The Brothers Karamazov (33 page)

Alyosha stopped a couple of steps away from him, looking at him in surprise. From that look the boy understood that Alyosha had no intention of attacking him; he dropped his defiant attitude and spoke first:

“I’m on my own while there are six of them.” Then his eyes flashed and he added: “But I’ll get them all, one by one!”

“One of their stones hurt you pretty badly, I believe,” Alyosha said.

“Yes, but I hit Smurov in the head!” the boy cried nervously.

“They told me that you know me and that you had your reasons for aiming at me. Is that true?” Alyosha asked the boy, who only looked at him morosely without answering. “But I don’t know you at all,” Alyosha insisted. “How is it possible that you know me?”

“Leave me alone!” the boy shouted irritatedly, his eyes flaring up again, but he still did not move, as though he was waiting for something.

“All right, I’ll go away,” Alyosha said, “but I want you to understand that I don’t know you and that I’m not taunting you. They told me what they call you to tease you, but I have no wish to tease you at all. Good-by, now.”

“Monk in fancy trousers, monk in fancy trousers!” the boy cried out challengingly, still glaring at Alyosha angrily and defiantly, but taking a defensive stance as he obviously expected Alyosha to pounce on him now after this last provocation. Alyosha looked at him helplessly and walked off. But when he was only a few steps away, a rock hit him painfully in the back: the boy had thrown the largest stone he had in his pocket.

“So you attack people from behind? They were right, then, when they told me you always do things like that when people aren’t looking!”

As Alyosha was turning away again, the boy, enraged, hurled another stone at him, this time aimed straight at his face. Alyosha just managed to ward it off by raising his arm, and the stone hit his elbow.

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” Alyosha cried. “What have I done to you?”

Full of defiance, the boy waited. He felt sure that now Alyosha would attack him. But when he saw that Alyosha was still not going to do anything, he grew vicious, like a little wild animal, and himself attacked. Before Alyosha even had time to move, the boy lowered his head, grabbed Alyosha’s left hand with both his hands, and bit the middle finger painfully. He sank his teeth into it and didn’t let go for ten seconds. Alyosha yelled in pain, trying to pull his finger away. Finally the boy let his finger go, jumped back to a safe distance as before, and waited. The finger was bitten to the bone, close to the nail, the blood spurting out of it. Alyosha took out his handkerchief and tied it tightly around the wound. It took him a good minute, and all that time the brat stood there watching. When he had finished attending to his finger, Alyosha raised his gentle eyes to the boy and said:

“Well, all right, now that you’ve bitten me pretty badly, as you can see, I suppose you must be satisfied, so perhaps you could tell me at last what I’ve done to you?”

The boy looked at him in surprise.

“Although I don’t know you and this is the first time I have set eyes on you,” Alyosha went on in the same quiet voice, “I must have done something somehow to make you feel this way—otherwise you wouldn’t have hurt me like this for no reason. So tell me, what have I done to you? How have I wronged you?”

Instead of answering, the boy burst into loud sobs and suddenly started to run away. Alyosha walked slowly after him, toward Mikhailovskaya Street, watching the boy as he ran ahead of him without slowing down, without turning around, and probably still crying aloud. Alyosha decided that, as soon as he had time, he would try to discover the reason for the boy’s mysterious and puzzling resentment of him. But he certainly had no time for it right now.

Chapter 4: At The Khokhlakovs

SOON HE reached Mrs. Khokhlakov’s beautiful, two-story stone house, one of the best houses in our town. Although Mrs. Khokhlakov spent most of her time elsewhere—either at a country estate she had in another province or in Moscow where she also had a house—the house in our town had belonged to her family for several generations and the estate was the largest of the three estates she owned. And yet she came here to our province very seldom.

When Alyosha arrived, she ran out to the hall to meet him herself.

“You did get my letter about the new miracle, didn’t you?” she said, speaking quickly and nervously.

“Yes, I did,” Alyosha said.

“Did you show it to everybody? Did you spread the word? He gave that mother back her son!”

“He’ll die today,” Alyosha said.

“Yes, I know, I’ve heard . . . Oh, I was so anxious to talk to you about it, to you or someone . . . No, to you, to you. I’m so sorry I can’t go and see him. The whole town is in great excitement. Everybody is expecting things to happen. But . . . do you know that Katerina is here right now?”

