FREEFORUM

Quiet four nights. Our elders and Uzbek officers met at the old well by the road. UN men watching. Everybody drank tea and nobody smiled. That is good. When they smile, it is bad.

Now it is in the paper: Herald. Numbers match what I said. Nobody hurt on our side. That part they got right too.

No army from Talas. Only riders. Not twelve dead. I do not know how many hurt. Nobody here says numbers. Numbers make revenge.

First post. Signal only at the truck stop. Two nights shooting at the wells west of here. Uzbek guards and our riders. Nobody knows who first. Herders moving flocks back from the line in the dark. ...