We continued walking and we smelled the pond before we saw it.
We had been very lucky to discover this pond. We’d already spent a lot of time there since coming out of the forest. For the moment, we were the only ones who went there. But we lived in constant fear that other men from the company would discover it. If that happened we’d probably have to fight them, because we had no intention of sharing our pond.
Kyabine and Pavel waded into the water up to their knees. Sifra and I stayed on the bank. We didn’t like swimming. Sifra lay on his back and looked up at the sky. I watched Pavel and Kyabine as they went in up to their waists. Around them the water had grown muddy. Kyabine tried to make the water clear again by stirring it with his hands. Pavel moved away from him. He crouched down and now all I saw was his head sticking out of the water.
Pavel and Kyabine went swimming while Sifra fell asleep next to me. This was a precious place. Because we didn’t know where we would be tomorrow. We had come out of the forest, the winter was over, but we didn’t know how much time we would stay here, nor where we would have to go next. The war wasn’t over, but as usual we didn’t know anything about the army’s operations. It was better not to think about it. We could already count ourselves lucky to have found this pond.
When Pavel and Kyabine returned to the bank they were covered in mud. They sat down and waited for the sun to dry them before they got dressed again.
We would have liked to shoot our rifles at the water, but as we wanted to keep the pond a secret we knew it was best not to make too much noise. That would have attracted the attention of the rest of the company.
Pavel and Kyabine stood up and rubbed themselves. The mud had dried now and it fell off them like dust.
5
WE TOOK THE same path back. When we reached the pile of sleepers, Pavel and I picked one up and slung it across our shoulders. Pavel walked in front and I walked behind. Kyabine and Sifra took one too and we all walked back to the camp.
Kyabine and Sifra walked ahead. Suddenly, Pavel and I started running. We passed them. We heard Kyabine shouting: ‘Sifra! Sifra!’
The sleeper was cutting into our shoulders but we kept running. Soon we heard the ragged breathing of Kyabine and Sifra just behind us. They were getting closer. Just as they were about to overtake us, Pavel and I moved to opposite sides of the path, so our sleeper blocked their way. But they found a way around this. They left the path and now they were running alongside us in the grass field. We stared at each other, eyes bulging from the effort. The sleepers were weighing ever more heavily on our shoulders. For an instant we were equal, running at the same speed. Then Kyabine and Sifra sneaked ahead. But Kyabine put his foot in a hole. He collapsed and we had time to see their sleeper flying over Kyabine’s head. We slowed down now because we were sure of our victory. We lifted up the sleeper to give our shoulders a rest.
But suddenly Kyabine surged past us on our right. He was carrying the sleeper on his own, still running in the field. His mouth was wide open and he was staring straight ahead, his expression serious and tense. He hadn’t given up. Pavel and I started to run again, but not too fast, just fast enough to stay alongside Kyabine, and to taunt him. His face was a picture of pain. While it was true he was the biggest and strongest of us all, running while carrying a sleeper single-handed was too tough: he stood no chance. He slowed down and finally he threw the sleeper on the ground and came to a halt.
We had won.
6
AS I’VE SAID, the camp was situated at the edge of a pine wood. At the end of the winter when we were still living in huts, we’d all been ordered to make tents. We used the tarpaulin that we’d stolen from the factory in Galicia to make ours. It was spacious and there was enough height at the centre for us to stand upright. Pavel had made a tent pole from a tree branch, taking care to keep the beginnings of the secondary branches. That was pretty clever too, because we could use them to hang up our rifles. They were always dry and within easy reach, and they didn’t bother us while we were sleeping.
We dropped the railway sleepers outside the tent. Pavel left for the camp with Kyabine. They returned with a wooden crate that we placed upside down between the sleepers so we could play dice.
Kyabine had got another bit of tobacco from Sifra.
He managed to roll half a dozen thin cigarettes. He lit one and, instead of keeping the rest, put them on top of the wooden crate. He wanted to gamble them at dice against Pavel. ‘I’m going to clean you out,’ he boasted.
Pavel replied: ‘Play!’
Kyabine threw the dice, repeating: ‘I’m going to clean you out, Pavel.’
Pavel picked up the dice and, looking at the cigarette that dangled between Kyabine’s lips, said: ‘Good idea to smoke that one.’
‘What?’ said Kyabine.
Pavel didn’t respond. He threw the dice on the crate.
‘Hey!’ said Kyabine. ‘Why did you say that, Pavel?’
Then suddenly he understood. Shaking his head, he answered: ‘No, Pavel, I’m going to clean you out.’
‘Play, Kyabine!’ said Pavel.
7
DUSK FELL AND there were no more cigarettes on the crate in front of Kyabine. They had all gone over to Pavel’s side and now he had taken out his cigarette case and was putting them inside. Kyabine did not look at anyone, least of all Sifra, who had given him the tobacco he’d just lost. Kyabine stared at the top of the wooden crate and looked very surprised.
Pavel put his cigarette case back in his pocket and said to Kyabine: ‘You simply didn’t deserve to win.’
Kyabine looked at Pavel. ‘What?’
And Pavel repeated: ‘You didn’t deserve to win.’
Kyabine was nonplussed. He didn’t understand what Pavel was getting at. Neither did Sifra or I. Pavel was obviously taking the piss out of Kyabine. We just hadn’t yet understood in what way he was taking the piss out of him. In a grave voice, Pavel asked him: ‘Have you done one single good thing today to deserve to win?’
‘I don’t know, Pavel,’ Kyabine replied. ‘I don’t know.’
Pavel continued to stare at him gravely while Kyabine thought about this. Suddenly he asked: ‘What about you, Pavel? Have you done something good today?’
Pavel replied: ‘It’s difficult to talk about the good things you’ve done.’
‘At least tell me one good thing,’ said Kyabine.
But Pavel remained silent. Now Kyabine stared at him entreatingly. Sifra and I, too, were curious to find out about Pavel’s good deeds. Thankfully we managed to remain serious. Suddenly Pavel said: ‘This morning I pissed on a swarm of ants that were trying to eat a caterpillar.’
Kyabine looked at me and Sifra, then he looked at Pavel and he said: ‘Huh? What?’
‘What do you think, Kyabine? Could the caterpillar defend itself?’
Now Kyabine stared questioningly at me and Sifra.
Pavel explained: ‘It was a nice fat caterpillar and it was wriggling around trying to escape those little bastards. So I thought to myself: Pavel, it’s time to do a good deed.’
Kyabine slapped his hand on the wooden crate and said: ‘I reckon you’re having us on.’
Pavel did not reply.
‘Yeah, you’re having us on,’ Kyabine said. ‘You shouldn’t do that to me.’
As Pavel still didn’t say anything, Kyabine demanded: ‘Give me some proof!’
Pavel took out his cigarette case and opened it. It was full of cigarettes, some of them the ones he had won from Kyabine. ‘This is proof, don’t you think?’ he said.