suggested going to the movie theater. I knew that we would find some there."

"And how! " says Zuzik with enthusiasm. "If you sit next to a girl in the movies and you don’t start smooching as soon as the lights go out, she will be insulted." The great know-all.

"We went to the Kessem movie theater. I stand in line for tickets and Amos goes off for cigarettes. Then I notice that some woman is watching me."

"A woman?" asks Zuzik doubtfully.

"She looked about twenty-two or twenty-five. Face slightly too round, but her body was another matter! A body that shouts out that it knows what things are about." Sancho falls silent for a moment, apparently considering this philosophical expression.

"And then? And then?" Zuzik could hardly contain his

impatience.

"What can I say? She looks at me. I look at her. Then she comes over and asks if I can get her tickets. ‘How many?’ I ask. ‘One,’ she says. ‘Sure,’ I say. I get the tickets and we go in. Amos on the left, me on the right, with the woman in the middle. She says her name is Schoschanah. I call her Shosch ... she smiles. And I tell here that I arrived this morning from the Negev and have to return tomorrow. ‘Really?’ she asks and puts her hand on my back as if to protect me. I gaze into her eyes which look like a leave pass for a whole week. Then the lights go out."

"What was the film about?" asks Joker naively.

"The film?" Sancho returns the question. "No idea! I lean a bit to the left, and she does not pull back. So I put my hand on her knee and she covers it with her jacket. So my hand wanders across her thigh, I investigate her knickers, and she joins in with enthusi-asm. At that moment I was almost ready to give thanks for this damned war."

"And then what?" Zuzik probed. His green eyes are gleaming and he looks rather ridiculous. I turn over a page of my book and act as if I am not listening. But in fact we are all too excited to miss a moment.

"Well, the film comes to an end," Sancho groaned. "We go out and she asks if we feel like coffee at her place. Amos winks at me and says ‘For sure!’ So she takes us along Ben-Jehuda Street to a neat little flat.

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