"I’m not going to ask him whether I can play poker or not! "
"Yob tvoyu Mat. Damn anybody who goes exercising!"
"I’m not getting up before seven. He can go for a run himself!"
"They might as well put us all in prison and be done with it."
"I’m not going to stay one day longer in this shitty battalion. In battle it is like a slaughterhouse, and during a ceasefire they want to treat us like raw recruits!"
Someone pushes a sheet of paper and a pen in front of my face. "Write!" I yawn. This is the fifth or sixth revolt that I have taken part in. I know the text by heart. "Since I joined the jeep company in the certain knowledge that this is a commando unit with special privi-leges and rights ... I request hereby my transfer to the commando unit of another brigade."
Everyone has to write his letter himself, so they can’t accuse us of taking part in an organized mutiny. The intelligent ones among us are quickly finished. But some of us have difficulties with reading and writing. Every word has to be dictated to them separately. Just before midnight the package is ready. We put it on the chief s desk in the dark staff room.
In bed we talk some more. "What will be the result?" Jamus asks.
"The same as usual. Tomorrow the chief will call us together and threaten us with half a year in prison. Then he will tell us that we are the best company in the brigade and we shouldn’t be stupid. And then he will add that had already planned to give us three days’ leave the day after tomorrow."
It is not easy to command a combat battalion. He can’t put us in prison, because we are the only veterans left in the battalion. And the brigade can’t get along without our jeep company. He can’t transfer us, and we don’t even want to be transferred. Sancho is right. In the end a compromise will be found. We will behave ourselves and instead of exercises we will drive nice patrols. The whole thing will last two days. But I can’t wait two days. I need to get to Tel Aviv. Tomorrow.
"Jamus, you asleep?"
"No. What is it?"
"You coming with me to Tel Aviv tomorrow?"
"Yours eternally. When?"