still jumped on the bike and, turning off the road, drove through the thick grass of the meadows. Without approaching too close, he rounded the ill-fated garden from the east, intending to drive around it on the perimeter. Surely there is some other way. But there were only untouched meadows around. Not even yesterday’s haystacks were visible. Everywhere grew tall yellowed grass. Having made a circle, Andrew, with a little more than an hour, returned to the only dirt road. On his map, the manor was not marked at all. Yes, and no settlements nearby, too. Is that the village Dirunovo, in which he planned to spend the night yesterday. Hopelessly having sighed, he decided to go there and look for some information from local residents. Somewhere far behind there was the sound of an engine, and after a few minutes, Andrew saw on the road, about five kilometers away, a blue tractor, which was whining on the ascent, throwing up black flakes of smoke. The tractor driver, a cheerful mustache man of fifty, famously braked his transport next to the cyclist and opened the door:

- Good morning! - He shouted, - Maybe a ride?

- Where are you going? - Andrey specified.

- In Dirunovo. There is nowhere else.

The tractor driver helped Andrew to attach and tie the bike on a small plow behind the tractor, and they rushed forward, scattering large clumps of dirt that were sticking to the wheels on the side of the road.

- Traveling? - asked the tractor driver, lighting a cigarette.

“Yes ...” Andrei looked at the side window with anguish, where they floated, moving away the green crowns of the old garden.

- I, too, in my youth on a bicycle, traveled half the country. By the way, my name is Egor.

- Andrew...

The tractor driver silently paused, puffing his cigarette on his red mustache.

“Now what kind of bicycles he has gone to,” he continued the conversation again, “aaaah in our time there ...” I had a “Ukraine”. Squeak-oo-oo-tea will not save. Oh, and lubricated it, and disassembled. No, squeak infection. Spare parts in the afternoon with fire not to find ... yes-ah, there were times ...

- And you yourself with Dirunovo? - asked Andrei.

- From there ... - Egor deeply inhaled and filled the cockpit with caustic tobacco smoke.

“What do you know behind the garden with the house?”

The tractor driver looked at the distant green crowns, and then turned a laughing look at Andrei.

“The manor is old there,” he answered, “They say the counts have lived. Not Altukhyevs, not Altufyevs. Now everything is abandoned.

- Where are the dachas?

- What isho dachi?

- Well, is there a holiday village here?

- He has never been born. So who needs cottages then? - grinning at his mustache, Yegor was surprised, - From the village, everyone is running, throwing houses. Nothing to do.

Andrei fell silent and turned to the window.

“And at the manor, this is an interesting story,” said Yegor, speaking, feeling his interest in his native country from a fellow traveler, “Count entot, we see with oddities. It seems like he himself lived not in Moscow, not in Leningrad, but here he seemed to be giving something, - the tractor driver jolted Andrei with his elbow merrily, - so maybe this is your holiday village? At that time there was a wilderness here. Well this is when the king happened. In the spring and autumn, so do not drive. Dirt-and-and-search! Well, probably unsociable, which was. Anything byvat. Still, he seemed very interested in trees. He even wrote books on this subject. The garden is huge planted. So, they told me that his wife had a beautiful one. Everything on the capital's balls sparkled. And they told him that she had cheated on him. True, or not - who will now disassemble. So he out of her anger and exiled. And he stayed in the city. He abandoned his science and the garden. More than his legs were not here. So the poor one lived a few years. Of the servants, only some kind of grandmother with her. Yes, men from the village were visiting for work - chop firewood, some trees to drank. Food was also sold, milk. My grandfather told me about that. He, too, in his youth, ran there for a part-time job. The Countess himself did not see. The maid told him all this, which he helped to grind grain. Yes-ah-ah-ah ...that's how many years have passed ... and there are no people, and the house is all worth it.

The tractor driver opened the door, and threw a smoldering cigarette butt.

- Well, then what? - burning with curiosity, asked Andrei.

- And then she died. Then who is that city: who says that she hanged herself from anguish, others that her husband came and strangled in a drunken stupor. Now I can only guess. The old servant immediately disappeared somewhere. In the city, you see, filed. Autumn was in the yard. The thaw began. My grandfather, I was just called to the army, so I did not see anything myself. It is said that the poor thing seems to be somewhere around here and was buried. Since then, all and abandoned. Five years later, the revolution began. The count entot hit the Red Army somewhere under the hot hand, and they slapped him.

- And why no one wants to put this museum in order, to restore, to arrange a museum?

Egor grinned cheerfully, baring his yellow teeth.

- But who cares? We have a carved church in the village. It is made of hewn pine without a single nail. With three altars and a bell tower. Rumor has it that even in some book entered where all the valuable buildings are listed. So, if we did not pay it up, this value would have collapsed long ago. Not a spear from the state have not received. And you're talking about some kind of cottage! And, generally speaking, to tell the truth, we are trying to bypass this place, - he said with narrowed eyes, - there is something impure there.

- Ghosts chtoli? - Andrei wanted to say it jokingly, but it turned out quite differently.

- Well, here, you want - believe, you want - no. I, too, are not gullible. I thought all the jokes, gossip womanish. So the boy still got into the habit of running around for apples. Odinovo climbed a tree (the apples were still green, they themselves did not fall), I sit, trying to reach the desired branch with a stick. Suddenly I heard a door slammed down below. Looking down, I managed to notice out of the corner of my eye how someone in a dark sheepskin came around the corner of the house. His back only saw a hunched and shiny foot in his boot. I jumped down, ran after him. No one! Do you want - believe, want - do not believe! Not a single soul! I ran around the whole yard, and when I realized that it was a ghost, it was like cold water that poured me out of the tub. He ran to the village - only his heels sparkled. And since then, I go there by foot! And my son is strictly forbidden! The boys then run young. Bonfires there harness, God knows what they do. But for the time being, that's all. It is better to stay away from demons. And I do not advise you to go there.

“What was the name of that countess?”

- But who knows her ... Now, and no one remembers. We tried somehow to find her grave, but we didn’t find anything. Either they were not buried here, or the cross was gone.

Worried about the story, Yegor shook out a new “I will receive” from the pack and lit up:

- So, brother, everything in the world happens ... or just on TV, the program was shown ...

Yegor set off on new stories, but Andrew did not hear him anymore. He looked at the approaching green woodland, and the wooden dome towering above him was already near the village church, and he saw huge wooden poles, like rusty gate loops, and stone slabs twisted by roots, rooted out of the ground. Before the mind's eye again stood a huge hall, littered with broken gypsum, lounging sofas, and semicircular staircases leading to the county’s bedroom. The creaky doors opened again, and on the porch she stood - a small barefoot woman in a wet white dress and looked at him in dismay. And again, as then, Andrei's heart jerked in a painful spasm. Alice! Favorite! Where are you now?

The tractor driver landed him on the central rural street, informing him that the store will be working only the next day. Andrew thanked the cheerful man for everything, and finally clarified:

- Tell me, Egor, do you have a woman in the village named Alice?

“Ah-ls-a-s ...” the tractor driver repeated in a chant, “it's a beautiful name, but we definitely don't have any.

- Maybe passing here was so. On a yellow bike. She lives somewhere near.

Yegor frowned and stroked his mustache.

- Not,... Read more →