Vladimir Orlov - Danilov the Violist

One of the links of the bracelets had an artistic engraving of the letter S, while the neighboring one had an E. As soon as Danilov used his finger or his will to move the S link a bit forward, he immediately changed to the demon state. A movement of the E link returned Danilov to the human condition. Danilov did not have the right to be demon and human simultaneously. There were many strict rules and limitations in the agreement. Danilov at first pretended he could not keep them all in his head, but they reminded him.

For a long time they tried to figure out which assignment to give Danilov. He was regarded as being incapable of handling important affairs. Danilov decided to outsmart the bureaucrats and find himself a job that wasn't too vile at the same time. He secretly began sending off Earth jokes, highly valued in The Nine Layers, to the Directorate of Mental Amusements. These jokes were passed on to the Chancery of Pleasures. Once he forgot to send his usual trunk of jokes to the Directorate and immediately got a severe reprimand. They even demanded an explanatory note. Danilov told them that the shipment was held up because Earth jokes had to be soaked patiently in a special solution to make them really good -- a discovery Danilov had made only recently. Soon after he received a warm letter from the Directorate; it praised Danilov and told him that his jokes were very popular -- in fact, they were the height of fashion! That made Danilov daring. He wrote back about the pathetic conditions under which he soaked the jokes and asked them to build a special apparatus -- drawing enclosed. Danilov also asked for a couple of jars of mustard -- to strengthen the solution (actually he was expecting the Muravlyovs for a pelmeni* dinner). Danilov never saw the mustard -- it was hard to get for the Directorate, too. He was advised to buy mustard plasters at his own expense in drugstores for the purpose. But they did build him a fine apparatus. It was a marvel, sparkling and transparent, with shells and stones and batteries for heating the water.

Everything was going smoothly. Danilov seemed to have a job. He could live and play the viola. But it turned out that the Chancery of Pleasures was the only one pleased with him. From the point of view of the Chancery of the Other World he was goofing off, getting away with too much, and breaking the rules too often. And so he was. Danilov was called in. To teach him a lesson, he was assigned to the Ostankino house spirits in his neighborhood. Any other demon would lose sleep over the disgrace: to assign a demon to house spirits! But Danilov didn't mind. At first, of course, he was upset, but then one night he dropped in at a meeting at Argunovskaya Street, and he found the house spirits convivial. So he didn't lift a finger to change his humiliating position.

The bustle of human life engulfed him once more. He shrugged off their threats and warnings and decided to let life take its course. Then he got his! The messenger Valentin Sergeyevich, or whoever he really was, appeared and handed him the shiny summons with the crimson symbols for Time X. Now, Danilov lay in the damp cave in the Andes on the jaguar skin and could find no way out of his sad plight. "They're giving me time to come up with something," thought Danilov. "One last deadline, but at least they're giving it to me. Otherwise they would have hauled me into court... They want me to make a choice... This isn't the end, yet... I'll come up with something... Not right now ... later ... later ..."

These considerations calmed Danilov a bit, and making himself a definitive promise to come up with a plan of action in the next few hours, he fell asleep on his stone bed. Only to awaken quickly.

"I have to decide," Danilov thought at once. "I have to come up with something ... right now..."

And like the shimmer of mother of pearl on an oyster shell, like the breath of Aeolius, gentle Himeko appeared, barely moving the cave's damp air, anemones in her hand. She was the eternal priestess and prophetess, Nature's most refined creature, Danilov's longtime love. The pistachio of her silk kimono caressed the gravel of the cave floor, and she bowed to Danilov and placed the anemones at the foot of his bed. Danilov sat up in embarrassment, his feet dangling. Himeko stood in silence, with her head bowed meekly. Danilov admired her. However, her appearance now was rather untimely. Once there had been a great passion between them, a passion that made the ice melt in the Himalayas and swelled great rivers. There was a time when Danilov trembled as he hurried to his assignations with Himeko, but now he was calm. Once he had wanted to settle forever with her in the foggy mountains on the island of Honshu. But Himeko had merely pressed her finger to her lips and shook her head. Instead, Danilov accepted the custom she called tsumadoi, which meant he could fly to her on the wings of love only when she summoned. And for the romantic Danilov of those days with his impetuous nature, it was torture to sit around like a fool and await that summons, to visualize Himeko's soft, rounded shoulders, her flawless breasts, the languorous dance of her delicate, pliant arms. How long ago that was! If one could return to the intoxicating flights of youth!

Himeko still stood silently looking at Danilov. She was as submissive as his slave. A feeling of pity moved Danilov. His right foot began to reach for the stone floor of its own volition. But Danilov immediately caught himself: "No! Under no circumstances! No time for women!... How can you make an important decision with them around?" Danilov froze in that ludicrous position, his right foot touching the floor.

Something, new -- anxiety, even fear showed in Himeko's eyes. She had foreseen something in Danilov's fate. Her birdlike kimono sleeves fluttered, and she cried out. With her arms outstretched before her, she took several steps back into the gloom of the cave and froze in a trance. Then, returning from nowhere, she softly clapped, and the shoulder blade of an elk appeared in her little hands. A steady blue flame ignited at her feet and off to one side appeared a large stone bowl with ice water. Himeko carefully lowered the elk bone into the blue flame and knelt before the fire. A mysterious, melodious sound filled the cave. Danilov sat motionless, holding his breath, afraid to interfere with Himeko's fortune-telling. The elk bone grew hot. Himeko lifted it with her tender fingers, held it aloft for an instant, and then threw it into the ice water. With a horrible hissing and mysterious new sounds, no longer melodious but tense, the cave was enveloped in steam. Danilov's eyes watered and ears tingled, and Himeko threw a cake of kagimimota along with a snake shedding its skin into the bowl. The hissing stopped, the steam evaporated, and Himeko silently examined the elk bone to read Danilov's fate in the cracks that appeared on it. Suddenly she reeled, hurled the bone down on the stones, glanced horror-stricken at Danilov, screamed "Dzisai!" -- and disappeared.

"Wait! Don't! Don't go!" Leaping from his bed, Danilov called after Himeko.

But it was too late.

Danilov had never taken Himeko's many superstitions seriously. Her naive methods he considered really inappropriate for the modern age, but he never said anything to her -- for gentle Himeko was stubborn and he always respected the foibles of others. But now, because of Danilov, his dzisai -- or bearer of sorrows -- might perish! In keeping with ancient tradition, Himeko had turned one of her relatives into Danilov's dzisai to spare her beloved Danilov his sorrows and disasters. All Danilov's problems, according to Himeko's theory, were supposed to befall the dzisai instead. This poor dzisai could no longer go to the baths or barbershop, his Phillips shaver had been taken away from him, he could eat no meat, not even canned goods, and he had lost the right even to look at women. But even worse things awaited him. If any disaster did befall Danilov, Himeko immediately would blame the dzisai and kill him, thereby easing Danilov's fate. At this moment Himeko was off to kill his dzisai with a crooked samurai sword, while Danilov, no matter how much he was against this barbarous custom, could not change a thing. He knew that all too well and sat sorrowfully in the cave. "Things must be bad for me," he thought. "Maybe there is no way out..."