Around 2:00 A.M., shortly before my shift was over, I noticed a commotion starting down in the outpost, unusual for that time of night. Soldiers were crowding around the cabin showers. I peered through my binoculars, trying to see what the fuss was all about, but I couldn’t make out a thing until one soldier burst through the crowd. It was Yanai. He was running toward his room in nothing but a towel and underwear, clearly agitated. Sakal emerged slightly after him, walking in the direction of the lineup square with slow and confident steps. Holding a plastic chair, he placed it in the middle of the square and stood on it. Another soldier, who couldn’t stop laughing, handed him a megaphone, and Sakal tapped on it a few times.

“Hear ye, hear ye!” he called out, then waited for the rest of the soldiers to come out of their rooms with bleary-eyed confusion. Sakal raised his hand and announced that a severe crime had been committed in Neptune that night.

“The smart-ass will stand rookie trial!” he announced, and added that the defendant must report to the CO’s office with an advocate, and that everyone was invited to come and witness for themselves the fate of rookies who broke the rules.

My replacement arrived twenty minutes before my shift ended, said that he thought a shitstorm was brewing and that he wanted to stay as far away from it as possible. I knew he was right, but my curiosity got the better of me.

5.

THE DOOR WAS OPEN. A few soldiers were huddled together on the bunks, listening to Yanai’s shaky voice.

“Bejo started yelling at me to get out of the shower. He said that he and two other guys were sitting outside the canteen and saw me leaving the CO’s room with a grilled cheese. I told them it couldn’t have been me, that I was in the shower washing my hair like a little girl for an hour, but he wouldn’t listen. Then Sakal showed up, got the entire story from him and now is putting me on trial.” His left hand continued to shake even after he finished talking. His eyes were red. It was the first time I ever saw him like that. “They’re going to fuck me over.”

“Come on, bro, they only really beat the shit out of rookies in Golani, here it’s just for kicks, they don’t actually hurt you,” someone said.

Yanai nodded.

“Yeah, you’re right, bro.” He got up and started pacing the room. “They better not piss me off even more, because if they do I’ll beat the crap out of every last one of them.” Maybe he felt better tossing around these empty threats.

“Okay. So I need an advocate to come to this shit with me. Any takers?”

No one said a word.