Part 2: Another Country
Chapter 8
Tennessee, twenty years earlier
“We must make ourselves very small, Tyler,” Dimi said to Alexey. “We must make ourselves small and light like Tinkerbell in Peter Pan, so that we can fly away and only show our light to those who truly believe in us. Can you do that?”
It was hopeless. Tyler—for that’s what their parents had renamed Alexey—would rock back and forth uncomprehending, lost to the world and lost in his. At first, Carter, as their parents had renamed Dimi, couldn’t understand why Alexey didn’t respond. Dimi wondered if he were doing it on purpose to irritate Mama and Daddy and thus make an unhappy situation even more miserable since Alexey’s unresponsiveness—punctuated by occasional outbursts and tantrums in which he would bang his head agains
