by: Valentino Incanto Profferi
©Valentino Incanto Profferi 2009
The story told here is utterly, fictitious and any resemblance between the characters herein or the events depicted and any true incident depicted by the Fairy tale is completely coincidental and unintentional.
It was just another day in Palo Alto, California. Rudolph, better known as Rudd, was riding his bike along the palm tree and eucalyptus tree lined asphalt path that branched off the end of University Avenue along on one of the many deserted lawns at Stanford University. The sky crisp with sparse clouds buffeted about by a light gusting breeze. It was winter, and it had rained at dawn. Rudolph went around the puddles to keep his shoes and pant legs free of debris. He was a neat sort of fellow in his third year as a graduate student pursuing his doctorate in chemical engineering. Rudd was a quiet and studious kind of man in his mid twenties with rusty brown hair that lay strangely flat atop his scalp with a fringe that stuck out like the brim of a small hat.
Rudd preferred to not talk much and kept to himself. He waved his acknowledgement to colleagues he passed when they said hello. Though Rudd called all of these individuals his friends, he did not care either to spend much time with them or to become acquainted with them an any intimate way. There were two or three young women in the undergraduate program that Rudd took out to parties and movies occasionally. However, for Rudd, the going out was only an excuse to later get the co-eds drunk on his personal concoction, and then to “clear the plumbing,” as Rudolph customarily referred to having sex.
There had never been anything magical in Rudolph’s life that he had ever noticed or perceived to be more than utterly mundane. His entire life had been precisely planned and executed with very negligible deviation. Rudd had come to the conclusion early in his life to believe only in what he could see and what could be proved, whether physically or theoretically with data. The question of God seldom entered his mind and was always discarded rapidly as utterly unfounded. When pressed on the matter, Rudd simply stated, “man has been unable to prove the existence of God, and it can’t be bothered to prove itself, so who care if it exists or not.” He usually denied he was an atheist claiming the position of agnostic as he simply did not know either way.
However, along with many of his compatriots, Rudd would attend the nondenominational service held at the Stanford Cathedral at midnight on Christmas night to sing along and socialize before the week long party leading up to New Years during which Rudolph was seldom sober. It was still some months before the holidays and the new fall quarter was just beginning. Rudd had already purchased his books at the stone facing the quad, and three of them were with him this morning, in the bicycle bag that hung on the left side of the rear wheel. He was on the way to a new advanced course being taught by a visiting professor from the Netherlands. Rudolph’s academic advisor had strongly recommended the course stating that Dr. Flotten was considered a guru in bio-chemical engineering admired around the world.
The class was far too early for Rudolph as it started at 7:15 AM. Being the well disciplined and judicious man that he was though, he had made the heroic effort to rise from his cosy and seductive plastic air mattress in the living room of the fraternity house. In the company of a slightly burnt pot of coffee in the battered coffee maker, he had eaten four micro waved Pop-Tart pastries with a stained mug full of black unsweetened coffee. While eating absentmindedly, he had watched an episode of Barney, the friendly dinosaur, and then left on his bicycle.
Rudolph Williams habitually wore black denim trousers, a white button down shirt with short sleeves, a wife beater under shirt, boxer shorts, and leather sandals without socks. He had twelve sets of matching identical outfits to keep from doing laundry more than twice a month if possible. On weekends he wore his boxer shorts of which he had five additional back ones with one of four tie-die t-shirts with a peach sign on the front. He kept his one black suit in a plastic bag in the closet, and had one pair of dress shoes he hardly ever wore.
Most people thought Rudd was an ok sort of guy, but they knew as little about him as they knew about themselves. Whenever Rudolph had time to himself, he hoped there was a baseball game to watch on the telly. As he peddled vigorously with his bicycle in its highest gear, it was baseball he was thinking about as he approached the large peach coloured building, like all the others, to which he was headed. Rudd dismounted, shoved the front wheel into a slot in the bicycle rack, locked the frame with a U-Lock, and took up the bag from its perch. Upon entering the large white walled classroom shadowed in the gloom with the lights off, Rudd found an elderly chubby woman sitting impishly on the head table.
She was round all over with sagging skin on her face, forearms, and neck rather than having any pronounced wrinkling. She looked friendly with a soft and inviting smile and twinkling eyes like some sort of Gnome or Dwarf woman. Accentuating the appearance of a perhaps a fat old Smurf was the long and straight heavy wool skirt, the silk blouse with lace fringes, and the dark silk scarf, matching her skirt, that was tied on her head giving the appearance of her wearing a peaked cap. The professor, Dr. Jeanne-Louise du Ponte Flotten waited for the young male student to walk up to her. She put out her hand to Rudolph and he automatically took it speaking like the mindless American academic automaton he was determined to become. “Pleased to meet you Professor Flotten, I’m Rudd. How are you?”
