Three Short Stories by Anton Chekhov — Fat and Thin, Misery, Oysters

Three Short Stories by Anton Chekhov — Fat and Thin, Misery, Oysters my wife, her maiden name was Vantsenbach, of the Lutheran Fat and Thin (1883) persuasion. .” Two friends – one a fat man and the other a thin man – Nafanail thought a little and took refuge behind his fa- met at the Nikolaevsky station. The fat man had just dined in ther’s back. the station and his greasy lips shone like ripe cherries. He smelt of sherry and fleur d’orange. The thin man had just “Well, how are you doing my friend?” the fat man asked, slipped out of the train and was laden with portmanteaus, looking enthusiastically at his friend. “Are you in the service? bundles, and bandboxes. He smelt of ham and coffee What grade have you reached?” grounds. A thin woman with a long chin, his wife, and a tall “I am, dear boy! I have been a collegiate assessor for the schoolboy with one eye screwed up came into view behind his last two years and I have the Stanislav. The salary is poor, but back. that’s no great matter! The wife gives music lessons, and I go “Porfiry,” cried the fat man on seeing the thin man. “Is it in for carving wooden cigarette cases in a private way. Capital you? My dear fellow! How many summers, how many win- cigarette cases! I sell them for a rouble each. If any one takes ters!” ten or more I make a reduction of course. We get along some- how. I served as a clerk, you know, and now I have been “Holy saints!” cried the thin man in amazement. “Misha! transferred here as a head clerk in the same department. I am The friend of my childhood! Where have you dropped from?” going to serve here. And what about you? I bet you are a civil The friends kissed each other three times, and gazed at councillor by now? Eh?” each other with eyes full of tears. Both were agreeably as- “No dear boy, go higher than that,” said the fat man. “I tounded. have risen to privy councillor already . I have two stars.” “My dear boy!” began the thin man after the kissing. The thin man turned pale and rigid all at once, but soon “This is unexpected! This is a surprise! Come have a good his face twisted in all directions in the broadest smile; it look at me! Just as handsome as I used to be! Just as great a seemed as though sparks were flashing from his face and darling and a dandy! Good gracious me! Well, and how are eyes. He squirmed, he doubled together, crumpled up. His you? Made your fortune? Married? I am married as you see. portmanteaus, bundles and cardboard boxes seemed to . This is my wife Luise, her maiden name was Vantsenbach . shrink and crumple up too. His wife’s long chin grew . of the Lutheran persuasion. And this is my son Nafa- longer still; Nafanail drew himself up to attention and fas- nail, a schoolboy in the third class. This is the friend of my tened all the buttons of his uniform. childhood, Nafanya. We were boys at school together!” “Your Excellency, I . delighted! The friend, one may Nafanail thought a little and took off his cap. say, of childhood and to have turned into such a great man! “We were boys at school together,” the thin man went on. He--he!” “Do you remember how they used to tease you? You were “Come, come!” the fat man frowned. “What’s this tone nicknamed Herostratus because you burned a hole in a for? You and I were friends as boys, and there is no need of schoolbook with a cigarette, and I was nicknamed Ephialtes this official obsequiousness!” because I was fond of telling tales. Ho--ho! . we were chil- dren! . Don’t be shy, Nafanya. Go nearer to him. And this is Anton Chekhov, Short Stories 2 “Merciful heavens, your Excellency! What are you saying. Misery (1886) . ?” sniggered the thin man, wriggling more than ever. “Your The twilight of evening. Big flakes of wet snow are whirl- Excellency’s gracious attention is like refreshing manna. ing lazily about the street lamps, which have just been lighted, This, your Excellency, is my son Nafanail, . my wife Luise, a and lying in a thin soft layer on roofs, horses’ backs, shoul- Lutheran in a certain sense.” ders, caps. Iona Potapov, the sledge-driver, is all white like a The fat man was about to make some protest, but the face ghost. He sits on the box without stirring, bent as double as of the thin man wore an expression of such reverence, sugari- the living body can be bent. If a regular snowdrift fell on him