standing in front of me is Musa, the squad leader. I look for my rifle. It is not there. The others’ rifles are also gone.
"Wake your friends up!" Musa laughs. "Four sleeping men on watch. Four Arab battalions could have marched in and slaughtered the lot of us - and all thanks to you pigdogs." I wake up the other three. We stand in the first light of dawn and shiver.
"Go to the chief and report that you were asleep on watch and that your rifles were taken away."
The chief is a major, a former officer of the Jewish Brigade.5 We go to his barracks and squint through the window. He is lying in bed with his mouth half open. The colorful sleeves of his pajamas lend him a totally non-military appearance. When we see him like that, we get angry. Why can he sleep and we can’t? What is better about him? It is just a matter of chance that he is an officer and we are ordinary soldiers.
I curse Zuzik for not getting up when I woke him, and he attacks me for waking him too early and not waiting until he got up. We argue for a long time, getting louder and louder until the door opens and the sleepy face of the chief appears. He yells at us, his face red with anger: "To hell with you stinking farts. You have been disturbing my sleep for the last hour. What do you think you are doing here?"
Sancho puts on his most subservient expression and explains: "Musa, the squad leader, sent us here to wake you."
"I haven’t the faintest idea who Musa is. To hell with him!" His voice cracks. "Get away from here, and make sure I don’t see your dirty faces again today." We run away. When we have turned the cor-ner of the barracks we collapse with laughter.
>1 * if
As a punishment Musa gives us twelve hours’ guard duty. Zuzik and Joker stand at the southern gate, opposite the kibbutz, while Sancho and I guard the northern gate facing Sukreir. We are bored and chew a brick of dried fruit that got stuck in my trouser pocket.
Just before midnight two figures approach the gate. We can hardly believe our eyes. One of them is an old Fellah wearing a keffiyeh and an Agal,6 the other is dressed like a townie, probably a Jew. He explains to us that the old man is the Mukhtar7 of Sukreir. He has to talk with the chief. Sancho seizes the opportunity and sets off with the two. He forgets to come back.