Untitled Project on Sibling Actors, Part Two

Laurent rolls over on his belly to tan his back. Brother opens his eyes and gets a glimpse of the mosaic that is rigidly frontal. Space, especially the space of the mosaic's sky, is replaced here with golden square cuts of glass imbedded into the cement. The image of __________ is thus intentionally distanced from any correspondence with reality, almost more Byzantine in its transcendent qualities than Roman. Sister speaks again:
 --Oh, don't act so helplessly dejected.   
  Martha comes back to Sister with a folded white towel. Sister thanks their dutiful maid for all her hard work and tells her that she can take off early. She will not be needed anymore today. Sister gives up on trying to persuade her Brother to come claim his gin and tonic, so she brings it over and sets it down two feet away from his left hip at an easy arm's length.
 Laurent studies this afternoon scene in the backyard with his natural gift of rare attention to detail. He thumbs the bronzy-green abdomen of a dying Orange-spotted Emerald Dragonfly. He imagines that its large and bright, multifaceted eyes take in the image of himself, blown up into a gargantuan viewing angle. He wonders if the dragonfly dies in fear of Laurent the large and clumsy predator. Laurent fragments time and splices into the flow of what most would agree are trifling incidents his own discursive reflections and reconstructs a mise-en-scène that he can claim as his own.
 At a distance, Sister talks about dinner plans. She will tell the cook to pan-sear a fish and sauté some sea scallops. There is the tapenade from yesterday that surely has only gotten better overnight as the olive oil has had more time to allow the flavors of the olives, capers, and anchovies to blend more smoothly with the olive oil and garlic. Bread, do we have bread? Their friends, the Cornishes, are traveling from London and will be staying the night in one of the vacant suites at the siblings' mansion. Sister tells Laurent also to forget about the script. She probably will decline the offer. Brother takes a sip of his drink and hopes that he has not mistaken the day.