melody are young, but they are two of the most responsible young people I've ever met. And no, I'm not worried about leaving them with kids that are so young. Lissa was only nineteen when Damon was born. I can't really say that Tony and Melody are too young. They are great, and I feel more like a father to all three of them than like I'm sharing my children with an ex-wife and step-parents.

And I've got to tell you; the kids are crazy over the idea of having grandparents.

aroslav: Speaking of which, one of those grandparents is also an attractive woman near your own age. What do you think of Lexi?

JACK: Man, that's a tough one. Lexi is fun. I like her. But let's be realistic. She's got more on her plate than I can handle. She's called off the divorce, which means she's a married woman and her husband is very sick. Even if he dies, it's going to be a long time before Lexi is ready for a relationship. And who knows if I'll still be available.

aroslav: Do tell. Prospects?

JACK: Not seriously, but Lissa and I have been divorced two years now. I'm not a monk.

aroslav: Yeah. The divorce. Everyone wants to know about the divorce. How could you let a dish like Lissa go?

JACK: I love her. With all my heart and soul, I love Lissa Grant. She is the mother of my children—something I thought I would never have. She rescued me when I was devastated by Jane's death. How could I ever let her go?

I'll tell you. I'm thirty-two years older than Lissa. That's enough older that it starts to seem like a big gap. When a guy is under fifty, he can convince himself that he's still young and virile and can keep up with a teenager. Then there comes a time when he realizes she is still young and vibrant and he's ... getting old. I made a decision. I could hang onto my young wife until she realized that she married an old man. She would divorce me and I would be alone. Or I could ease out of her life just a little. Give her her freedom and keep our love alive. And maybe then, because I'm the father of her children, she would still be there when I'm old. She'll never leave me as her guardian. She'll never fully leave the father of her children. It was so selfish of me, I can't believe it. I didn't want to be old and alone, so I chose to be alone now. It was a hard choice, and I'm jealous of Tony. I love the guy, but I'm jealous of him all the same. I feel the same way about Melody. She has won Lissa's heart. And they are perfectly matched for each other. I'm fortunate now to be part of their lives because I'm a father figure and the two boys that all three of them dote on are my kids.

aroslav: What about Kate?

JACK: She's a strange bird. I think she's beautiful, loving, fun. But I really don't know how she fits. You know what, though? It's not my concern. They're young. They'll figure it all out.

aroslav: Jack, thanks for stopping by. Got any plans for what comes next?

JACK: I've been thinking I might write a novel.

[silence]

JACK: I'm kidding. You take yourself too seriously, old man.

aroslav: Let's get a drink Friday night. See you then.



-------

Wendy


Sunday, November 7 (After Chapter 25 of Triptych)

WENDY: [to security desk] This is Mr. aroslav. He's visiting me for an hour or so. He's writing an article.

[A bored hand is waved.]

WENDY: I've wanted to tell people about this for a long time. Thank you for visiting, Mr. aroslav.

aroslav: It's a pleasure, Wendy. But I have to say that I'm still pretty shocked.

[sigh]

WENDY: I know. Kate's the only one who knew before this morning. Now I guess everyone will know. Are you going to make me leave?

aroslav: Even when they surprise me, I try to let people set their own course. Why don't you start by telling me how old you are and when your birthday is.

WENDY: I'm twenty-one years old. My birthday is Cinco de Mayo, the fifth of May. I'm a senior at the University of Washington studying social sciences. I live in a tent.

aroslav: You say that with a degree of pride. What does living in a tent mean to you, Wendy?

WENDY: It means that I'm independent and responsible for myself.

aroslav: Aren't there other ways to show that? You have friends who would welcome you.

WENDY: I took advantage of my friends until I could move in here. First, I was with Kate during August and then when her roommate arrived for the start of school I was pretty lost. I went back to my ex-boyfriend after I'd spent four days sleeping in my car. Then I went to live with Tony and Lissa and Melody for a month. When Tent City moved here to the campus on September 30, I moved in, too.

aroslav: Tell me about life in Tent City.

WENDY: There are a hundred of us living in tents of various sizes here. There are a couple of dormitory tents, but I chose to use a tent I took when I left home two years ago. It's private—or as private as anything here is.

aroslav: So this is a two- or three-person dome tent, about seven feet on each side.

WENDY: It gives me just enough room to put my suitcase and backpack in and my sleeping pad. Oh. And my school books. I don't have a computer, but I have a thumbdrive I keep all my stuff on and use the computers in the library. I can't quite stand up in it, but I manage to get dressed okay.

aroslav: All your clothes are in your suitcase?

WENDY: You say 'all' like I have a lot of clothes. I pretty much have my work clothes for the restaurant, two pair of jeans, and four t-shirts. I have socks and underwear to get me through the week and two pair of shoes. I've got a couple of sweatshirts and a warm jacket.

aroslav: That's it? It doesn't sound like you have much selection in clothes.

WENDY: It makes it easier. I don't have to make a lot of choices.

aroslav: What's the hardest part about living here?

WENDY: Not having a bathroom. I love long hot showers and shampoo and conditioner. We have outdoor toilets here. We have two days a week when we can go into the school athletic pavilion and use the showers and facilities. Since I'm over at UW almost every day, I have access to student athletic facilities there and manage to get a shower almost every day. I carry my toothbrush with me all the time and take any opportunity with fresh water to brush my teeth. I don't always have toothpaste, but I can usually get salt—like at the restaurant.

aroslav: That sounds tough.

WENDY: I'm not done. Not having a bathroom is physically the most difficult part about living in a tent. I have an advantage over most everyone who lives here because I have access to clean toilets and showers that most of them don't have. But even if I had a bathroom, I'd have trouble making decisions. That wouldn't change even if I wasn't living here. I get overwhelmed with trying to choose what to wear, for example. In a way, that is the best thing about living here. I'm independent, but I don't have much choice. I mean, look at this 'room.' I wear one pair of jeans and three t-shirts during the week. And my underwear, most of the time. At the end of the week, I change to my other pair of jeans and remaining t-shirt and do laundry. That's all I have. There aren't any choices to make. I don't come home and try to decide what to watch on TV. I study what's been assigned that day and I sleep—or I go to work. At work, I do what people tell me to. I get the food they order on their table in a pleasant environment. I don't make decisions.

aroslav: Isn't it hard to live with no opportunity to choose something different?

WENDY: No. It's much harder to live having to decide everything all the time. I can't handle it.

aroslav: Tell me what brought you here, Wendy. Why don't you go home?

WENDY: I don't have a home to go to.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you. But you'll never really understand. My mother died when I was five. She was all that stood between my father and me. She killed herself. She killed herself and left me. He made life so unbearable that she killed herself, but she left me with him. What kind of a mother is that? Eventually, he found someone else to dominate. But that didn't stop him from making me a slave. She was happy for that. My stepmother considered herself safe if it was me he was abusing.

aroslav: Abuse?

WENDY: I was thirteen when he started fondling me. As soon as I had anything that could be called breasts. But he'd been hitting me for five years by then. Never where anyone could see the marks. I cooked and cleaned, but for some perverse reason he kept me in school. When I came home from school, I did the tasks he assigned me and then went to bed. I waited until he came into my room at night before I went to sleep.

aroslav: Did he abuse you sexually?

WENDY: He never came in me. In his mind, that meant he wasn't abusing me. He sent Eloise, my stepmother, with me when I was sixteen to start birth control. But he still didn't come in me. Not in my vagina. He came in my mouth and sometimes in my ass.

aroslav: Why didn't you leave?

WENDY: I did. He came after me. Twice. I got into UW when I was 18 and never let him know. He came to the dormitory to get me and take me back, but campus security chased him away. The last thing he said to me was that I wasn't worthy to be his slave and to never come back.

aroslav: But you were free!

WENDY: That's a loaded word. I was lost. The university was such a big place and there was no one there to help me. I sat in my room for a week before my roommate discovered I wasn't going to classes. She started telling me what to do and it grounded me. I went to class, did my homework, and then I did her homework and cleaned our room. If she didn't get an A in her class, she told me how stupid I was. But I didn't mind. I could live with her chastising me because she told me what to wear and what to eat and what time to go to bed. I had a clean room to live in and food.

aroslav: That sounds so much like a user to me.

WENDY: But I didn't know any other way to live. It was okay until I got to the end of my freshman year. Then I started to panic. I didn't know what I was going to do over the summer. She told me to get a job and the only thing I could think of was waiting on tables. I didn't have a place to live, so she got a friend of hers to let me stay with him in exchange for cooking and cleaning his apartment.

She was good to me. She made sure I was okay when she left for the summer.

aroslav: How long were you at that apartment?

