1974 School Magazine

Now there was only one plane swooping and diving out there, catching the sun and sea silver on its broad wings, cavorting like a bird, Nikolai looked down at his feet - at even toes and ten shell-like nails, and his smooth slender legs. He tensed his arm, searching; let it drop. They were waliing on; arms round each other, faces close together. The waves beat and fought at the base of the sea wall, the sun was hot and moving. He felt dizzy; black hair whipping in the wind, across her back, across Alex; a little waist, and fullness -. He looked up - up into the sky and the sun and Ilyavich soaring overhead. Clouds like Plaster of Paris, boundless blue. Poul walking naked along the wall, arms extended to balance him, hair like yellow icing on a cake. ((fufs - rnsl" cried Nikolai, stretching and reaching in the air. Hair in his eyes, legs like a girl's _- "Me!" Ilyavich settled on the sea, dipping and jounc- ing, and for a moment Alex was a brown angle in the air, then he was moving through the waves like a tossed cork. "The idiot," said Nikolai aloud. Katja Molohov was coming slowly towards him, one hand trailing along the wall. She wasn't looking at him. But they leant on the balustrade side by side, and her hair blew into, his face until she caught it with her fingers and held it. There was a birthmark under her left ear, and the arm on the sandstone beside his was thin in comparison. Alex and the plane rose in a steep climb. A smile curved her lips. Nikolai moved. Their shoulders touched. Alex in the sky dived and spun, dashing the wavetops, spiralling up to white, drawing arches on the blue. "Me," whispered Nikolai. He clenched his hands. Katja Molohov looked at him with deep CVCS. "Don't you think your brother's fantastic?" "Yea," he said briefly. She was singing under her breath, a love song with French words. The pulse in her neck moved a. little, their eyes met sideways. She stopped srngmg. "Alex is training for a pilot." "Yeh. This week." Puzzlement. "Last week it was French Ambassador." She laughed a golden laugh and sang again. Alex came down and knifed a channel with sheer white walls; wet the sky and rose. "Do you want to fly Ilyavich's plane?" "One day." "Alex said you weren't interested in planes." "I'm not interested in fighting. I'd fly a plane to be part of the air, like when you swim you're part of all the oceans in the world. That's why I'd fly. But I'm not in a hurry; I haven't been part of the sea, for long enough yet." Her smile wasn't mature. ft was pretty and crooked and understanding. "I think you're nice," she said, Alex was in the water again, bobbing back. Ilyavich vanished out to sea. Alex waved. Waved again. And shouted.

Alexandrovich gave a supercilious smile, and rubbed his chin against one shouldei. "Scratch my back, Nikolai," he ordered amiably, and Nikolai obeyed. One by one the seaplanes rose in the sky and headed inland. Ilyavich dived low over the brothers Deineka and waved. Alex laughed; his mature laugh. "Isn't she a beautiful bird?" I{is eyes were bright and unaware of Nikolai tracing the clean brown lines of his jaw, and looking out to the boundless curtain of blue beyond. l'Is it harder to fly a bomber than a seaplane?" Poul was asking. "It's different," Alex replied in an authorita- tive tone, and would have continued but for a shadow that suddenly felt across them. Niko ai looked up sharply. Poul squeaked' With self- conscious' gtuce ^Aletandrovi'ch rose to his feet. "See you later," he said in an off-hand voice. "That's what's happened," said Nikolai slowly, "Ilyavich Molohov has a sister. He dr-agged his gaie from them to his small brother. "She's gone, Poul. You can sit up again. I told you you shouldn't run around in nothing, didn't I?" "Has she really gone?" demanded Poul in a muffled voice. He uncurled from his embryonic position and looked warily around. Then he laughed. "What's het name, Niki?" rKatja," answered Nikolai, liking the laste of it in his mouth, "Did you think she was beautiful?" ttNo." "I did. Like a princess . . . She must like him; I suppose that's why he's breaking his neck to fly Ilyavich's plane - to show off to her. Still - it won't do him much good to be a pilot if he gets killed." "Hey, Niki! He's put his arm round her! D you think - they're going to get married? Leo Rostovsky's big brother just got married, - you know. H6 used-to put his arm around his wife - before she was his.wife. of course." Nikolai stared straight out to sea. "They won't get married' Not for- ages, any- way." fhere was a pause, and the wind sang to the waves. "They'rd too young, and her grand- father was a count or something. So she's sort of royal." i'Love's pretty stupid, isn't it?" said Potrl, bitins his thumbnail. "I"guess no," repiied Nikolai, "I don't really know.-" He said suddenly, "are you ever lonely, Poul?" Poul started on the other thumb. "Nope." Nikolai stood up and turned. Far away he could see Alex's brown embracing arms with their rounded muscles, and the sunlit planes of his face against the backdrop of her hair, and he saw her tEeth flash white in a silent laugh' He suddenly wanted to leap into the sea. "Oh -God," he said. "Oh God'" "I'm going to get my clothes," remarked Poul, standins-up,-"ls she Iooking?" "No.; answered Nikolai wearily' "Go get your clothes." He was alone'