The Master and Margarita
Margarita.
With a completely unburdened soul, Margarita came flying into the bedroom, and after her ran Natasha, loaded down with things. At once all these things — a wooden hanger with a dress, lace shawls, dark blue satin shoes on shoe-trees and a belt — all of it spilled on the floor, and Natasha clasped her freed hands.
“What, nice?” Margarita Nikolaevna cried loudly in a hoarse voice.
“How can it be?” Natasha whispered, backing away. “How did you do it, Margarita Nikolaevna.”
“It’s the cream! The cream, the cream!” answered Margarita, pointing to the glittering golden box and turning around in front of the mirror.
Natasha, forgetting the wrinkled dress lying on the floor, ran up to the pier-glass and fixed her greedy, lit-up eyes on the remainder of the cream. Her lips were whispering something. She again turned to Margarita and said with a sort of awe: “And, oh, the skin! The skin! Margarita Nikolaevna, your skin is glowing!” But she came to her senses, ran to the dress, picked it up and began shaking it out.
“Leave it! Leave it!” Margarita shouted to her. “Devil take it! Leave it all! Or, no, keep it as a souvenir. As a souvenir, I tell you. Take everything in the room!”
As if half-witted, the motionless Natasha looked at Margarita for some time, then hung on her neck, kissing her and crying out: “Satin! Glowing! Satin! And the eyebrows, the eyebrows!”
“Take all these rags, take the perfume, drag it to your trunk, hide it,” cried Margarita, “but don’t take any valuables, they’ll accuse you of stealing.”
Natasha grabbed and bundled up whatever came to her hand — dresses, shoes, stockings, underwear — and ran out of the bedroom.
Just then from somewhere at the other end of the lane a thundering, virtuoso waltz burst and flew out an open window, and the chugging of a car driving up to the gate was heard.
“Azazello will call now!” exclaimed Margarita, listening to the waltz spilling into the lane. “He’ll call! And the foreigner’s not dangerous, yes, I understand now that he’s not dangerous!”
There was the noise of a car driving away from the front gate. The garden gate banged, and steps were heard on the tiles of the path.
“It’s Nikolai Ivanovich, I recognize his footsteps,” thought Margarita.
“I must do something funny and interesting in farewell.”
Margarita tore the curtain open and sat sideways on the window-sill, her arms around her knees. Moonlight licked her from the right side.
Margarita raised her head towards the moon and made a pensive and poetic face. The steps tapped twice more, and then suddenly — silence. After admiring the moon a little longer, sighing for the sake of propriety, Margarita turned her head to the garden and indeed saw Nikolai Ivanovich, who lived on the bottom floor of the same house. Moonlight poured down brighdy on Nikolai Ivanovich. He was sitting on a bench, and there was every indication that he had sunk on to it suddenly. The pince-nez on his face was somehow askew, and he was clutching his briefcase in his hands.
“Ah, hello, Nikolai Ivanovich,” Margarita said in a melancholy voice.
“Good evening! Coming back from a meeting?”
Nikolai Ivanovich made no reply to that.
“And I,” Margarita went on, leaning further out into the garden, “am sitting alone, as you see, bored, looking at the moon and listening to the waltz ...”
Margarita passed her left hand over her temple, straightening a strand of hair, then said crossly: That is impolite, Nikolai Ivanovich! I’m still a woman after all! It’s boorish not to reply when someone is talking to you.”
Nikolai Ivanovich, visible in me moonlight to the last button on his grey waistcoat, to the last hair of his blond, wedge-shaped beard, suddenly smiled a wild smile, rose from the bench, and, apparently beside himself with embarrassment, instead of taking off his hat, waved his briefcase to the side and bent his knees as if about to break into a squatting dance.
“Ah, what a boring type you are, Nikolai Ivanovich!” Margarita went on.
“Generally, I’m so sick of you all that I can’t even tell you, and I’m so happy to be parting with you! Well, go to the devil’s dam!”
Just then, behind Margarita’s back in the bedroom, the telephone exploded. Margarita tore from the window-sill and, forgetting Nikolai Ivanovich, snatched the receiver.
