God s Mills

No one in the village could recognize Jeremy. Usually friendly and communicative, he became grim and tried to keep away from people. His healthy and rosy cheeks grew hollow and pale, and his radiant and smiling eyes looked downwards, as if he were afraid to stumble. He spoke rarely, and if he spoke, he drooped his eyes guiltily.
His wife and little daughter worried much about him. They could not get accustomed to that change in his behavior. Neither could they submit... Just think, that only three weeks ago their beloved husband and father was the pride of the village — and their pride, of course. Everyone had respected him, and married women in cases of their husbands` faults usually had shown him as the best example to imitate.
That was only three weeks ago. It was summer, the weather stood dry, and he went every day to the hill glades to mow grass. His seven-year-old daughter followed him with their goats. The she-goat had just born two wonderful kids, so the girl had to look after them.
Jeremy liked his work, and everything around pleased him. Little Julia ran to him at times to show him a beautiful flower she had found or a mushroom. She chirruped to him, and he couldn`t help smiling.
Their hill was in some distance from the village, and usually no one disturbed them. Still one day they saw a woman. She was walking down the hill holding a bunch of field flowers. As she came close she said "Good day" and looked straight at Jeremy, and smiled. He answered her greeting and made a little pause in his work. Julia left her goats and came up to her father.
“Do you want flowers?”  the woman addressed the girl.
Julia held her father`s hand tightly and hid behind him.
“Such a nice child. God will bless her. Good-bye.“ She continued her way, and Jeremy followed her with his eyes.
“I don`t like her,”  the little girl was trembling next to him.
“Don`t be afraid. Your Daddy`s with you, isn`t he?”.
They returned to their duties, but the thought of the passed woman remained in the minds of the both.
It was Yadviga, who lived in the farthest corner of the village. Her hut stood isolated from all, so no neighbor could boast of witnessing her life. There were rumors, that she was not quite good. But who could be sure?
The next day at the same time the woman showed on top the hill and made her way to the two. That time beautiful flowers crowned her head. She was approaching Jeremy looking straight at him. He stopped his work and waited for her to come up. But that time Yadviga didn`t stop. She simply dropped "Hallo", passing the mower, and went away.
Jeremy expected her to turn, but she didn`t. Soon the trees hid her from his eyes.
“Why is she coming here?”  the daughter’s voice returned him to reality.
“Maybe she has some business.”
“I don`t like her,”  the girl repeated her verdict.
“Go to your kids. Look, they try to fight.”
That evening Jeremy was unusually calm. Sometimes his wife and daughter managed to elicit a smile from him, but they felt — something was wrong with him. And the episode with the woman, described by Julia to her mother, sowed the seeds of suspicion in Martha`s heart. But she was a kind woman and decided to overcome by love and patience.
No smile appeared on Jeremy`s face since then. The woman appeared on their hills no more, but the observer could notice that every day at the same time Jeremy slowed down his work and cast often glances on the path on the top of the hill. That lasted for about half an hour, and then his work acquired the previous pace.
Three weeks passed like that. In three weeks Jeremy felt that that was the day. And he observed the sun thrilling in his heart. Just before the time he sent his daughter to take water from the well.
At last She appeared. All flourishing like hot Summer. Radiant with smile and appealing sparklets in her eyes.
“How`s your work?”
“Thanks, it`s all right.”  Jeremy didn`t hear his own words.
“Why are you looking at me like this?”
“You`re so beautiful.”
“You haven`t seen my beauty, have you?”  The smile grew sly and challenging, and Jeremy felt the wave of shame. But pretty soon shame was replaced by wish to touch the forbidden fruit.
“Julia is coming. See you later.”
“When?”
“When twilight comes.”  The lizard eyes flashed good-bye, and in a moment the dim figure in the distance was the only proof, that it was not the dream.
“Why did she come again? I don`t want her to come here.”
But he wanted. Now he didn`t try to hide the truth from himself. He wanted her to come.
“Darling,” he squatted near Julia. “She hasn`t done anything bad to us. She is just like other women.”
“Don`t let her come here any more. I don`t want her to come, Daddy, please.”
What use to argue with stubborn children. Still...
“Okay. Next time when she comes here I`ll tell her to walk another way. Good?”
“Good.”
They drank water that Julia had brought from the well, and both felt relief.
That evening it turned out, that Jeremy had left his knife on the stub on the hill. He couldn`t do without it, so he went to take it. But he would be back soon.
