TATYANATOLSTOYA
79
The old ladies woke up.
"Come in, come in, Serafim!" cried the lecturer. "Today we're hav–
ing an anti - Easter lecture on the evil of the so-called immaculate
conception. Have a seat, it'll do you good to listen!"
Serafim looked at him coldly, slammed the door and left. I'm against
any kind of conception. Fight, lecturer. Fight. Eradicate it. I'm above
human beings, above their fables about vulgar gods giving birth to idiot
infants in dirty cow sheds. I am pure spirit, I am Serafim!
At the store "Woodland Gifts" they had pigeons. Serafim took a
pair. Simmer in a covered pot for up to an hour and a half.
The pigeons bubbled in the pot. The doorbell rang. So . It's Magda,
his neighbor. She wants to get married. She visits Serafim under various
pretexts, the red-headed scourge! Serafim folded his arms and began
looking out the window, began to heat up. Magda sat down on the
edge of the chair, her legs under it, she never knows where to put her
hands. She likes Serafim. Vile thing! "Khhem .. "
She's thinking about how to start. She glances around the kitchen .
"You're boiling a chicken?"
"Yes."
"Khhen1."
Silence.
"I bought some pork too, you know, a fairly large piece, well, I
mean, about three pounds, I kept looking at it, thinking, should I take
it or shouldn't I, but I did ; I thought I'd bake it or something. I stood
on line a long time; when I got home and unwrapped it - all fat! All
fat!"
Fat is nauseating muck. The whole world of flesh - is fat. Fatty,
sticky children, fatty old ladies, fatty red-headed Magda .
"Ahem. I thought, maybe, I could do some washing for you, dirty
sheets or whatever. You live alone."
Go away you nauseating creature. Go away, don't soil my clean,
clear, mountain spirit with your swinish hands. Go away.
She went away.
Serafim threw out the pigeons, drank a cup of clear broth . A pure,
lean bird.
There. Get the results of the blood test; one last humiliation - and
upward! To the stars! Serafim knew the results beforehand: no traces of
filth, nothing lowly, denigrating or shameful would be detected. Not
like these others!
Serafim got on the bus. People pressed in. Careful there, those are
wings!
"You should take taxis," said a woman. But she looked at Serafim's
luminous face - and smiled. Get away, you base thing!
