Janika pressed the towel to his nose and that's how we went, the officer really was there, I could tell from his epaulet that he was a colonel, my grandfather taught me the ranks a while back, so anyway, this colonel was sitting there on the bench in the locker room, and he motioned with his hand for us to shut the door and then he told us to sit down, and he asked what grade we were in and if we were good students, and I had to answer the questions because Janika's nose was still bleeding. The officer took an apple and broke it in two, he gave one half to me and the other half to Janika, and he said, "Fine then, you're clever boys," he could see how hard and honorably we worked, we could be proud of ourselves, we'd proven through hard work that we sure had earned the Young Pioneers' red cravat. Then he asked us if we loved our country, and of course we nodded, even Janika, though Janika was a Jehovist and Jehovists can't be Young Pioneers and can't love their country, and then the colonel asked if we knew what radioactivity was, and I said, "No, we haven't yet studied physics, but in Homeland Defense drills we learned that if there's an atomic flash you're supposed to cover your face and climb under the table or under the bed, and then you have to report to the Chemical Defense Command for protective gear, and in the Homeland Defense textbook they write about radioactivity too, they write that radiation rays go through everything and cause damage to living organisms." Anyway, after I said all that the officer nodded and said he had two sons just as big as we were and that's why he was telling us what he was about to say, but if we dared talk to anyone about it we'd wind up in reform school for rumormongering, and they'd send our moms and dads to prison. "Do you understand?" he asked, and we nodded, but he said he wanted a proper answer, and then we said, "Yes, sir, Comrade Colonel, we do understand," and Janika even took the towel away from his face and he said it along with me, that's how scared he was.
And then the colonel said that last night there was an accident in an atomic power plant in the Great Soviet Union and that the wind brought the radioactivity here, and the fact of the matter was that the game shouldn't even be allowed to go ahead, but they didn't want people to panic, so it would be held after all, but he advised us goalies not to dive and to avoid contact with the ball because the ball picks up radioactivity from the grass, and anyway, we should watch out for ourselves because we were handsome, healthy little lads, and then he gave us each this white pill, saying we had to swallow it here and now. "It's just iodide," he said, "don't be scared," and only after we took the pills did I remember once seeing a movie about the Germans, about how they'd poisoned themselves with white pills like this, and maybe Comrade Colonel wanted to poison us too because he was sorry about telling us about the accident, and I could tell that Janika was thinking the same thing. But then we didn't die after all, the pill did have a bitterish taste but not like almonds, no, I knew poison was supposed to taste like almonds. Then the colonel patted me on the head and said, "All right then, everything will be okay, take care of yourselves," and he turned and wanted to leave, but then Janika called after him and asked, "Comrade Colonel, if we can't touch the ball or even dive, how are we supposed to keep goal?" And then the colonel turned back around and looked at us and he didn't say a thing, I thought he was about to yell or give us a good slap, sometimes Coach Gica turned all quiet for a second too, before coming at us, but Comrade Colonel only shook his head and said, really quiet, that he didn't know, so help him God he didn't know, and then he bowed his head and went out without a word and left us there in the locker room.
Janika had taken only two bites from his half of the apple, so I told him to give it to me if he didn't want it, and he gave it to me without a word, and I was just swallowing the last bite when the door opened and Coach Gica came in. One of the balls was in his hand, he stopped, and he asked us what Comrade Colonel had wanted with us. Janika and I looked at each other again, and then he pressed the towel to his nose and I replied, "Nothing," but Coach Gica stepped over and without a word he slapped me so hard that the apple core fell right out of my hand and I got all dizzy, I had to grab onto the coat rack to keep from falling, and then Coach Gica told me not to lie to him, he'd heard every word, besides, he knew everything about us, he knew we wanted to skip out on practice, and he'd heard full well how the colonel had lied to us, and he could tell that we believed the colonel, how could we be such idiots, we'd deserve to have our brains knocked out, to have the coach hammer out what was left of our brains. He'd have us know that the soldiers had come only because that's how they planned to guarantee we'd get creamed, they wanted to scare us so we wouldn't dare keep goal properly, what did they mean by saying avoid contact with the ball? And as Coach Gica said this he got so angry that he kicked one of the benches right up into the air, and the coat rack above the bench fell over and almost broke the window, and then Coach Gica got all quiet and shook his head and said, "Get it through your skulls that the colonel was lying, if there really had been an accident in that reactor, you wouldn't even be alive anymore, besides, the Party wouldn't let the game go on, everyone knows that the country's future is its youth, yes, that's the country's greatest treasure, there's no way the Party would expose this treasure to danger."
Janika then sat down on one of the other benches and took the towel away from his face, his mouth and his chin were smeared all over with blood, and he said, really quiet, that his father had told him the end of the world would come and that it would begin with a nuclear war, with a nuclear strike, and he knew that the colonel wasn't lying because the colonel had said "So help him God," and soldiers were atheists, they could never say the word "God" aloud, and if they did, why then, even they must sense that the end of the world had come and that nothing mattered anymore.
Coach Gica went over and stood in front of Janika, he snapped the ball to the floor and caught it with both hands, and he ordered Janika to stand up, but Janika didn't move, he only shook his head, at which Coach Gica snapped the ball to the floor again and shouted, "I won't repeat it, stand up, for Jehovah's fucking sake," and then Janika stood up and threw the towel to the floor, and Coach Gica said all right, he understood if what the colonel said scared us, but we still couldn't be such cowards, and if Janika apologized he wouldn't be angry at him, the others would be here soon, they had to get ready for the game, but Janika shook his head and said that the end of the world was here and that he wouldn't apologize, at which point Coach Gica snapped the ball to the floor yet again, and he reached a hand into his pocket and said he'd wanted to give this to Janika only right before the game, that this here was a pair of real leather goalie's gloves that did service on the national team. Coach Gica said that he himself kept goal with them when he was chosen one time for that team, and then he reached out with the gloves toward Janika. "Here, put them on, these will protect you from the radiation."
Janika shook his head and shouted that he didn't need them, and he spit on the gloves and I could see that his spit was all bloody, and then Coach Gica shouted something really loud, you couldn't even make out what it was, and with all his might he slapped Janika across the face with those gloves, and then he stepped back and kneed the ball right into Janika's gut and Janika doubled over, and as the ball snapped back I saw that Coach Gica wanted to knee it again, but instead of hitting the ball this time he kneed Janika's face, I heard something crack, and Janika fell onto the coat rack and slid to the floor. And Coach Gica bent down and picked up the ball, and as he looked at me I saw that his face was all red and glistening with moisture, and Coach Gica shouted, "All right, then you'll keep goal," he was shrieking, you could hardly make out his words, and he shook his head and suddenly he kicked the ball at me, straight at my face, and I jumped forward, reaching out both hands, and I caught the ball, it struck my two palms hard and stung my skin, and when I sprang to the floor and instinctively clutched that ball tight to avoid giving the attacking player an opportunity, just as Coach Gica had taught us, I saw Janika lying on the floor next to the bench, he wasn't moving and there was blood flowing from his ear.