...The woman did not appear on their hills any more, and Jeremy seemed to change back to his normal state. His kind wife was afraid to believe it, still she couldn`t abuse her husband with mistrust. So her gladness was quiet and deep in her heart.
One day Julia didn`t go with her father to the hills. She had to help her Mum with some housework. So Jeremy was authorized to look after the goats.
When he came home he found his wife alone in the hut — Julia was busy in the yard.
“Look, what I`ve brought for you,”  he held a huge pear in his hand. It looked so tasty and juicy, its peel almost transparent.
“Where did you get it? Let`s leave it for Julia.”  Poor woman was really touched.
“But I brought it for you. I wanted to make something pleasant for you.”
Are there any ways to resist attentive husbands? Of course, no. But mother`s heart will never allow a woman to take entire pleasure herself without leaving a good deal for children. So she split the pear into two parts and ate one... The piece stuck in her throat. Her tongue filled the whole mouth, eyes got round and mad. Poor woman couldn`t produce a sound. Her body became soft and she fell faint on the ground.
Jeremy was at a loss. He knelt down before his wife and whispered her name. He wanted to help her, but didn`t know how.
“Mummy, I have...”  the words stuck in the girl`s throat. She looked in terror at the lifeless body of her Mama, at her Daddy, crawling helplessly round her, and suddenly a shrill scream got from her mouth. She rushed from the hut to call for help, and the mountains filled with the desperate cry of the child.
When people ran to Jeremy`s hut, he met them with absent look. He was murmuring something, but no one listened to him. Men and women rushed into the hut to do what they could to help the woman.
Here women were in chief. They told their husbands what to do and met no objections. All worked in silence and harmony. Only two were of no use. Little Julia was clinging to her mother weeping and calling her back to life. And the sternest men couldn`t help stingy tears appearing in their eyes, when they looked at the miserable child. Another one was Julia`s father, wandering among all purposelessly and hardly realizing what was going on.
“Jeremy, there`s the sorcerer living in the mountains. We must call for him. Only he can help here.”  Jeremy saw somebody addressing him, but scarcely understood a word.
It was the chief of the village. He took control over the situation in his hands and now was going to send a messenger for the sorcerer. But first he had to let the husband of the poor woman know his decision.
He felt somebody touch his arm. It was his wife, usually meek and humble, but persistent when necessary.
“Don`t you see, that there is no one to speak to? Send the messenger, Henry. She will hardly survive.”
Uttered in a low voice, her words made the effect.
The messenger was sent despite the fact that the thunder was going to break. (In great haste and tension people didn`t notice, that evening came much sooner than usually, as grey heavy clouds covered the sky).
They did all they could. But they could too little. Now they could only pray that the old sorcerer were at home.  And soothe little Julia.
They remembered about Jeremy, but somebody told he was digging under the gooseberry-bush, and they decided he had got insane. They would look after him from the distance and not interfere.
...The messenger found the sorcerer on his way to their village.
The old man was hurrying on the path paying no attention to the thunder and lightnings. He was wet to the skin, but it didn`t disturb him either.
The old man greeted the messenger first and ordered to help him to climb the horse. "You were too slow" were his only words on their way.
The messenger, who was a young man, was puzzled, as he didn`t even tell the sorcerer about the case. But he heard that the old man knew much, so he only hurried the horse.
On their arrival the sorcerer dismounted the horse in silence and entered the hut. The crowd split in respect to give him way.
There was dead silence while he examined the body. Only unmastered sobs of Julia disturbed it from time to time.
At last he stood up and looked around from under his beetled brows. His glance reached the little girl and warmed resting on her.
Julia understood that it was he, on who her mother`s life depended now, and rushed to him. People had not expected her to do this, so they didn`t guess to hold her. And now she was near the old man, looking straight at his eyes and asking him: "Please, will you save my Mum? Will you save her? Please." She tried to catch and kiss his hands, and it was bitter for him to realize, that it was too late. He caressed her on her head with his rough palm and squatted near her. "You know, the Lord has taken your Mum to Himself. It will be good for her there, believe me."
Julia screamed, and women took her under their wings.
The sorcerer got as grim as night. He noticed Jeremy next to the exit and delayed his glance on him, as if thinking about something. Then he turned to the chief, who came up to him with the question, said "It`s too late" and went away into the thunder...
After the funeral some families wanted to take Julia, but Jeremy objected. And people agreed to leave her with him, as he seemed calm if not quite sane. Maybe his daughter would return him to life.
