Triptych Interviews
Sandra
Monday, December 5 (After Chapter 22 of Odalisque)
[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!
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