Short Stories

The Witch

Nightfall approaches, and in the hut adjoining the church, the sexton Saveliy Gykin lies in his huge bed, listening to the snowstorm raging outside and muttering something threatening. His wife Raisa sits by the window, making sacks out of coarse hempen stuff, and its soon becomes clear that it's to her that his grunts are addressed.

Saveliy seems to seriously think that his wife is a witch, who intentionally brings about storms in order to lure the young men who'd lose their way into the house, to seduce them. Raisa tries to reason with him, saying that when her father was alive, "all sorts of people used to come to him to be cured of the ague," and nobody accused him of witchcraft, even if he was a healer. Saveliy points out that those coming to their hut looking for help are invariably young men, 'looking for mischief'.

A distant sound catches their attention. Soon the postman and his coachman enter the hut, and it turns out, they've lost their way. The postman is young and good-looking, and Raisa asks if the two would have some tea, then tells the guest that her late father was the sexton here, then before his death he hastily married her off to somebody from the Consistory, and now the two live here in sheer poverty, because Saveliy is lazy and is 'afraid of people'.

Exhausted, the postman drops off by his huge mail bag. Raisa sits and watches him, transfixed. Saveliy jumps off and puts a handkerchief over his face, allegedly "to keep the light out of his eyes," but apparently in order to block the gaze of his witch of a wife, to her great chagrin. Full of premonitions, he wakes up the two men, but while the coachman insists they have to hurry, the young postman reckons they've missed the mail train already, and is succumbing to the soft voice of Raisa, imploring him to stay and have some tea.

Finally the two decide they should go, and Saveliy is so relieved, he runs off to help the coach driver to drag the bags. Alone with Raisa, the young man touches her neck, then, encouraged by her hot whispering, embraces her by the waist, feeling great desire overcoming him. The two men return to the house, and the postman has to go.

Saveliy departs to show the way. Raisa starts to pace to and fro, getting more and more agitated, breathing heavily, her eyes full of hatred. She sees her humble, dirty, greasy abode with the new eyes, with contempt and disgust. Suddenly she realises she might have had a better life, had she not been married to this worthless, dirty man. She bursts into tears and cries her heart out.

Saveliy returns, now convinced that his wife, who is in league with the devil, can control the winds. Yet, unable now to resist her supernatural sexual power, he touches her plait, then her neck. She responds by giving him an elbow kick right between his eyes.