Chapter 35 Part One - Thirty Two

Maslova took money out of the bread and handed Korabreva a coupon.Kolabreva took the coupon and looked at it.She couldn't read, but she trusted the know-it-all babe.The pretty girls told her the coupon was worth two rubles and fifty kopecks.Kolabreva crawled to the ventilation hole and took out a bottle of wine that was lying there.The women, with the exception of a few who were close to Maslova, returned to their berths when they saw this.Maslova shook off the dust from her turban and prison robe, climbed onto the bunk, and began to eat the bread. "I've left tea for you, I'm afraid it's cold," said Fedosya, taking from the wall shelf a tin teapot wrapped in a foot wrap and a cup with a handle.

The tea was quite cold, and the tin taste was stronger than tea, but Maslova poured a glass anyway, and ate the bread. "Here you are, Finashka," she cried, breaking off a piece of bread and handing it to the little boy whose eyes were fixed on her mouth. Meanwhile Kolabreva handed over the bottle and glass to Maslova.Maslova invited Kolabreva to drink with the pretty girls.These three female prisoners are nobles in the cell, because they have money, and they share what they have. After a few minutes, Maslova became excited, and with great interest told the story of the courtroom and one incident in the courtroom that surprised her in particular, and imitated the prosecutor's actions comically.She said that all the men in the court looked at her with interest, and they even broke into the prison room for this purpose.

"Even the soldier who escorted me said: 'They are all here to see you.' After a while a man came and said he was here to get documents or something, but I saw that what he wanted was not documents, but Eat me up with your eyes," she said grinning, shaking her head as if she couldn't figure it out either. "Plenary acting." "That's not false at all," the crosswalk worker echoed, and immediately began to speak in her pleasant voice. "It's like flies seeing sugar. They don't care about anything else, but they die when they see a woman. These men can't just eat..."

"It's the same here," interrupted Maslova. "When I got here, it happened to me too. They just brought me back when a group of guys came from the train station. They were begging and pestering people for nothing. I didn't know how to get out. Thanks to the deputy The warden chased them away. One of them was tightly entangled, and I broke free with great difficulty." "What does that guy look like?" asked the Pretty Girl. "Dark skinned, with a moustache." "Probably him." "Who is he?" "It's Sheglov. You see, he just walked past."

"Who is this Sheglov?" "Even Sheglov doesn't know! Twice Sheglov escaped from the prison. This time he was caught again, but he will escape anyway. Even the guards are afraid of him," said the Beauty She said that she passed notes to the male prisoners, and she knew what happened in the prison. "He will run away." "Well, he will run away, but he won't take us away!" said Korabreva. "You'd better tell," she said to Maslova, "what the director (lawyer) told you about the appeal. You must appeal now?" Maslova said she knew nothing.

At this time, the red-haired woman stretched her freckled hands into her thick, unkempt hair, scratched her scalp with her nails, and walked up to the three "nobles" who were drinking. "Katyusha, I will tell you everything I have to do," she began. "The first thing you need to do is to write a petition saying that you are not satisfied with the verdict, and then submit it to the prosecutor." "What's your business?" said Kolabreva in a low voice angrily. "You smell wine. You don't need to talk about this matter. If you don't say it, people will know what to do, so you don't need to talk too much."

"It's not like they're talking to you, what are you asking for!" "Want to drink some wine? I'm here too." "Well, just give her something to drink," said Maslova.She has always been very generous, giving everyone what she has. "Let me give her a taste..." "Well, come on!" said the red-haired woman, approaching Korabreva. "I'm not afraid of you." "Smelly prisoner!" "You are the criminal yourself!" "Slut!" "I'm a slut? You're a convict, murderer!" shouted the red-haired woman.

"Tell you, go away!" said Kolableva with a serious face. But the red-haired woman approached instead.Kolabreva gave her fat open chest a sudden push.The red-haired woman, as if waiting for her to do so, caught Kolabreva's hair unexpectedly with one hand and raised her other hand to slap her, but Kolabreva caught her.Maslova and the Pretty Girls took the red-haired woman by the hands and tried to pull her away, but the red-haired woman held her by the braids and refused to let go.She loosened the opponent's hair for a moment, but the purpose was to wrap it around her fist.Kolabreva, with her head on one side, beat her body with one hand and bit her arm with her teeth.The women surrounded the two fighters, dissuading and shouting.Even the consumptive female prisoner came up, coughing, and looking at the two writhing women.The children crowded and cried.The female guard heard the commotion and brought a male guard in.They pulled the fighting women away.Kolabreva undid her gray braids and pulled out the few strands that had been pulled out.The red-haired woman pulled her torn shirt over her withered chest.Both cried and complained and yelled loudly.

"Hmph, I know all of this is caused by drinking. I will tell the warden tomorrow and let him clean you up. I can smell the smell of alcohol," said the female guard. "Be careful and take those things off, or you'll be in trouble. We don't have time to judge you. Now take your places and be quiet." But it has not calmed down for a long time.The two women scolded each other for a while, arguing over who started the quarrel and whose fault it was.Finally, the male and female guards left, and the women calmed down and went to sleep.The old woman then knelt before the icon and began to pray.

"Two convicts got together," the red-haired woman said suddenly from the other side of the bunk in a hoarse voice, inserting a few tricky and weird curse words into every sentence. "Be careful not to ask for trouble again," Kolabreva responded with similar insults.So the two fell silent. "If they hadn't stopped me, I would have ripped out your eyeballs..." the red-haired woman spoke again, and Kolabreva responded immediately. Then there was silence again, for a longer period of time, but then there was another exchange of insults.The intervals grew longer and longer, until at last there was complete silence.

Everyone was asleep, and some of them were already snoring. Only the old woman who had been praying for a long time was still kneeling and prostrating in front of the holy image.The chanter's daughter got up from the bed as soon as the guard left, and paced up and down the cell again. Maslova did not fall asleep, and the idea that she was a convict was never in her mind.Twice she was called that: once as Bochkova, and again as the red-haired woman.She couldn't be more content with this.Kolabreva, who had been lying with her back to her, turned around. "Oh, I never dreamed of it, never thought of it," said Maslova in a low voice. "It's okay for people to do all kinds of bad things. I have no reason, but I have to suffer this crime." "Don't be sad, girl. There are still people alive in Siberia. You won't die there," Kolabreva reassured her. "I know it's not going to be over, but it's so annoying. I didn't deserve this life. I'm used to living a good life." "Man can't beat God!" sighed Kolabreva. "Man can't beat God." "I know that, ma'am, but it's really hard." They were silent for a while. "Did you hear that bitch again," said Kolabreva, calling Maslova's attention to the strange voice coming from the other side of the plank shop. It was the painful cry of the red-haired woman, barely suppressed.The reason why the red-haired woman was crying was because she had been scolded and beaten just now, and she really wanted to drink, but it was not given to her.She wept because she had never felt anything in her life but being scolded, mocked, insulted, and beaten.She wanted to find something happy to comfort herself, so she recalled her first love with the worker Fejika, but when she recalled it, she also remembered how this first love ended.That Fejika once got drunk, joked, rubbed alum on the most sensitive parts of her body, and then laughed with her companions when she saw her curled up in pain.Her first love ended like this.When she thought of this, she felt terribly sad, and thinking that no one would hear, she began to weep aloud.She cried like a child, humming, sniffing, and swallowing salty tears. "She's poor," said Maslova. "It's pitiful, but she shouldn't be making trouble!"