guests who arrived for the wedding ended up in the apartment where people were wailing a mourning cry with might and main. After that, people became accustomed to this unconstrained life, the villagers began to avoid each other, quarrels and scandals broke out more and more often, little by little people stopped communicating. At first, the sewers were being dug with enthusiasm, but gradually the work subsided. Two and a half months later, a pipe was laid out, and the ground under the skyscrapers began to dry out. Either engineering calculations turned out to be inaccurate, or the ground under the houses was loose, be that as it may, with the drying of the soil, both buildings began to sink into the ground, noticeably tilting towards each other. The authorities urgently stopped work and ordered the residents of the buildings to be evicted. It was necessary for some people to put up tents and temporarily move into them, as they had managed to destroy their unsightly old houses in the joy of the housewarming event. And again, there was shouting and screaming, the people who were accustomed to living in the buildings were indignant. The district authorities again gathered for a meeting to decide: What should they do? During the hot harvest season, the people were not willing to work, everyone thought only about themselves and their homes, about their unfortunate situation.
*Bauyrym – a ritual cry in the funeral customs of the Kazakhs.
1986