WENDY: Two years. She told Rafe all about me and that all he had to do was tell me what to do. I don't think he took her seriously, but he'd go through the motions of setting up a schedule for me to cook and clean and told me what I needed to wear each day. Working was okay because I could buy the groceries in addition to cooking and cleaning. He told me I needed to buy a car and I saved tips until I got that old Corolla. He didn't take my money ... at first. He just told me what to do with it.

aroslav: Wait. Rafe is your ex-boyfriend, right?

WENDY: He never thought of himself as my boyfriend. He was my master. I had to tell people he was my boyfriend so they wouldn't ask questions. It took a while for Rafe to get a handle on his power. Once he realized how much I depended on him, he started taking advantage of the situation. He never really cared for me as a person, but he liked having power over someone. He even had other girlfriends, but he kept ordering me around. Within a year, I was in the same situation I was in with my father. Rafe ordered me to have sex with him and if I didn't please him he hit me. Then he realized it was as much fun to hit me as to fuck me.

I must sound like a sick person to you. I didn't know any other way to live. I even thought for a while that I was happy. He told me what to do and I served him. He didn't beat me too hard. He didn't lock me in my room. He didn't order me to do things with his friends—except his girlfriends. He told me what a good girl I was when I gave him dinner or had breakfast ready when he got up. And I could take being hit occasionally just to hear that.

aroslav: How did you ever manage to break free from him?

WENDY: I met a boy. He was kind and teased me like I was a normal person. And he had girlfriends. They were nice. They invited me to a party and everyone got naked and posed for a painting, but no one, like, made a pass at anyone. Everyone had fun and aside from being told how to stand for the pose the artists wanted, no one told me to do anything. I'd never been to a party before. I'd never really had friends before.

aroslav: You're talking about Tony.

WENDY: Tony and Lissa and Melody. And they introduced me to Kate. Kate was a lifesaver. I love Tony and Lissa and Melody, but Kate saved me. When I saw how things could be, I packed everything I owned, which wasn't much, into my car and left Rafe. I didn't tell him I was going. I just waited until he was out and moved all my stuff into my car and drove away. And then I was lost again. Kate inspired me, but I still didn't know what to do.

aroslav: Is that when you moved in with her?

WENDY: Yes. She told me I could live with her for the summer. She even managed to get me a keycard for her dormitory.

aroslav: Did Kate tell you what to do?

WENDY: Sometimes. When I got stuck. But we talked. We talked and talked and talked. I lived with her for two months and no one ever knew. I felt whole and happy and I had a friend. I had several friends. The rest of them just accepted me as a person, not as a servant. I still can't get used to it. When Kate's roommate for fall semester moved in, I had to leave and I didn't have any place to go. So I decided that I could handle Rafe now. I knew what was what and how I was supposed to act.

aroslav: You went back to him? That didn't work out, did it?

WENDY: As soon as I walked in the door, I knew it was a mistake. He tied me up for two days. He used a belt to beat me and then fucked me. He found the money I had hidden in my car and took it.

aroslav: How much was that?

WENDY: Nearly $3000. It was going to be what I used pay tuition with this fall. He took it. He left me untied one night and I stole my keys back and drove away. Tony invited me over the next day.

aroslav: You offered yourself to Tony.

WENDY: I was desperate. I couldn't imagine that he'd just let me live there without wanting anything in return. I just knew that I'd have to be his slave and Lissa's and Melody's, too. And they didn't let me. Tony was like Kate.

[tears]

Nobody ever just helped me before and didn't expect anything in return.

aroslav: Why didn't you just stay there?

WENDY: I'm so unworthy. It's not the thought of taking charity from them. I know some people who live here in Tent City feel that they aren't taking charity if they live in a tent. That's not why I came here. I came because I want to prove that I can be the kind of person that deserves their friendship and kindness. They need to see that I can survive on my own. I guess I need to see that, too.

aroslav: Wendy, I've never written about character like you. I don't even know where to start. You surprised the hell out of me.

WENDY: Do you want me to change? I will.

aroslav: No! I want you to be who you are, but I so want you to be happy. What do you want in life?

WENDY: I'm going to be a social worker. I'm going to help people get out of bad situations. I'm going to help the people who are in Tent City. I'm going to do all of that, but I don't know how to choose among the choices on a menu. Carma gives me a plate of food each night when I go to work. She always has an instruction or description with it. "This is what you tell people about the artichoke hearts." She never asks me what I want to eat. It's wonderful. My life is like that. If someone would just help me with the little things, I would do anything for them.

aroslav: Tony? Kate?

WENDY: I love them both. They are kind and caring. I've never loved anyone before. I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to do about it. But I know that if I want their love I have to be strong. They expect so much from each other. So do Melody and Lissa—don't get me wrong. I don't feel as strongly about them, but there isn't anything I wouldn't do for them.

A kind word and a gentle touch now and then is all I ask.

aroslav: Wendy, I'm so worried about you. I want all the best for my friends in this book.

WENDY: I don't love you like I love Tony or Kate. But I trust you. I'll do whatever you say.



-------

Whitney


Saturday, November 26 (After Chapter 28 of Triptych)

WHITNEY: Hey-ya! Knock-knock. You Dr. Aroslav?

aroslav: Some people call me that. Welcome, Whitney.

WHITNEY: Thanks. You really want to know about this little old Bayou girl?

aroslav: No. I'm not really interested. There seem to be some people who believe you'll be important to the story sometime. They want to know about you.

WHITNEY: Well, as long as it's not just you. What do you want me to tell you? Do you mind my Bayou accent? I can change if you prefer. I'm pretty good at Midwestern, like yours. If you want me to be foreign but still understandable, I can do Western Canada. Really, Eastern Canada isn't that different from the Bayou, at least among my folk. What do you prefer?

aroslav: Do you have a native accent that is really you?

WHITNEY: It's closest to the Bayou, but when I'm talking to people I tend to adopt the same accent they are using.

aroslav: Well, let's make that part of our conversation. First, though, let's deal with the vital statistics so the readers know a little more about you. Name, age, and birthday?

WHITNEY: Okay, boyo. Whitney Acadia Lambert. There's a t on the end of that. Down in the Bayou it gets left off a lot. I'm eighteen years old, born on April eleventh, Easter Sunday. Mama never forgave me for her missing church that morning, but said she'd pretty much given up everything for Lent anyway.

aroslav: Religious family?

WHITNEY: Catholic's a religion? I thought it was our nationality.

aroslav: I can see your confusion. Have a passport?

WHITNEY: First time I tried to board an airplane I found out my baptism certificate wasn't considered identification. I went out and got a driver's license—even though nobody else in school had one—and a passport. Quite the day when that arrived. I swear we roasted a pig to celebrate and everybody in the neighborhood came by to see that silly little book.

aroslav: Whitney, are you pulling my leg?

WHITNEY: Not yet. Gimme time.

aroslav: So how did a good Catholic girl like you get from the Bayou to Seattle.

WHITNEY: Oh, you got it all wrong, Dr. Aroslav. I'm not a good Catholic girl. I'm a very bad Catholic girl. You should send me to your room. I mean my room. Riiiiight?

aroslav: Begs the point. What got you to Seattle?

WHITNEY: I take it you mean besides Air Atlantis or whatever they call that airline. I swear they've made more water landings than they hit the tarmac. Well, first of all, there's a good, liberal Catholic school called Seattle Cascades University.

aroslav: Wait, wait, wait, wait! I didn't know SCU was Catholic.

WHITNEY: Well, you wouldn't know it to look at it. It might be a little school when you compare it to Notre Dame or Villanova, but it's still Catholic and it has a good education reputation. See, SCU was founded a century ago by Jesuits, but they are a pretty secular lot when it comes to education and even though the grounds are technically owned by the Catholic Diocese, there isn't really much interplay between the church and the college. Things like the Social Services Committee still have a strong connection, but even they are independently run and funded. It was enough to satisfy ma Mère and Pop that I wasn't going to a den of heathens. Little did they know they were sending the heathen into the den.

aroslav: Tell me about what you are studying. Linguistics, is it?

WHITNEY: Linguistics it is. And don't go trying to hide your accent. I know exactly what part of Indiana you grew up in.

aroslav: That was a long time ago.

WHITNEY: Traces still remain. I'm no Henry Higgins, but I'm pretty good at American dialects until you get into that whole New Jersey/New York mishmash. I am not going to try to pinpoint what block of what neighborhood a person is from based on how badly he slurs his vowels.

aroslav: How on earth did you get into linguistics living in the Bayou?

WHITNEY: Shortwave radio. I loved to listen to music, but the radio station near where we lived only played zydeco. Don't get me wrong. I like my Creole, Cajun, and Louisiana Zydeco music. We didn't have much in the way of instruments out there, so when we got together a fiddle, washboard, and washtub bass was about all folks could make music on. But I once heard an opera recording in school and realized there was other music. I begged and pleaded until Pop finally spent thirty-five dollars for a five-band transistor radio that I listened to every night. AM was pretty worthless, and we were pretty far from most of the FM stations except the local and one that broadcast strong enough from Houston. The weather band only had one station I could find and it didn't help us avoid Katrina or Rita.