“What a lucky coincidence!” Alyosha cried. “I’ll be able to talk to her now, for yesterday she insisted that I come and see her today.”

“Oh, I know, I know all about it. I’ve heard everything, down to the smallest detail, about what happened at her house yesterday, about the terrible trick that unspeakable creature played on her. 
C’est tragique
, and if I were in her place I . . . Well, I don’t even know what I’d do. But I must say, I don’t think too highly of your brother Dmitry either. Oh, good Lord, Alexei, I’m getting all mixed up. Now your brother is sitting there talking to her . . . no, no, not the horrible one who did all those dreadful things yesterday, your other brother—Ivan. He’s sitting in there with her and they’re having a very important talk. Oh, if you only knew what’s going on between the two of them at this very moment—it’s heartbreaking, a terrible story, something unbelievable: they’re both throwing away their lives for no good reason; they are both perfectly aware of it and actually enjoying it . . . Ah, I’ve been waiting so impatiently for you to come—I needed you here so badly! I cannot bear what’s going on. I’ll tell you everything in a moment, but first there’s something else, the most important of all—my goodness, I’d almost forgotten the most important thing . . . Tell me, why is Lise in hysterics? The moment she heard you coming she became hysterical!”

“It is you, 
maman
, who is hysterical, not I!” Lise’s voice trilled suddenly through the crack of a door to a side room. The crack was tiny and Lise’s voice had a catch in it—it sounded as if she were making a desperate effort to keep from bursting into laughter. Alyosha saw the crack and thought that Lise might be watching him from her wheel-chair, but he himself could not see her.

“And that wouldn’t be so surprising either, Lise—you may very well drive me to hysterics with these whims of yours! But I must say, Alexei, she’s very sick, all night she was so sick; she was feverish and moaning . . . I could hardly wait for morning and for Dr. Herzenstube to come. He said he couldn’t diagnose it yet, that we would just have to wait and see. That Herzenstube always comes and starts by saying that he can’t understand. Well, when Lise saw you approaching the house, she let out a cry, became hysterical, and had her wheel-chair moved to that room there . . .”

“But, mother, I had no idea Alyosha was coming, and it was not because of him that I wanted to be moved to this room.”

“Now, Lise, that’s not true at all. Julia rushed in to tell you that Alexei was on his way. You made her watch out for him.”

“My dearest mother, what you are saying is not at all amusing! Now if you want to make up for it and say something witty, why don’t you, my dear mamma, tell that kindly gentleman, Mr. Alexei Karamazov, that, just by coming here today, after what happened yesterday, he has shown that he isn’t too sharp and doesn’t realize that he’s the laughing stock of the town.”

“Now you’re going a bit far, Lise! I’m afraid you really need to be taken in hand, and I’ll have to do it. Who is laughing at Alexei? I’m absolutely delighted to see him—I needed him. It was absolutely indispensable for me to see him. Ah, Alexei, I am so miserable . . .”

“But what is it, mother dear? What’s the matter with you?”

“Ah, you’re so capricious, Lise, so unpredictable; you’re sick and that terrible night, with the fever and all, and then that impossible Herzenstube, always, always the same, unchanging Herzenstube! And all the rest of it, and even that miracle—oh, Alexei, my dear, I can hardly tell you the tremendous impression that miracle made on me! And on top of it all, the tragedy taking place up there, in my drawing room—I can’t bear it. I warn you—it’s too much for me! And yet, it may be a comedy rather than a tragedy. Tell me, you don’t think Father Zosima will last until tomorrow? Oh, my Lord, what’s happening to me? I keep closing my eyes and everything appears completely unimportant to me, sheer rubbish . . .”

“I wonder whether you could spare me a clean piece of rag or something to bind my finger,” Alyosha interrupted her suddenly. “I hurt it and now it’s rather painful.”

Alyosha unbound his bitten finger. The handkerchief was soaked with blood. Mrs. Khokhlakov let out a little scream and half closed her eyes.

“My God, what a horrible wound! It’s awful!”

Through the crack Lise, too, saw Alyosha’s finger and she flung open the door.

