Аннотация: An immoral man with glasses in a mysterious apartment. (Reflections on Sandro Botticelli's painting "Slander"). A story.
An immoral man with glasses in a mysterious apartment. (Reflections on Sandro Botticelli's painting "Slander"). A story.
For a while I lived in an apartment building. This building was divided into entrances.
On the first floor of my entrance lived a girl ... a woman ... about the same age as me, with whom we were slightly acquainted.
Opposite the door to her apartment (on her landing [on her stair landing]) was another door - there lived a man whom I had never seen. Although, maybe there were moments when this door opened, and I was walking up the stairs? That's when I glanced at him?
Although I have never seen the tenant of the mysterious apartment, I have the clear opinion of his appearance. He looked like a Russian language teacher, or an engineer. He was of medium height. He was wearing glasses.
I was completely indifferent to this "engineer" - but for the time being.
Once there was a short conversation between me and a neighboress. This talk completely turned my attitude towards the "engineer".
If earlier I was completely indifferent to him, then after this short conversation with a neighboress, I began to treat him with great caution.
A neighboress informed me that a fallen person lives opposite her. I will not give a specific term (word) - previously, this was punished under the Criminal Code. Now a special mention will not be politic-correct.
The neighboress did not go to theater clubs, she did not attend public speaking courses. Where did her skill come from? Maybe we should call it a "gift of persuasion"?
She was able to compose a phrase in such a way, and she was able to pronounce the words in such a way, she was able to choose the moment and the situation for her message in such a way that I believed her words without any reflections, without any questions and without any doubts.
Why shouldn't I believe her? - After all, she lived opposite the "engineer", therefore, she had some additional information about him - the information that other people did not have. And the fact that she did not go into any details with her characterization of an "engineer" - it was understandable: her delicate mental organization, her modesty - all this made it natural for her to avoid details, to go away from proving the correctness of the label she had pasted onto the "engineer".
Now, as I walked across the yard towards the entrance and my gaze was sliding along the window of the "engineer", I was feeling the question - what is going on behind this mysterious window? When I was entering the entrance and was going up the stairs, I willy-nilly was looking at the door of the apartment of the "engineer" and I imagined how the "engineer" was having a lot of fun in some company of some people.
The "engineer" lived in self-isolation. I have never seen anyone enter or leave his apartment. I have never seen the "engineer" himself - I do not remember such cases.
Now this closed manner of life worked against the "engineer" - he is a "conspirator"! he is clearly a dangerous person! Is there something going on behind that closed door?!!
Now I have to pay tribute to the neighboress' ability to express, to convey information - she managed to say out her words briefly, but expressively, truthfully.
As time went on, my opinion of the "engineer" did not change. What could have changed him?
Sandro Botticelli's painting "Slander" ["The Calumny of Apelles"]? But I saw this picture (and inspected in detail) only in 2021 - the "engineer", as I was accidentally informed, had already gone to another world. The whole plot took place 30-40-50 years ago.
So, my opinion about the "engineer" has not changed. The "engineer" himself did not communicate with me. No one else seems to have talked to me about the "engineer". No one discussed his personality, his inclinations with me.
Time passed, and separately, regardless of my opinion about the "engineer", my opinion about the neighboress began to be corrected.
From somewhere - from where exactly, I don't remember this - the information came to me about her relationship with an elderly woman.
Two major changes have taken place in the life of a neighboress. First, she got married. Secondly, her communal two-room apartment, where the neighboress' family occupied one room, became an isolated apartment.
An elderly woman of retirement age, some kind of inconspicuous person, lived in the second room for a long time.
For some reason, very quickly after the neighboress got married, this elderly woman died - after that, according to the current rules, the room of the deceased person passed to the family occupying another room (that is, to the neighboress' family).
It was a long time ago - now I can't remember who told me that the young couple practiced a special ("football-like") the "method" in a relationship with an elderly woman.
The elderly woman was apparently lonely. She tried to leave her room less.
She could refuse visits to the communal kitchen. But how to refuse access to water, how to avoid visits to the toilet?
So, according to the version that I heard (I don't remember from whom), a young couple was kicking on the heels of the elderly woman when she left her room. (Such actions, I assume, are practiced in some form in football, although I am not a fan of football and I am now speculative).
There were practically no traces of such blows, and if there were any traces, then the story of an elderly woman about the blows on her heels would look very unusual. She didn't have the strength and the inner energy to complain about something.
However, according to the version I heard, there was constant and unpunished aggression against her. Did a young family need to expand their (the young couple) living space?
Under such conditions - if aggression really took place - an elderly woman formed a powerful psychological stress.
Over the years, I no longer remember the details, but I remember my feeling - that somehow quickly this elderly woman died - such was my feeling.
In general, now exist only the information about the terrible mysterious "engineer" who already died (a lover of solitude), there is a painting by Sandro Botticelli "Slander", there is a neighboress who moved somewhere (with her husband) - they sold, and very profitably, their two-room apartment. (It is understandable that a two-room isolated apartment costs more than one room in a communal two-room apartment).
... Now, - after my acquaintance with Sandro Botticelli's painting "Slander", - I have an assumption - could an elderly woman complain to the closest neighbor - to the "engineer" - about the attempts of interested people to get rid of her, for the purpose of seize the entire apartment, if such an attempt actually took place?
In general, everything is short-lived, only an art is eternal....
January 4, 2022 18:36
Translation from Russian into English: January 4, 2022 19:56
Владимир Владимирович Залесский "Аморальный человек в очках в таинственной квартире. (Размышления о картине Сандро Боттичелли "Клевета"). Рассказ".
{ 2679. Аморальный человек в очках в таинственной квартире. (Размышления о картине Сандро Боттичелли "Клевета"). Рассказ.
MMDCXLIX. An immoral man with glasses in a mysterious apartment. (Reflections on Sandro Botticelli's painting "Slander"). A story. (English). }