Now, I know you all think Katrina was the worst storm in history because, frankly God hates nawlins. But he'd always been kind to the southwest Louisiana Bayou until Rita came crashing in a month later.

aroslav: nawlins?

WHITNEY: [big grimace] New Or Leans to you all. Anyhoo. We all'da stuck it out if it was just Katrina, but most of the folk who ran north from Katrina hadn't come back yet when Rita wiped out pretty much everything. They say the surge was twelve feet high. Of course, we were hiding out up in Shreveport with Aunt Adelaide and when we came back, there wasn't much left. Pop is a stubborn old mule, though and the four of us, Pop, ma Mère, Stevie—my little brother—and me, lived in a tent for two months while Pop built a cabin on the old foundation.

Now where was I?

aroslav: Uh ... shortwave radio.

WHITNEY: So the other two bands were shortwave. So I became a shortwave DXer. I crept up and the shortwave band listening for any signal and trying to stay tuned in and understand what they were saying until I got a call sign and location. Then I'd creep up to the next. Course, everybody gets Quito, Ecuador, the BBC, and Grand Old Opry. But I kept studying exactly how folks talked in the different parts of the world and then the different parts of the country. I discovered I could identify regions by different inflections.

When my English teacher figured out what I was doing he got a whole set of English dialect CDs. Don't ask me where he managed to locate them, but the Feds were giving us money for just about anything and he didn't have any problem figuring those language CDs into the new school budget. I suppose Lougenia's little boy who's, oh, six now probably doesn't have crayons in first grade because I had those damn CDs.

aroslav: It strikes me that you taught yourself a lot.

WHITNEY: Oh I had teachers, too, but none of them were linguists. They taught me math and science and English grammar. I liked literature and music, too. I was valedictorian of my class.

aroslav: Impressive.

WHITNEY: Woulda been if there'd been anybody else in the class. Only other one my year was Armand and he can barely write his name.

aroslav: Only other one in your year?

WHITNEY: Well, see when Rita shit on us, they got plenty of money to build a new school, but hardly anybody came back to the area. The closest school in the district was over forty miles away, though, so those of us who came back all went to our pretty new school. All sixty-five of us. That's preschool through twelfth grade.

aroslav: Sounds like it was really tough.

WHITNEY: Are you kidding? No. It was like having private tutors who would teach me anything I wanted to know. I learned French, calculus, comparative literature, sex, and biology.

aroslav: ???

WHITNEY: Everybody wants to know. I wanted to know. Hell, you don't live in a one-room cabin with horny parents and not learn something was going on. As soon as Clovis Dagobert started teaching me human physiology in health, I wanted to know how everything worked. He was kind enough to teach me, and teach me how to be protected and not end up pregnant on the beach with no place to call home. Once I'd learned everything I could from Clovis, I taught Armand, but he was kinda clingy and had a sweet spot for a little girl two years behind us. I just hope he remembered all I taught him.

aroslav: You were how old?

WHITNEY: I guess fourteen. Clovis made sure there was a good supply of condoms in the Health classroom and he never counted to see if any were missing.

aroslav: Why'd you set your sights on Tony when you got up here?

WHITNEY: I'm smart, pretty, and fast. I've never been denied anything or anyone I really wanted. You know, Tony thinks he's an art geek, but he's pretty much a hunk with the humility of a social pariah. I figured that out the first night I met him. Of course, I didn't know about all the eye-candy he lived with at the time. He just had the look of a nice guy who was great in bed. Then that little dumpling Rio came along and acted as if he was tied up to her and that just got my little competitive genes all in a bunch. I knew I could have him if I wanted and if she wanted him, I did. Then I found out neither of us could have him and it just made it a bigger challenge.

aroslav: You seem to get along fine with Rio, though.

WHITNEY: Hell, yes. You see us on campus and you'd think we were Mutt and Jeff, but she's got just as big a competitive streak in her as I have. And she's a smart cookie. I just figured out a better way to get to him than she has.

aroslav: Speaking of physical appearance, you are pretty tall.

WHITNEY: Six-one and weigh one-twenty. Rio's like five foot even and weighs one-forty. You get what I mean. So, being tall and skinny, there aren't that many guys who will look me right in the eye from any height. I tend to be intimidating. So I take special care of my looks. My hair is dark brown—I mean really dark brown. My eyes are as dark brown as my hair. My skin is darker than these northerners. I keep my hair short so it isn't in the way while I'm running, but not so short that I get confused for a boy. When you've got itty-bitty titties like me, that's always a danger. So I wear makeup, usually wear some blouse or tight pants that let people know I'm a girl, and always have my nails done.

Now that was a surprise, let me tell you. Little Rio spent a year doing cosmetology before she came to SCU to earn money for school. She offered to do my nails for me—well, and everybody else in the dorm! And she's good. Look at these little swirls she did. Aren't they cute?

aroslav: Yes. Very nice.

WHITNEY: I can't wear fuck-me boots because I'd just be too tall. So I wear fuck-me nails. Most guys get the message.

aroslav: Something that really says you're a fast girl.

WHITNEY: I'm fast. I know you're thinking in the old fashioned sense that I go from handshake to bed in an instant. That's not necessarily true. But I'm fast on the ground. That's the real reason I came to SCU.

aroslav: Wait. What? I thought you came here for the linguistics program.

WHITNEY: That's important, but I needed two things in a school and linguistics was only one. I needed someplace that would prep me and support me for Olympic trials. I don't have that much time.

aroslav: What are you going to try for in the Olympics?

WHITNEY: I am the Louisiana State high school champion in the one hundred and two hundred meter hurdles and hold the state record in Louisiana in the long jump. Hundred-meter is my main event, but I needed a school that was serious about training athletes that are individual competitors.

aroslav: And you found that here at SCU?

WHITNEY: This school has a great athletic program for individuals. They've got a dynamite track coach and a reputation for putting together custom athletic programs. They are a Division III NCAA school which puts them in a position of shuttling athletes to a lot of amateur non-collegiate sport events. Look at Tony's program. They gave him a scholarship for playing racquetball. That's a club sport.

aroslav: And do you have a track scholarship.

WHITNEY: Partly. I got a full-ride academic scholarship. Track covers my living expenses.

aroslav: So what's in the future for Whitney?

WHITNEY: I'm going to learn to play racquetball. Speed and agility. Great off-season training. Come January, I'll be spending more time on the track. I've got a deal to work at the field house over at the UW campus with my coach. We'll work on hurdle form and speed there. All the rest of the training we can do in our own facilities. I still don't know if I can pump my legs up for long jump at world competition levels, but I know I can get the hundred down. We're dealing with hundredths of a second in hurdles. I've got to gain a meter in long jump in order to compete.

aroslav: Whitney, you mentioned that you found a better way to get to Tony. Care to elaborate?

WHITNEY: You know one of his girlfriends is almost six feet tall? And stacked. And hard-core athletic? Looking at Lissa gets my juices flowing. I had plenty of experience with girls back in Louisiana. With so few of us, we fell back on whatever we could find. You heard about the nuns who were building a convent? They couldn't find studs but they had lots of tongue-in-groove. I figure if I can have fun with Lissa, Tony will join in and I'll get both. I have a feeling she isn't as single-minded as he is.

aroslav: What can I do for Whitney?

WHITNEY: I'm pretty quick on the trigger in any sexual circumstance. I'll come before Tony gets to my pussy. But I'll tell you what; you hang an Olympic gold medal around my neck and the next county'll hear me come.

aroslav: Well, that's inspiring. Thanks for stopping by to chat, Whitney.

WHITNEY: Hey, Dr. A. Talk is cheap.



-------

Sandra


Monday, December 5 (After Chapter 30 of Triptych)

[Knocking]

aroslav: Come in.

[Knocking]

aroslav: Come in!

[Knocking]

aroslav: God damn it. [opens door] Come in.

SANDRA: Oh! Hi! I wasn't sure you were there. I couldn't hear anything.

aroslav: That could be because you never stopped knocking.

SANDRA: How else would I ... Oh.

aroslav: How can I help you?

SANDRA: Um ... Tony said to stop by. I know I'm not around much, but I thought I'd see if I could contribute.

aroslav: And you are?

SANDRA: I'm Sandra. Sandra Helen Wells. You don't know me?

aroslav: Wow! You're so little! I didn't recognize you.

SANDRA: You mean I'm not fat.

aroslav: Not that. I never thought of you as fat. You're just shorter than I thought.

