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.