A Night in the Cemetery

IN THE DARKNESS OF THE NIGHT

There are neither moon nor stars in the sky. Not a shadow; nor a single spot of light. Everything is immersed in impenetrable darkness. You look and look into it, but you see nothing, as if you were blind. The rain is pouring down, and the roads are covered with mud.

A pair of horses goes slowly along the village road. Three people are sitting in the carriage: a man dressed as a railway engineer and his wife, both completely soaked, and a driver who is as drunk as a fish. The first horse trembles and goes very slowly. The second horse is stumbling and continually tries to jump to the side. The road is terrible. At every step, there is a pothole, or a hump, or a small bridge that has been washed away. To the left, a wolf is howling, and to the right there is a ravine.

“It’s a terrible road—I’m pretty sure that we’re lost,” the engineer’s wife sighs deeply. “Yes, it’s so easy to go off the road and get lost. Don’t go into the ditch.”

“Why should I go into the ditch? Hey, you rotten horse, go, go! Go on, love!”

“He seems to have completely lost his way,” said the engineer. “Where are you taking us, you villain? Can’t you see? Is this the road?”

“Yes, that means that it’s the road.”

“It can’t be the road! It’s like driving in a field! Turn right, you drunk. Now, turn left. Where is your whip?”

“I lost it, your highness.”

“I will kill you if you lead us wrong. Hey, where are you going? Isn’t the road this way?”

The horses stop abruptly. The engineer hangs on to the driver’s back and shoulders and pulls the right rein. The first horse splashes in the mud, turns sharply, and convulses oddly.

The driver falls from the carriage and vanishes into the darkness. The second horse stumbles at the cliff, and the engineer feels the carriage is falling somewhere into the abyss.

The ravine is not very deep. The engineer gets to his feet, picks up his wife, and climbs up the hill. At the top of the ravine, he sees the driver sitting on the edge of the rock, moaning. The engineer rushes over to him. He shakes his fist in the air, ready to smash the driver ‘s face.

“I will kill you, you wretch, you scoundrel!” he yells.

The fist has already moved backward, then forward, and it is halfway to the driver’s face. One second, and it will happen.

“Michael, remember Siberia and the prisons!” the engineer’s wife says.

Michael trembles, and his terrible fist stops halfway to the driver’s face. The driver is saved.