“Good evening, citizen!” Dounia called out in a sing-song voice, looking somewhat flustered. “Forgive me for coming here so late, but I’m at a total loss. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m not prepared for my morning class and I desperately need your help. It’s about a lesson in mathematics. The fourth graders need to be taught fractions. I’m here because I didn’t know where else to turn.”
Kulik gazed at her, incredulous. “Fractions? You came here in the middle of the night because of fractions? Well, fractions are not such a big mystery, but unfortunately it’s late and I’m ready to turn in for the night. Why don’t you come back in the morning? I can review the lessons with you before classes start.” Rising from behind his desk, eager to be rid of her, he tried to push her out the door.
“Oh, what a wonder you are.” Dounia lavished a seductive smile on him, “Are you trying to get rid of me already? Why, I just got here.” She winked at him. “Does it make you nervous being alone with a woman in the middle of the night? I won’t attack you, I promise.” She took off her cloak, plopped herself into an armchair and threw back her arms. Kulik waited for what would come next. At last she confessed, “The truth is I’m so miserable. I just had to get away from those two bulls back at my place. I’ve grown so tired of them. They don’t excite me any more.” Then, flushing, “I need someone who will bring a new kind of sensation into my life, a new kind of passion, if you know what I mean.”
Kulik saw her point at once; he knew where she wanted to take him. But he said, “You mustn’t talk of Comrades Leyzarov and Kokoshin like that. They’re upstanding members of our national Party. You could find yourself …”
Dounia looked Kulik over, and burst into a fit of laughter. “I must say you’re a strange one. You’re what, twenty-five, thirty? Here you are, a grown man, talking to a hot-blooded woman with desire on her breath and what do you do? You behave like a babe in arms with the taste of your mother’s milk still on your tongue.” Then sardonically, “Tell me, Ivan, how do you manage to stay so chaste, so virtuous?”
Kulik was now terribly exasperated. Dounia’s penetrating scent was permeating everything in the room. He had never found any woman so repulsive. “Wasn’t it mathematics you came here for?”
“Oh, Vanyoushka, Vanyoushka.” Her voice dipped up and down. “You’re a greenhorn, such a greenhorn.” Becoming more and more animated, laughing, slowly she spread out her big, fat thighs. She went on with alarming familiarity, “That’s what I find so intriguing about you. I’m here to make you an offer, a rather delicious one, I might add, one that you won’t be able to refuse.”
Kulik was at the door, fumbling for the knob. He could feel the cool wafts of air seeping through the cracks. Dounia had got out of the chair and was coming at him now with her arms wide open. He said loudly, “Dounia, this is not a good idea. I’m the school headmaster and I have responsibilities. If the villagers caught wind of any kind of indiscretion on my part I’d be ruined. No, no, you must leave immediately.”
Dounia withdrew several paces. Rejection did not sit well with her; she took great offense at what he had just said. She was determined to get back at him. With her hands on her hips she said maliciously, “Oh, I see how it goes. You’re saving yourself for that green-eyed girl, Marusia. Poor Vanya. Poor, stupid, little Vanya. You pine after her night and day, you put her up on a pedestal, and while you do all this what does she go and do? She goes out till all hours of the night with Sobakin. Where to? To smoke-filled taverns and dingy hotel rooms. Yes, your pretty little princess has fallen from grace. Her parents dreamed of a big church wedding, flowers, bridesmaids, guests from the entire region, but as it turns out your little innocent prefers the taste of vodka. It’s no secret Sobakin’s got lucky with her. Now you know — she’s just as bad as the rest of us.”
Dounia fell silent a moment, and when she spoke again her voice was completely changed. “Ivan, what I am about to say to you is for your own good. Don’t trust women, especially pretty ones like Marusia. They’ll always prove unfaithful. Just throw an expensive coat over their shoulders or place jewels on their fingers and within minutes they’ll turn into whores.”
Kulik was stunned. “Marusia … you say … with Sobakin …?” She was such a strong and independent girl with pride, dignity and character, not to mention intelligence. She would never allow herself to be victimized like that. Kulik refused to believe it. It had to be a vicious lie. Dounia was a disgusting conniver who enjoyed upsetting people. He wanted to grab her by her stringy hair and hurl her out the door, and was moving toward her when to his great horror, he read it all in her face: her small squinting eyes, the faint wrinkles on her forehead, her twisted, mocking grin, everything about her demonstrated a kind of smugness. It was possible that this detestable and repulsive woman before him was telling the truth. He felt a horrible chill.
Throwing herself back down in the armchair, flinging one leg over the other, Dounia straightened her skirt and smoothed her hair. She said with sparkling eyes, “Oh, Ivan, how nice and cozy it is in here. I could use a drink about now. I’m terribly thirsty. How about it? We could drink to our new-found friendship. Well, what are you waiting for?” Then reprovingly, “And don’t look so glum. That green-eyed hussy isn’t worth your time. You’ll be over her before you know it. Besides, she’s not the only girl around. If you haven’t noticed, I’m ready to throw myself at you.”
Dounia’s fat, flabby body, her plump arms, her vast chest repelled him beyond measure. He had to find a way to get rid of her. He considered just telling her to get out, but in the end he did not dare. Then to his own surprise a plan came to him, a plan that was brilliant and fool-proof.
“You say you want a drink?” he asked. “Then a drink it is.”
Grabbing his coat and hat he hurried out the door. “I don’t have drink in my quarters but I know where to get some. Make yourself at home. I’ll be back in about twenty minutes.”
“Now you’re talking!” Dounia called after him. “And remember, I like it hard and strong. Make sure it’s at least eighty proof!” Then beaming, very pleased, “I see you know how to entertain a woman after all!”
As the clock on Kulik’s desk ticked away, barely twenty minutes had gone by when he reappeared in the doorway; not with a bottle in his hand, but with Kokoshin at his side.
“Oh, my little dumpling,” Kokoshin rushed at her with open arms. “So this is where you’ve been hiding. Leyzarov and I were wondering what had become of you. Comrade Kulik said you came here with questions about arithmetic, but I know you better than that. You came here looking for a change, for something a little younger perhaps? But as you can see, tonight is not the night. Come back home with me. There’s plenty to drink there.”
When Dounia and Kokoshin finally left, Kulik slammed the door shut and shot the bolt. Taking a deep breath, he reminded himself over and over again to make sure that in future all doors were locked the minute school was dismissed. A reenactment of tonight’s events was something he wanted to avoid at all costs.
CHAPTER 19
Luck, it seemed, was on Dounia Avdeevna’s side. It all started with the regional pre-election campaign. Leyzarov and Kokoshin, thinking about Dounia’s late-night rendezvous with the headmaster of School Number Seven, began to fear that she was about to drop them for him. Clearly she already had designs on him, and so whimsical and unpredictable were her mood swings of late, it might be just a matter of time before she would be gone from their lives forever. They couldn’t bear the thought of losing her, she was all that mattered to them: Dounia knew what love should be, and they needed to possess her and to be possessed by her exclusively.