had a little talk with him a long time ago, he walks like a turkey…’ ‘Here, sign here,’ Seksenbayev handed a pen to Yelemes, who was already settling into the tractor cab. ‘What do I sign? ‘It’s about fighting and breaking traffic laws.’ Yelemes looked thoughtfully at the paper and pen handed to him. ‘Look, it wasn’t a fight. It was a…’ ‘What was it then, a kiss? I saw it all, now sign it!’ ‘It wasn’t a fight! You wouldn’t understand!’ He looked down at his feet and saw two of his teeth. ‘That’s it,’ said Yelemes, carefully picking up his property, lost forever, from the dust. ‘Now, Comrade Seksenbayev, the confrontation is over.’ ‘What’s happened?!’ the policeman asked with a grimace of anguish on his face. He was trying to imagine what a man who had just had two teeth knocked out must be going through. ‘I’m saying, our confrontation is over… ‘ Here Yelemes stammered. He realised that he could not pronounce that beautiful foreign word ‘Confrontation’ as it was intended, because he could not make the ‘r’ sound. Yerezhep, learning of Yelemes’ knocked-out teeth, sent a note to him informing him that he was ready to pay for the insertion of both gold teeth at the new price and immediately return the eight hundred roubles as requested by Yelemes. It is said that on receiving this dispatch, Yelemes almost burned with shame. 1989