20
Palestine 1947
The light disappeared and the temperature plummeted. I saw my breath. We had two fires going. I’d posted sentries at either end of the makeshift camp and rotated them every hour. I checked my watch. Closing in on two a.m. Most of the kid soldiers snoozed heavily, wrapped up in their blankets. Only Irit and I seemed to be awake, apart from the sentries, of course. I stared into the fire, mesmerized by the dancing, flickering light. I drew deeply on a Sweet Cap. My commanding officer, sat opposite me, propped against a boulder watching silently. The flames lit her hair from behind casting her freckled face in shadow. I sat on a flat rock. It wasn’t comfortable. None of this was. I could feel her eyes on me, and it made me nervous and that was the point, I figured. She rem
