The Accident by Mihail Sebastian

Author:Mihail Sebastian
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Biblioasis
Published: 2011-09-20T04:00:00+00:00

The afternoon passed and the chalet didn’t appear. We should have got there a long time ago, Nora thought. Her boots felt heavy on her feet and she had the impression that their whole weight was pressing down on her ankle. Awaking to a forgotten pain, her left knee began to ache.

“Do you think we’re on the right trail?” Paul asked.

“All trails are good around here,” she replied vaguely.

She wasn’t worried, but she realized that they had strayed from the trail. She knew well enough that it was impossible to get lost in these mountains with their easy trails, and she told herself that whichever way they went they would end up at the chalet. As long as we keep climbing, keep moving upward. They hadn’t seen a sign for a while. The little red-and-white flags had become less frequent, and now they had vanished completely.

“Maybe the snow has covered them.”

“Yes, maybe ...”

The light had grown lower. The snow had lost its lustre, and was more ashen than white.

“It’s still too early to stop for the night,” Nora said.

It was a gloomy light that spread over things like a metallic film. The trees were extinguished by leaden shadow that fell over them without a glimmer.

“Do you hear that?”

Paul had stopped short, laying his hand on her shoulder. From somewhere above them came a metallic rustling, a murmuring of branches, a hurried fluttering of metallic wings. Heavy unseen strides or woods ripped away from their roots descended, striking against the branches.

“Could it be an avalanche?”

“Impossible,” Nora said.

She was pale and strained to listen. She felt Paul’s hand on her right shoulder. If only he would leave it there.

The light slid lower. It was almost dark, and yet objects remained visible with an absurd precision. Stoney fir trees stood stock-still around them, as though in a grotto. For a moment everything seemed to be frozen in place, detached from time and shifted into another world ...

“We’re on another planet,” Paul whispered. He pulled Nora against him. “Are you afraid, Nora?”

“No. I don’t think so. I’m cold. I’d like to get there.” She spoke in a low, serious, intense voice. He felt the heat of her face.

“Get there? Don’t you want to stay here? Never leave here, never arrive anywhere again ... Just stop ... just stop ...”

Shivering, Nora turned her head towards him. There was something feeble, muted yet warm in his voice. She had just enough time to think, This man wants to die, when a sudden sense of peace enveloped her, as though in a single instant she had grasped all of his thoughts down to their roots. She hugged him and closed her eyes with a drowning sensation.

Somewhere in the air above them, huge waves slammed together and the sound radiated downwards, as though reaching the bottom of the sea. Cold, damp, hazy mist streamed between the fir trees. Unmoving branches resounded with a noise like the clashing of weapons.

“The clouds are coming down from the summit,” Nora whispered.

On her lips, her eyelids, she felt snow sliding over her like smoke.

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