SANDRA: Five feet even. Sixty inches. 152.4 centimeters.

aroslav: You do know how tall you are.

SANDRA: 127 pounds. Fifty-seven kilos. Nine stone and one pound.

aroslav: You're very body-conscious, aren't you, Sandra?

SANDRA: Is that another way of saying zaftig?

aroslav: No. It's another way of saying you're quite beautiful.

SANDRA: In my own way.

aroslav: In any way. You are really quite small, you know?

SANDRA: Have we finished analyzing my body now? Can we do the interview?

aroslav: Interviews are questions that you answer.

SANDRA: So ask.

aroslav: How old are you and when's your birthday?

SANDRA: A lady gets no respect. I'm nineteen years old. My birthday is May 18. I'm a Taurus. I have green eyes and strawberry blonde hair. Do I really need to give my bra size?

aroslav: No. Let the readers imagine that. They wouldn't believe me anyway. Where are you from, Sandra?

SANDRA: Yakima. Born and raised there.

aroslav: Where is Yakima?

SANDRA: About seventy-five miles east and a little north of Mount St. Helens.

aroslav: That's an unusual landmark to reference.

SANDRA: It's my namesake. On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted. Mom said that I sort of erupted when I was born. That's how I got my middle name.

aroslav: What an interesting way to describe a birth.

SANDRA: Yeah. Well, I didn't wait for them to get to the hospital. Mom was home alone when she went into labor. She called dad at work to come and take her to the hospital. Dad got home in time to catch me as I popped out. So, I guess it was a bit of a volcanic event.

aroslav: It apparently didn't discourage them from having any more.

SANDRA: Well it did for a couple of years, I guess. I know what you're thinking. I was the first of six, but there's almost four years between me and my little brother. The rest were all born in the next four years. Oh, there's one set of twins.

aroslav: So what is the split, names, brothers, sisters, ages.

SANDRA: Kyle just turned sixteen and has his license finally. That means I won't have to go back and be chauffeur this coming summer. Susan is fifteen. Traci and Kevin are the twins and are thirteen. Liz is twelve. Counting me, that makes four girls and two boys. We were pretty lucky when we chose our parents.

aroslav: How's that?

SANDRA: The kids' best friends live next door to us. They were born at about the same times as my sibs. But their parents had a thing for alliteration. They all have names that start with L. Lorna, Lena, Lana, Leslie, and Lou. The four older are girls and a lot of people just assumed that poor Lou was a girl too. But he and Liz are great friends. Might know that the only pair among them are the one in our family whose name starts with L. Sort of.

aroslav: What kind of work does your dad do way out in Yakima?

SANDRA: He's an oenologist. A vintner. A winemaker. We produce some of the finest wines in the State of Washington. Not that I'm an authority on wine, mind you. Though, I guess I've had more of it than most kids my age.

aroslav: Well, tell me about school and what your goals are.

SANDRA: I'm a sophomore at PCAD studying illustration and graphic arts. I love figure drawing, but I'm especially good at technical drawing.

aroslav: What do you draw?

SANDRA: I picked up a part-time job working for an intellectual properties attorney doing drawings for patent applications. It's pretty cool, but I can't talk about anything I draw because of non-disclosure agreements. Let's just say I've been doing a lot of work for a couple of high tech firms lately.

aroslav: Sounds exciting. That also sounds like a real coup for you to pull off as a sophomore.

SANDRA: It's Tony's fault. Most things are, I've found. Anything good or bad happens, blame it on Tony. Like my boyfriend. But anyway, one of the lawyers scouts the college each year for potential interns, which is a Latin word that means cheap labor. She saw the Rhapsody Suite at the gala and then followed my name out to see some of my drawings. They contacted me this fall to see if I'd be interested in trying my hand at patent illustration.

aroslav: Sounds like fun.

SANDRA: No it doesn't. Don't lie to me.

aroslav: Okay. It sounds like you like it.

SANDRA: Yeah. I like all things art. I love Tony's and Kate's paintings, Melody's fabrics, and even Amy's advertising stuff. But there's something about looking at a new invention, or even just listening to it being described, and figuring out how to illustrate it. You know inventions today aren't always physical things, but nearly every patent application still requires a drawing. So, I might have to figure out the flow of a new business process, or how an automated updater for computer software looks. That's one of the reasons I'm looking forward to Doc Henredden's class next year. From what Tony and Kate tell me, he has a way of getting you to draw things that don't fit in our physical reality.

aroslav: Speaking of physical realities, tell me about your boyfriend.

[Wiggles]

SANDRA: Ooo. I owe that one to Tony, too. Let's see. Last spring, Tony got the word that he'd be going to SCU as well as PCAD. After he did so well at the National Intercollegiate Championships, they had a party in his honor at Bree's house. We had tons of fun. And I met Walt. I didn't expect anything to come of it, but it was the first time a boy actually singled me out and started talking to me. We exchanged phone numbers and just after school was out, but before I headed back to Yakima, he called and asked me out.

aroslav: I take it you didn't have much experience with boys.

SANDRA: Like none. I mean, first off I'm short and that makes me look fat, even though I'm not. I'm pretty solid. But being an artist and having a huge family that I helped Mom take care of, I just didn't fit with most of the kids at school.

aroslav: I can understand how taking care of five younger sibs could put crimp in your lifestyle.

SANDRA: Ten. Since I was taking care of kids, it seemed to make sense to take care of all the "L" kids, too. Not alone. I don't mean to make it sound like I got home from school and just got saddled with ten kids. Mom and Mrs. L were there, too, but geez! I mean I had classes at school that were smaller than that.

aroslav: So tell me more about you and Walt.

SANDRA: Well, we had one date before I had to go over the mountains and back to the brood. Walt lives on the east side of the mountains as well, in Ellensburg. He was a perfect gentleman. I mean if you watch him on the football field you'd think he was mean and aggressive, but he's really just a big Teddy bear. And it turns out that he wasn't all that experienced with girls, either. His parents aren't very well off. His dad works as a ranch hand and his mom cleans houses. He's the middle of three boys. He worked hard in school and played football. That paid off and SCU offered him a scholarship. But like me, he goes home in the summer and works to contribute to his family.

aroslav: But he was a star football player. Didn't he get a lot of attention from girls in high school?

SANDRA: In his words, "Nobody pays attention to linemen." I guess he was pretty lonely.

aroslav: What position does he play?

SANDRA: Deodorant. You know, right guard. And I guess he uses it, too. He always smells ... ooo ... so good. I could eat him up.

aroslav: Did you see each other over the summer?

SANDRA: Only twice. He came down, met my family, and we went out to dinner. It wasn't fancy, but we went to Mel's and it's open all night. We kind of took advantage of that and every time Walt's plate was empty for a few minutes and the waitress came over to give us the check, he'd order something else. That guy can really pack away the food. The waitress actually asked him if he could pay for everything. She made him give her a cash deposit! We were there long enough that I ate two meals, myself—late dinner and early breakfast. We talked for hours. And all the time I kept thinking, "I'm on a date!"

So, just before it was time to go back to school in August, he asked me out again and we just went to a movie and then sat in his car and talked for a couple of hours again.

aroslav: Talked?

SANDRA: Dirty old man. Yeah. Talked. When the evening was over and he walked me to my door, we kissed for the first time. Oh man, did we kiss! There was no doubt in either of our minds that when we got back to Seattle, we were going with each other.

aroslav: Tony made a big deal out of kissing. Tell me about it. Were you really that clueless?

SANDRA: Clueless is a good way to describe it. What could I possibly know? I saw some movies and the kisses were always kind of wide open mouths with tongues battling like light sabers. Zsching! Zxschip! The first time I really had an opportunity to try it out was with Tony. I had the hots for Tony from the first time I met him and was ready to do battle with Melody and Amy over him. Then I found out Amy was hoping I'd get Tony so she could have Melody. Let me tell you, though, when Melody decided she was going after Tony, there was no stopping that girl. I actually shoved my nipple in his mouth and he was all, "I won't cheat on Melody," about it.

aroslav: That took guts.

SANDRA: You have no idea. I was never so relieved to be rejected in my life. I don't know what I would have done if he'd ... I'm just glad he and Melody kept a good sense of humor about it and didn't hate me.

aroslav: And then the kiss.

SANDRA: Yeah. It wasn't the kiss before the party, or the kissing contest. It was the night of the gala when Tony and Melody took us home in the limo. We were all saying goodnight and pretty much, goodbye. And I went to kiss Tony and he closed my mouth and said, "It's all about the lips." And then he kissed me so sweetly, I think I might have come. Either then or when Melody moved in to take his place. I dreamed about that kiss right up to the moment Walt kissed me at the door in August.

aroslav: Does he really say, "Thank you, Tony?"

