The Schooldays of Jesus by J. M. Coetzee Page A

If I see he is lonely and pining for his parents I will give you a call. Alyosha will keep an eye on him too. Alyosha is sensitive to such things.’
    â€˜Alyosha,’ says he, Simón. ‘Who is Alyosha?’
    â€˜Alyosha is the man who takes care of the boarders,’ says Inés. ‘I told you. Weren’t you listening?’
    â€˜Alyosha is the young man who helps us,’ says Ana Magdalena. ‘He is a product of the Academy, so he knows our way of doing things. The boarders are his special responsibility. He takes his meals with them and has a room of his own off the dormitory. He is very sensitive, very good-natured, very sympathetic. I will introduce you to him.’
    The transition from day student to boarder proves to be thesimplest of matters. Inés buys a little suitcase into which they pack a few toiletries and changes of clothing. The boy adds Don Quixote . The next morning he matter-of-factly kisses Inés goodbye and marches off down the street with him, Simón, trailing behind carrying the suitcase.
    Dmitri is, as usual, waiting at the door. ‘Aha, so the young master is coming to assume residence,’ says Dmitri, taking over the suitcase. ‘A great day, to be sure. A day for singing and dancing and killing the fatted calf.’
    â€˜Goodbye, my boy,’ says he, Simón. ‘Be good, and I will see you on Friday.’
    â€˜I am good,’ says the boy. ‘I am always good.’
    He watches as Dmitri and the boy disappear up the staircase. Then, on an impulse, he follows. He arrives in the studio in time to catch a glimpse of the boy trotting off to the interior reaches of the apartment, holding Ana Magdalena’s hand. A feeling of loss rolls through him like a fog. Tears come, which he tries in vain to hide.
    Dmitri puts a consoling arm around his shoulder. ‘Be calm,’ says Dmitri.
    Instead of being calm he bursts into sobs. Dmitri draws him to his breast; he offers no resistance. He allows himself a huge sob, another, a third, inhaling with deep, shuddering breaths the smells of tobacco smoke and serge. Letting go , he thinks: I am letting go. It is excusable, in a father.
    Then the time for tears is over. He pulls himself free, clears his throat, whispers a word that is meant to be a word of gratitude but comes forth as a kind of gargle, and rushes down the stairs.
    At home, that evening, he tells Inés of the episode, an episode that in retrospect seems stranger and stranger—more than strange, bizarre.
    â€˜I don’t know what got into me,’ he says. ‘After all, it is not as if the child is being taken away and locked up in a prison. If he feels lonely, if he doesn’t get along with this Alyosha man, he can, as Ana Magdalena says, be home in half an hour. So why was I so heartbroken? And in front of Dmitri, of all people! Dmitri!’
    But Inés’s mind is elsewhere. ‘I should have packed his warm pyjamas,’ she says. ‘If I give them to you, will you take them tomorrow?’
    Next morning he hands over to Dmitri the pyjamas in a brown paper packet with David’s name written on it. ‘Warm clothing, from Inés,’ he says. ‘Don’t give it to David himself, he is too scatter-brained. Give it to Ana Magdalena, or better, give it to the young man who looks after the boarders.’
    â€˜Alyosha. I will give it to him without fail.’
    â€˜Inés frets that David might be cold at night. That is her nature—to fret. By the way, let me apologize for the spectacle I made of myself yesterday. I don’t know what got into me.’
    â€˜It was love,’ says Dmitri. ‘You love the boy. It broke your heart to see him turn his back on you like that.’
    â€˜Turn his back? You misunderstand. David is not turning his back on us. Far from it. Boarding at the Academy is just temporary, a whim of his, an experiment. When he gets bored with it, or unhappy, he