Isaac Babel
THE SIN OF JESUS
Arina was a servant at the hotel. She lived next to the
main staircase, while Serega, the janitor's helper, he lived over the
backstairs. Between them there was shame. On Palm Sunday Arina
gave Serega a present-twins. Water flows, stars shine, a man lusts,
and soon Arina was big again, her sixth month was rolling by–
theY'I"' slippery, a woman's months. And now Serega must go into the
army. There's a mess for you!
So Arina goes and says: "No sense, Sergunia, there's no sense
in
my waiting for you. For four years we'll be parted, and in four
years, whatever way you look at it, I'll be sure to bring two or three
more into this world. It's like walking around with your skirt turned
up, working at the hotel. Whoever stops here, he's your master, let
him be a Jew, let him be anybody at all. By the time you come home,
my insides will be no good any more, I'll be a used-up woman, no
match for you."
"That's so," Serega nodded.
.
"There's many that want me. Trofimych the contractor-but
he's no gentleman. And Isai Abramych, the warden of Nikolo-Sviatski
church, a feeble old man, but anyway I'm sick to the stomach of
your murderous strength. I tell you this now, and I say it like I
would at confession, I've got the wind plain knocked out of me....
I'll spill my load in three months, then I'll take the baby to the
orphanage and marry the old man."
When Serega heard this, he took off his belt and beat her like
a hero, right on the belly.
"Look out there," Arina says to him, "go soft on the belly, it's
your stuffing, no one else's. . . . "
There was no end to the beating, no end to the man's tears
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