SANDRA: Yeah. He really does, but it's a joke. I told him the whole story before we had that first kiss.

aroslav: So now you're lovers.

SANDRA: Um ... not exactly. I mean, we do a lot of ... um ... necking. And petting. And stuff. But we haven't actually ... you know.

aroslav: You're a virgin?

SANDRA: Uncharted territory. For a while yet. Not long, though. Walt's got a plan for Christmas and I can't wait to open my present. Or for him to open his. I'm in love.

aroslav: Big plans for after that?

SANDRA: Let's just say that if we're still feeling this way, we don't plan to go back east of the mountains this summer.

aroslav: Well Sandra, I hope everything works out for you. And for Walt. You're nice kids. I'm looking forward to seeing more of you.

SANDRA: I'm sure Tony's got something in mind that will get us out of our clothes. He's so good at that!

aroslav: Thanks for stopping by, Sandra.

SANDRA: You're welcome. 'Bye!



-------

Clarice


Monday, December 22 (After Chapter 33 of Triptych)

[Phone Ringing]

CLARICE: Tony Ames' phone. Clarice Bortelli speaking.

aroslav: Clarice? How is Tony doing?

CLARICE: Who's calling, please.

aroslav: Sorry. It's aroslav.

CLARICE: Aroslav? Oh. Yes. You are on Tony's list.

aroslav: Is that good or bad?

CLARICE: Just means he said you might call.

aroslav: I'm just checking in. The past week has been pretty chaotic.

CLARICE: You're telling me.

aroslav: Why are you answering Tony's phone?

CLARICE: It's what agents do. Sometimes I wonder.

aroslav: Is he doing okay?

CLARICE: He and his crew have gone home for the holiday.

aroslav: Wendy?

CLARICE: She's with him.

aroslav: That's a relief. I worry about those kids.

CLARICE: Tell me. Can I get Tony a message for you?

aroslav: No. That's okay. Maybe if you have a few minutes we could chat, though. I'm trying to talk to all Tony's friends.

CLARICE: You're going to include me in that?

aroslav: Aren't you one of his friends?

CLARICE: Hmm. I hadn't thought of it that way, but since I haven't made much of any money off our relationship, I suppose I qualify as just a friend working her tail off to protect him and make him successful.

aroslav: What are friends for.

CLARICE: [laughs] Sure. What can I tell you?

aroslav: What's your real name?

CLARICE: Shit. Okay. Emily Dotson. Alias Clarice Bortelli, Bortelli Agency.

aroslav: That sounds like a story in itself. Why the alias?

CLARICE: Foolishness of youth. I started as an actors' agent when I was in my 20s. No one wanted to talk to Emily Dotson. I did some research and two of the top agents had Italian names, so I set up an alias. It worked. I started placing my clients pretty quickly.

aroslav: How did you get from actors' agent to artists' agent?

CLARICE: How does anything like this get started? It was mostly accidental. In fact, I'm not primarily known as an artists' agent. Mostly people think of my dancers.

aroslav: Dancers?

CLARICE: Ballet. Back in the late eighties there was a big influx of European and Russian dancers who wanted to dance in the U.S. You remember. The Berlin Wall came down. Gorbachev's détente gave way to Yeltsin's democracy. I was in the right place at the right time to land a Russian principal and a dozen dancers followed her. Suddenly I was negotiating contracts for ballet dancers all around the U.S. and in Europe. Everyone was desperate to have a Russian or French or Spanish dancer as a guest performer. It was a heady time. They'd come to me because of my Italian-sounding name.

aroslav: That's pretty wild. Do you still work with dancers?

CLARICE: Oh yes. But now my work is mostly once-a-year or even two years. Most of the dancers who wanted to stay in the United States have settled with companies like Northwest Ballet. I meet with them to negotiate their contracts or if there is a problem and the rest is pretty much worry-free. There aren't that many guest performers these days. A few, but not that many.

aroslav: Wait. I've heard you mention a dancer in Spain who is his agent's pet. Did you know them personally?

CLARICE: Not a very happy time. Brandon Michaels was one of my clients and I placed him with Corella Ballet, Castilla y Leon. They are in Barcelona now. He was young and impressionable, but a remarkable dancer. And a little weird. He met Dona Caliente after one of his performances and the next thing I knew I had a voided contract on my desk and Brandon was sleeping at the foot of Dona's bed. Not a happy time at all.

aroslav: So you expanded into art?

CLARICE: That was a bit of an accident, too. Who thought of artists as needing an agent? I was doing a lot of work in Europe at the time. That's where I first met Jack Wade and Lissa Grant. A friend in Paris pointed me toward an artist who wanted to arrange and exhibition in New York. I knew a few people on the art scene, so I agreed to make some contacts for him. He became very big after his first show. A very big flash in the pan.

aroslav: What happened?

CLARICE: The bastard quit painting. He had a good collection before he came to the U.S. and did a number of signed lithograph limited editions of his work. Money started rolling in and he bought a condo in the Virgin Islands and hasn't been heard from since. Stupid waste. He was very talented.

aroslav: It sounds like you've had a lot of clients who kind of started out strong and then faded.

CLARICE: Well, in one way, that's the nature of the business. I do have a few clients who have been with me for several years, but actors, dancers, artists, models and so on often wear out. Look at Lissa Grant. Jack represented her from the time she was twelve until she was nineteen. Then she was pregnant and out of the modeling scene. Done. We're constantly looking for new talent. It's what agents do.

aroslav: That brings me to a question I've been wondering about. You've been around a while, right?

CLARICE: Is that supposed to be a subtle way of asking how old I am? The answer is 'younger than you!'

aroslav: Yes, and I deserved that. Thank you. What I was actually wondering, though was how things have changed. You've been in this business since your mid-twenties. You've gone from actors to dancers to artists. I noticed on your site that you are representing a couple of authors as well. But now you don't seem to be traveling as much. You're in Seattle most of the time.

CLARICE: It's the advent of the computer age. Aside from the fact that I like most of the people I represent, I could do my job from anywhere in the world. I negotiate over the phone and by email. I receive a contract from a company, studio, or publisher, go over it to make sure my client is well-represented, and then send the client the contract with instructions to sign it. Occasionally, I have to make sure my client is fulfilling his side of the agreement or I have to hit up a slow-paying studio, but most of that is done over the Internet now, too.

aroslav: So, that brings me back to the beginning of this conversation. Why are you answering Tony's phone?

CLARICE: I don't usually have clients who become heroes overnight and are credited with saving a hundred people's lives. Well, ninety-seven, damn it! Most of my clients just dance or exhibit their art. Tony is a very special case. Since he hasn't actually had an exhibit yet, the publicity, no matter how positive, could be just as damaging as it is helpful. He and Kate are young and about to plunge into a world that is bigger than either of them has ever known. Once their first exhibition takes place, frankly it will be hard to keep them in school. The pressure to produce is going to be incredible. I'll need to arrange a showing at least every six months and to do that I'll need new artwork to show.

It's sad. I'm going to rob them of the rest of their youth. Not me specifically. They came to me for representation. But the demands this will place on them are bigger than anything they could have anticipated.

Of course, I could be wrong and their first exhibition might be a big flop.

aroslav: I doubt it.

CLARICE: You're the author.

aroslav: You'll be okay representing them, though, won't you?

CLARICE: For a while. Tony has a lot going for him. He was one of those who were in the right place at the right time. He was noticed when his mural went on display at PCAD. Then he has this hero thing that's keeping his phone ringing. Did you know that four calls have rolled over to voice mail while we've been talking? But the truth of the matter, from my humble perspective? Kate has more raw talent than Tony. She's never been anything but an artist. She doesn't play racquetball. She doesn't study criticism. She draws and she paints. Her charcoals are stunning, but her pastels—oh my god!

aroslav: Tony seems to be getting all the attention. Kate is just along for the ride.

CLARICE: Tony has found his style and content. There's no secret that his favorite subject is nudes and he does them extremely well. I'm pushing him to some other things, but the nudes are really where his heart is. Kate hasn't found her calling yet. She will. When she decides what kind of painter she really wants to be and quits flitting around from one subject to another, we'll really see something.

The sad thing is that someday I'm going to have a conflict representing both of them. Honestly? I don't know what's going to happen then. One or both of them will end up with another agent. I hope that's all the split that will happen.

aroslav: That sounds ominous.

CLARICE: Just part of being in the business.

aroslav: So what are you doing now—I mean with Tony's phone?

CLARICE: Well, everyone wants to talk to the hero of Tent City. It's been a real zoo. I don't even know how these people get his cell phone number. Every local television and radio station, every local newspaper has called dozens of times. Four national networks have asked for interviews. I field the calls and read Tony's official statement to them, then refer them to the University. Thirty different lawyers have called wanting to represent Tony or Wendy. They call here because they have no contact information for Wendy, the poor thing.

