THE EMBRACE

“Dieter, mon ami, are you awake?”

“Marcel, let me sleep a little longer. I don’t want to wake up right now. Ich will schlafen.”

“Allez! Reveyes vous! I want to talk.”

“Talk, talk.. That’s all you ever do, Marcel.”

“I just noticed something… ze bugs.. They never eat our flesh. Ze snow… it never melts.”

“We are in hell, Marcel. There is no time here.”

“If you two could be quiet, I might go back to dreaming… “

“Johannes, this is the dream, and your dreams are the reality.”

“No, Dieter. Look at us. I have been sitting here forever, looking at you two embrace.”

“We are not embracing, Johannes.”

“Yes you are, Marcel. You have embraced in exactly the same position since … since… Since the battle
ended. And I can't move my head, so I can´t stop looking at you. I am stuck.”
“We are all stuck, mon ami. I can't move my head either. All I can see is this muddy ground. But I know
you are there.. Both of you.”

“We are not in an embrace, Marcel. Don’t you even think we are.”

“I am on top, mon ami. I can feel your wet tripes on my chest.”

“It’s you lungs, that’s what you feel. I saw them come out of your chest when the grenade exploded.
Then you fell on top of me.”

“I saw your guts come out. In fact, I took them out with my field knife, Dieter. You didn’t even see me
plunge it because when I did the grenade exploded anyhow. But my hand… it’s still inside your insides.
And … I still hold the knife that killed you.”

“That’s okay, Marcel. I told you it’s okay. I was going to kill you too.”

“And now, you have told me your entire life story, and I have told you mine, and I feel like you are a
brother to me.”

“Yes, Marcel, I also have great fondness for you.”

“I would take this knife out if I could.”

“Neither you nor I can move, Marcel.”

“And I am on top of you.”

“Please don’t I prefer that you remind me of that. I prefer to think of the knife. We are NOT lovers,
Marcel. Being on top of me was just a question of … chance.”

“Perhaps all life is a question of chance. But I have not doubt we are dead, and this is hell, mon ami. We
are in hell because we broke the 6th commandment: thou shall not kill.”

“It would appear we are in hell, Marcel. But I feel no pain. I just can’t move. And I am always shifting in
and out of consciousness. I just come back here, with you. Over and over. I would rather dream if I could
and not come back here again.”

“Perhaps there is something we should learn from all this, Dieter.”

“We have gone through it many times, Marcel. I fail to see what the point is of being here, trapped with
you.”

“It’s the embrace.”

“What do you mean, Johannes?”

“You are trapped in an eternal embrace. It is so you will love each other completely.”

“Then why are you there sitting alone, Johannes?”

“For the same reason you are embracing Marcel, Dieter. We are in hell. We are dead and this is hell. We
must confess all our sins. Go back into our memories and remember each one, ask for God’s forgiveness
for each one. Only when we remember every sin will we be forgiven and we will be able to leave this
cold place of death and murder.”

“You sound very sure of yourself, Johannes. What if there is no God?”

“Then this conversation shall be eternal, and none of us will ever be free again, except in our dreams. So
be quiet. If you and that frenchman would stop chattering I might fall asleep again, and return to my
dreams.”

“What did you die of, Johannes? I can see no wounds on your body.”

“I think I had a heart attack. Or maybe.. Just maybe, I am not dead, and this is just a nightmare.”

“Perhaps there is neither life nor death, but just dreaming.”

“Perhaps.”

“Are we three the only ones in this hell?”

Many voices spoke at once, each calling out their name. Josef, Norton, Jean-Pierre, Abdou, Curtis, Olaf,
Oswald, Jimmy…

“We are not alone, then, there is a legion of dead with us.”

“I am General Pierre Le Bullion, and I can account for twelve thousand nine hundred and sixty two dead
on this battle. I have murdered all my comrades. And all our enemies too. It was I who ordered this
charge. I am responsible for this hell, mes amis. I am sorry.”

“Where are you, General?”

“My pieces are scattered all over this field. A bomb fell close to me and pulverized me.”
“My arms were cut off!”

“I lost my legs!”

“My eyes!”

“And yet, here we are, all of us, bound by the events of this terrible day that seems never to end.”

“For all eternity.”

“Our eternal embrace.”