Tami: figure model (again)

        Today I was heartened to see that Miss Smithers’s legacy would last at this college long after she graduated.

        It was an unusually warm day for this time of year, over 60 degrees.  Upon leaving the house I needed to put on only a sweater.  I decided to take a walk along the college quad.  Fitting for the first day of spring, there were students (and some faculty) sitting outside on benches, eating lunch, a few students with guitars.  At times like this the college is at its best.  I didn’t see one, but I would not have been surprised to find a photographer taking pictures for the yearbook, or for the new college catalog.

        I was coming up to the center of the big quad, next to the Student Union building, where traffic is heaviest and where there used to be a kiosk with a bulletin board, when I saw a small crowd of students watching something in their midst.  When I got closer I saw that the focus of their attention was Miss Smithers, who was up in the air posing for good old Jan Latimer.  Jan is retired now like me, but for many years was one of the bright lights of the art faculty.  His sculptures have been seen in several prestigious galleries in Boston and New York and Montreal, and a couple of them have been permanent installations around campus.  He does figures, but in a ragged, abstract style.  At first they can seem careless and crude, but they grow on you.

        He was sitting at his easel, puffing on his pipe in the warmish sun, making a detailed sketch of Miss Smithers’s pose.  I stopped by and said hi.  He explained what was happening.  In place of the kiosk the college had decided to put one of his sculptures there, which he considered to be a very flattering thank-you for his years with the college.  (Actually the college has long been grateful to him for staying here; someone of his standing could have moved to a more prestigious faculty a long time ago.)  He had heard of Miss Smithers’s exceptional modeling skills from Professor Brignon and had enlisted her services.

        Jan said it was best to have Miss Smithers pose in the exact spot where the sculpture would be so that he could design it for maximum effect.  This was in addition to several photographs he had made of Miss Smithers in this pose in his studio.

        He had decided that the sculpture would represent a dancer.

Accordingly, Miss Smithers was standing on one leg on a narrow but rather high pedestal about five feet tall.  She was bent forward at the waist with her arms spread out in front of her as if flying, and the other leg extended high up and to one side behind her.  To keep her in this position Jan had set up posts upon which she could rest each hand and the rear foot.  I could see how this pose would be of great benefit to Jan’s talents.  High up and spread out as Miss Smithers was, it was easy to see every inch of her well-toned body, which as I have noted is a perfect specimen of the female form.

        Jan told me Miss Smithers was staying aloft thus for ten minute periods, and then rest for a couple of minutes before resuming.  They had been there for about half an hour, with half an hour more to go.  Naturally the sight was attracting many onlookers, many of whom obviously knew Miss Smithers well.  I could hear some of them actually conversing with her.  “You look so fine, Tami!” and “That was a tough lecture in calculus yesterday, wasn’t it?” were typical comments.

        Miss Smithers responded, but oddly didn’t look down at who she was answering.  Instead, she kept her chin elevated, looking up at the sky.  Presumably this was so that she could keep the pose Jan wanted.  I did notice a somewhat pained expression on her face, probably from the exertion of her stretched-out pose.  She also closed her eyes for periods as if praying.  She certainly seems to meditate or pray often.

        I walked around the circumference of the crowd, getting a look at the young lady from various angles.  The sun lit her very well, the shadows putting her various curves and planes into sharp relief.  Her breasts sloped down gently from her forward-bent torso, her nipples stiff and erect as they always seem to be, casting little pointy shadows of their own.  Her arms and hands extended delicately.  Her rear leg was perfectly straight, toes pointed in the same direction, as only a flexible gymnast can do.

        I couldn’t help but notice that her legs being so spread, her vaginal lips were separated and her anal area was clearly in view, indeed almost on display; the sun was hitting it directly.  There were a lot of people back in that part of the circle, including Miss McIntyre, who was speaking to Jeffrey Dillon.  I was surprised to hear the frankness of Miss McIntyre’s remarks; I knew she was a lesbian, but she seemed totally uninhibited as she extolled Miss Smithers’s features to Mr. Dillon.  “Look at those pussy lips, they’re so open and pink, I could just lick them!” she said, loudly enough for people around her to hear.  “Tami, you are just so beautiful!  And look at that asshole, Jeffrey!  See how neat and round it is. . . I’d love to stick my tongue right up into it!”  This last remark brought some good-natured gagging from some people around her.  “Oh, Jen!” one of them, a full-figured Latina-looking girl, said with friendly exasperation.

        “It is fine looking butthole,” Mr. Dillon concurred.  As for Miss Smithers, she obviously heard these remarks, but continued to keep her eyes closed and her head turned toward the heavens.  She sniffled.  How ironic!  I had been told that throughout the frigid winter months this naked girl had never once reported sick to the health center.  But now that the weather was finally warm she seemed to be coming down with a cold!

        As I said goodbye to Jan and went my way, I looked briefly back at the naked girl stretching out over the watching crowd in the middle of the quad.  I wondered if, despite her unassuming nature, Miss Smithers would nonetheless feel pride at the thought of her likeness (or at least an abstract representation of it) presiding over the center of campus.  Once the sculpture was installed (Jan said, probably when school begins in September) she would pass her nude figure several times every day, as would everyone else, for the next three years until she graduated.  Everyone would know it was her, especially since Jan’s planned title, to be affixed to the base, was “Tami Takes Flight”.  It would probably appear in the college catalog and every semester’s schedule of classes, perhaps on the cover.  After she graduated, every time she returned to visit, it would be the first thing she sees, for years and years.  And every time she saw it, in person or in a catalog, she would think back to this day.  Again, what a lucky girl, to be so honored.  I wonder what her thoughts were upon realizing all this!