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Talia lived in my dorm during our freshman year at college.   She was small of body with a light brown pixie cut and owl glasses.  Talia was an art student.  That October, she was all fired up about her midterm assignment.  She had decided to make a plaster cast of a torso to serve as the base of her project.   She talked our friend, Jerry, into providing the torso.

On a hot, southern California afternoon, Jerry lay down on the cement patio outside the dorm.  Talia smeared Vaseline across his chest and shoulders.  She mixed up a bag of plaster of Paris in a bucket.  Then she spread the white goop evenly from his collarbone to his navel, making sure the plaster was an inch thick. 

The scene gathered a few spectators.  We watched as Talia tested the solidity of the plaster every few minutes.  It was taking a lot longer than she’d anticipated for the plaster to harden.  The sun moved along its inevitable path.  Jerry’s feet were in shadow.  Then his legs.  Then the sunlight ceased to shine on the patio.  Beneath Jerry, the cement cooled rapidly.

Someone threw a towel over Jerry’s legs for warmth.  It didn’t help much.  He was starting to shiver under the layer of damp plaster.  We all cheered when Talia tapped on the plaster mold, and it emitted a solid thunk! thunk! At last, the plaster was hard. 

Talia gripped the edges of the form on each side of Jerry’s ribs.  She lifted it a fraction of a centimeter.

Jerry screamed.

His chest hair and some of the hair under his arms were trapped in the hardened plaster.   Talia and the bystanders discussed what to do while Jerry lay, pale and grim, on the cold cement.  It was decided to cut Jerry’s hair away from the plaster. 

Three coeds produced nail scissors.  Talia, her roommate, and Jerry’s boyfriend attempted to slide the scissors between Jerry’s skin and the plaster.  This technique proved to be painful as well as tedious and slow. Tears leaked from Jerry’s eyes. 

When Jerry’s shivers expanded into quakes, it became obvious to Talia, the helpers, and the audience that saving Jerry was more important than saving the plaster cast.  Two runners were dispatched to the cafeteria to bring back large bowls, knives, and forks. 

It took another hour or more to break up the plaster using the utensils and the warm water in the bowls.  Jerry bore the procedure with eyes pinched shut. 

Released at last from the plaster cocoon, Jerry stood up, stiff and splotched with white crumbs. He and his partner hurried away toward their dorm and hot showers.

Talia slumped onto a plastic patio chair, tears of frustration and fatigue on her cheeks.

 
“What am I going to do for a project now?” she moaned.  After a pause, she brightened.  “I guess I could use a female torso.”  Talia looked around with raised, questioning eyebrows at the dorm-mates who remained on the patio.

“Oh, no! No way!” each one of us said, wide-eyed.  We held out our hands as if stopping the idea in the air. In a moment, Talia was left alone on the shadowed patio.