“Come here, come right in here!” she ordered in a tone that brooked no objection. “Now let’s forget all that nonsense. My God, why did you just stand there without saying anything? He could have bled to death, mother! How did you manage to do it? First of all, I want some water, quick! We must wash the wound—you must put your finger in cold water and hold it there until the pain ceases. Water, mother, get some water in a basin. Do hurry, for heaven’s sake!” Lise shouted impatiently. She was very upset and frightened by Alyosha’s wound.

“Shouldn’t I send for Herzenstube?” Mrs. Khokhlakov suggested, but Lise interrupted her.

“You’ll be the death of me yet, mother! All your Herzenstube will say is that he can’t make out what it is. We need water, mother, water, at once! For heaven’s sake, go and see that Julia hurries! What’s happened to her, anyway? Has she got lost or something? Well, go on, mother, hurry up! You’re driving me crazy!”

“But it’s nothing, really,” Alyosha said, becoming frightened himself—their fright rubbing off on him.

Julia brought a bowl of water and Alyosha put his finger into it.

“Get me some bandages, mother, some gauze . . . And get that opaque disinfectant stuff for cuts, I forget what it’s called . . . Yes, I’m sure we have some—in the medicine chest; you know, it’s in a large glass jar, and the gauze and bandages are there too . . .”

“I’ll get everything, Lise, right away, but relax and don’t shout like that. Look at Alexei—how firmly he is facing his misfortune. Wherever can you have done that to yourself, Alexei?”

Mrs. Khokhlakov hurried out. It looked as if Lise had been waiting for her to do so.

“First of all, tell me at once: how did you manage to hurt yourself like this? And then we’ll talk about something else quite different. Well?”

Feeling that Lise did not want to waste the time that her mother was out of the room, he told her briefly and with many omissions, but quite clearly and matter-of-factly, about his strange adventure with the schoolboys. When he had finished, Lise threw up her hands in despair:

“But how, how can you have got yourself involved with those boys, especially wearing that garb of yours,” she said indignantly, as if she had the right to tell him off. “You’re no better than a brat yourself; indeed, you’re as bad as the youngest of those urchins! But be sure to find out all about that horrible child and then tell me, because I’m sure there must be some mystery there. Now, for the other thing—but before we go into it, I want you to tell me this: can you, despite your pain, talk about something that’s quite unimportant, yet still talk sensibly about it?”

“I can easily. Besides, it doesn’t hurt that much at all now.”

“It only doesn’t because you’re holding your finger in the cold water. It should be changed soon because it gets warm very quickly. Julia, hurry, go to the cellar and get me a piece of ice, and also another bowl of water. Now that she’s gone, let’s get down to business. Quickly, Alexei, give me back the letter I sent you yesterday—hurry, because mother will be back any moment now and I don’t want . . .”

“I’m afraid I don’t have it with me.”

“That’s not true. You do have it with you. I expected you to say that, though. It’s right there, in your pocket. I’m so sorry I played that silly trick on you. It kept me awake all night. Give me back the letter right away. Give it to me!”

“I left it behind there.”

“But you mustn’t consider me a little girl because of that silly prank. I’m not a silly little girl and I ask you to forgive me for writing it. I want you to give me back that letter, though. If you don’t have it with you now, please, please go and get it. I want it today, today without fail!”

“I can’t possibly do it today, I’m sorry. I have to go back to the monastery and I don’t expect to leave it for two, three, or maybe four days, because Father Zosima . . .”

“Four days! Nonsense. Listen, did you laugh at me very much when you read it?”

“I didn’t laugh at all.”

“Why not?”

“Because I fully believed what you wrote.”

“Now you’re being insulting.”

“Not at all. When I read it, I thought, that’s exactly what’s going to happen. As soon as Father Zosima dies, I’ll have to leave the monastery and go on with my studies. By the time I’ve passed all my exams, we will be legally old enough and we’ll get married. And I will love you. Although I haven’t had time to think of it, I don’t believe I’d ever be able to find a better wife than you, and also Father Zosima told me I should get married.”

“But I’m a cripple. I have to be pushed around in a wheelchair!” Lise cried, laughing nervously, her cheeks turning bright pink.

“If need be, I’ll wheel you around myself. But I’m sure you’ll be well by that time.”

“You’re crazy,” Lise said nervously. “It was just a joke, and here you go and make such nonsense out of it! . . . But here’s my mother coming back and, I must say, she’s just in time! You’re so slow, mother. How could it take you so long! And here’s Julia bringing us the ice!”