Being the well disciplined and conforming bloke he was, Rudolph was expecting the scripted reply that he had been accustomed to all his life. The exchange should have followed like this; “Fine, how are you?” “Fine.” “Class will begin in a few minutes, find a seat.” Rudolph was rather taken aback when the woman chuckled with pleasure and followed a gurgling sound with a question. “Are you rude then two, or are you wicked only when there are three?” Rudd stared at her disconcertedly in his confusion. Rudd had not seen any pun in her application of his name and began to feel put down. The image the advisor had left him with was one of a genius so extraordinary that no common man could approach her without the awareness of her immense superiority. This image of the professor was what Rudd was now reflecting rather than listening to what she had actually said, and feeling her identity and personality as they were expressed in her appearance and gestures.
As Rudd stood before her musing sourly, Jeanne slipped onto her feet and took Rudd by his chin. Raising his face up to look into hers, Rudd was suddenly aware that Dr, Flotten was not at all a short woman as she towered over his 5’9” by nearly five inches more to her height. She was a large, tall woman, with a very curvaceous figure at her age with long pale blond hair that was held behind her ears by the scarf. Her eyes were a greyish blue green like a winter sea, set into a very round face, with a cold and calculated fierceness that startled Rudd. For a moment she held him in a loose embrace, and then she drew him to her expansive soft breast. Following a brief embrace she bent down and offered her cheeks for him to kiss. Involuntarily Rudolph returned the comfortable embrace and kissed Jeanne’s left cheek twice and the right once.
Being in Jeanne’s arms was so comfortable and reassuring that after the kisses Rudd put his head back on Jeanne’s generous left teat with a mixture of childlike affection and adult wantonness. Rudolph did not notice his own gesture, but Jeanne was both observant of it and pleased. She stroked his hair for a moment and then put a firm hand on the small of Rudd’s back. In this position she told him that he would be an excellent pupil. In addition Jeanne added that they were waiting for only two other graduate students, both girls. Giving Rudolph a light squeeze on his bottom Jeanne asked him to sit down at the front row of seats before her.
A few moments after Rudolph sat down two young women in matching slacks and t-shits came in resembling a couple of employees that might work at a fast food restaurant. They were both post graduate fellows in the organic chemistry department working on molecular development project headed by one of Rudd’s former professors. The two women had come from different East Coast Ivy League schools that had shown no interest in partying with Rudolph the previous year. Both women exchanged kisses with Jeanne and took their seats beside Rudd, but one or two desks away on the front row.
The two women taking the class seemed to be conducting some private negotiation while the professor taught. Jeanne ignored the hushed prattle from the women who were clearing trying t provoke her ire. Just before the end of the lecture, one of them stood up and left to withdraw from the class, leaving her less belligerent colleague to ponder her fate. As the class came to a close, Jeanne invited her two pupils to meet her at the on campus house that had been provided to her for a few drinks and a light dinner for them to get acquainted. After exchanging looks of surprise and reluctance, Rudd and Margaret agreed to the unusually sociable offer from this foreign instructress that was labelled in their minds as an Alien. The sociability and the accompanying unguardedly open invitation was also alien to both the students. However, in their minds they had agreed to chance it since the main point of taking the class with the Alien was to have some exposure to non American ways besides the obvious expertise Jeanne was offering.
They departed as usual from their classes somewhat relieved and somewhat anxious about the following periods. The subject matter had been very complex, but the presentation had been extremely informal and easily digestible. They had been surprised to be informed that there would be no assignments to burden them. There would however be an enormous quantity of reading expected over which they were expected to be able to discuss openly with little or no memorization expected. The only examination would be the final. One third of that test would be in essay form, one third would be a practical test in the organic chemistry laboratory as a demonstration of their creativity in applying what they had assimilated during the discussions. The most weighted section of the final would be an oral examination that would last over two hours taken individually. The format of the finals was unusual and was daunting to them both to say the least.
As Rudd and Margaret parted ways at the door, they were both uncertain of their ability to pass muster with this overseas don. The dinner had been scheduled for eight in the evening; much later than either of them commonly ate their supper. The day passed for them as usual without any further irregularities to remind them of the unusual experience had too early that morning. Both Rudolph and Margaret had completely forgotten the discomforts felt at Jeanne’s lecture. The both also nearly forgot to leave in time, but they were punctually reminded by the personal digital assistants built into the cellular phones that they each were attached to by virtual umbilical cords.