I'm sorry. I cry every time I think about her. I could just kill that bastard.

aroslav: Uh ... where is "here," by the way?

CLARICE: Oh. I'm at Carmine's.

aroslav: I thought I heard dishes.

CLARICE: It's almost lunch-time.

aroslav: You've known Wendy quite a long time, haven't you.

CLARICE: I guess as long as anyone. Carma and I go way back. When she opened the restaurant I moved in. So I was here the day Wendy started waiting tables. I swear, she curtsied when she came to take my order. She was so humble—so anxious to serve me. It didn't take long, though, before I saw the spark of mischief in her eyes. She is so alive and happy to be in the world. She's a real contradiction in personalities.

I had no idea she was living in Tent City. I should have had some if I'd been paying more attention to what Tony was saying and what I was seeing. All I thought about was the abusive relationship she was in. I actually thought Tony might be taking advantage of her. When I found out both she and Tony had been injured that night, I was frantic. I was waiting at Tony's house the night they left the hospital. There was no way to get to them before that.

What a nightmare. As soon as the news broke, I knew what would happen. I bought a prepaid cell phone and activated it on my credit card so that when I took Tony's phone he would still have a way to keep in touch.

aroslav: This must have been a horrendous time for all of you.

CLARICE: Thank god for Kate and Bree. As much as I wanted to keep Kate out of the limelight, she was a Godsend. And Bree ... she just did what needed to be done. She helped me find the right people at the college to get a press conference set up. She arranged transportation for the bunch of them. She got her father to pick up Tony's car. She's as protective of them as I am. There's a lot to that girl that no one knows yet.

aroslav: What happened?

CLARICE: We put together a press release and I worked with the University public relations department to address the press. We agreed that all the students should be kept out of it at the moment. We pulled down all kinds of privacy regulations that surround students and managed to keep the press focused on the University and what they were doing to help the victims. In the flurry, Tony and company escaped unnoticed.

aroslav: Clarice, you're doing a great job. I know Tony appreciates it, even if he doesn't say so.

CLARICE: I'm the agent, not the star. There's never been an Academy Award received by an actor's agent. That's okay. We're here to get the actor on the podium, not ourselves.

aroslav: What's in the future, Clarice?

CLARICE: Well, if I can get off the phone from all these constant calls, I need to plan how to capitalize on the unfortunate events of this past weekend to get a bigger attendance and Tony and Kate's opening. I hate that part of my job. I just want to join the mourners and sympathize with those who have been hurt—like Wendy. Instead, I have to figure out how I can turn this all into more, bigger, and longer sales for my clients. I'm expecting an exhausting couple of months as we head toward their debut. If it's successful, we might not get rich, but we'll pay the next month's rent. That's really all we can hope for.

aroslav: I'm glad you are on their team. Oh, Clarice?

CLARICE: Oh no.

aroslav: One more thing.

CLARICE: Yes?

aroslav: There seems to be some bad blood between you and Lissa Grant. What's that about?

CLARICE: I didn't know she and Jack were involved. God! She was nineteen. I was fifty. Jack was a nice guy that I'd met at several events. Why wouldn't I invite him to my client's opening in Paris? I will never live that down. At least Lissa and I can work together where it concerns Tony now. Christ! Give it a rest, will you?

aroslav: They're divorced now though. What's stopping you?

CLARICE: Pride. I'm not going back there.

aroslav: Okay, Clarice. I'll let you get back to answering the phones and protecting Tony. And believe me; we all appreciate it.

CLARICE: You take care, aroslav. Thanks for giving me a break.



-------

Amanda


Sunday, January 1 (After Chapter 37 of Triptych)

[knocking]

aroslav: Hello?

AMANDA: Who is it?

aroslav: aroslav. Is it too early?

AMANDA: What time is it?

aroslav: 12:30.

AMANDA: In the morning?

aroslav: No. Sunday afternoon. Happy New Year.

AMANDA: Oh shit. Just a minute.

[Pause. Door opens.]

AMANDA: Sorry, Uncle Ari. I forgot.

[hug]

aroslav: How's my Mandy? Did you overdo it last night?

AMANDA: No. We were late is all. It was so much fun.

aroslav: Well, shall we go have lunch? Or breakfast?

AMANDA: Do I have to get dressed up?

aroslav: If you're comfortable, I'm fine. I've always liked girls in sweats.

AMANDA: You're a dirty old man, Uncle. I love you.

aroslav: Love you, too, Mandy. Let's go.

[seated at Denny's]

AMANDA: Thank you for including me. It's really been fun.

aroslav: You wanted to be in the story.

AMANDA: I thought you were going to make me a bitch. I like the way I'm turning out.

aroslav: It's hard to get it right when I'm dealing with someone so smart. Sometimes it comes off bitchy.

AMANDA: Well, keep going. I want to really break loose.

aroslav: Well, I have to record all the details in order to make that work. Who is Amanda Fortier?

AMANDA: You mean like whole name and stuff? Okay. Hi. I'm Amanda G. Fortier, age twenty, born on July 28. I'm a junior at Seattle Cascades University in the Pre-Med Program. I hope to finish here next year and go to Johns Hopkins Med School.

aroslav: What's the G stand for?

AMANDA: Grrrr.

aroslav: Really?

AMANDA: No. It stands for Graco.

aroslav: Um ... sounds like a story.

AMANDA: My stupid older brother. As the story goes, his toddler car seat sat next to my infant car seat on the way home from the hospital. He'd just begun sounding out words. The buckle on my car seat said "Graco." That's what he started calling me. My parents actually registered it as my middle name as some kind of bribe so that he wouldn't kill me. The bastard still calls me Graco.

aroslav: You were named after a car seat. Should I bring that up in the story?

AMANDA: Don't you dare.

aroslav: Okay, so tell me a little more about yourself.

AMANDA: Well, I'm five-five and weigh one-forty. I'd like to lose ten pounds, but I haven't been exercising enough to make it happen. I'm 34C, 28, 36. I'm afraid if I lose weight I'll be 32B, 28, 36. I don't fucking care. Just let me get on with my life.

aroslav: Whoa! Okay. And if it helps or not, I'd never have guessed you'd need lose ten pounds. You've always been my favorite niece and I think you're beautiful.

AMANDA: And you're my favorite uncle. Oh. I guess you're my only uncle, aren't you. Still...

aroslav: Let's just move on.

AMANDA: Okay. I've got medium light brown hair down to my shoulders that I usually keep tied up on top of my head. My eyes are blue.

aroslav: Bright aquamarine blue.

AMANDA: That sounds like something Tony would say.

aroslav: Which brings us to a subject we should talk about.

AMANDA: I admit. He's cute.

aroslav: Really?

AMANDA: Not in a movie star way. He's just ... all there. My view of him could be based on more than his looks, though.

aroslav: You're not falling for him are you, Mandy?

AMANDA: Um ... no. Of course not. I mean, what would he see in me? He's surrounded by beautiful women all the time and I mean for-real supermodel women. The tall blonde he plays racquetball with actually used to be a model. And all the rest of them are beautiful. And I'm ... well, I don't care.

aroslav: That sounds like a little bit of denial.

AMANDA: Well, I do care. But even if I lost a little weight, or a lot of weight, I'd never be able to compete with them. I'd still be a nerdy pre-med student who's been up all night. By the time I'm through my residency, these bags under my eyes will be permanent. Tony's cute and a nice guy and sometimes, maybe, I can trick him into a kiss or something, but that is all.

aroslav: Like your night in his chair at Tent City?

AMANDA: Oh. Uh ... we didn't really do anything.

aroslav: Mandy?

AMANDA: I just kind of warmed his hand in my armpit. He didn't touch me anyplace inappropriate ... with his hands.

aroslav: Okay. I'll let that slide for now. But why Tony?

AMANDA: You remember my last boyfriend?

aroslav: Not that slimy redneck who thought he owned you.

AMANDA: You make it sound like I have no taste at all.

aroslav: Well?

AMANDA: All right. He was slimy. I didn't think so at first. I thought he was rebellious and outside the box. And the more Mom said he was bad for me, the more I thought he was my bad boy.

aroslav: And?

AMANDA: Yeah. Well, he's in jail and I'm in college. I haven't had a boyfriend since.

aroslav: Mandy, you were fifteen then.

AMANDA: Kinda ruined it for me, you know? I mean, it's not like I never go out. I do, sometimes. But I don't develop a relationship. I've got too much going on to bother with the work. Boys are just dildos with emotions. No offense, Ari. But Tony is pre-tested. He's even got Bree under control and God knows that had to have been a task. And he's safe. He's got more relationship than he can handle. He doesn't need one with me, so if I can just borrow him once or twice or three times ... a month ... that would be fine.

aroslav: I'll keep that in mind. That exhausts the topic of Tony. Why don't you tell me about school? What made you choose to become a doctor? I really thought you were going to be a musician.

