Yossi and Matt in another lifetime.
In the first part, the kids Yossi and Matt were trying to find a unique bird. They had found her next to a construction site but then Yossi lost Matt. In the second part, Yossi is worried for Matt but he fails to go back and find him. The morning after he is waiting for his auntie to pick him up for the weekend and while waiting, he vomits. In the third part, Yossi spends a hazy afternoon with auntie and meets an old friend. In the fourth part the old man claims he knows Yossi but disappears after auntie’s inquiry and later grampa is warning auntie from the Germans. In the fifth part the old man enters auntie’s house and Yossi is hiding in the closet. In the sixth part Yossi gets out to find the house is a mess and the old man is about to kill everybody. In the seventh part Yossi escapes to the dunes and recalls Matt. In the eighth part Yossi gets stung by a lethal scorpion.
“I can’t believe you lost a shoe, you are so stupid!” Yashka said
“I am so, sorry. I am so, sorry, Yashka.”
”Matthias! You know those shoes cost a fortune and your father would be so upset!”
“But I… I don’t know where my father is…” Matthias started to weep in the silence.
“Shut up boy, do you want to make things worse for us all!” they heard a man’s voice near them.
Yashka and Matthias were squeezed next to each other in a train wagon, a stock car, among with tens of other involuntary passengers.
“Could it be that you’ve lost it in the waggon? Maybe it’s still somewhere here? You have to concentrate! think!” Yashka said
“I don’t know, maybe, I don’t know, I don’t know!” and he went back to weeping
“Shhh! Kids, you better keep your voice down!” someone said
“Where are they taking us?” Matthias asked
“I don’t know” Yashka answered
“Do you think they’d kill us?”
“What a stupid question is that!” Yashka raised his voice
“Kids, keep your voice down!”
The stock wagon was standing still. They have been waiting for hours there and finally it started moving. It roamed for ever, people fell asleep standing.
There were long bouts of silence, then moaning, then crying and then screaming. There were the sounds of people fighting for more room and then the smell of death.
When the train finally stopped and the doors opened, fewer people stepped outside - all thin, silent and pale, maybe even grey.
The selection had started and the boys were standing together in the long line. When they’d separated Yashka and Mathias, the boys still didn’t know for certain the reason — but it was obvious Yashka was with the group of men and Mathias was with the weak and the ill.
Mathias looked at Yashka with eyes burning with tears and despair.
“Go!” Yashka whispered “I will come for you later, you will rest and gain powers and then we’ll find a way out.”
The group of men were shown to their new residence. A cold barn with wooden beds - without not even a mat, merely some filthy wool blankets.
The hard labour started swiftly. Yashka was carrying huge bags of cement. He’d been trying to get the attention of the men to help him but each was to his own. The guards were shouting and utilizing their clubs but for a reason he could not figure out they had mercied him. He did not suspect them for kindness but he was spared.
When the night sat down they were rushed to the barn and were given a watery soup and a slice of bread. Just a few days ago he had eaten a full meal with chicken and potatoes and argued his mother that asked him to have a little more. Now he regretted it. He thought he could have taken some bread in his pockets if he only knew where he was heading. And what about Mathias, is he getting better?
When the guards had turned off the lights the talking started and he learned from the other men what had happened, what they thought had happened to the other group and to Matthias.
They will never return.