So they lived quietly through autumn to winter, people helping them at times. Jeremy seemed to return to his more or less normal state, and little by little the story of the family was losing the place of the first story of the day.

It was out of the blue, when Jeremy came to the chief and declared that he wanted to marry. Yes, he understood that it was hardly half a year since his wife died, but it was difficult for him to do everything all by himself, and his daughter was too small. After all, she also needed woman`s care. Yes, people really helped them much, but they both needed permanent help. Who he wanted to marry? Yadviga.
...Yadviga. Some villagers said she seemed to be pregnant, but no one was sure yet. After all, it wouldn`t be too unusual of her...
Why Yadviga? — Well, she was also alone, and they could help each other.
The chief was thinking. He remembered the day of Martha`s death, then the funeral. The tradition demanded that the widower wait not less than a year till another marriage. On the other hand what Jeremy said was not either reasonless. But why Yadviga?
Jeremy was persistent, and the chief agreed.
In a week Yadviga came to Jeremy`s hut. And soon people saw the fact — she was really pregnant. Terrible suspicions were wandering in the village. Somebody spoke of the faded gooseberry-bush, under which Jeremy dag the day of Martha`s death.
People stopped helping Jeremy, but great sympathy to Julia made them still more attentive to the poor child. All the more that they observed her persistence in keeping in distance from her step-mother.
Some villagers advised the chief to take Julia from that family, but now there were no reasons for that — Jeremy was calm, but quite all right, and no one could provide any real proofs of Yadviga`s bad attitude to the girl. It was true that relations between them were rather cold, but that could not be the ground. So Julia was left with her father again.
In the end of summer Yadviga felt childbirth coming. She was rather unwell and groaned. Jeremy tried to help her, but he was helpless himself. Suddenly his glance fell on Julia, who stood in the corner and trembled, her eyes big and round.
“Get away.”  That decision made Jeremy feel the master of the situation.
At that moment Yadviga screamed.
“Don`t... let her go...”  Her breathing was rather difficult. “Let her see... ... She will... also...”  another scream, still louder, pierced the air.
Julia wanted to squeeze away, but that time Jeremy stopped her:
“You might be useful. Sit in the corner.”
There was nothing left for the girl but to obey. Poor creature, she hid in the farthest corner and tried not even to breath.
Meanwhile screams grew louder and louder, and at times they reminded wolf`s howling.
Yadviga was suffering a day and a night, her tortures getting worse and worse. Their neighbors heard the screams, but no one came to help. Only in the evening they wanted to take Julia, but again they met Jeremy’s grim objections. So they left them alone.
The next day in the morning all black and in the fever Yadviga whispered something with her dry lips. Jeremy bent over her and understood, that she was asking to call for the sorcerer.
“But I don`t know where he lives.”
“The chief... knows...”  she had no forces even to scream.
They both understood pretty well, that no one in the village cared for their troubles. But that was too much. They were both so tired and helpless, that that was the only way out.
Jeremy went humbly to the chief.
“Jeremy, you know — that was not quite good. You broke our traditions.” The chief was responsible for observing the ancestors` law. He felt, that in Jeremy`s case he committed a mistake, and that was the retribution.
“I know. But now... Please, help us.”
The chief saw entreaty in Jeremy`s eyes, and that touched him.
“Okay. I will send a messenger.”
“Thank you.”  Jeremy drooped his head and went home to support Yadviga.
The messenger was the same young man, who went for the sorcerer when Jeremy`s first wife was dying. But now his hopes to meet the old man on half-way stood barren. He had to ride the whole distance, but in the end he found the sorcerer`s hut empty. He got no answer for his calls and decided to look for the man in the vicinity.
At last he found the sorcerer on the little glade gathering some herbs. The old man was muttering something to himself and didn`t hear greetings of the messenger.
“Ah, here you are. Good day, good day. God bless you and your parents. How are things in the village?”
The young man was rather astonished, that the sorcerer didn`t know about the case that time. But he was not the judge. His business was to invite the old man to help Yadviga.
“What use of going somewhere if you have no right to interfere? This is the Lord`s will.”  There was another astonishment caused by the sorcerer`s indifference to the case — the young man remembered too well how anxious he was the previous time.
“The chief asked you to come.”
“The chief? He`s a kind man.”  There was warmth in the old man`s eyes.  “Okay, if the chief asked me, I will go. But first I must take herbs to the hut. Will you help me, young man?”
