#rodrigo
Everything is fine… don’t pay any attention to the box…
This semester is almost done, so now I’ve taken pictures of all my drawings from class. You guys finally get to see them all!
Here’s Octavious again, and now his puppet master has made him a friend! His name is Rodrigo, and he definitely wasn’t brought to life via human sacrifice.
My class really liked this one. It took my group a moment to spot the darker elements, which seems to be a trend in my artwork.
O saw the early morning light beginning to shine into the bedroom in Humberto’s plantation home. She looked at the clock on the bedside table and saw that it was after 7 am; O roused herself and padded down the hallway to the bathroom. After emptying her bladder, she looked at her reflection in the mirror, seeing her red hair tangled around a face containing blue/green eyes. She studied her face and wondered, “Will Robert be able to tell that I have been raped just by looking at my face. Will he be able to tell that on some level I may have actually enjoyed it?”
O’s thoughts were interrupted by Esmeralda’s voice calling out from below. “I heard you stirring. Come on down, I have fixed some breakfast. You can get dressed later.”
O, who was wearing nothing but her thin nightie, put on the short terry cloth robe, slipped on her sandals and went downstairs. There Esmeralda had a plate with toast and half a grapefruit waiting. She poured O a large cup of steaming coffee and said, “I do not expect Senor Humberto and your friend to return until day after tomorrow. I also imagine Senor Robert will return with the. I’m sure that will make you happy.”
O put some sweet jam on the toast. Then she ate it and the grapefruit while she drank the bitter coffee. O thought, “Is my life to be like this? Some sweetness mixed with sour bitterness? I love Robert. I know he cares for me, but I’m not sure he loves me in the way I want him to.” O’s thoughts were interrupted by Esmeralda who said, “Rodrigo is going into town today if you want to send any letters.” So, O got up. She quickly went upstairs to her room and composed two letters: one to her family back in Paris telling them that hopefully she would be returning to France in the near future, and the other to a fashion magazine that the Most Famous Model in the World had recommended – La Femme Mediterranean. In the latter, she enclosed her resume and indicated she had recommendations.
O then came down the stairs and gave the letters to Rodrigo. She avoided his stare. Later that afternoon, O was alone. Rodrigo had left and Esmeralda had also gone somewhere. O was alone in the big plantation home. She became bored and explored some in the house. First, she went over to Robert’s room, the first time she had visited it in daylight. His cameras and equipment were gone but O noticed a pile of photos laying on a desk. She picked one up and looked at it. It was of her, taken probably over a year ago, not long after she had met Robert. All the others were of her also. Then O noticed a book laying beside the photos. It looked like a dairy. Against her better judgement she opened it to the last entry, dated the day before Robert left to go to the interior to do the nature photography. It read, “I have tossed it over and over in my mind. It is probably a bad idea, but I cannot help it. I am in love with O even though I am too old for her. When I return from the interior, I intend to tell her.” When O read this, she was absolutely ecstatic. “He does love me,” she thought. “Everything will be fine now. We can both return to Paris and move in together.”
Then O went downstairs into Humberto’s study. There were literally rows and rows of books along one wall, but what struck O was a small photograph sitting on the table. O picked it up and studied it. It was of a man and a woman standing with the Eiffel Tower in the background. There was no mistake.
Although the photo was over forty years old, O immediately recognized the woman as her grandmother.
O’s thoughts were interrupted by a black SUV that pulled over to the side of the road by O. O flinched, thinking the worst, but when the tinted window rolled down it was Rodrigo, Humberto’s chief of security. He got out of the SUV and said, “My God! What happened to you?”
O managed to stammer, “I was picked up by men in a van. I thought they were your men. But they took me here and …” Her voice trailed off. Rodrigo said, “Yes. My men went to the corner where they were to meet you, but you were not there. They waited and finally found a man in the store across the street who said that you had gotten in a black van with three men. They immediately called me, and we began searching. I thought they might have taken you to someplace along this highway, it’s a popular area for bandits.”
O began to get faint. Rodrigo sensed it, and as she passed out, he caught her. O awoke in the SUV. Rodrigo had placed a cold compress against her. She was in the back seat of the SUV with Rodrigo sitting beside her. One of his men was driving. O looked around and saw that they were going through the gates of Humberto’s estate. O said, “Please do not tell anyone what happened. I do not want Robert to know.”
