He’s sitting unnaturally, I would even say tensely. I think he simply fears for his skin.
The boy was right. The sheaves of sparks that flew out of the stove brought a distinct disquiet to the wolf. Only when the fire had settled into an even, complete burning did the wolf sprawl out on the floor and lay his head on his paws like a dog.
For what you have tamed, you become responsible forever, Christofer said, stroking the wolf.
At times, Arseny saw his own face when he looked inside the stove. It was framed by gray hair that was gathered on the back of his neck. His face was covered with wrinkles. Despite the dissimilarity, the boy understood it was a reflection of himself. Only many years later. And under different circumstances. It was the reflection of someone who is sitting by a fire and sees the face of a light-haired boy and does not want the person who has entered to disturb him.
The person entering the room shifts from foot to foot at the threshold and, placing a finger to his lips, whispers to someone over his shoulder that the Doctor of All Rus’ is busy now. He is observing the flame.
Let her in, Melety, says the old man, not turning. What do you want, O woman?
I want to lyve, O Doctor. Helpe me.
And you do not want to die?
There are those who want to die, explains Melety.
I have a son. Take pity on him.
Is he like that one? The old man points at the mouth of the stove, where the image of a boy is discernible in the contours of the flame.
There is no reason for you to kneel, my lady (Melety is agitated and gnawing his nails). He does not like that.
The old man tears his gaze away from the flame. He approaches the kneeling princess and sinks to his knees alongside her. Melety walks out, backwards. The old man takes the princess by the chin and looks into her eyes. He wipes her tears with the back of his hand.
You, O woman, have a tumor in your head. That is why your vision is worsening. And your hearing is dulling.
He embraces her head and presses it to his chest. The princess hears the beating of his heart. The labored, elderly breathing. Through his shirt, she feels the coolness of the cross he wears around his neck. The rigidity of his ribs. She herself is surprised she notices all this. Behind the closed doors, Melety is cutting splinters from logs so they may be burned as lamps. There is no expression on his face.
Believe in the Lord and His Most Blessed Mother and ask their helpe. The old man’s dry lips touch her forehead. And your tumor will shrink. Go in peace and grieve no more.
Why do you weep, O Arseny?
I weep from joy.
Arseny wordlessly turns to the wolf. The wolf licks away his tears.
Man was created from dust. And will turn to dust. But the body that is given to him for the duration of his life is splendid. You must know the body as well as possible, O Arseny.
That is what Christofer said as he embalmed Andron Novgorodets before sending the deceased off to his homeland. Christofer was rubbing cedar resin mixed with honey and salt into Andron’s skin at one of the bathhouses in Rukina Quarter. Andron’s whole body shuddered every now and then from Christofer’s touch and seemed alive. Reinforcing that impression was the deceased’s large member, which did not seem to correspond to Andron, who was short of height though firmly built. Arseny thought Andron would stand up at any minute, thank Christofer for his troubles, and go outside for fresh air. But Andron did not stand. After a nighttime fight, he lay with a fractured skull and the first corpse-spots on his back. The out-of-towner Andron had taken an interest in the girls of Rukina Quarter (that was just yesterday). That caused the fight. Today Andron was preparing for his final journey to Novgorod.
God’s boundless wisdom is reflected in the small human body (said Christofer) like the sun in a drop of water. Each organ is thought out down to the smallest detail. The heart, for example, nourishes the whole body with blood and they say our feelings are concentrated in the heart, which is why it is securely protected by the ribs. The teeth are of hard bone because they chew, the tongue recognizes taste and that is why it is as soft and porous as a sponge, and the ear was created in the form of a shell to catch flying sounds. And protruding ears, by the way (Christofer ran a finger along Andron’s ear), are a sign of empty talk. But there is also an inner ear that is not visible. It leads sounds from the outer ear to the brain, and the brain turns the sounds into speech. Vessels from the eye go to the brain, too, and so the brain also turns letters into words. The brain is the body’s tsar and it is at the very top because—of all earthly beasts—only man is a rational being and walks upright. His incorporeal thinking, located within the body, ascends to the heavens and comprehends the perfection of this world. The mind is the soul’s eyes. When those eyes are damaged, the soul becomes blind.
What is a soul? Arseny asked.
It is what the Lord breathes into a body, what distinguishes us from rocks and plants. The soul makes us living beings, O Arseny. I compare the soul to a flame that originates in an earthly candle but has no earthly nature as it strives skyward, toward its kindred elements.
If a soul makes something alive, does that mean animals have them? Arseny pointed at the wolf, who stood alongside them.
Yes, animals have souls but the soul is kindred to their bodies and contained within their blood. And, mind you: people did not eat animals until the flood, they spared their souls, for an animal’s soul dies with its body. A human’s soul, though, is of a completely different nature from the body and does not die with the body, for the human soul cometh from nothing else but the Creator Himself and was inspirited by His grace.
What fate is judged for human bodyes?
Our body disintegrates into dust. But the Lord, who created the body from the dust, can make our disintegrated bodye come together. And as you know, it only seems to us that the body decomposes without a trace, that it mixes with other elements, becoming soil, a river, grass. Our body, O Arseny, is like quicksilver that lies broken into tiny beads on the earth but does not mix with the earth. It lies there by its lonesome until some skilled craftsman comes and collects it all, putting it back into a vessel. And that is how the Almighty will collect our decomposed bodies again for the universal resurrection.
Thanks to Christofer’s labors, the decomposition of Andron’s body was halting. The body had a dull gleam and gave off the scent of cedar. It was improbably white. The exceptions were the face and the arms up to the elbows, which preserved traces of a recent tan. After he finished rubbing in the embalming ointment, Christofer began winding Andron in linen strips. He ripped them with a loud tear from a piece of fabric he had been brought with him, moistening them in the ointment and tightly pressing them to the body of the deceased. Andron did not resist. His eyelids, loosely closed, lent him a sarcastic and even somewhat reckless look. It seemed Andron was chuckling at the perspiring Christofer’s efforts. It was as if he was letting it be known with all his person that he would certainly make it to Novgorod under any circumstances.
Christofer did not look at Andron’s face. He wrapped his body, strip by strip, tightly knotting the ends.
Since the conversation had already turned to the body, Christofer said, I’ll tell you how children are conceived. After all, you are no longer a child anymore, and it is time for you to know that ever since the time of the Fall of Adam and Eve, people are no longer created by the Lord but give birth to their children themselves. Later they die because they acquired the gift of death along with the gift of birth. A child is conceived from male seed and female blood. Male seed gives the firmness of bones and sinews, and it is female blood that gives flesh its softness. Blood, as you know, is red and flows through the blood vessels but male seed is located here (Christofer points out Andron’s large balls as he wraps them up against Andron’s thigh) and it is white.