Text | Turgenev
I walked alone in the vast wilderness.
Suddenly, I felt as if there were soft, careful footsteps behind me.... Someone is stalking me.
I looked back—and saw a short, hunched old woman, all wrapped in ragged gray. Only the old woman's face emerged from her ragged clothes: it was a sallow, wrinkled, pointed nose, toothless face.
I walked up to her.... She stood still.
"Who are you?" What do you want? Are you a beggar? Are you waiting for handouts? ”
The old woman did not answer. I leaned over to look at her and saw that both of her eyes were covered with a translucent, whitish membrane like some birds usually have: birds used it to protect their eyes from being stimulated by strong light.
However, the old woman's membrane did not move, not letting the pupils be exposed... So I concluded that she was blind.
"Are you asking for handouts?" I asked repeatedly. "Why are you following me?" However, the old woman still did not answer, but shrank slightly.
I turned to avoid her and continued on my own path.
At this time, I heard the soft, even footsteps behind me, as if quietly walking.
"It's this old woman again!" I thought. "Why does she keep pestering me?" But I immediately thought, "Probably because she was blind, she got lost, and now she is following my footsteps, and wants to walk with me to a populated place." Yes, yes; that's right. ”
But a strange uneasiness gradually caught my thoughts: I began to feel that the old woman was not only following me, but also guiding me, and she was pushing me to the right for a while, and to the left for a moment, and I also obeyed her involuntarily.
I kept walking.... But, you see, on the road I was walking in front of me, something was blackening and expanding... Seems like a pit.... "Grave!" A thought flashed through my head. "You see, she's going to figure out where to push!"
I hurriedly turned back.... The old woman was in front of me again.... But this time she could see it! Her big, fierce, cold eyes like birds of prey looked at me.... I approached her face and looked into her eyes... It is also a film without luster, the same is a blind, dull face....
"Ouch!" I thought...," this old woman formally incarnated my destiny. That is a fate that man cannot escape! ”
"Can't escape! Can't escape! What's worth going into a mental disorder? ...... Should give it a try. So I ran in the other direction.
I hurriedly walked.... But the soft footsteps still rustled behind me, very close, very close. So in front of it, another black pit appeared.
I turned again and walked toward the other side.... There was the same rustling sound in the back, and a terrible black hole in front of it.
I was like a hare being chased, wherever it went,...... It's all the same, the same!
"Stop!" I thought, "Let me lie to her!" I'm not going anywhere! So I immediately sat down on the ground.
The old woman stood behind me, two steps away from me. I couldn't hear her voice, but I could feel her there.
Suddenly, I saw that the black hole in front of me was moving, moving toward me!
Gosh, I look back.... The old woman was staring at me—and, with her toothless mouth, she was smiling...
"You won't be able to escape!"