You might be wondering why my name appears on the cover along with the title of head caretaker Junyo. Haven’t you heard that the presbyter Volodymyr Andreyiv has passed away? In common terms—thankfully!—he died! It has been forty days since then (May he rest in peace in the Kingdom of Heaven!). We celebrated his funeral with the whole village for three days! We celebrated not so much his birth as his departure from us (this rebel, while he was still with us, used to ponder about death-birth—the transition from one form of existence to another—see the second shelf, part II). Though this death-birth is one and the same event, we rejoiced and celebrated that we finally got rid of that troublemaker and agitator. (However, no matter what kind of person he was—even the most cynical Judas, maniac-terrorist, or even the devil in the flesh, the Antichrist of Antichrists—Father says to love him and wish him from the heart the Kingdom of Heaven and Eternal Rest!). Oh, how much trouble and provocation he caused! Who didn’t cry because of him! May the Lord God not remember this against him! And to those whom he wronged, may the Lord grant strength and wisdom to forgive him and release themselves from his grasp. And how much evil he personally caused me—only the Lord Jesus knows!

So, since that presbyter (Volodymyr Andreyiv) is now deceased, the elder blessed me to take responsibility for everything in our apothecary (everything displayed on the shelves and visible!). This bookcase was still being arranged by him, but he unfortunately didn’t live (thankfully!) to see it printed. The elder says that a book is alive as long as its author (compiler) is alive or as long as the tradition in which it is written is alive—so the elder blessed it to be signed with my name (and not the deceased’s, even though he compiled it). The elder knows best, I don’t argue with him because it’s pointless and dangerous—after disobedience and trying to argue with him, you might end up lisping or even running to the dentist for dentures… And being reproached and scolded by the elder is a constant therapy-prevention, he doesn’t talk to us any other way… So, we try not to irritate the elder (especially with disobedience), remembering that his nervous system is severely affected after his inspection…

You ask: was there no one wiser in your kolkhoz to be made responsible for the order (arrangement of books, shelves)?! I ask myself the same question, but arguing with the elder… oh no, God forbid! You better ask that old madman yourself if you absolutely need to know the answer to your question… My job is small—to silently do (I am at work) what the elder (this old rasp) says (of course, only what is in accordance with God’s will!).

P.S. During the Inspection-Review, we decided (out of necessity) to conduct an inspection of our warehouse ourselves: first of all, we removed those medicine-thoughts whose expiration date had passed or which were made with violations, particularly without following the State (Kingdom of God) standards and technologies… We started roughly, with what was most noticeable… God willing, we will conduct a thorough inventory (inspection-review) of all medicine-thoughts in due time, but for now, only roughly, superficially. And one more thing: since everything was done hastily (so as not to cause extra trouble from those Inspectors), we didn’t have time to tidy up the shelves (rearrange the books anew, taking into account the empty spaces on the pages—but this is for the best, everything is good for the best!), because those who have our books can easily find out which medicine-thoughts have lost their relevance. Know that where there is an empty space instead of text (on the page or a large gap in the sentence—several spaces in a row), there once were medicine-thoughts that we removed or put away from the prying eyes of the inspectors (so that in due time, after reworking them according to the standards of the Kingdom of God, we could again display them on the shelves for grandmothers to use for healing-salvation)… Therefore, we apologize for the mess…

The best motivator to tidy up the house: “Guests are coming… and they warned: we will be there in 20 minutes.” And for us, the motivator to tidy up the warehouse, even roughly, is not just guests, but an Inspection-Review from the City… So we cleaned up mainly what was visible (because we didn’t even get to that before…). So, where you see gaps in the texts, know that there were medicine-thoughts that we removed as directed by the elder; the elder said what to remove, throw away—we did it, and why—ask him, the phone number is on the last shelf. I heard that the elder also recommended to visitors (especially regular customers) of our apothecary that where they see a gap (and from the context, it will be clear that there was someone’s name or the name of a specific organization there…), to put their own name (i.e., themselves) or the name of their (religious) organization (structure) that was there (not to judge others, but to check themselves)—and read such places this way for their salvation. And one more remark: the gaps in the texts in no way affect the integrity of the text and the understanding of the verbal instruction. So read the text as if where there are large gaps (two characters or more long), there was never any text—as if the person typing the text accidentally pressed the spacebar several times instead of once, or even dozed off for a moment with the spacebar pressed, and waking up, continued to type the text in order…