SQN - Sine Qua Non - Issue Two - Journal - Page 58
SINE QUA NON
Andrea Ferrari Kristeller
Professor Rizzo’s Box of Snails
Interviewing the most important archaeologist in the history of the province of Misiones
in her own small, box-like nat on a sixth noor in La Plata, close to the Museum, already made
me nervous. Me, an unknown young student from the same province she had explored in the
19609s as a female scientist, leader of the expedition at that time. Images came to my mind
of cotton tents on the banks of 3 de mayo stream, of the dark, frond covered entrance to the
Indian Grotto like a black mouth waiting to devour them during her team9s long hours of
excavating. I remembered the rest were all men, and had smiled for the photos like children.
I wondered if she had been like a queen bee for all of them, or if her now thin pencilled
eyebrows and heavily made-up lips had exerted upon them the same fascination they had
on me as I sat on the opposing sofa, in front of two cups of cofee with dog images on white
porcelain, as fascinating as her immense body in front of me. |e pearls in her necklace and
earrings looked like small, frightened white clouds around her face, which seemed to have the
temper of a summer storm. |at she9d be so grand, so much sprawling on the red sofa, and
that her ongernails be so small and so red.
Even less did I expect to see, almost at the same time I sat down and ofered my best
smile, that there it was: a cardboard box on top of the piano, against the wall. It looked
much worn out, and was held by one of those thick rubber bands, stretched to its limit.
She immediately noticed where my glance had gone to, and without losing her teacherly
composure, said:
