“He’s fine, just so you know. Got some bruises but nothing serious,” he said. “Bejo checked him when it was over to make sure we didn’t accidentally break any bones. Trust me, it’s nothing compared to what the regiment commander would have done to him if he had found out he threatened another soldier with a weapon.”

I felt like making a snide remark about the senior platoon’s kindness, but I didn’t dare.

“You’ll turn out the same,” he said, closing his eyes again.

“No, I won’t,” I quickly retorted, taken aback by his bizarre claim.

“You just wait,” he said. “A few more months in Neptune or any other shithole outpost, and you’ll get it. Believe me, you’ll get it.”

I wanted to argue with him. To explain how wrong he was, that I was nothing like him. But suddenly I was afraid that if I tried arguing, he’d somehow prove I was wrong. So I didn’t say anything.

When we got off at the central bus station in Tel Aviv he told me he was going straight to an afternoon concert at a music club, and asked if I wanted to join him. I appreciated his attempt to appease me without making an official apology.

“This whole thing is going to blow up,” I told him. I felt it was unfair not to warn him after all the times he’d been kind to me. I told him that I’d spoken to the soldier from the military newspaper. I said that she knew a reporter from Kol Yisrael. “I don’t want to screw anyone over, Sakal, least of all you. But someone’s got to take care of this.”

Sakal smiled. It was that same mischievous smile he had when issuing his verdict.

“You really are a kid,” he said, then paused as if considering whether or not to elaborate. “You think this was a coincidence? That Yanai hits on the CO’s girlfriend and three days later we beat the shit out of him?”

I tried to grasp the full meaning of what he was saying, but I couldn’t.

“Whose girlfriend? Waxman’s? What are you talking about?” I asked him, but he didn’t answer.

“What are you talking about, Sakal?” I shouted at him. He put his hand on my shoulder. “What are you talking about?”