Of course he would. They got to the hut and there the sorcerer began to sort out his herbs. The pace was rather tranquil and respectful, but the messenger felt he had no right to hurry up the old man.
And still he dared, when he felt to be forgotten about or ignored.
“Father, the twilight is coming. And it is a good deal to ride yet.”
“Ah, yes, I am going... Give me your hand,”  the sorcerer came up to the horse, and again the messenger saw no enthusiasm in his movements.
No word was dropped during their ride to the village, and when the riders reached their destination, only Jeremy greeted them, moving like a shadow in the yard. Screams and groans were heard from the hut.
It was not difficult for experienced ear to calculate, that the throat had been working for about thirty six hours. The case was really difficult. The sorcerer dismounted the horse and followed Jeremy to the hut.
There paying no attention to Jeremy`s invitations to examine the patient, he went to Julia`s shelter. The girl recognized him and clung to him. As the previous time he caressed her head with his rough palms and felt bitter tears burning them. The girl had seen and suffered too much. He was her last subconscious hope.
“Take her to your neighbors. This is not for the child`s ears and eyes.”
Now the old man was sitting next to the expectant mother and waiting. Jeremy stood aside ready to help any moment. Heavy groans grew weaker.
“Father... I can`t... give... birth...”
“I know.” The sorcerer didn`t even move at his place.  “And you know... And Jeremy knows... We all know why.”
Jeremy knelt down before the old man and started begging him for forgiveness and help.
“This is not the church, Jeremy, and I am not a priest to release you from your sins. Moreover, I am not the Lord to decide whether your baby should be born or not.” The quiet monotonous speech ruthless in its fairness germinated deep silence. But in some seconds the silence was pierced by terrible screams again. The baby was persistent in its wish to see the world.
Yadviga made one more effort, and baby`s screams changed those of her own.
When he did all the necessary actions, the sorcerer took the baby on his arms and looked at it attentively. It was a female baby, all red and crumpled after difficult birth.
“Poor baby,”  he put the creature near its mother and left the hut silently, making Jeremy the sign not to see him out. Yadviga followed him with her jealous eyes, and when he left, she pressed the baby to her breast and said to Jeremy sadly:
“He didn`t even bless our baby.”
Jeremy sat all bent. He was afraid even to breath, and when he heard Yadviga`s words his guilt seemed to bend him still twice.
“We know why,” he only echoed the sorcerer’s words. And as soon as those words were uttered, the baby started and began to cry...
The parish priest refused to baptize the baby as he declared it a bastard. Jeremy and Yadviga took it to the mountain convent, where, as people said, Yadviga`s brother served as a priest. There they had their baby baptized as Janny.
Since then the life of the family got more or less tranquil and reminded that of any other family in the village.
Time passed, and children grew. Janny was seven years old, and Julia was twice older. In her fifteen years she was as beautiful and fresh as a flower. People liked her for her kindness and modesty. And village boys used to delay their pace admiring her beauty. But they were afraid even to talk to her knowing how jealous her step-mother was to the poor girl.
Meanwhile Julia`s beauty flourished more and more. And Yadviga, whose freshness was inevitably fading, persuaded her husband to take Julia to the mountain convent under her brother`s care. "She will learn there to become a real Christian lady" — was her argument, and Jeremy did not object.

In some days Julia found herself in a cell, which had to become her home for years if not for good. That was the beginning of the new period in her life.
The girl sat on the bed and looked around. The bed and a little table near the window made all furniture of the cell. The crusifixion over the bed and the Bible on the table were the only decoration of it. A little window, half-drawn by heavy black curtains, looked blindly at the world. It looked northwards, and in some days Julia would find, that sun-rays would never share her solitude there. In the sunniest days her cell would keep half-dark and damp.
With her side sight Julia saw that the crusifixion was moving. She looked attentively at it and saw a huge spider making its way down the cross. She shuddered and shrank instinctively back. She used to see many spiders in the fields and mountain glades, but here in the dark and damp cell, traveling on the crusifixion, it produced an awful impression.
The girl realized that it would be her life now, and she had to keep herself together.
"Dear Mum. Here I am".  Suddenly she understood, that she would see her relatives no more. She would no more hear permanent cavils of her step-mother, no more serve her little sister, and no more hear grim silence of her Daddy at the moments, when she still hoped to hear his support. Only the angel of her mother would be here to support and protect her. And wasn`t that a relief?