The SUV pulled up to the plantation home. O got out and without speaking to Esmeralda went immediately upstairs. There she removed her soiled clothes and ran a hot bath. As she soaked in the steamy water, O thought to herself, “Robert must never know. Must never know that the girl who loves him was raped by three men. Rodrigo won’t say anything. It would reflect badly on him. Humberto and Yasmin are still out looking at fields and won’t be back until tomorrow, so they won’t know anything. Yes, I was raped, but I can keep it a secret.” Then O thought, “But why don’t I feel worse about it? Was it secretly something I wanted? On some level did I desire to be violently taken. Is that why I came?”
And several miles away on the edge of his estate, Humberto was talking to a man from a nearby village. He said, “You mean to tell me that you saw Indians take my nephew into the jungle. My God! They were probably from the Amari tribe. Headhunters!”
Yasmin overheard only a part of the conversation. She asked Humberto, “Is something wrong, darling?”
Humberto replied, “Yes. A tragedy. I fear Robert is dead.”
O felt increasingly uncomfortable at Humberto’s estate. When she left the house, she was sure that the man called Juan was lurking around. She saw him several times. Each time he would grin at O, tip his hat and say, Good Morning, Senorita.” She thought about saying something to Humberto but decided not to. One day Humberto said to O, “If you would like to go into Rio, I can send Rodrigo and a couple of his men to escort you.” O declined.
And then there was Yasmin. On several occasions, O’s sleep was interrupted by Yasmin who would come over from the bedroom she shared with Humberto, creep into O’s room, get in bed with O and begin kissing and fondling her. One night, as O was sleeping soundly – a rarity for O who usually was plagued by vivid dreams or nightmares- she was awakened by Yasmin’s hands roughly spreading O’s thighs. Before she was fully awake, Yasmin’s mouth was on O’s sex with her tongue probing into O’s vulva. As Yasmin’s tongue swirled around O’s clitoris, Yasmin ran one of her hands up O’s flat belly to her breasts and clamped onto a nipple. As O gave way to orgasm, that hand roughly pinched and pulled on O’s nipple while the index finger of the other hand plunged into O’s anus. O cried out, and in the bedroom on the other side of the big house, Humberto watched on the closed-circuit camera.
O received a pro forma letter from her mother, Ségolène, saying that the family was considering moving to Marseilles, but didn’t have an apartment there. Then Ségolène went on to write about her latest ‘man,’ but there was nothing from O’s grandmother. O would have liked to return to Paris before her family moved, but she didn’t have the money for the flight. And her mother certainly didn’t.
Then O got a letter from her great aunt Pauline. It read: “O, I saw your letter that said you and your friends were staying with Humberto H. I think you should know that he and your grandmother were lovers once. It was in the late 1960’s when your grandmother was working in the periphery of the French film industry. She was ‘dating’ several men at the time, and Humberto was one of them. He wanted your grandmother to marry him, but she refused. Heartbroken, he emigrated to Brazil. She never heard from him again. But, O, one thing she didn’t tell Humberto was that she was pregnant when he asked her to marry. She never confided in me who the father was. Your mother, Ségolène, could be the daughter of Humberto, which would make you his granddaughter. I thought you should know.”
O felt her knees go weak and said, “What? How? No! That cannot be.” Humberto replied, “I am afraid it’s true. Yasmin and I went to the small village just beyond the edge of my estate, near the edge of the jungle. We were to meet Robert there and bring him back. But he wasn’t there. We waited overnight, but he did not show up. I spoke to several of the villagers who said that they had warned Robert that a band of Tupamaro Indians lived in that part of the jungle. They have a reputation of being headhunters. Still Robert decided to go into the jungle to do his nature photography. I fear he may have been captured by the Indians and killed. I will send Rodrigo and his men to search the area, but I fear the worst.”
O collapsed.
Later in her room O felt a cool cloth being pressed against her face. She opened her eyes and saw Yasmin and Esmeralda standing over her. She looked at Yasmin and said, “Oh Yasmine. Please tell me it isn’t true.” Yasmin replied, “I am afraid it’s true. Maybe Rodrigo and his men can find Robert. But from what I gather, it would be a long shot.”
“Great!” said Robert and O in unison.
“What about me?” asked Yasmin.
“And you, my darling. You will stay here and enjoy the company of an old man who will show you around his plantation.”