“Azazello speaking,” came from the receiver. “Dear, dear Azazello!” cried Margarita.
“It’s time. Take off,” Azazello spoke into the receiver, and it could be heard in his tone that he liked Margarita’s sincere and joyful impulse.
“When you fly over the gate, shout "Invisible!" Then fly over the city a little, to get used to it, and after that head south, out of the city, and straight for the river. You’re expected!”
Margarita hung up, and here something in the next room hobbled woodenly and started beating on the door. Margarita flung it open and a sweeping broom, bristles up, flew dancing into the bedroom. It drummed on the floor with its end, kicking and straining towards the window. Margarita squealed with delight and jumped astride the broom. Only now did the thought flash in the rider that amidst all this fracas she had forgotten to get dressed. She galloped over to the bed and grabbed the first thing she found, some light blue shift. Waving it like a banner, she flew out the window. And the waltz over the garden struck up louder.
From the window Margarita slipped down and saw Nikolai Ivanovich on the bench. He seemed to have frozen to it and listened completely dumbfounded to the shouting and crashing coming from the lighted bedroom of the upstairs tenants.
“Farewell, Nikolai Ivanovich!” cried Margarita, capering in front of Nikolai Ivanovich.
He gasped and crawled along the bench, pawing it with his hands and knocking down his briefcase.
“Farewell for ever! I’m flying away!” Margarita shouted above the waltz. Here she realized that she did not need any shift, and with a sinister guffaw threw it over Nikolai Ivanovich’s head. The blinded Nikolai Ivanovich crashed from the bench on to the bricks of the path.
Margarita turned to take a last look at the house where she had suffered for so long, and saw in the blazing window Natasha’s face distorted with amazement.
“Farewell, Natasha!” Margarita cried and reared up on the broom.
“Invisible! Invisible!” she cried still louder, and, flying over the front gates, between the maple branches, which lashed at her face, she flew out into the lane. And after her flew the completely insane waltz.
Chapter 21. Flight
Invisible and free! Invisible and free! ... After flying down her own lane, Margarita got into another that crossed the first at right angles.
This patched up, darned, crooked and long lane, with the lopsided door of a kerosene shop where they sold paraffin by the cup and liquid against parasites in flacons, she cut across in an instant, and here she realized that, even while completely free and invisible, she still had to be at least somewhat reasonable in her pleasure. Having slowed down only by some miracle, she just missed smashing herself to death against an old lopsided street light at the corner. Dodging it, Margarita clutched the broom tighter and flew more slowly, studying the electric wires and the street signs hanging across the sidewalk.
The third lane led straight to the Arbat. Here Margarita became fully accustomed to controlling the broom, realized that it obeyed the slightest touch of her hands and legs, and that, flying over the city, she had to be very attentive and not act up too much. Besides, in the lane it had already become abundantly clear that passers-by did not see the lady flier. No one threw his head back, shouted “Look! look!” or dashed aside, no one shrieked, swooned or guffawed with wild laughter.
Margarita flew noiselessly, very slowly, and not high up, approximately on second-floor level. But even with this slow flying, just at the entrance to the dazzlingly lit Arbat she misjudged slightly and struck her shoulder against some illuminated disc with an arrow on it. This angered Margarita.
> She reined in the obedient broom, flew a little aside, and then, suddenly hurling herself at the disc with the butt of the broom, smashed it to smithereens. Bits of glass rained down with a crash, passers-by shied away, a whistle came from somewhere, and Margarita, having accomplished this unnecessary act, burst out laughing.
“On the Arbat I must be more careful,” thought Margarita, “everything’s in such a snarl here, you can’t figure it out.” She began dodging between the wires. Beneath Margarita floated the roofs of buses, trams and cars, and along the sidewalks, as it seemed to Margarita from above, floated rivers of caps. From these rivers little streams branched off and flowed into the flaming maws of night-time shops.
“Eh, what a mess!” Margarita thought angrily. “You can’t even turn around here.”