The smile of relief appeared on her face, Julia curled up on her bed and fell asleep.
The next day the chief mother of the convent called Julia to her room right after the morning service. The girl entered the room timidly and greeted the chief mother and the priest.
“God will bless you, daughter.”  Some resemblance of smile appeared on the chief mother`s face. — “I have called you here to talk to you about your previous life and about your life in the convent, which is going to become your home since now”.
Julia drooped her head and listened to the monotonous sermon of the chief mother. She was preached to leave behind her previous sinful life and turn her face to the Lord. Try to become His real bride. And earn life in the Paradise by humble behavior, exhaustive toil, sincere prayers and fast.
“Now take off your clothes.”
Julia raised her head and looked timidly at the chief mother, pressing instinctively her hands to her breast. Stern order in the chief mother`s eyes was the answer for her silent appealing enquiry. Still less warmth met Julia in the priest`s eyes.
She procrastinated, and the two didn`t like that.
“You must do everything you are told here. Your main duty here is to obey.”
The girl felt that there was no use to resist and started taking off her clothes, doing it slowly as if trying to delay the moment of her shame. Now she stood in her underwear only, her head drooped and her hands still stronger pressed to her breast.
“Take off all your clothes. All you can bring here with yourself is your soul. And no reminder of your previous life must stay here with you.”
Julia cast one more timid glance at the conspired couple and slowly started taking off the remnants of her clothes. Overwhelmed with shame and excitement, she bent her head still lower. Her disobedient fingers could not undo the laces of her undergown.
Now she stood before the two, completely naked, shame preventing her from looking at their eyes.
A shrill sound of a bell pierced the silence. A nun came to the room and was ordered to take away Julia`s clothes and bring the nun`s garment instead. In a minute the poor girl dressed hastily her shamed body.
At last she was allowed to go to her own cell. But the girl, leaving the chief mother`s room, differed much from the girl that had entered it. Now the relief that had visited her at the first moments of her staying in the convent disappeared, and hard and dark-grey nun`s garment bent her heavily down.
She entered her cell and closed the door tightly having not found a lock. If she had not been accustomed to humiliation during years of life with her step-mother, she would burst into tears. But she knew the uselessness of it and didn`t allow her sobs from her heart.
She noticed that her poor little sack with some domestic things had disappeared and understood, that no privacy would be possible here.
Slowly, as if thinking about something, she came up to her bed. She raised her right hand to her head and touched her plait under the wimple. Satisfied with its thickness she unplaited her hair, got something quickly from her mouth and as it turned to be a little brass cross on a black string, disguised it thoroughly in her new plait. It was her mother`s present, which she permanently had been wearing on her neck, and which she managed to put detectlessly in her mouth when taking off her undergown in the chief mother`s room. The last reminder of her poor Mum.
...It was autumn, the harvest had already been collected, and the message of the first wedding in the vicinity reached the convent. Father Lerrie, its priest, had to go to the neighboring village to wed the couple. It was his season now to collect harvest.
The chief mother gathered all the sisters of the convent to cast lots as for the succession of assisting Father Lerrie in his services in the villages.
Julia`s turn was at the beginning of winter. So meanwhile she continued her routine life in the convent doing what she was told.
Yet time marched on, and soft fluffy snow covered the mountains.

When the wagon stopped in the yard of the convent a group of three came up to it and greeted the driver. Father Lerrie helped Julia to climb it, and the chief mother gave the girl her last orders.
All the way the priest kept speaking with the driver, asking him about the harvest, the cattle, about the general situation in the village. Julia sat behind them and kept silent, looking sadly at the free world round her. Hopeless despair was not a new feeling for her. But now it was mingled with some vague feeling of fear.
They came to the village just on time. The dressed couple, accompanied by numerous relatives and acquaintances, were waiting in the church yard. The bells filled the air with loud ringing as the church watchman had noticed the coming wagon from the church roof and now was greeting the priest.
The wagon stopped right before the couple in the middle of the yard, and men rushed to help Father Lerrie and his assistant to land.
The wedding was very solemn and pompous, the couple coming from rich families. Father Lerrie was in one of his highest and gave the wedded a bunch of useful recommendations. Everybody liked his sermon, and he kindly agreed to stay in the village and serve in the church the next morning.
For the night Father Lerrie and his little assistant were accommodated in a big hut near the church, which usually served for such purposes. Thankful people brought a good deal of nice food and good red wine so that the two feel comfortable.
