Sunday morning after breakfast Genghiskhan and I dug up in the garden some worms for the bait and took the fishing rods in the barn. Then we went fishing to Palvankul Lake. Like a surgeon in a white smock, the morning was cutting with the scalpel the huge hernia of the sky in the horizon. Some birds were making a noise in the elm tree, while the voices of other birds could be heard up in the fresh quiet air. We were in high spirits.
Looking at the can which Genghiskhan was carrying like the lamp of Aladdin I said:
- Worms look very simple but in fact they are very mysterious. They eat the earth cultivating the soil. If there were no worms, all tools and even machines would break during the tillage: spades, hoes, mattocks and even most powerful tractors. There would be no trees, no flowers, and no life on earth. There are huge terrible worms in this world. It"s us human beings. We, too, dig up the soil and build pits for winged rockets. We test nuclear bombs exploding them underground. We bury nuclear wastes away from ourselves and close to our brethren that receive the overdose of radioactive emanation and live without suspecting the presence of contaminated substance. We are horrible worms for, cheating the fish, we pin them alive on hooks using them as baits forgetting that worms do useful work digging the soil.
- Ye-a-ah - said Genghiskhan.
- One night - I continued - we went by taxi through high Kirghiz mountain passes covered with eternal snow with the moon floating up in the cold sky. Looking at the mountain rocks and primeval forests with snow-clad tall green fir-trees, pines and cedars standing motionless, like bewitched, I asked the driver Mavlyan:
- Baike, I"ve been told that once upon a time two people were driving along this road just like we are driving now, and as they were going up, their car broke. The driver told the passenger to go out and put a stone under the wheel. He went out and as he tried to do as he was told he was attacked by a pack of hungry wolves which tore the man into pieces and ate him up.
Mavlyan laughed merrily and said:
- God forbid! Deliver us from breakage!
- Never fear! It was a long time ago. Wolves are afraid of man nowadays. For if we catch one we are sure to fry it on fire and eat it. They say the wolf"s meat is very good for health.
Genghiskhan laughed. We crossed a cotton field and came out into the open space of Palvokul Lake. The fresh winds were stirring its greenish azure waters. White sea-gulls flew around looking down in search of fish and crying like one all together.
We went along the narrow path down to the shore of the lake where green two meter long canes were rustling in the thick brushwood. We heard frogs croaking in the canes.
. We put our rucksacks on a dry place. Then we set our fishing rods, dressed the hooks with worms and cast the lines up into the air. The hooks with the sinks and the buzzing lines dropped into the blue water of the lake. We now watched the floats, sitting in silence so as not to frighten the fish. The water reflected the blue sky with white clouds.
Suddenly I and saw a red dragonfly settle on my float. Genghiskhan was staring at me. Smiling to each other, we watched the blue eyed red dragon fly riding the float. I thought:
- It"s not for nothing that the doctors advise people with heart trouble to go fishing. It really sets one"s heart and mind at rest and restores one"s nerve cells. There is no noise, no hubbub. Peace and quiet remove tension.
I knew many anglers. They loved solitude and silence. It turned into a habit, and they would become as silent as fish. Now the dragon-fly flew away breaking my contemplation. Suddenly my float splashed and disappeared. I was at a loss.
- It"s biting! - Genghiskhan said.
- I see - I replied and taking the road in my hand I started rolling the reel.
When I raised the rod I saw a small fish hang and the hook glistening with silver red
scales in the bright rays of the sun
I took the fish off the hook. For lack of oxygen it writhed taking the air in with its mouth
and quills which it uses for breathing and pumping water. To relieve it from torments, I put it in a small pool where it started floating showing its back in the shallow water. Now Genghiskhan , too, had his line tightened and his float disappeared. When he started rolling the reel I said:
- Be careful, sonny. It looks like a big fish has fallen for the bait. Don"t pull it sharply for
for it may break off the line.
He did as I told him and pulled out the fish, now tightening, now loosening the line.
The fishing gave us a lot of pleasure and joy.
Suddenly three men appeared over the ravine. They turned out to be Sadik Nenash, who
had served his prison sentence for stealing people"s money, the tractor driver Satim Pati and the stock-keeper of the local school Shakhrukh Shaitan.
With the inflatable rubber dinghy on his shoulders Sadik Nenash came down the path
leaving behind his boon companions.
Satim Pati had some heavy unit in his hand, Shakhrukh Shaitan had a flask and a sack. When they approached us we saw that the unit was a compact machine that converted mechanical energy to electrical energy generating the current of rather high tension.
Shakhrukh Shaitan and Satim Pati examined the fish we had caught and sneered wryly. The former said:
- Do you call it a catch? We will now catch fish using sacks within six seconds. Look and learn. It"s not baking bread for you.
- We shall see - said Genghiskhan.
Shakhrukh Shaitan poured gasoline into the generator"s tank and closed the lid. Then he
turned to Genghiskhan and said:
- Hey, man, have you ever eaten game?
- No, why? - replied Genghiskhan.
- You will taste it now - Shakhrukh Shaitan said.
He took the flask and poured out the rest of the gasoline onto the last year"s dry canes
and struck the match. We hadn"t been able to stop him. The cane took fire raising a huge crackling puff of smoke. The alarmed waterfowl left their nests quacking and leaving their eggs and their helpless hatched birds on their own. There was not a moment to lose.
- We must extinguish the fire - I said to Genghishan
- Yes, but how? - he asked in surprise.
I tried to put the fire out but it was too late. The fire was expanding with every second. I felt an urge to hit and break the hands of Shakhrukh Shaitan who had set fire to the cane. But he already sat in the boat drinking vodka with his boon companions. The generator was rattling. They must have switched it on.
Then Satim Pati told Sadik Nenash to put the leads into the water. The latter did as he was told. As a result both small and big fish came to the surface with their stomachs up. Opening his womanlike toothless mouth wide with excitement Shakhrukh shaitan shouted :
- Hey you! Do you see? That"s the way you should fish! Learn it from us!
Shouting out this Shakhrukh Shaitan stretched his hands to the fish and grabbed one,
shouting happily. Then for some reason he fell into the water. Now Sadik Nenash cried out:
- Satim Pati, switch off the generator!
The tractor driver saw Shakhrukh Shaitan fall and quickly switched the unit off.
It so happened that when Shakhrukh Shaitan had seized the fish with both hands he was
struck by the current. Satim Pati cried to us:
-Help!
Sadick Nenash, who had made water out of fear, was crying in a low voice. Genghiskhan
was the first to jump into the water. I followed him. We had long searched for Shakhrukh Shaitan and finally found him. When we got him out of the water he was dead.