She crossed the Arbat, rose higher, to fourth-floor level, and, past the dazzlingly bright tubes on the theatre building at the corner, floated into a narrow lane with tall buildings. All the windows in them were open, and everywhere radio music came from the windows. Out of curiosity, Margarita peeked into one of them. She saw a kitchen. Two primuses were roaring on the range, and next to them stood two women with spoons in their hands, squabbling.
“You should turn the toilet light off after you, that’s what I’m telling you, Pelageya Petrovna,” said the woman before whom there was a pot with some sort of eatables steaming in it, “or else we’ll apply to have you evicted.”
“You’re a good one yourself,” the other woman answered. “You’re both good ones,” Margarita said loudly, clambering over the window-sill into the kitchen.
The two quarrelling women turned towards the voice and froze with their dirty spoons in their hands. Margarita carefully reached out between them, turned the knobs of both primuses, and extinguished them. The women gasped and opened their mouths. But Margarita was already bored with the kitchen and flew out into the lane.
Her attention was attracted by the magnificent hulk of an eight-storeyed, obviously just-constructed building at the end of it.
Margarita dropped down and, alighting, saw that the facade of the building was covered in black marble, that the doors were wide, that behind their glass could be glimpsed a doorman’s buttons and peaked cap with gold braid, and that over the door there was a gold inscription: ‘dramlit House”.
Margarita squinted at the inscription, trying to figure out what the word ‘dramlit” might mean. Taking her broom under her arm, Margarita walked into the lobby, shoving the surprised doorman with the door, and saw on the wall beside the elevator a huge black board and on it, written in white letters, apartment numbers and tenants” names. The heading “House of Dramatists and Literary Workers” above the list provoked a suppressed predatory scream in Margarita. Rising in the air, she greedily began to read the last names: Khustov, Dvubratsky, Quant, Beskudnikov, Latunsky ..
“Latunsky!” shrieked Margarita. “Latunsky! Why, he’s the one ..”. he’s the one who ruined the master!”
The doorman at the entrance, even hopping with astonishment, his eyes rolled out, gazed at the black board, trying to understand the marvel: why was the list of tenants suddenly shrieking?
But by that time Margarita was already going impetuously up the stairs, repeating in some sort of rapture: “Latunsky eighty-four ... Latunsky eighty-four ...”
Here to the left – 82, to the right – 85, further up, to the left – 84!
Here! And the name plate – “O. Latunsky”.
Margarita jumped off the broom, and her hot soles felt the pleasant coolness of the stone landing. Margarita rang once, twice. But no one opened. Margarita began to push the button harder and could hear the jangling it set off in Latunsky’s apartment. Yes, to his dying day the inhabitant of apartment no. 84 on the eighth floor should be grateful to the late Berlioz, chairman of Massolit, for having fallen under a tram-car, and that the memorial gathering had been appointed precisely for that evening.
The critic Latunsky was born under a lucky star – it saved him from meeting Margarita, who that Friday became a witch.
No one opened the door. Then Margarita raced down at full swing, counting the floors, reached the bottom, burst out the door and, looking up, counted and checked the floors from outside, guessing which precisely were the windows of Latunsky’s apartment. Undoubtedly they were the five dark windows at the corner of the building on the eighth floor. Convinced of it, Margarita rose into the air and in a few seconds was stepping through an open window into an unlit room, where only a narrow path from the moon shone silver. Margarita ran down it, felt for the switch. A moment later the whole apartment was lit up. The broom stood in a corner. After making sure that no one was home, Margarita opened the door to the stairs and checked whether the name plate was there. The name plate was in place. Margarita was where she wanted to be.
Yes, they say that to this day the critic Latunsky rums pale remembering that terrible evening, and to this day he utters the name of Berlioz with veneration. It is totally unknown what dark and vile criminal job would have marked this evening – returning from the kitchen, Margarita had a heavy hammer in her hands.
