“Yes, yes…” Vasilii Petrovich answered in a way that made it clear that he didn’t hear Artiom’s words. He put his basket on the ground and silently gathered the berries that he had dropped.
“You’re tottering from hunger,” said Artiom, looking from above at Vasilii’s cap. It wasn’t clear whether or not he was joking. “The sixth hour has chimed already. A lavish meal awaits us. What do you think? Potatoes or buckwheat today?”
A few more members of the berry brigade pulled themselves towards the road from the forest.
Without waiting for the infernal drizzle to end, Vasilii Petrovich and Artiom walked towards the monastery. Artiom limped a little. While he was gathering berries he had twisted his ankle.
He was no less tired than Vasilii Petrovich. To add insult to injury, Artiom obviously had come short, once again, of his quota.
“I won’t do this work anymore,” said Artiom quietly, oppressed by the silence. “To hell with these berries. I’ve eaten enough for a whole week, but I get no joy from it at all.”
“Yes, yes…” repeated Vasilii Petrovich once again, but he finally managed to grab a hold of himself and answered unexpectedly, “At least it was without the guards. A whole day not seeing those black hat-bands, nor those stool pigeons, nor the ‘leopards’ Artiom.”
“Plus my ration is gonna be halved, I won’t have a second portion at lunch,” parried Artiom. “Alas for my boiled cod!”
“I could always give you some of mine,” offered Vasilii Petrovich.
“Then we both won’t have met our quota.” Artiom laughed quietly. “That will hardly make me happy.”
“You know how hard it was for me to get today’s job… at least it’s not uprooting trees, Artiom.” Vasilii Petrovich grew a little more animated. “By the way, have you noticed what else isn’t in the forest?”
Artiom had noticed something for sure, but he couldn’t for the life of him understand what it was.
“Those thrice-damned seagulls don’t scream there!” Vasilii Petrovich actually stopped and, after considering, ate a single berry from his basket.
In the monastery and in the port, you could hardly walk through the clouds of seagulls, but it was the icebox for anyone who killed a seagull. The director of the camp, Eichmanis, for some reason treasured the shrieking and obnoxious breed of the Solovki gull. It didn’t make any sense.
“Bilberries have iron, chromium and copper,” Vasilii Petrovich shared his knowledge, having eaten another berry.
“For some reason I feel like I’m the bronze horseman,” said Artiom gloomily. “And the chromium horseman.”
“Besides, bilberries improve your eyesight,” said Vasilii Petrovich. “You see that star on the church?”
Artiom looked.
“So?”
“How many points does it have?” asked Vasilii Petrovich, completely seriously.
Artiom stared for a moment, then understood everything; Vasilii Petrovich saw that he understood and they both giggled.
“It’s good that you only nodded significantly but didn’t talk to Eichmanis. Your whole mouth is black with bilberries,” said Vasilii Petrovich through his laughter, then they laughed twice as hard.
While they looked at the star and laughed at what it meant, the berry brigade overtook them, and everyone considered it necessary to peek into the baskets of those already standing on the road.
Vasilii Petrovich and Artiom remained a little apart from the rest. Their laughter quickly died, with Vasilii Petrovich suddenly turning severe.
“You know, it’s a shameful, abominable trait,” he said heavily and with distaste. “It’s not enough that he just decided to have a chat with me, he even spoke to me in French! I’m immediately ready to forgive him for everything. Even to love him! I will now come and swallow that foul brew, then I will climb to my bunk to feed the lice. But he will eat meat, then they’ll bring him the berries that we gathered. And he will wash down the berries with milk! I really should, forgive me most graciously, spit in these berries. But instead I’m carrying them with gratitude for the fact that this person can speak French and condescend to my level! But my father spoke French too! And German, and English! And what cheek I gave him! How I humiliated my father! Why didn’t I give him cheek, me and my old bones? How I hate myself, Artiom! Devil take me!”
“Enough, enough, Vasilii Petrovich, stop it.” Artiom’s laugh was different now. He had managed to come to love these monologues over the past month.
“No, it’s not enough, Artiom,” said Vasilii Petrovich strictly. “Here’s what I’ve come to know. The aristocracy, it’s not the blue blood, not at all. It’s just that people ate well from generation to generation. The serf girls gathered berries for them, made their beds and washed them in the banya, then brushed their hair out with а comb. They washed off and brushed up so much that they became the aristocracy. Now we’ve been dumped in the mud, but they’ve taken the high places. They’re well fed; they’re washed; and they… well, perhaps not they, but their children… also, will become the aristocracy.”
“No,” answered Artiom and walked on, rubbing off the raindrops from his face in a frenzy.
“You don’t think so?” asked Vasilii Petrovich, catching up with him. His voice rang with an evident hope that Artiom was right. “In that case, I think I’ll eat another berry. You eat one too, Artiom. My treat. Here, even take two.”
“Forget it.” Artiom waved him off. “You don’t have any pig lard, do you?”
The closer they got to the monastery, the louder the gulls became.
The monastery was angular, with extravagant angles, untidy in its horrible ruined state.
Its body had been burned out, all that was left was moving wind and mossy boulders for walls.
It rose so heavy and huge, as though it were built not by weak mortals, but all at once, its stone body falling from the heavens whole and catching those who ended up here in a trap.
Artiom didn’t like to look at the monastery. He wanted to quickly pass through the gates and be inside.
“Already two years I’ve been scraping by here, and still, every time I enter the Kremlin, my hand itches to make the sign of the cross,” shared Vasilii Petrovich, furtively.
“Then cross yourself,” answered Artiom in a full voice.
“Towards the star?” asked Vasilii Petrovich.
“The church,” Artiom cut him off. “What difference does it make? Star, no star… The church is still standing.”
“But what if they break off my fingers? Better not anger the idiots,” said Vasilii Petrovich after a pause; he even hid his hands deeper in the sleeves of his jacket. Under his jacket he wore a shabby flannel shirt.
“… meanwhile, there’s a crowd in the church, five minutes from sainthood, filling up the three-story bunks…” Artiom said, finishing his thought. “Or even more, if you count under the bunks.”
Vasilii Petrovich always crossed the courtyard quickly with downcast eyes, as though he were trying not to accidentally attract anyone’s attention.
Old birches and lindens grew in the courtyard, even though above all of them stood poplars. Artiom especially liked the rowan tree. The inmates tore off generous bunches of berries to eat, steeped in hot water or to just chew something sour, but it turned out to be unbearably bitter. Now, only a few bunches remained on the top of the tree, and for some reason this reminded Artiom of his mother’s hairstyle.