Trafika Europe 12 - French Bon-Bons

Breathing into Marble

nursery with the sound of blood pulsing in his ears. In the spring they would ready themselves for Gailius’ epileptic seizures, sensitive to the signs. Luckily that year the signs were late, or perhaps Ilya overshadowed them. Isabel attempted to explain to Ilya what the signs of Gailius’ seizures were and told him that he should help his brother if anything happened when the adults were away. Ilya’s eyes flashed with anger and disgust. They never left Gailius on his own anyway, not even when he took the familiar path across the held to the Kurpiskiai primary school. Every day Isabel would accompany him to school and home again along the path which she herself had walked some twenty years before. ‘Next year you’ll walk to school with your brother,’ Isabel would remind Ilya. The prospect didn’t seem to make him happy. Ilya liked quiet, shady corners. In the evenings when Gailius would settle down to do his homework, Ilya would crouch on the floor in the nursery, where the light from the table lamp did not reach. With his face shrouded by the dark shadows, Ilya would breathe more easily and he would stretch out in the twilight like a black shadow. Gailius had never met a person who took up so little space. ‘It ’s like Ilya’s always trying to become smaller,’

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