Days passed. The war went on. In place of local fighters the enemy was now the Arab Legion and the Egyptian Army. Eli didn’t carry his machine gun on his back any longer, but used the one mounted on the jeep.
"Eli’s jeep" it was called, even if Shmuel, the squad leader, was the actual head of the team. In time he became known throughout the brigade. The machine gun just spat out its bullets, whether stationary or on the move, and never missed its target. But the more Eli’s renown spread, the worse his mood became.
People wanted to make fun of him for his softness. But
nobody dared to say a word. Because in combat he was in a class of his own. So they had to face the facts and accept that he was just different.
But Eli was no longer on his own. He had a little girlfriend. The dog from Deir-Mussah. He never went into battle without her. She slept next to him. And the bond between them seemed to become stronger with every enemy that Eli struck. It would happen that someone sur-prised him sitting and talking with the dog in a language that no human understood.
* * *
One day Eli’s jeep was driving on a patrol through Deir-Mussah. The task was to provoke the enemy into a firefight, to test their strength.
As the jeep approached the village, it was greeted with unexpect-edly heavy fire. The first bullet hit a tire. Ephraim, the driver, just managed to bring the vehicle to a halt, and Shmuel gave the order to take cover. Eli grabbed the machine gun, jumped out of the jeep, and fired one salvo after another. Fatima also jumped out of the jeep and then disappeared.
Covered by the automatic fire, Ephraim worked fast. Bullets may have been whizzing past his head, but he knew his job. He replaced the damaged wheel with the reserve.
"Prepare to withdraw!" shouted Shmuel, and then "Into the jeep!" Eli jumped on, then paused. Fatima was not there. For a moment he flattened himself out on the ground, then he jumped up and ran to the house at the edge of the village.
"Are you crazy?" shouted Shmuel. "Come back immediately!"
But Eli didn’t hear him. He ran toward the house, without