AMANDA: Yeah. Some days I regret it. But not usually. I still play my flute and violin. I don't have a piano. I've started playing guitar a little, but I don't really have the time to practice. This course is pretty demanding. I can do it, though.

aroslav: Why?

AMANDA: Do you remember Doctor Lila Faulkner?

aroslav: Your pediatrician? I only met her that one time when I had to take you in.

AMANDA: Yeah. I told you I was in pain and you took me to my doctor.

aroslav: Something tells me there's more to that story that I didn't know.

AMANDA: I got her to prescribe birth control for me. Mom always came into the examining room with me. You, we could send away.

aroslav: You were fifteen!

AMANDA: And had just started going out with Pal. I knew for sure we'd be fucking in a month. I needed protection. I left Doctor Faulkner's office with a prescription and a pocketful of condoms. I really loved her. I could talk to her about anything. She explained what was happening when my body started to change. She helped me understand hormones and mood swings. When I was little, she even explained the difference between a virus and bacteria. I had a bad case of hero-worship.

aroslav: So you decided to become a pediatrician?

AMANDA: No. I was a junior in high school when I went in for my annual physical and Lila told me that she had breast cancer. She was already in treatment and thin as a rail. When she died six months later, I swore I'd find a cure. I've walked the three-day every year since.

aroslav: That's moving and noble, but do you think it's the best use of your talents?

AMANDA: I'm a good musician and I love music, but I'm not a great musician. I'm not a genius, like Tony is when he paints. Did you see the painting he did of the guy they autopsied? Oh my God! That's artistic genius. I am going to be that kind of genius in cancer research. I can do that. I know it.

aroslav: Tell me what else you like, Amanda. How about your family?

AMANDA: I love my family, but some of them are hard to get along with. I wish I'd been able to give my brother his middle name. It would be Shit! Not that we don't get along, now that we're both adults and live a thousand miles apart. But if he ever came to me for surgery, I'd be tempted to see how he liked being a girl.

aroslav: His name?

AMANDA: Andrew. The family has a thing for names that start with A, right? So mom...

aroslav: April.

AMANDA: Yeah. We're fine. I'm sorry for her living so long without Dad, but I think she might actually have a boyfriend now.

aroslav: Really?

AMANDA: You didn't know? Geez! Your own sister?

aroslav: We live a few states apart, like you and your brother.

AMANDA: Except that you two never fought quite as much as Andrew and me.

aroslav: You never knew us when we were kids.

AMANDA: You got over it. I suppose Andrew and I will, too, eventually. Anyway, Mom and I are very close, even though I came out here for school. I decided kind of late to go into pre-med, so there weren't many good programs I could get into. I grabbed the first one I could afford and moved almost three years ago.

aroslav: Do you like it.

AMANDA: Yes. It's hard. It keeps me challenged all the time, but the thought that I might be able to actually do something that makes a difference is really what drives me. Did you know I got an internship with the Hutch this summer?

aroslav: Hmm?

AMANDA: The Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center. I am so excited. If they give me good references, I'm sure to get into Johns Hopkins.

aroslav: Congratulations. Back to family. Any others you are close to?

AMANDA: Fishing? I love you, Uncle Ari. You were always kind to me and I really liked the fact that you were out here in Seattle when I moved here. I guess that was part of why I chose SCU, too. It helps to have a favorite relative around, even if we never see each other. Hint, hint. I guess I'm not as close to my aunts, but they're so much older. And you fixed me up with Tony, sort of ... in a way. I still don't understand how this works. Are we real people or made up?

aroslav: Are you feeling like Pinocchio?

AMANDA: Pygmalion.

aroslav: He was the sculptor.

AMANDA: Okay, then his statue. Who was she?

aroslav: Unnamed in the myth. Shaw made her Eliza Doolittle after Goethe's Elissa.

AMANDA: Why don't I have interesting conversations with anyone else?

aroslav: So tell me something about yourself that no one else knows.

AMANDA: That's an awful game. Let's see. Do you remember Dad?

aroslav: Yes. He was one of my best friends. I still miss him.

AMANDA: I was eleven. I still remember coming home from school and Mom meeting the bus and hugging me and crying. I was crying before I even knew what was wrong. It was terrible. But nobody ever blamed you, Uncle Ari. It wasn't your fault, so quit crying or I'm going to.

aroslav: I was driving.

AMANDA: The lady was drunk. She ran the light. There was nothing you could do.

aroslav: This isn't something that no one knows.

AMANDA: I still talk to him.

aroslav: Oh.

AMANDA: When I can't figure out what to do, I ask his advice. When I picked out a school, I asked him where I should go. When I've got a broken heart or something really wonderful has just happened, like the internship, I tell him first. I don't really pray to him, but I like to talk to him. Is that weird?

aroslav: And does he talk to you?

AMANDA: He only ever says one thing. "Love you, Baby Girl."

aroslav: That's pretty much all he ever said.

AMANDA: He was the strong, quiet type, wasn't he? But it's always comforting to know he's still there watching out for me.

aroslav: That's very special to me, Mandy.

AMANDA: There's one other thing. Sometimes—not like all the time. I'm not totally weird—but sometimes, I imagine that you are him and you'll help me write my own story.

[Silence. Paying check. Leaving.]

aroslav: Thank you for wanting to be a part of the story, Mandy.

AMANDA: Thank you for making me so free. I hope I get to do something ... you know ... sexy.

aroslav: Like posing nude for Tony to paint?

AMANDA: Oh my God! I did promise that, didn't I. Well, I'll let him see me naked, but you'll have to imagine it. [giggles]

aroslav: I love you, Sweetheart. Sometimes, I wish you were my Baby Girl.

AMANDA: Love you, Uncle Ari. You know you could invite me out to dinner sometime. The cafeteria here really sucks.

aroslav: Bye-bye.



-------

Rio


Monday, January 30 (After Chapter 40 of Triptych)

RIO: Doctor aroslav? Can I talk to you? Please?

aroslav: Rio! Come on in.

RIO: I'm glad you're still here. I was afraid you'd gone home already. I know it's kind of late.

aroslav: There comes a time when sitting behind a desk with a computer is the only thing left for a man to do.

RIO: Oh, that's sad.

aroslav: Not your problem. Not really even mine. Tell me what's on your mind.

RIO: I heard you were interviewing Tony's friends.

aroslav: That's right. Don't know why I haven't called you before.

RIO: Am I still one of his friends? He doesn't hate me?

aroslav: Rio, why would Tony hate you?

RIO: You tell me. You cut a thousand words out of that last chapter.

aroslav: 1054.

RIO: Why? They were my scene.

aroslav: They read like bad porn.

RIO: And Tony hated it, didn't he? He hated what we did and now he hates me. He avoided me all day—practically ran out of the classroom and never showed up at lunch.

aroslav: Tony just needs time to sort it all out. He's been under a lot of stress.

RIO: This was supposed to help.

aroslav: Well, why don't you tell me about it from your perspective? I don't mean the graphic details, but the feelings and why you were there. Why don't we start, though, with exactly who Rio is? Tell me about yourself.

RIO: Like a regular interview? One of those psyche projects? Okay. I'm Rhiannon Duval Drescher. Age nineteen years one month and nine days.

aroslav: That makes your birthday in December?

RIO: The twenty-first.

aroslav: Rhiannon sounds like a nice Welsh or Celtic name. How did you get Rio out of it?

RIO: My parents aren't Welsh or Celtic. They're new age pagans. I am not a redheaded Rhiannon. Kids called me Rhea all through school, but in high school I made the big declaration that I was Rio, as in the city in Brazil. It caught on and I haven't used my full name since.

aroslav: It must be tough, though, having your birthday so near Christmas.

RIO: You don't know the half of it. We don't celebrate Christmas in my family. They are pagans. I mean, really devoted dance-naked-around-a-bonfire pagans. We celebrate the winter solstice—Yule. Guess what day my birthday is. The shortest day of the year. The parents always let me have a birthday party in January. Except here I am in school in January. Nobody even knew I had a birthday.

aroslav: I can see how frustrating that would be. Hmm. That means you are exactly opposite Bree. Her birthday is on the summer solstice.

RIO: My parents would love her. Besides, she's the redheaded goddess they wanted. I should get to know her better.

aroslav: Where are you from, Rio?

RIO: Idaho. Yeah, I'm a potato-head. Except potatoes never played that important a part of my life. My family is all about trout.

aroslav:???

