"Nothing." Roderick is, in fact, doing nothing. Currently, he is stretched out on his bed, hands behind his head, sitting up slightly.
Megan is nude, as is often the case when she visits Roderick. She checks herself in the mirror. "Do you think I'm fat?"
Roderick understands this to be a trick question. "No, not at all" he says. This answer is at least partially honest; Megan certainly is not obese, nor even plump, nor zaftig. On the other hand, she's not svelte and catlike, like Molly,
"Really?" says Megan, curling up next to Roderick and doing her best to get some attention.
"Yes, really." Roderick hates it when people demand his attention.
"So, um, did you and Molly do, you know, it, over the summer?"
"No, we still have nineteen months to go before we hit the deadline." Roderick doesn't ask what or who Megan did this summer, knowing full well that she most likely did everyone in sight.
"I did it with the entire Baritone section of the Lake City Opera."
"All at once?"
Megan frowns. "No, sequentially. I'm not a slut, you know."
"Not that there's anything wrong with that."
"No, there's nothing wrong with it." Megan is President of the Old Ivy Ladies' Shooting Society, known colloquially as "Sluts with Glocks".
Roderick is curious. "Who else did you do this summer?"
"All of the straight male summer interns at Lake City Opera."
"Wow!" says Roderick. There were five hundred summer interns this summer, all unpaid.
"His name was Fred." Megan and Roderick crack up at that comment.
"Anyone else?" asks Roderick, feeling nosy.
"Well...there was the maestro,"says Megan, wistfully.
Her tone arouses Roderick's curiosity. "A love interest...?"
Megan ponders that. "He let me stick around long enough afterwards to fetch his slippers."
Roderick thinks about whether that is sufficient evidence of a love interest, and decides against. Meanwhile, Molly arrives. "Hi, Megan."
"Do you mind that I'm sprawled naked on the bed with Roderick?"
Molly is puzzled. "Why should I mind?"
"No reason." Megan fiddles with Roderick's internet radio and tunes in the Messaien Channel.
Molly is in the process of shedding her own clothing, but pauses, pants around her ankles, and cocks her head. "Messe de la Pentecote, Sortie, Le Vent de l'Esprit...Messaien's own recording on the organ of St. Trinite."
Megan frowns. "I thought it might be Jennifer Bate's recording."
Molly tugs at her pants and flings them to the other side of the room, then pulls her shirt off over her head. "No, I don't think she ever recorded the work. Can you move over a little? I want to cuddle." Roderick moves slightly to his left, noodging Megan. Molly curls up next to Roderick.
Roderick's cell phone rings. On the display, it says Mr. Smiley. Roderick answers. "Hello, Mr. Smiley!"
"Hi Roderick."
"What's up?"
"Oh, you know...nothing." Mr. Smiley is sitting by the Duck Pond in the center of Smileyville, watching the ducks, who seem very busy.
"I'm in my room with Megan and Molly."
"Uh-huh."
"They're naked."
"That's nice."
"We're listening to Olivier Messaien's Messe de la Pentecote for organ, played by the composer on the organ of St. Trinite in Paris."
"Oh, yes, St. Trinite. I went there to hear Messaien improvise when I was in Paris with Hello Kitty. She was already sliding from the booze, coke and meth, and threw up in the park outside the church. During the concert she wandered off with some lesbians to score meth and I didn't see her again for three days. I was going to dump her then and there, but she begged me to take her back and I couldn't say no. Later in that trip we went to Berlin and wrote our names on the Wall."
"How was the concert?"
"What concert?"
"At St. Trinite. The one you went to see with Hello Kitty."
"Oh, that concert." Mr. Smiley pauses, and thinks about it. "It was nice."
