Rimsky and Varenukha

The relationship between Grigory Danilovich Rimsky and Ivan Savelyevich Varenukha is defined by the cascading crises that engulf the Variety Theatre after the arrival of the mysterious magician Woland. As the financial director and the administrator, they are the two senior managers left to deal with the chaos following the disappearance of their director, Stepan Likhodeev, and the catastrophic black magic seance. Their bond, initially one of professional reliance and shared anxiety, is tested by a series of inexplicable events and ultimately shattered by a supernatural betrayal that forces Rimsky to flee for his life.

Professional Partnership Under Siege

On the morning after the seance, Rimsky and Varenukha are the only ones holding the theatre together. Rimsky sits in his office, in bad spirits, while Varenukha, animated and restlessly active, hides there to escape seekers of free passes. Their immediate problem is Likhodeev's disappearance. Rimsky, vexed, repeatedly asks Varenukha to call him, but the administrator reports that Likhodeev is not home and that no one is in the apartment. The tension is palpable: Rimsky hisses and clacks on the adding machine, while Varenukha, holding the receiver to his ear, hears only low, prolonged, hopeless signals. When Rimsky mutters that it would not be a bad thing if Likhodeev had also fallen under a tram-car like Berlioz, Varenukha does not object. Their shared frustration is momentarily interrupted by the arrival of a super-lightning telegram from Yalta, claiming that Likhodeev has turned up there, barefoot and in a nightshirt, in a criminal investigation office. Rimsky exclaims, "Hello and how do you do! Another surprise!" and Varenukha calls it a "False Dmitri." Despite their disbelief, they are forced to act. Rimsky, his face growing thinner and older, his eyes losing their customary prickliness and showing alarm and sorrow, begins to compare the handwriting on a photogram with Likhodeev's signatures. He confirms it is genuine, and Varenukha echoes him. The findirector's position is very difficult; he must invent ordinary explanations for extraordinary phenomena. He pictures Styopa in a nightshirt, shoeless, getting into an unprecedented super-high-speed airplane, and then the same Styopa standing in his stocking feet at the airport in Yalta. He calculates the distance—over nine hundred miles by train to Sebastopol, plus another fifty to Yalta—and concludes that a plane would have to fly at twelve thousand miles an hour, which cannot be. He then tries to call Yalta, but the line is broken, which especially upsets him. Rimsky composes a telegram confirming Likhodeev's handwriting and stating that he spoke with him on the phone at around eleven thirty, and he seals the telegrams in an envelope, handing it to Varenukha with the order to take it personally to the proper authorities. Varenukha thinks this is clever and puts the envelope in his briefcase.

The Fatal Errand and the Telephone Warning

Before Varenukha can leave, he makes one more call to Likhodeev's apartment. To his surprise, the receiver is answered by a rattling voice that identifies itself as Koroviev, the magician's assistant and interpreter. Koroviev speaks joyfully, saying that Likhodeev has left for a drive in the country. Varenukha, now convinced that the Yalta telegrams are a hoax, excitedly tells Rimsky that Likhodeev simply went to a new Georgian tavern in Pushkino called "Yalta." Rimsky, his cheek twitching with genuine anger, declares that Likhodeev will pay dearly for this excursion. However, a third telegram arrives, asking for five hundred roubles to be sent urgently to the criminal investigation in Yalta. Rimsky, despite Varenukha's protests, sends the money, saying it will come back. He then urges Varenukha to go with the envelope. As Varenukha runs out, he is stopped by a telephone call in his own office. A repulsive, nasal voice warns him: "Do not take those telegrams anywhere or show them to anyone." Varenukha, furious, shouts back, but the voice insists, "Do you understand Russian? Don't take the telegrams anywhere." Varenukha senses that no one is listening to him any longer and runs out, full of energy and the desire to expose the malefactors, choking with the anticipation of bringing sensational news.

The Vampire's Return and Rimsky's Discovery

Varenukha never delivers the envelope. He is ambushed in the summer garden by two figures: a short, fat man with a cat-like physiognomy and a red-haired, athletic man with a fang in his mouth. They beat him, take his briefcase, and drag him through the storm to Likhodeev's apartment. There, the two robbers vanish, and in their place appears a completely naked, red-haired girl with eyes burning with a phosphorescent gleam. She places her ice-cold palms on Varenukha's shoulders and kisses him. Varenukha faints and never feels the kiss. Hours later, at midnight, Varenukha returns to Rimsky's office. Rimsky, who has been paralyzed by fear and unable to make phone calls, is initially relieved to see him, thinking a little end has peeped out in this tangled affair. But he quickly becomes suspicious. Varenukha's story is a lie from first word to last: he claims Likhodeev was found drunk in Pushkino, that the Yalta telegrams were a hoax, and that Styopa is now in a sobering-up cell. Rimsky, whose sensitivity can compete with the seismograph of any of the world's best stations, notices the oddities: Varenukha came to his office even though he thought Rimsky had left; he is pale with a chalk-like pallor, has an enormous bruise on his face, and his neck is wrapped in an old striped scarf on a stifling night. His voice has become hollow and coarse, and his eyes are furtive and cowardly. Most terrifying of all, Rimsky realizes that Varenukha casts no shadow. The findirector cries out desperately in his mind, "He casts no shadow!" and breaks into shivers. Varenukha, realizing he has been found out, springs to the door and locks it. Rimsky, retreating to the window, sees the face of the naked girl pressed against the glass, her arm reaching through the vent-pane. An icy wave engulfs him. Varenukha, guarding the door, hops up and down, staying in the air for a long time, swaying, hissing and smacking, winking to the girl in the window. Her arm begins to lengthen, rubber-like, and becomes covered with a putrid green. Rimsky realizes his end has come.

The Cock's Crow and the Final Flight

Just as the dead woman's green fingers get hold of the latch knob and the frame begins to open, the joyful, unexpected crowing of a cock comes from the garden. A loud, trained cock trumpets, announcing that dawn is rolling towards Moscow from the east. Savage fury distorts the girl's face, she emits a hoarse oath, and Varenukha shrieks and drops from the air to the floor. With the third crowing of the cock, the girl turns and flies out, and Varenukha, jumping up and stretching himself horizontally in the air like a flying cupid, slowly floats over the desk and out the window. White as snow, with not a single black hair on his head, the old man who still recently had been Rimsky rushes to the door, undoes the catch, and runs hurtling down the dark corridor. He steals past a sleeping watchman, slips out the main entrance, and hails a cab. He offers the driver fifty roubles to take him to the Leningrad express. Jumping out of the car in front of the train station, he tears banknotes from his briefcase, crumpling them, and buys a ticket. Five minutes later, the express train disappears from under the glass vault of the train station, vanishing clean away in the darkness. And with it vanishes Rimsky, leaving behind the shattered remains of his professional partnership with the now-vampiric Varenukha.