For Alyosha

[returntheticket]

The day is warm and inviting; the air conditioning in the Mansion is cold. Ivan takes himself out to the lake, meaning to contemplate Solzhenitsyn's accounts of the next century but instead entranced by the way little minnows dart in the shallows. He finds himself overcome with a kind of languor. He promises himself that he is only resting his

Comments

[tinylittleonion]

It strikes him, because he has never seen his brother peaceful -- seen him cool, reserved, yes, but that's the opposite of peaceful, for all that they have the same outward stillness -- and for a long moment Alyosha doesn't speak, doesn't think to, only stands close by as though to watch over (with eyes expectant, soft, very like an angel's).

[returntheticket]

At some point, Ivan will yawn and shift, not quite waking although his eyelids flutter as though he might at any moment.

[tinylittleonion]

Alyosha smiles at how indecorous the yawn looks on him, rolled sleeves and all, and sits beside him, leaning to kiss his forehead.

[returntheticket]

That wakes him--slowly; he squints at the unexpected sunlight and the shadow of his brother both. "What time is it?" he says, and that's half a yawn in itself.