VLVL2 (15): Alexei

[dedalus204 at comcast.net]

377.11:  "As, meanwhile, gently, the trees around her, the spruces tall and massive, the alders slenderer, quicker, began, in a stirring of breeze, to dance together, a sight she'd grown up with out her old bedroom window, these particular partners, Prairie was joined in the clearing by a young man so blond and by the standards of her generation foxy-looking that at first she suspected UFO involvement.  He had heard the bladebeats and her shouting, and was carrying by its neck an old acoustic guitar with Cyrillic stenciling on it, as if he'd been prepared to use it as a weapon.  His name was Alexei, and he was on liberty from a Russian fishing boat that had had to put into Vineland for some emergency repairs to its generator."


Alexei is a form of "Alexius":

ALEXIUS   m
Usage: Ancient Greek (Latinized)
>From the Greek name Alexios which meant "helper" or "defender", derived from Greek alexein "to defend, to help". A czar of Russia has borne this name. 

http://www.behindthename.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?terms=alexius


Cyrillic refers to the Russian alphabet:

http://www.friends-partners.org/oldfriends/language/russian-alphabet.html


And "stencil," of course, harkens back to Herbert Stencil in _V._.