GIDEON TELPAZ
47
boots, parts of uniforms, knapsacks. Tracks of bare feet stretched far
into the horizon where the enemy soldiers had fled.
The sun was still high when we spotted three figures trudging
through the sand a mile away. Two of them were wrapped in Bedouin
abeyas, the third wore only underpants. There were four of us in the
jeep, Major Golan next to the driver and a lieutenant and me in the
back. The jeep hopped and lurched over the dunes as we headed to–
wards them. At the sight of us, the one in underpants took to his
heels and ran, while the other two remained where they were, their
hands raised in the air. The lieutenant opened fire, and the runaway
crouched down, then resumed his zigzag running, the firing shoot–
ing up the sand to his right and to his left.
"Let him go," Major Golan said. He surveyed the other two.
They were as black as ashes. "Who are you?" he asked in Arabic.
"Who? Us? We are Bedouin-Bedouin brothers we are."
"And him?"
"Who?"
"That one over there."
"Him?" They cast a furtive glance in the direction of the runner
who was now nearing a ravine. "Don't know him."
"You were walking together."
"The desert is vast."
"Where are you heading?"
They pointed their chins towards the horizon.
"What's there?"
"There? Our father is there. We are going to visit our father
who is sick."
"If
they're Bedouin I'm a Hottentot," the lieutenant snarled.
"Ask them where they discarded their uniforms."
Major Golan regarded the two Arabs silently.
The lieutenant kept on looking in the direction of the third,
who now vanished in the ravine. "Aren't we going to take them with
us?"
Major Golan didn't bother to reply. The driver started up the
jeep. "Yallah, yallah!" he yelled, but the two Arabs did not budge.
They stared at us as we drove away, their hands stretched up, their
bare feet planted in the scorching sand.
Towards evening we reached a small oasis with a spring and a
grove of date palms. We took off our clothes and bathed in the spring.
The palm trees were heavy with dates. You could knock them loose
