That is the sound of the Angel of Death. He arrives in a destroyed jeep, rattling and squeaking. The panels of the jeep are made of paper - pages of newspaper, song sheets, homework.
Quiet. The rattling has stopped. Has he arrived? No. Not yet. There it is again, this rattling. It becomes more distant and then closer, distant, and then close. Light tapping on the window. Does Death tap on windows? No. Nonsense. Crazy fantasies. It is rain. First the drops tap lightly on the window, then they tap harder and harder. In the end it is really raining. Tap-tap-tap-tap.
A welcome to you, Rain. You drown out the groaning, cover it up with your own sound. Blessed, calming rain. Sounds like machine guns in the remote distance, too far for the bullets to reach me ...
* ־)נ *
The first raindrops, gentle, caressing ...
We are standing in Mugrabi Square. A big, open truck is waiting to take us back to camp. People are assembling in three rows under the big clock, whose hands indicate the approach of midnight. Jamus is standing in front of them. He shouts in French, acting big in the Israeli way, and the people are shivering with cold in their thin shirts. It is hard to tell if anyone is missing. Civilians walk past, wrapped in thick coats, and throw us fleeting glances.
"Attention!" Jamus shouts. He is the only one of us three squad leaders who can speak French. That is why he has taken on the duty of sergeant. He in turn is standing in for the company com-mander, who is in hospital after his face was ripped up by a hand grenade.
We spent the evening in Tel Aviv. An unofficial absence. Since we know that our company is headed for the front, we decided to allow our Moroccans a little pleasure in life before their baptism of fire.
They don’t have much to enjoy, these Moroccans. The Yishuv brought them here to help in the war. They are sent to the front with-out adequate training, without suitable winter clothing, and the doors of society remain closed to them. Moroccan - a word of disap-proval! The French language alone is enough to spoil the chances of a young man with a girl in Tel Aviv.
Actually I didn’t do much this evening. I had no desire for a woman and didn’t want to get separated from Jamus. We sat in a