Fakirod by Andrei Sergueiev

FAKIROD
by Andrei Sergueiev [1958]

 Entering the fuscous room of the 'Fakirod and Son', you ordinarily saw in the depths of the shop, to the left behind the wooden counter the pointed features of a permanently unshaven and wizened man with boney palms and shoulders.  This was Ivan Isaievich Fakirod himself, an unexpectedly skinny wurster, the spider and the raven of these places.
 Sometimes there was no one behind the counter, but to the right, under an aquarium with Shemakhian goldfish, — which served to attract customers, — you suddenly noticed a pendulous fat belly and columnar legs.  And for a moment it seemed to you that the aquarium rested not on its thin rods, but on these two elephantesque legs in grey striped trousers.  However, this time it was the same Ivan Isaievich Fakirod, who himself cherished his treasure and was caught in a rare moment of thought.  For his unexpected thinness in his face, chest, and arms was matched by an even more unexpected corpulence, even swelling of everything below his waistline.
 His son, Gavriil Fakirod, who was educated in a gymnasium and inclined to science, tried to somehow explain this phenomenon by a standing lifestyle, for what he was mercilessly flogged and wasn't allowed into the house for three days.
 The fish caught the putrid air with their mouths.  Nikolai Gavrilovich came in and asked for a pound of tea.

transl. by Ed.Labintzeff