RIO: I'm from Twin Falls. My mother, Professor Elaine Duval, teaches English at the College of Southern Idaho. Don't ask me why I'm not there. It's part of a network of statewide junior colleges. It doesn't offer bachelor's degrees, only associates and technical certificates. It has more majors in "horse" than in "English." I kid you not. I didn't want to study under Mom. Dr. John Drescher, my father, teaches Aquaculture.

aroslav: You're kidding, right?

RIO: Idaho is not only the biggest potato producer in the U.S., it also produces ninety percent of the farm-raised fish served in the country—especially trout.

aroslav: I had no idea.

RIO: Well, most people don't, but if you are raised in Twin Falls, you learn the entire spiel at one of the monthly fish fries that everybody attends.

aroslav: So that's how you got interested in Literary Criticism?

RIO: Fish?

aroslav: No. Your mother.

RIO: Oh. Yeah. She's pretty smart. Weird as hell, but smart. She got a degree in comparative literature from Harvard.

aroslav: Wow! She must have been a great influence.

[Eyes rolled toward ceiling]

RIO: "Now, Rhiannon, what are the similarities between Goodnight Moon and Good Dog Carl? They are both picture books, but how do they differ?" It started early.

aroslav: How did she end up in Twin Falls?

RIO: John Drescher. It's a long story that involves spring break, cancelled flights, a stranded woman, and a guy with scuba gear. And a hurricane. Dad has a PhD from Auburn University in Alabama in Aquaculture. Now he's a mucky-muck at the big fish farm and teaches in the Aquaculture Department at CSI. He married Mom and Idaho couldn't believe they'd landed a Harvard grad to teach English. And it's not like she only teaches at CSI. They've got these computerized video classrooms so she teaches at seven different colleges from the same location.

aroslav: I had no idea there were that many people in Idaho who spoke English.

RIO: Catty. Snide. Prejudiced. Uninformed.

aroslav: Guilty.

RIO: At the moment every one of her students can compare and contrast Goodnight Moon and Good Dog Carl. I decided to find a place where I could study Literary Criticism.

aroslav: So you came to SCU, which apparently has better academic programs than I had imagined.

RIO: "Never underestimate the power of a second tier college if what you want is an education." That was a quote from Professor Duval.

aroslav: You're pretty funny, Rio. You inherited some of your parents' quirkiness, didn't you?

RIO: Yeah. Then I added a heaping helping of my own.

aroslav: I guess it's time to tell me about that.

RIO: You want all my kink?

aroslav: You're nineteen. You can't have that much kink.

RIO: I've been sexually active since my sixteenth birthday, a little over three years.

aroslav: Wow!

RIO: Look at me. I'm five feet tall and weigh 145. I'm not a model. I'm never going to be cute and sexy. I don't even have a good complexion. The only thing I have that boys want is a pussy. I wanted a boyfriend. So once I got the guy I targeted alone, I let him know that I intended to lose my virginity on my birthday. I knew he'd stick with me that long, at least. And since I was ahead of most of the other girls in my class, once he'd had mine, he wasn't going to give it up unless he had a sure thing to go to. Which eventually he did, but by then there were other boys interested. I think they can smell sex.

aroslav: That sounds rather mercenary.

RIO: I'm fat. I'm never going to lose weight, though I don't intend to gain any either. My mom is built exactly the same way I am. Once she had hold of my dad, nothing would shake her lose.

aroslav: So you'll just make do with whatever boy will have you?

RIO: Oh no. I have pretty high standards. If I didn't, I'd have had two or three guys here at SCU by now. The only one I've let go with is Tony. And he didn't like it.

aroslav: It's hard for Tony to admit that he found anything pleasurable about rough play. How did you get into that?

RIO: It was part of the criteria when I started. Maybe my nerves are a little deeper under the fat or something.

aroslav: But pain?

RIO: There's such a fine line between pain and pleasure.

[silence]

RIO: So here's how it started. I've got some family out in Twin Falls. I've got a younger sister and Dad's sister and her family live not far from us, so there are three cousins near. Then his brother lives in Boise but he visits with his family a few times a year. His family is two boys and a girl. Matt, the oldest boy just turned twenty-one. When we were about eleven and thirteen, we were playing around when I hit him and he grabbed me and spanked me. I mean he turned me right over his lap and whacked me half a dozen times. I don't think I'd ever been hit before. But it didn't take me long to figure it out.

It was dangerous and exciting and he'd held me against him. He didn't hit really hard, but he had his hand on my butt. Oh, I had a big crush on my cousin.

Somehow every time his family visited and we were all playing, I'd find some way to tease him into spanking me. After a couple of years, I'd always make sure I was wearing a dress when Matt visited, and he'd always lift my skirt to spank me. It was so delicious. You get the sequence. I was thirteen the first time he pulled my panties down and spanked my bare bottom. I came. We were both a little embarrassed and a lot excited, but it didn't stop us. The only orgasm I'd had before that was when I'd twisted my nipples hard while masturbating. When I was fourteen, I felt Matt come in his pants while he spanked me. Of course, by that time, we both knew what was happening and it didn't take much for me to instigate it. Sometimes the first thing he'd say when we were alone was "Have you been good?" I'd always shake my head.

We never did anything else. He never touched my boobs or felt me up. The only touch of his penis I had was feeling it through his pants against my stomach while he slapped my butt and sometimes I could feel the moisture seeping through his pants a little. Sometimes I'd lay across his lap with my bare ass in the air for ten minutes after we'd finished and we'd talk about life and the world while he just gently rubbed my butt.

It's so weird. He never once tried to put his fingers into my crack or between my legs. He'd spank me—never more than eight or ten slaps—and then we'd lie there in the afterglow while he petted my bottom.

Matt graduated from high school and left for college. Our play stopped. That's when I decided to lose my virginity on my sixteenth birthday. And I knew that my new boyfriend would want to spank my bare ass and that I'd come.

aroslav: Is it necessary for you to have this pain in order to reach your peak?

RIO: Not always a spanking. Sometimes just a quick twist of my nipples. And I can come without being spanked, but never as hard. When we were all together and Tony was spanking me and I could feel his cock against my belly and knew he was going to come on me and he spanked me and Amy was frigging me and then twisted my nip and I just lost it. I was so beyond rational thought that ... I was just over the moon. I hadn't really done girls before, but Amy was so good at manipulating me that I think it was the hardest come I've ever had. I lost all sense of boundaries and buried my face in her pussy—which didn't taste bad, by the way.

aroslav: How do you think your self-image plays into this?

RIO: Ever hear the teapot song? My version goes



I'm a little sexpot, short and stout.
Here is my handle and here is my spout.
When I get all steamed up then I shout,
"Sock it to me baby. Let it all hang out."



I am a sexpot and I am short and stout. But I'm not stupid. I know boys like to spank the fat girl. I'm not going to lose weight, so if a boy will spank me and it gives us both what we want, what harm is there in that?

aroslav: How far is too far.

RIO: I just want a little extra sensation. I don't want to be beaten. I don't want to be humiliated or forced to do something. I'll play some games, but that thing with Tony and Sonia and Amy was as submissive as I'll ever get. I'm no slave.

aroslav: Yet...

RIO: Wearing this collar is an act of defiance, not an act of submission. I have the leash. No one has the right to take it from me. Amy thinks she understands, but she's got her own hang-ups. I'm nobody's pet, no matter what Tony titles the painting.

aroslav: So why are you worried about Tony?

RIO: I went past his boundaries. He was perfect. He didn't go overboard. He didn't try to hurt me or humiliate me. But I was way past caring. I wasn't just having a naughty little interval. I was living my dream—a sexy, talented, smart, hunky boy playing my cousin's part and making love to me. I know people look at the kink and just think it's fucking, but to me, we were making love. Tony didn't want to do any of it, though. He did it just for me. Just to give me what I wanted. I wish there was some way I could be with him and not have it be nothing but me and my kink. I ... I think Tony hates me now.

aroslav: Where do you want your life to go from here?

RIO: I want Tony—or somebody—to rescue me, like a knight in shining armor, and whisk me away to a castle where I am queen. There he and I will make love over and over every day and he'll know just how hard he needs to pinch my nipples, how sharply he needs to spank, how much he needs to bite to bring me off. I just want a little love. And a little pain. Isn't that what every girl wants?

Lacking my fairytale ending, I want to finish my degree, travel the world, and find a teaching post in Europe where I can analyze the texts of an obscure English poet and no one will know that the beautiful man who shares my cottage is my cousin.

aroslav: Do you get Tony confused with Matt?

RIO: Even without ever having sex with either of them, they are the only boys who have ever made me feel the way I do. There must be one out there someplace who isn't either taken or related, right?

aroslav: Thank you for coming in, Rio.

RIO: I'm just glad you were here. I was so afraid that no one would understand. I'm not a freak. Please tell Tony that.


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To Be Continued...
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Posted:  2012-06-02
Last Modified: 2013-03-03 / 12:28:22 pm
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