Alena entered first. As always. Confidently, with a slight smile, as if returning to a house where everything rightfully belonged to her. A rolling suitcase, a neat hairstyle, a calm gaze. Sergey followed, tired, a bit lost, with the expression of a man glad to be back and hoping everything went smoothly.
— “Mom, how have you been?” he asked, looking around.
— “Fine,” Lyudmila Sergeevna answered. “Come in.”
Alena immediately noted the details: the mug on the table, the clean kitchen. Kirill sitting on the floor with his toys. The house looked calm. Proper. As it should be.
— “See,” she said, taking off her coat. “I told you everything would be fine.” She came closer, lightly touching Lyudmila Sergeevna’s hand. “How are you? Your head? Your sleep?”
Her voice held the usual concern, confident, practiced over the years. Alena spoke like someone accustomed to being believed.
— “It’s been varied,” Lyudmila Sergeevna replied. “Sit down. We need to talk.”
Alena glanced briefly at Sergey, then at Kirill. The boy was sitting quietly, his head bowed. Just as she had left him. Convenient. Predictable.
— “Kirill, go play in your room,” she said in her usual tone.
He didn’t go. It was so unexpected that Alena was momentarily flustered.
— “Kirill?” she repeated, more sternly this time.
The boy slowly raised his head. He looked first at his grandmother, then at his mother.
— “You said I had to be quiet,” he stated.
The sentence was simple. Without reproach. Without emotion. Sergey straightened up abruptly.
— “What?” he breathed.
Alena smiled, automatically, almost reflexively.
— “Kirill, you’re tired,” she said softly. “You’re mixing things up. Come on, I’ll help you…”
— “You said,” he continued, “that Grandma would forget.”
The silence in the room became thick. Oppressive. Even Sergey stopped breathing.
— “Alena?” he said slowly.
She took a step forward, but Lyudmila Sergeevna stood between them.
— “Sit down,” she said calmly. “And listen.”
Kirill continued speaking, as if pulling words from a long-established order within him.
— “You said that then everything would be ours.” He fell silent. He looked at the elephant. He had said just as much as he could…
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