Part Ten

"I won't leave you," said Hideoshi breathlessly, "if you stop that and stiffen up!"
Takashi suddenly burst out,"I know! You can come and live with us after this siege is over!"
"Why not? What do you say, Nevsky?"
Nevsky had calmed down, but he still quivered as he said,
"That's fine. I promise I'll be better. Besides-in case you got some queer notions in your heads-I'm no drunk. I even loathe the very smell of alcohol! It's just-never mind. I'll come with you two."
They briskly left the basement, Nevsky snatching up the letter, climbed up the stairs, and walked out of the tavern. A full moon glowed milky-white overhead in the dark blue sky, lighting the snow on the ground and the city of Valash.
"You know," Takashi said, "I never really noticed the city before. See that round tower with the cone roof right in the middle?"
"Or, how everything seems to have a blue tile roof?" Said Nevsky.
Hideoshi interjected, "That's because there's blue clay about six miles or so from here. Let's get to bed now!"
They plodded through slushy streets just beginning to freeze over, until they reached a large house, climbed up the stairs, opened the door, and stepped inside. Gasping, Nevsky said:
"It's the house we looked around in yesterday!-or the day before- I don't remember."
But now there were rows of sleeping bags on the stone floor beneath the stained glass windows. A fire was burning in a fireplace that escaped their notice on their last visit, while soldiers milled about, talking, drinking, or sitting alone on their sleeping bags. Takashi yawned.
"It's drafty in here, and it echoes a lot. I won't be able to sleep tonight," he said.
"Then you're no soldier," grinned Hideoshi, who ran up to, then dived into his sleeping bag afterwards. Takashi and Nevsky followed his example.
However, several hours later, Nevsky still lay awake. Thinking.
"I-I run from it, yet it follows me. It won't leave me! And I'm such a coward, though I want to be brave. But how-the world is not what I thought it to be! It's savage and heartless! But it can't be! If it was, then why would Hideoshi and Galen help me? If that was true, totally true, they wouldn't have.
"I've got to fight tomorrow, but I'm nothing but a scared nineteen-year-old, alone, alone! So I'm a man, they say. In years, maybe, but inside-
"-Hideoshi. How can he say that life is wonderful despite suffering? But it's true that I felt like fighting for it. Then the rest must-must be true! But how? How can life be wonderful in spite of fear?"
The darkness of sleep overtook Nevsky however, and he slept in peace.
When Nevsky awoke, dappled flecks of coloured light shone on the stone floor, while the dim outlines of the ceiling and the columns grew more defined with increasing light. Other soldiers from the Third Company were also arising from slumber, grooming themselves or just crawling out of their sleeping bags.
"So you're up now!" Said Takashi (who was nearby ) in a loud whisper.
"Yeah."
After grooming and a breakfast of stew, Hideoshi, Nevsky, and Takashi walked out of the front door, down the steps, and onto the street. A group of women walked past them, spitting into their faces and shouting "Bah!" Before strolling away.
Takashi, grimacing while wiping his face with his coat sleeve, said: "Yuck! How rude!"
"I heard some other soldiers say that they were spit at when walking around," Nevsky said.
"Well, I suppose they don't bear goodwill towards their 'invaders'," said Hideoshi.
Frowning, Takashi replied, "We'd better watch out then!".
Meanwhile, Nevsky, seized by an adventurous mood, wandered off into a side street nearby. He strode across frozen mud, stared at the blue tile roofs, and puffed out a cloud of frozen breath while twiddling his thumbs. Then he looked down, and saw a child alone in the street, huddled against a stone house wall. It was a boy, about seven, barefoot and draped in a woman's coat caked with mud. His straw brown hair curled, and his eyes were a vivid turquoise.
Nevsky stared, then asked, "Are your eyes really that colour?"
"Yes," came a hurried whisper of a reply.
The boy turned to face Nevsky while saying this, which caused Nevsky to notice that the boy had no right arm.
"Were you hurt?" He asked.
The boy lowered his head, almost whispering, "No."
"What happened then?"
"Wuz born that way."
"Oh."
They stood silently in the grey-white light in the grey street, Nevsky staring at the boy, the boy gazing at the ground. Then Nevsky broke the silence.
"Do you have any parents nearby? Are you lost?" He asked.