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oblivion
us to recreate the history
of the earth and disprove
the Bible, he would reply:
“The Lord thought about
you learned men as well
when He created the world,
he threw in some toys to
keep you busy.” Among his
fellow villagers who were
exiled with him, his intellect
was revered, for he had a
unique way of understanding
appearances and reality. This
reader, this sect member-
to-be, understood what
had occurred: just as Christ
had fed thousands with five
loaves, he said, so are we,
many, eating from one fruit
and it is not diminished. For it
not to be diminished ever, let
us save it and send it back to
the village—they stubbornly
called the settlement in the
tundra the village—and let
them plant it in the soil so
the fruit shall beget more
fruit.
I could understand the
peasant, even though I did
not know peasant labor; I
grew up together with the
dacha apple trees and lived
half the year by the apple
calendar; I remember my
childhood when the spring
frosts occurred, and bonfires
were lit in all the orchards,
the light frosty fog mixing
with smoke hugging the
windless ground, and the
trembling, flowing, warmed
air enveloped the trees,
protecting the buds. On a
cold night smells unleash
their invisible fans, but on
a night like that the apple
blossoms smelled of the
bonf ires, and it seemed
that it was the fragrance of
the stars, the fragrance of
promise.
In Augus t came the
unremi t t ing thudding—
straw was placed under the
trees, but the apples were