Sancho laughs out loud. "Motherland? What sort of motherland? I have no motherland. Only the living have a motherland. Not the dead. If I was still alive, I could do something. Work, to expand my workshop. But what can I do now? Just fertilize the earth."
"He was one of the first to sign up ... "
"Did I have any choice?" said Sancho unhappily. "Everyone told me it was the right thing to do. First my parents, then my teachers, then the youth leaders: we live to serve the motherland. I never learned anything else." He scratches his ear as he always did when he was going to say something philosophical. "You know what? You have to die before you know how you should live. You need some distance."
"Our victorious army will never forget ..." the speaker is getting carried away.
"Don’t try and fool yourselves!" Sancho objected. "You are not victorious, you are defeated. OK, you have held off the Egyptians. But what have you achieved? The state you dreamed of in the trenches is dead, even before it was born. Instead of it a state has been founded, in which the bureaucrats live it up at your expense and deserters give you a kick in the ass. Everything will be the same as before. Only that you have your own flag and coat of arms and you can prepare for the next war yourselves."
"We will honor him by carrying out his will," the speaker contin-ues. "At any time and in any circumstances, until the end of our days, we will be ready to follow the call of the motherland and to march against the enemy..."
"What did I tell you?" Sancho laughs. "You are beyond help. You are already thinking of the next war and a hero’s death."
"What do you want then?" I ask him quietly. "Should we not go? Should we wait until the Arabs come and slaughter us all?"
"Idiot!" Sancho swears at me. "You never were very bright! Not until the motherland calls you. Do something now, so the mother-land doesn’t need to call you! You see that hill over there?" He points at a distant hill. I remember. That’s where Barchaba is. "Over there a few Egyptian dead are lying. I go over there sometimes. They are a bit stupid. But you can get on with them. Now they are dead. And I am dead too. We have nothing more to do with the whole business. But you - do something! So that you don’t have to die. Come to some