I Am David Read Free Page B

they had talked about in the camp — locked in, doubled up in inky blackness without being able to move, without being able to die.
    “Johannes!” he whispered. “Johannes …”
    Ever since he was small, for three whole winters and summers, he had known that he must not allow himself to think, and above all that he must never think about Johannes. And now he had done it.
    David let his head sink upon his chest and tried to fight against the flood of memory that poured over him, the terror, the hatred, the frightening questions that burned like fire within him. And through it all, Johannes … Johannes smiling; Johannes who, if his voice had grown lifeless and grating like the others, had never changed inside himself; Johannes to whom you could say anything — and Johannes who at last had fallen to the ground and remained lying there, dead.
    Never since that day had David thought about him. that night, when they were all in bed, he had gone out into the yard and looked at the spot where Johannes had fallen. He had been standing there for a long time when the man had come along and seen him.
    “He died of a heart attack,” he said. “Clear off now and get to bed!”
    Since that day David had never thought about anything but mealtimes and the changing of the guard. At first it had made him ill, but later he had grown used to it. Why should it have come back to him just at this moment when all that mattered was getting to Salonica?
    The voice came from somewhere far away. “I’m going with you to Salonica.” David was not even sure it was Johannes’ voice, so far away did it sound; but he knew it must have been because he suddenly felt exactly as he had done when he was small and Johannes was with him.
    “Thank you,” he whispered.
    And after that it was easy. He found a packing-case that had not been properly nailed down. It contained some kind of food, round and firm, that tasted like a bit of cheese David had once had in the camp. He cut off a piece with his knife, as big a piece as he could get into his handkerchief. The men stopped the van while it was still dark and left it without opening the door at the back. So David jumped out and found himself in the middle of a large town, and, being careful to walk in the shadow of the houses — for there was no call to be foolhardy even if Johannes were with him — he had no difficulty in finding the harbour where the ships lay. There was a water-tap on the way, too: David watched a man turn it on and drink, and when he had gone and the street was quiet again, David was able to walk over to it and fill his bottle.
    The ship he was to find needed no searching for either: it lay right in front of him and on its stern he saw the word “Italy” painted in large white letters. And it was made fast to the quayside with a great thick rope, ready for David to climb up as soon as the man on watch had gone to the other end of the ship. All David needed to do was to find a length of twine to tie his bundle about his waist while he was climbing. The watchman did not hear him; no one heard him, and down in the bottom of the ship there was a great dark room filled with so many packing-cases that he could barely squeeze himself in.
    At first David was anxious to discover if there were any windows down there, but then he realized that he was now below the water-line and so of course there weren’t any … The time had now come for him to open the last of his treasures, his box of matches.
    He took care to shield the flame with his hands as he had so often seen the camp-guards do, and to use no more than one or two matches, since he must be sparing with them.
    He saw case after case, stacked right up to the deck above … and there were sacks as well. He found a corner where there were only a couple of sacks, and where he could stay well hidden even if someone came into the hold. But that was hardly likely to happen — not before they reached Italy. The sacks and cases were all