Naked and invisible, the lady flier tried to control and talk sense into herself; her hands trembled with impatience. Taking careful aim, Margarita struck at the keys of the grand piano, and a first plaintive wail passed all through the apartment. Becker’s drawing-room instrument, not guilty of anything, cried out frenziedly. Its keys caved in, ivory veneer flew in all directions. The instrument howled, wailed, rasped and jangled.
With the noise of a pistol shot, the polished upper soundboard split under a hammer blow. Breathing hard, Margarita tore and mangled the strings with the hammer. Finally getting tired, she left off and flopped into an armchair to catch her breath.
Water was roaring terribly in the bathroom, and in the kitchen as well.
“Seems it’s already overflowing on the floor ...” Margarita thought, and added aloud: “No point sitting around, however.”
The stream was already running from the kitchen into the corridor.
Splashing barefoot through the water, Margarita carried buckets of water from the kitchen to the critic’s study and emptied them into his desk drawers. Then, after smashing the door of the bookcase in the same study with her hammer, she rushed to the bedroom. Shattering the mirror on the wardrobe, she took out the critic’s dress suit and drowned it in the tub. A large bottle of ink, picked up in the study, she poured over the luxuriously plumped-up double bed.
The devastation she wrought afforded her a burning pleasure, and yet it seemed to her all the while that the results came out somehow meagre.
Therefore she started doing whatever came along. She smashed pots of ficus in the room with the grand piano. Before finishing that, she went back to the bedroom, slashed the sheets with a kitchen knife, and broke the glass on the framed photographs. She felt no fatigue, only the sweat poured from her in streams.
Just then, in apartment no. 82, below Latunsky’s apartment, the housekeeper of the dramatist Quant was having tea in the kitchen, perplexed by the clatter, running and jangling coming from above. Raising her head towards the ceiling, she suddenly saw it changing colour before her eyes from white to some deathly blue. The spot was widening right in front of her and drops suddenly swelled out on it. For about two minutes the housekeeper sat marvelling at this phenomenon, until finally a real rain began to fall from the ceiling, drumming on the floor. Here she jumped up, put a bowl under the stream, which did not help at all, because the rain expanded and began pouring down on the gas stove and the table with dishes. Then, crying out. Quant’s housekeeper ran from the apartment to the stairs and at once the bell started ringing in Latunsky’s apartment.
Well, they’re ringing ... Time to be off,” said Margarita. She sat on the broom, listening to the female voice shouting through the keyhole: “Open up, open up! Dusya, open the door! Is your water overflowing, or what? We’re being flooded!”
Margarita rose up abou
t a metre and hit the chandelier. Two bulbs popped and pendants flew in all directions. The shouting through the keyhole stopped, stomping was heard on the stairs. Margarita floated through the window, found herself outside it, swung lightly and hit the glass with the hammer. The pane sobbed, and splinters went cascading down the marble-faced wall. Margarita flew to the next window. Far below, people began running about on the sidewalk, one of the two cars parked by the entrance honked and drove off. Having finished with Latunsky’s windows, Margarita floated to the neighbour’s apartment. The blows became more frequent, the lane was filled with crashing and jingling. The doorman ran out of the main entrance, looked up, hesitated a moment, evidently not grasping at first what he ought to undertake, put the whistle to his lips, and started whistling furiously. To the sound of this whistle, Margarita, with particular passion, demolished the last window on the eighth floor, dropped down to the seventh, and started smashing the windows there.
Weary of his prolonged idleness behind the glass doors of the entrance, the doorman put his whole soul into his whistling, following Margarita precisely as if he were her accompanist. In the pauses as she flew from window to window, he would draw his breath, and at each of Margarita’s strokes, he would puff out his cheeks and dissolve in whistling, drilling the night air right up to the sky.
His efforts, combined with the efforts of the infuriated Margarita, yielded great results. There was panic in the house. Those windows left intact were flung open, people’s heads appeared in them and hid at once, while the open windows, on the contrary, were being closed. In the buildings across the street, against the lighted background of windows, there appeared the dark silhouettes of people trying to understand why the windows in the new Dramlit building were bursting for no reason at all.