hill, stood a few new houses belonging to the more prosperous farmers.
As usual the command post occupied the beautiful houses near the well. Next to them was the kitchen, the makeshift showers, the mess, and first company’s quarters. The two other companies settled in around the top of the hill, and took it in turns to man the observa-tion post.
Hassan’s main duty was to bring the meals up the hill from the kitchen. Everyone was pleased with him. Three times a day he would appear at the top, riding a white donkey which carried the contain-ers. Between mealtimes he washed the dishes, cleaned the showers - which he very rarely used himself - polished our shoes, and occupied himself with similar tasks.
Although he was at everybody’s service, he displayed a natural pride which amused everyone. He never refused a task. But he did everything proudly, as though he was a host doing his guests a favor to emphasize his hospitality.
In time we all started to spoil him, with the "wild" ones taking the lead.
They bought chocolate for him in the little canteen, and taught him to smoke cigarettes. The "softies" accused the "wild" ones of doing it to soothe their consciences. But in fact he was just as pam-pered by all of us.
Hassan accepted the chocolate with the gesture of a patronizing lord. He didn’t make friends with anyone. Except Rafi. He literally worshiped Rafi. He cleaned his shoes and washed his clothes, with-out being asked to. The fact that Rafi was just a private soldier had nothing to do with this. Although comrades sometimes laughed about Rafi and his servant, they got used to the fact that Hassan belonged to Rafi, just as Nero, the company’s little dog, was attached to Moshe.
* * *
Suddenly this idyll was destroyed. Jeeps appeared and conducted daily patrols, probing and observing the villages in no-man’s-land and testing the strength of the enemy. After them appeared the offi-cers from battalion HQ, a sign that usually meant that something was going to happen soon on this part of the front.
Then the details of the planned operation were announced. In two