SYZYGY

The stillness of the tunnel made it difficult for Uri to hear, the thudding of his heartbeat pounded against his ears like an unwelcome guest trying to get in, the threat of more footfalls echoing through the tunnel sat beside his fear like a cat he refused to pet. Not much longer now, and they would be out. They would find the house just as Omer had promised, and they would be safe. They would be safe. Omer clung to Uri’s side, the hole in his chest dropping ribbons of life as they limped forward through the shallow depths of the tunnel. The guard had been a shock to them both, stealing a cigarette break while his post was left unmanned. All it took was that one oversight- the human unpredictability and power of vices for the guard to come at them running, pistol by his hip- squeezing-off bullets into any direction he thought might hit. And with that one thought, one-shot did hit, cutting through and lodging into Omer’s organs. Propping Omer beside a wide tree trunk, Uri had hunted the guard; with what little strength he had left, Uri tracked as close as he dared behind him- a fallen branch gripped between his bony fingers. Swinging the branch and connecting to the guards’ neck with a deafening crunch, his body fell to the brush of the forest. Kicking his lifeless legs, Uri couldn’t help but land a few more against the young faceless soldier before returning to Omer. Taking his pistol for good measure, Uri lifted his friend to his feet, forcing courage and certainty into every paired step they took closer to their freedom. The crate to the tunnel laid beside it, just as Omer had promised. Taking rung after rung against his calloused hands, they moved as quickly as the pain would permit. Minute after minute, step after step, they moved closer to Omer’s memory of a friend’s house in the country and further away from the people they had stripped from their bones in the camps. Uri spoke of the names that belonged to his family with each step, conjuring life into breath. Until each step led them to the last, the ladder at the end of the tunnel. A shaft of moonlight cut through, holding the ladder in an almost luminescent glow of hope.

A hope that remained walking the darkness of the tunnel once they surfaced. The safety of the house Omer promised had been swallowed in flames, the stalls that once held animals looted bare. Omer’s eyes took in the decay of hope, ‘No. Please no.’

‘We should rest.’ Uri laid him away from the house; careful with his injured body, he laid him atop the cool soil of the land. Plumes of smoke curled their fingers into the air, disappearing into the sky above. Omer’s body had begun to shake, what little adrenaline he had left sunk from his body like a coin circling a drain it finally fell in, beads of sweat raced along his skin- his body had no marathon left within it, Omer had crossed the finished line without noticing.

‘Please, Uri, perhaps they are hiding? The town isn’t so far-.’

‘Omer, we must rest. Don’t worry now, everything will be okay. Everything will be okay.’

Finding his eyes, Omer sunk further into the soil, nodding once. A moment passed before he spoke again. ‘Yes, dear friend. Yes.’

Uri took Omer’s hand, slick with blood and sweat, and gave it a squeeze- a firm squeeze that said he forgave him. For the house, for everything. Omer returned the pressure, resting his hands limply on his chest. A smile without worry lit up his boyish face, a soft wind wove its hands across his pallid sunken face, almost transforming it to the friend Uri had known since childhood. The boy who leaped between buildings, who danced for girls in streets to impress them, who collected the first leaf every Autumn from an oak tree that had grown around their childhood street. A boy, still a boy, always a boy. Uri settled his eyes on him one last time, Omer settled his eyes on him one last time. His chest no longer hurt.

A calm reverberated like a call through his body, stopping the shaking, the sharp breaths, and the sweat that poured across his damp skin. Time held.

His eyes. Those eyes, pooled in a sheet of chartreuse most without imagination, would simply say green. He had the most magnificent green eyes. As night huddled around them like lost souls reaching for warmth, the blanket of the sky’s colour pulled back the night and with it- sunken into the soil of the earth, the green light from his eyes vanished for the last time.

Uri laid on his back, the firmness of the soil filling in the sharp arch of his weathered back. He made no noise at the departure of his friend. As if the strength to wail or speak remained a pain too heavy to pull from his body. Looking to the stars with tired eyes, Uri took them all in, the call of memory telling him stars were made of the past. Uri saw stars as fractured light, each speck making up a picture unknowable to the human eye. Lifting the guards’ pistol upward, Uri checked the chamber; three bullets remained. Each a power of their own, raising the gun upwards, Uri squeezed the trigger- sending a bullet into the heavens to be amongst the stars. A bullet for Omer. The ringing of the shot travelled across Uri’s hearing; a smile touched his cracked lips. ‘All men like you and I belong to the sky.’ Uri whispered, feeling for Omer’s hand across the soil. He clasped it in his, imagining it warm Uri repeated the names of his family like a story you could only bear to speak in the company of one’s you trusted.

The night listened to the call of the names, flinging each one to the reach of the light above. Taking with it the last light of a green so pure it warmed the darkness.