R.D.F. Rong - The Renaissance Man

Player: Jeff Heithoff

Rong is the son of Maillart and Annibale Rong. Maillart is a Swiss immigrant engineer, who is known in engineering circles for his bridges, structures, and innovative uses of concrete, stonework, and his dabbling into composites. His wife, Annibale is an Italian multi-disciplined artist, who is more well-known for her "life-capturing" sculptures. They coincidentially met while admiring a DaVinci exhibit when each was visiting the Louvre in Paris. (Ah, the city of LOVE!) After an extended courtship where each person refined their skills in their respectful professions, they decided to marry and move to the exciting new cities of the United Societies of America..... and what better city than Epic City?

There, their love flourished.... as well as their professional careers. Both had a hand in the development of the Merchants Union Tower - the tallest building in Epic City. Annibale was the artist commishioned to design a sculpture for the center of the grand and beautiful circular drive that accenuated the front of the building. She placed "The Ring of Seven Fountains" within the circle - with each fountain depicting one of the seven different Ancient Wonders of Pez. This endeavor was so beautifully and tastefully done, that it in itself has become a draw for tourists from around the world! Malliart was the Engineer that originally came up with the "octagonal flying buttress" fortification system that allowed the building to achieve such an impressive 122 stories. The buttresses were bold - yet unobtrusive, strong - yet, in a way, delicate,..... and without them - the building would never have been able to exceed the 108 stories of the Dodge Building, much less the 101 of Fireman's. Yes, the Dodge was "the" building prior to the 70's and it had watched over the landscape of Epic City for over a quarter of a century with no peer until Castor and Pollux (the Twin Towers) came along and tipped the scales at 123 and 124 stories in the 1970's,..... but they were no more. So now, Merchants would stand her post,.... and even though she was barely a dozen years old, this was her first time to watch out over the City alone.

* * * * * * *

Rong had the priviledge of growing up in a loving family. His parents were as wonderful as they were creative and intelligent. His childhood was normal, with the exception that both he and his twin sister (Campana) were home-schooled. Annibale was very attentive and taught both children the arts, history, and 7 languages! Maillart taught his children math, garage shop, and 7 sciences! (TV was something that the Rongs never had the burden of having, so their lives were much more enhanced with the other opportunities that awaited them.)

The children were normal and happy in every respect, with the exception that since they did not attend public school, they really never had many friends..... so they never really had alot of social interaction. But, the thing is..... they never really missed it as their family was so close and they enjoyed spending time together!

From the day they were born, both children learned at an incredible rate.... but this was thought to be due to the lack of TV. It was not until their late teen "transformation" years that the Rongs began to suspect that their children were "different".

One day, while in art class, Annibale noticed that while her son was making the most astoundingly beautiful clay vase on the pottery wheel, that he had covered his arms with the splatters of the clay. When she went to wipe away the splatters, they would not remove.... and when she began to rub them harder, her son began sobbing with pain. Upon further investigation, Annibale was horrified to see that her sons arms had become clay.... in fact, he had become like clay! Soaking in the tub did not help matters, and in fact, made matters worse as he began to become softer, so she frantically put him in bed and returned downstairs to call and inform Malliart about what had happened.

To her dismay, Campana, who had been practicing singing an operatta about a deer in the Italian woods, had turned into a deer/girl and was still singing in the middle of the living room! ........ Annibale fainted.

* * * * * * *

Over the next few years, it became painfully obvious that each of the two children had acquired "quirks" of nature. Rong would have a tendancy to actually become the material that he was intimately thinking about and working with. In addition, it seemed that the material "relented" to the desire of what he wanted it to become, and it would find its final shape much quicker than any other person on Pez could possibly fashion it into being. However, the pain of the transformations could become severe, could completely immobilize him (as when he first tried to work with stone) and would leave him physically drained after an "event". Campana had a tendancy to turn into an animal of the same size she was when she was intimately thinking and singing about it. These too, however, were painful transformations and left her completely drained after an "occurance".

As time continued to pass, the family tried to secretly cope with their challenge..... after all, these were not frequent occurances, and everybody hoped that they would just go away. However, they could not be prevented unless Rong were to give up working with the materials that he so loved to touch, feel, create, and shape..... and Campana would have to literally never sing another song again!

So Rong began concentrating upon architecture, engineering, and other forms of art where touching was not a requirement of creating. And learn he did! In fact, he began entering contests, then design competitions, and before long he was even submitting formal designs for bid with his father! ...... He was really becoming a real "chip off the ole block!"

Campana switched her focus to follow her mother's footsteps more in the arts (including sculpture for her brother) but she continued on to play the classical piano and violin pieces. She excelled, and before long she was becoming quite the "up and comer" in the philanthropic scene of Epic City.

The difficult days were behind the family!

Or so they thought,.... for one day at the dinner table, Campana began humming a little song while Rong was playing with the mashed potatoes with his spoon..... perhaps you've heard of the little song, "Rubber Tree Plant"?

Well, the next thing you know, there was a small ant at the dinner table where Campana was sitting, and a steel Rong sitting in his chair!

"Enough of this crap!" Rong shouted as he slammed his hand to (and through) the dinner table. "We've got to get some real help!"

With that, tears began to flow from the eyes of Annibale as she gazed into her husband's eyes. "It's time, honey," she choked out.

With a solemn look back, he responded tenderly, "I guess you are right my love."

Malliart rose out of his seat, went to the phone on the wall, and dialed ever so slowly. Then, after a long pause, "Mr. McKormick" he stated solemnly, "It's time."