fields. The corn will then be eaten by chickens, and a new battalion will come and eat the chickens."
"Oh, please!" exclaims Sancho, sinking his teeth into a meaty chicken leg. "Tell us something funny."
"One of us will have to eat up and take Joker’s place," Sancho reminds us. After all we are on duty. Our building is the last one in the village and overlooks the road to Ramie. Outside we have built a rather feeble road block. One man is on guard.
"I quite forgot to tell you," pipes up Zuzik. "You wouldn’t guess what is going on in the village. We are the only ones on duty. All the other companies are ransacking the houses. Scheike’s company found a doctor’s house. I’m telling you - a dream. They confiscated two pianos, beautiful oil paintings, armchairs, fountain pens, every-thing. This is a really rich village!"
"Damn the Chinaman!" Kebab bursts out. The Chinaman is our company commander, who has an oriental face. "He is always taking on the most ridiculous tasks. We are always the ones on duty while the others are enjoying themselves."
Jf Jf
After the meal it is my turn to wander through the village. I get on the bicycle that we found this morning. A lot of bicycles have been found. Because this is not really a village at all, but rather a little suburb, whose inhabitants worked in Ramie and Lod.1
The whole area is crawling with our soldiers. Some are relaxing in armchairs, sporting an incredible variety of head coverings, daggers, and swords. Other comrades are proudly showing off their watches and fountain pens.
In front of the doctor’s house, Yashke’s company is sitting and keeping an eye on their treasures. The men are discussing the price of the looted piano. They have had to accept surrendering one of them for the battalion’s culture room. They intend to sell the other.
Fat Shmuel calls to me. The last time I saw him was in Latrun, when he was trying to rescue a wounded man. He was carrying him on his back. When he heard a shell approaching, he threw him on the ground and himself next to him. After the explosion he got up. The wounded man was gone. All that was left were some strange stains on the ground.