Father Lerrie stood on the porch and blessed people coming up to get his benediction for the night. He smiled at them and accepted their good wishes gracefully.
Julia prepared their supper table and bedrooms. She moved noiselessly, but her adroit hands made order everywhere they could reach. At last she found their shelter comfortable and sat on the bench edge to wait for Father Lerrie.
People did not keep Father Lerrie long — almost all of them hurried to the wedding party. Even deeply religious old women had their duties there, so they had to stand satisfied with the shortest blessing and a splinter of a gracious smile.
Father Lerrie saw out the last of his parish and came to the hut. The candle flames were dancing on the viands, and wine in his wine-glass was sparkling like a ruby. The sight of that luxury petted his feelings, and he grew still more meek and kind. He noticed that Julia was sitting in the dark corner looking thoughtfully at the window and invited her to share his meal. So they began their supper — insatiable belly and almost transparent ethereal creature always kept half-starving.
“You eat, there is enough food for us two.”  Father Lerrie was really full of beans and words that day. He continued his confused sermon to Julia flavoring it with good wine.
Poor girl could not swallow a piece. She sat silently in her corner and looked at Father Lerrie. Drunken sparklets in his eyes scared her much and she was all tense.
“Okay. Think that`ll do.” Father Lerrie licked his fingers and tried to get up. But his belly was overfilled and drew him down, and there was too much wine in his legs. So after several failing attempts he looked at Julia.
“Yu`re... my assisant..., an`t yu?.. Wuyu... Wuyu... W-will... yu... ye-a... hak... ac-company me...”
Julia shivered with terror and abhorrence. But she was really a poor “assisant” of that monster. So she came up humbly to him, shouldered that drunken sack and bent almost to the ground dragged it to its bedroom. There she threw it on the bed, placed the body more or less comfortably for sleeping and came back to the drawing-room to make some order on the table.
She was moving automatically trying to do something about the table, but her hands trembled and didn’t obey her, and teary fog covered her eyes.
At last Julia went to her own bed-room. She didn’t light the candle and went to bed in clothes. She would be really happy to fall asleep, but something prevented her from relaxing.  As if she were expecting something.
And that happened. Her name called by a familiar voice got her immediately from her uneasy dozing. The monster came to himself after a couple of hours of deep sleeping, and now demanded that Julia come to him. Julia came and stood in the doorway.
“Come up to me.” The girl made several steps and stopped in the middle of the room.
“Light the candle, I can’t see anything.”
Julia lit the candle while Father Lerrie turned heavily in his bed and now she stood waiting for his further orders. Father Lerrie sat on the bed and looked at Julia, the candle shining between them. That look burnt poor girl. It was not merely a drunken look now. There was something awful in it.
Despite the nun’s garment Father Lerrie saw the girl just as he had seen her the very first time in the chief mother’s room — a naked young beauty, a bud just going to flourish.
The remainder of wine evaporated from his eyes, and the beast attacked the girl.
She sprang from him and wanted to run away, but in the doorway he caught her for her clothes.
“Mummy...”  They fought some seconds till Father Lerrie lost the balance and Julia managed to push him down. He fell heavily down tearing a big piece from her garment, and Julia rushed away from the hut. It was dark outside, and she didn’t know the place, but instinctively she ran from the village. In a minute she heard Father Lerrie rushing from the hut too. Apparently the hunter wasn’t going to lose his victim. Thick darkness would help Julia, but rattling snow was her enemy. Father Lerrie had good ear in the quiet night, and soon he was following the girl.
The mountain kid, she was very quick. But the hungry beast did not stay behind.
They ran some distance from the village and the moon lit up the scenery. That gave some strength to Julia, but added enthusiasm to her persuader too...  The races continued.
Julia was flying to the wood on top the hill. She felt it would be her shelter. But suddenly the air was filled with wolves’ howling, heard just from the wood. Both Julia and Father Lerrie started. They were too far from the village. And howling grew louder and louder, wolves coming nearer and nearer. One should not be an experienced hunter to calculate that there was a whole pack approaching them.
Two black figures stood motionlessly in the moonlight on the white hill glade, the previous distance kept between them. In a second numerous little figures appeared from the wood and ran to the two.
Julia stood all shivering. Her mind and feelings were frozen. She saw horror sparkling in wolves’  eyes. She understood that that was finish and knelt down in the snow, tears running down her cheeks.
