into the corridor and saw her native steppe through the open window. It swam back majestically, splashing towards the horizon in gentle, lazily rounded hills. Looking at it, one might think that the whole world is a great undulating space without a single sharp line. At first glance, any person, even if you were to tie them with a hair lasso, could not linger in this hot sleepy steppe for very long and would run away to wherever their eyes looked, breaking any restrains they might have. And sometimes she herself was not far from thinking of doing the same. But last year, having rested for a month in Crimea, then touring the Baltic republics and returning home a week before the start of the school year, she suddenly felt with all her heart, how much she dearly loved this outwardly plain steppe land of hers. For a long time, she remembered the Black Sea and the Baltic, but each time the boundless strong water passed in her mind into her native hilly steppe, the charms of the sea and forest were clouded by the calm, soft beauty of the immense feather grass plain on which she was born and grew up. “Do you like the steppe?” A sweet, ingratiating voice rang out from behind her. Turning around, Bagila saw a jigit horseman with an ingratiating smile on his face, the same one who had offered services to his father a minute ago. His name was Turgat. And again, an obliging readiness showed through in his behaviour, as if at any moment he would say, “What are my orders? I will execute them immediately.” It seems that this is a well-groomed man, always carefully watching himself, striving to appear affable, understanding, and intelligent in front of people. Bagila often saw him next to her father, but not once did she manage to understand what thoughts, what essence is hidden be- hind the man’s fake smile, his helpfulness, his feigned culture. In order to somehow understand Turgat, one has to look deep into his eyes, carefully, but Bagila could not decide on such a thing. On the contrary, when meeting with him, she either turned aside, as if not noticing him, or greeted him without raising her head. And he always smiled no matter what happened around him. And now he was blooming in an especially welcoming smile, as if he
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