I WAS WATCHING the boys and thinking. Loukas was writing silently, his eyebrows furrowed, still angry, while Vrasidas, with his hands in his pockets, was pacing back and forth, sitting down and getting up, whistling and singing, making a fuss, trying to show that he was having a good time. But he was terribly bored. Sleepy, I followed him with my eyes, closing one eye then the other, and I pondered. Why did I dislike Vrasidas so much? What was it about him that I didn’t like? His pursed lips? His sluggish walk? Or maybe his gaze that never looked you straight in the face? Was it his flashy ties? His pomaded hair stuck to his forehead? Or simply his contrast with his cousin, Loukas? Because that contrast was great. Loukas, lean, thin, always a bit thoughtful, with his bright blue wide-open eyes that looked straight into your heart, his short curly hair, slicked back, revealing his forehead.

Vrasidas, a year older, fat, soft, sloppy, talkative, a mama’s boy. But why did all these things matter to me and why did they bother me? Why did his presence hurt me so much that I couldn’t take my eyes off him? Time passed and Loukas kept writing. In the end, Vrasidas got properly bored, went up to him and said with an air: — Come on, finish your lesson and let’s go down to the orchard. — You go alone, Loukas replied. I’m not playing with you. — Oh, what are you saying to me, he mocked. Loukas jumped up. “Now there’s going to be a fight,” I thought to myself, and I was a little happy because I knew that, although a year younger, Loukas would give him a good beating.

But he held back and sat back down at his notebook. — I don’t play with people who swear, he said. Vrasidas laughed. — Why do you care what I say about Vasilis? he said. — I love Vasilis. And I don’t accept you calling him an animal. Loukas’s words hurt me as if he had beaten me. But I didn’t say it in front of him, Vrasidas justified himself. — Even worse. You’re afraid to say it in front of him and say it behind his back. — Pfff... said Vrasidas, a scoundrel... This time Loukas couldn’t hold back and attacked him.