Father Lerrie saw her kneeling down and remembered about God. He knelt down himself and whispered passionately words of the prayer.
Wolves came nearer. The leader of the pack came up to Julia and sniffed air just near her face. The pack kept respectfully in the distance.
Suddenly snow rattled in the wood and the leader left the girl alone and ran to Father Lerrie. None of the pack dared touch Julia, each wolf following the leader. She was afraid to believe it and looked at wolves running near her with mad eyes.
The snow rattle grew nearer and Julia saw the sorcerer rushing to her.
“Father.”  The moment he came up to her the girl fell faint and he took the body on his strong arms.
Simultaneously the mountains were filled with unhuman screams of pain and terror, wolves’ barking and angry growling.
Paying no attention to wolves the sorcerer carried the girl to his hut pressing her frozen body to himself.
And the tragedy on the glade came quickly to its end. Though stout as a huge sack Father Lerrie was not too big for the pack of hungry wolves. And pretty soon just torn cloths of the monk’s garment and black spots on the trampled arena were the only evidence of the terrible feast on the glade. And the howling pack continued their way.
They passed three villages, spreading fear and terror among people and animals, and even dogs did not dare bark.
Nothing prevented them from moving ahead, and soon they got to the forth village. There the pack formed an organized group and the leader showed them the way to one hut.  As the group approached it, they kept dreadfully silent. But the dogs’ half-tone growling was heard from the yards on their way.
At last they reached their destination and surrounded the yard. The wooden fence prevented them from getting to the hut. They didn’t like it and explored each inch of it. Until a young and strong wolf found the place where boards were rotten a little. Several efforts of some wolves’ muzzles were enough to make a hole in the fence just for a wolf to get through.
A minute later the whole pack got into the yard and started surrounding the hut tightly. A big dog in the yard moved rather by fear attacked the nearest wolf. Some pack-mates came to help their relative and soon put a fatal end to the fight.
Now they were sitting round the hut, their muzzles raised skywards. They kept silent as if waiting for some signal, and that silence sounded tensely in the night.
The clouds started covering the moon intermittently, and the wolves’ funeral howling filled the air again.
...The three in the hut did not sleep. They got up from their beds and were listening to the death. The mother held her little daughter tightly and looked at her husband. And he — he sat afar on another bed and was looking nowhere. Or inwards, his body swinging and shivering strongly. He seemed to think, if only the insane can think. He didn’t pay attention to his family, didn’t say a word. He might not even think. But see... Something he regretted much now.
The pictures changed each other in his mind, and Yadviga saw his mad glassy eyes following the slides. (In that dreadful tension her feelings sharpened and she could see well). But his waxy face did not change its mask.
The wolves continued their song.  And there seemed to be no power to stop them.
“Julia!” among the shadows of the past Jeremy found the one forgotten of the present, and his eyes grew alive.
“Julia!”  he sprang on his feet and went decidedly to the door.
“Jeremy, no!!”  Yadviga got up so intensively, that she pushed her daughter, and the girl fell on the bed. She rushed to the door not to let her husband out.
She grasped his hands trying to prevent him from unlocking the door.
“Leave me alone! I go to Julia.”
“Jeremy, please!!”  Yadviga caught his hands, and he couldn’t stand it at last.
“Leave me alone!!!”  he cried, and pushed her strongly aside.
She fell heavily on the ground and was no more the obstacle for him. The child screamed, but the scream was groanlike as she feared her father now. She just shriveled on her bed and was observing her father’s actions.
And he unlocked the door and opened it ajar. He didn’t need to open it widely to get out. His wasted away body squeezed through the chink and the snow rattled under his bare feet.
The white ghost in the underwear, he passed the wolves and went from the yard. He went his own way, and no one was in it now.
The death was keeping silent. The wolves stopped howling the moment they heard the romp in the hut. They pricked up their ears and listened to it.  And waited.
They still were waiting when Jeremy left the hut and passed them....
Then they started to intensively sniff the air. Some sweetish smell tickled their nostrils. And the child’s sobs teased their ears.
They got into the hut in succession and attacked the only screaming victim — her mother was lying on the ground and the younger wolves lapped blood running from her ear.
By the daylight the death had satisfied its hunger and ran in chain to the mountains. Little by little tense air became tranquil and even the cattle in the village dared roar and demand food. Even wolves’  footprints were soon hidden under the abundant snow, that fell in the morning. And the village was timidly coming to life again.