“Oh, that would be really nice,” said Yasmin. Later in their room, O said to Yasmin, “You seem quite content to stay with Humberto. Is that really what you want to do?
Yasmin responded, “Listen O, you and Robert have a plan. You’re smart enough to be a photographer. If that doesn’t work out, you’re pretty enough to model. You have a plan and a back up plan. What do I have? I’m not as pretty as you. True I have a zaftig figure with big tits and ass. But eventually, I’ll get fat; you’ll always be slender like your mom and grandmother. You’ve seen my mother. She was very pretty when she was young, but she got really fat. I don’t want to end up being a waitress all my life. Maybe old Humberto can be my ticket out of waitressing. Besides, he isn’t ugly.”
O laughed and said, “That’s my girl. Always a plan. Well, you and old Humberto have fun touring his plantation. And don’t wear the old boy out too much.”
The next morning Robert and O set out from Humberto’s plantation to Rio where the photo shoots would occur. They took one of Humberto’s sedans and Rodrigo and a couple of hard looking men followed in a SUV as far as the outskirts of Rio. Then they turned off, sure that no kidnappers would think about doing anything in Rio.
O’s job was not modeling fashion per se, but rather as a backup in a music video. She did her part well and was noticed by the video director who passed along her name to other photographers and managers. This resulted in several modeling gigs for O – mostly swim wear and casual clothing. Robert’s job was to photograph the Most Famous Model in the World for several commercials. He was quite happy to do so and his work was noticed quite favorably.
Rather than drive back to Humberto’s plantation, Robert and O took a short-term lease on a flat in the city. Robert insisted on one with two separate bedrooms, so he wouldn’t be tempted, but O would wait each night until Robert was asleep, then creep into his room and get in bed with him. Most nights Robert’s good intentions melted in the heat of O’s approach.
And back at the plantation, Humberto and Yasmin did more than tour the fields.
Robert put out his hand and said, “Yes. I am Robert. These are my friends.” He nodded to O and Yasmin.
Rodrigo looked O up and down before saying, “Yes. Senor Humberto said you would be traveling with two young women, but he did not say they would be so beautiful. Now come please, we have a car waiting.”
On the way to the car, Yasmin leaned over and whispered to O, “Did you see how that Rodrigo character looked at you? It gave me a fright.” O ignored the comment but clung tightly to Robert’s arm. It was not only one car waiting for them, but a small caravan: three vehicles in all – a lead black SUV, a Cadillac sedan for Robert and the girls, and a trailing pick up truck with a mounted machine gun in the bed of the truck. Rodrigo must have seen the look on Robert’s face because he said, “A precaution. It is two hours drive to Senor Humberto’s estate and there have been several incidences along the highway.”
“Incidences?” said Robert.
“Yes. Kidnappings. There was one last week.”
But this trip was quite uneventful. The drive ended at a large gated entrance with armed guards. They opened the gate at the sight of the lead SUV and waved the party in. Then another ten minutes through cotton fields and what looked like jungle.” Roberto said, “There are several thousand acres on the estate. It is at the edge of the jungle. Senor Humberto grows soybeans and the best cotton in Brazil.” Then the caravan arrived at what looked to O like a American South plantation home. “Here we are,” said Rodrigo, and the weary travelers got out.
Humberto came to meet them. O noticed he was older, probably in his late 50’s or early 60’s, but still handsome with his tanned face, white shock of hair and a still fit physique honed by days on the plantation. “Welcome to my humble estate,” said Humberto. Introductions were made and then Humberto said, “I’m sure you would like to freshen up. Then we will meet for dinner tonight. Esmeralda will show you to your rooms.” He nodded to a large black woman that O took to be his maid. She showed them to what was referred to as the guest wing of the home. There the girls shared a large room, so large that it was able to accommodate two double beds with a table separating the two. Robert had a room across the long hallway. The bathroom was at the end of the hallway.
As the girls unpacked O said to Yasmin, “You thought Rodrigo looked funny at me. Did you see how Humberto looked at you?”
William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905)
Dante and Virgil is a painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau painted in 1850. Inspired by Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy (specifically a scene set in the XXX Canto of Hell: Capocchio bitten on the neck by Gianni Schicchi).
This oil on canvas is kept at the Orsay museum in Paris.
Rodrigo@ro_asif