ness, and mawkish respectfulness that the privy councillor it seems as though even then he would not think it necessary was sickened. He turned away from the thin man, giving him to shake it off.... His little mare is white and motionless too. his hand at parting. Her stillness, the angularity of her lines, and the stick-like straightness of her legs make her look like a halfpenny gin- The thin man pressed three fingers, bowed his whole gerbread horse. She is probably lost in thought. Anyone who body and sniggered like a Chinaman: “He--he--he!” His wife has been torn away from the plough, from the familiar gray smiled. Nafanail scraped with his foot and dropped his cap. landscapes, and cast into this slough, full of monstrous lights, All three were agreeably overwhelmed. of unceasing uproar and hurrying people, is bound to think. It is a long time since Iona and his nag have budged. They came out of the yard before dinnertime and not a single fare yet. But now the shades of evening are falling on the town. The pale light of the street lamps changes to a vivid color, and the bustle of the street grows noisier. “Sledge to Vyborgskaya!” Iona hears. “Sledge!” Iona starts, and through his snow-plastered eyelashes sees an officer in a military overcoat with a hood over his head. “To Vyborgskaya,” repeats the officer. “Are you asleep? To Vyborgskaya!” In token of assent Iona gives a tug at the reins which sends cakes of snow flying from the horse’s back and shoul- ders. The officer gets into the sledge. The sledge-driver clicks to the horse, cranes his neck like a swan, rises in his seat, and more from habit than necessity brandishes his whip. The mare cranes her neck, too, crooks her stick-like legs, and hesi- tatingly sets of.... Anton Chekhov, Short Stories 3 “Where are you shoving, you devil?” Iona immediately apparently disinclined to listen. Putting his fare down at Vy- hears shouts from the dark mass shifting to and fro before borgskaya, Iona stops by a restaurant, and again sits huddled him. “Where the devil are you going? Keep to the r-right!” up on the box.... Again the wet snow paints him and his horse white. One hour passes, and then another.... “You don’t know how to drive! Keep to the right,” says the officer angrily. Three young men, two tall and thin, one short and hunchbacked, come up, railing at each other and loudly A coachman driving a carriage swears at him; a pedes- stamping on the pavement with their goloshes. trian crossing the road and brushing the horse’s nose with his shoulder looks at him angrily and shakes the snow off his “Cabby, to the Police Bridge!” the hunchback cries in a sleeve. Iona fidgets on the box as though he were sitting on cracked voice. “The three of us,... twenty kopecks!” thorns, jerks his elbows, and turns his eyes about like one Iona tugs at the reins and clicks to his horse. Twenty ko- possessed as though he did not know where he was or why he pecks is not a fair price, but he has no thoughts for that. was there. Whether it is a rouble or whether it is five kopecks does not “What rascals they all are!” says the officer jocosely. matter to him now so long as he has a fare.... The three young “They are simply doing their best to run up against you or fall men, shoving each other and using bad language, go up to the under the horse’s feet. They must be doing it on purpose.” sledge, and all three try to sit down at once. The question re- mains to be settled: Which are to sit down and which one is to Iona looks as his fare and moves his lips.... Apparently he stand? After a long altercation, ill-temper, and abuse, they means to say something, but nothing comes but a sniff. come to the conclusion that the hunchback must stand be- “What?” inquires the officer. cause he is the shortest. Iona gives a wry smile, and straining his throat, brings “Well, drive on,” says the hunchback in his cracked voice, out huskily: “My son... er... my son died this week, sir.” settling himself and breathing down Iona’s neck. “Cut along! “H’m! What did he die of?” What a cap you’ve got, my friend! You wouldn’t find a worse one in all Petersburg....” Iona turns his whole body round to his fare, and says: “He-he!... he-he!...” laughs Iona. “It’s nothing to boast “Who can tell! It must have been from fever.... He lay of!” three days in the hospital and then he died...

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