Natural speed please."
She had been in a very bad way for quite some time by then. She had renal tuberculosis, which is a terribly serious disease, and both of her kidneys had been badly damaged before it was detected. The doctor told Father, in no uncertain terms, that the end would come within a hundred days. He said there was nothing he could do. There was nothing we could do, either, of course, but watch in silence as a month passed, another month passed, and even as the hundredth day approached.
My sister, not knowing how close to death she was, reminded in relatively good spirits, and, though she was confined to bed day and night, she cheerfully sang songs and joked and let me spoil her, and whenever I reflected that she had only thirty of forty days to live, that this was absolutely certain, it was as if my entire body was being pierced by needles, and I thought I would go mad with the pain. March, April, May...Yes, it was the middle of May. I'll never forget that day.
The meadows and mountains were adorned with fresh green, and it had grown so warm that one almost felt like shedding one's clothing. The new green was so brilliant in the sunlight that it stung my eyes as I walked along a meadow path, turning this and that over in my mind, head lowered and one hand stuffed in my sash, and all my thoughts were such painful ones that I was actually trembling and felt I could hardly breathe. Then, from beneath the spring earth at my feet, came an eerie booming, other-worldly sound, faint yet enormous, like giant drums being in hell below, a steady, unbroken rumbling, and I, not knowing what that horrifying sound might be, wondered if I hadn’t indeed lost my mind. I stood frozen in my tracks until I found myself unable to stand any longer and, with a cry of anguish, collapsed on the grass and wept and wept.
I later learned the strange and terrifying sound had, in fact, been the cannons of warships under the command of admiral Togo, engaged in the battle that was to sink the entire Russian Baltic fleet. So, you see, it was right about the time when all this happened. And Navy Day is just around the corner again, isn't it?
