Loaves & Fishes 27

asked. “I am traveling on business,
and I need to be going.”
“The merchant who slept
next to your room last night has
been found with his throat cut,”
said the officer. “We’re going to
have to search your luggage.”
The soldiers and the police officer
opened Aksionov’s luggage
and began digging through it.
Suddenly the officer pulled a
knife out of a bag and held it up.
It was covered with blood. “So
whose is this?” he asked.
Aksionov’s face turned pale,
and he started trembling. “I—
don’t know,” he gasped. “I—I’ve
never seen it before!”
“That house was locked from
inside, and nobody else was
there,” said the officer. “How did
you kill him? How much money
did you take?”
Aksionov swore he was innocent,
but the police-officer
ordered the soldiers to bind him
and throw him in the cart. They
confiscated his money and his
luggage and locked him up in the
nearest town. He was charged
with murdering a merchant
from Ryazan and robbing him of
twenty thousand rubles.
Aksionov’s wife was in despair
and didn’t know what to believe.
Bringing all their small children
with her, she went to the town
where her husband was in jail,
and after much begging, she finally
got permission to see him.
She told him how things were at
home and asked about what had
happened to him.
After he told her the whole
story, she asked, “What can we
do now?”
“We need to appeal to the
Czar not to let an innocent man
die.”
His wife told him she had already
sent an appeal to the Czar,
but it had been rejected. “It was
not for nothing I dreamed your
hair had turned grey. Remember?
You should not have gone
to the fair that day.”
She ran her fingers through
his hair. “Vanya,” she said, “tell
your wife the truth; it was you,
wasn’t it?”
“So you suspect me, too!” said
Aksionov, and he buried his face
in his hands and cried. A guard
came to say that his wife and
children needed to leave, and
Aksionov said good-bye to his
family for the last time.
After they left, Aksionov
thought about what his wife had
said. “It seems only God knows
the truth; it is to Him alone we
must appeal, and from Him
alone expect mercy.” And Aksionov
gave up all hope of being
acquitted, wrote no more petitions,
and only prayed to God.
44 | Loaves & Fishes • Issue 27