The snow had covered also another chain of footprints left by bare Jeremy’s feet. So when people dared visit his yard, where the cattle didn’t stop roaring, and enter his hut, that was keeping dreadfully silent, and when they saw the remnants of the tragedy, they decided that he had been gnawed together with his family. So they buried the memory of him together with the remnants of his wife and daughter in one family coffin in the yard. And left the cursed place to be forgotten.

“... Will you really not need my help today?”  asked the girl seeing out the old man. He stood on the porch, holding a spade in his hand, and looked thoughtfully at the girl.
“No, I’ll just find the places today, and we’ll dig up the roots tomorrow. And you, please, get ready with the sacks.”
“Okay,”  the girl smiled and looked warmly at the old man.  He answered her smile and turned away to disguise anxiety in his eyes.
“I won’t be long,”  he said half-turned.  “Maybe by noon.”
He went away leaving dirty footprints on the melting snow, and soon his figure was hidden in the thick forest.
The old man seemed to know where he was going. Within the three miles he had covered he didn’t stop once to look for the roots. But his hand compressed the spade     holder resolutely.
At last he climbed one more hill and stopped there for a while. He seemed to scrutinize the slope of the opposite hill.
There was nothing unusual of that slope. The same forest on the top, the same glade, covered intermittently with dirty spring snow (one could even notice the chain of human footprints on that snow). And nothing special that should attract one’s attention. And still... The old man stood satisfied with the results of his observations and started descending his hill.
In some time his easy legs carried him to the little black spot of evaporating ground among dirty snow under the forest on the observed hill. The spot was marked by two huge pine trunks lying close by each other. It were those trunks, to which the old man directed his steps. Coming up to them he put his spade on the trunks, squatted near them and started cleaning the place near the bigger trunk from rotten leaves and branches, doing it rather carefully as if there had been hidden something under them.
Apparently he knew what he did. In some time he got the frozen corpse of a man from the hole under the trunk. The man was in his underlinen and bare-footed.
The old man sat on the trunk and looked at the body. There were no signs of     violent death on it, and no grimace disfigured the face. Cold death seemed to have found him on his way.
“Have you found your happiness, Jeremy?”  the old man shook his head. He stood up  and started digging a grave for the man.
In a couple of hours he finished his funeral work and disguised the grave under the natural material again.
The old man stood near the grave resting his hands on the spade holder and looked at it:
“God forgive your sins, Jeremy. You were just the tool.” He took his spade and slowly traced his steps back.

“Father, you’re just on time for dinner.”  The smile lit up the girl’s face. “Have you found many places?”
“Yes, the harvest promises to be rich tomorrow.” The old man put the spade near the door and entered the room.
The table was already laid and they sat to dine.
They were sitting opposite each other, their hands resting on the table.
“God bless our dinner. God bless us...  And our actions.”  The old man looked at the girl and noticed, that her eyes were sad — she looked somewhere at the table, but seemingly saw nothing.
“Anything wrong?”  he asked her anxiously.
The girl looked at him and said quietly:
“My Dad came to me in my dream.” She took the spoon and played with it mechanically.  “I haven’t seen him so long.”  Anxiety grew in the old man’s eyes. “I must visit him, Father. I feel that he needs me.”
There was a little pause.
“You miss him so much?”
“I feel that he is not well. He needs me,” repeated the girl guiltily and raised her eyes again.
The old man was thinking.
“Listen to me, daughter... You will do what you consider the best. But if you allow me to advise you — don’t go there. Your father is not himself.”
“Do you know? Have you seen him? Please, tell me, how he is.”
“He is not himself, daughter. And you will not be able to help him.”
He stretched out his arm and covered the girl’s little hand with his wide palm.
“The best thing you can do is to pray for your Dad. The Lord will hear your prayers and help him.”
He pressed encouragingly her hand and said:
“Our dinner is almost cold. We shouldn’t waste your cooking.”
Timid and guilty smile appeared on the girl’s face, and they started eating.
After dinner the old man prepared special beverage from his herbs and made the girl drink it. She felt a bit tired and went to bed for a while. In a while the old man came quietly to her room and stood near her bed. He looked thoughtfully at the angel face: “Poor child. Your father made you an orphan long long ago... And you still love him...”.
He left the room deep in thought. ”I can’t hurt her by truth now. She must get strong first. And learn much... By that time it will become her deep past. And old wounds ache less.”.
He started preparing for Tomorrow.