in a village where they had never known anything about Schepkin’s school or Schepkin himself, nevertheless had a good understanding of the intricacies of the relationship between a man and a woman and how to make an opponent angry. For the whole week Yerezhep rejoiced. Every evening he led the girls under his arms past Yelemes’ house, feeling how he was ruining and humiliating his mortal enemy every time. So today the girls, who had been the jewels of the village for a whole week, got ready for their journey home. It was decided that Yerezhep would take them to the intercity bus that passes the state farm to Chimkent, and from there they would go by plane to Moscow. What a life, thought Yerezhep, feeling sorry for himself. ‘And how do I live? Bickering with Yelemes, driving dung on a dump truck. Now they’re moving on, back to their Schepkin school. !’ For the farewell, Yerezhep borrowed a blue Zhiguli from the shepherd Metesh. He could not have driven the girls in his dump truck! But the neighbour’s Zhigu- li was not looking good either – the side windows had long since fallen through the doors, and the old treads were gleaming like a thoroughly shaved bald spot. ‘You watch out,’ said Metesh. ‘If the traffic police catch me they’ll take my car away. I don’t even go out of the gate with these treads.’ For the first half of the day, Yerezhep scrubbed the Zhiguli, especially the interior of the car in which Metesh had recently taken two rams into town to sell. In the evening he opened the doors with a broad gesture, seating the girls in the back and his wife beside him. Almost the whole village came out to see the stu- dents off. The girls were moved by this attention and even shed a few tears. It was all so touching… But as soon as he crossed the village, he saw a Belarus tractor with a trailer far ahead. The tractor was rushing towards the sun, wiggling its trailer playfully. There was no doubt that Yelemes was sitting at the wheel. The next second Yerezhep’s mouth fell open in amazement… The Belarus, instead of driving on the left side of the road as it should, started to take the right side, presumably to let the dust fall on the Zhiguli. Yerezhep, pulling over to