Gyorgy Dragoman - The White King

The blood flowed in a thick stream from the bag as I ran, which made the plastic so slick it almost slipped out of my hand, but from its weight I could tell it had to be the ball inside, and by then I also knew that the blood could only be pigeon blood. All at once I saw Puju spring up out of the wheat, and I shouted, "I have the ball here in my hands, so let's run," but Puju just stood there at the edge of the wheat field, staring at the watchtower, and when I got up to him I also turned around to look, Romulus was leaning out of the blind with a Young Pioneers bugle in his hand and Remus was climbing down the ladder lightning fast, even though he was hanging on with one hand only, because there was a lit torch in his right hand, and then the bugle blared, Romulus was playing some march, I didn't recognize it but I knew he had to be sounding the alarm, and now I saw the other-streeters leap up out of the wheat all over the place and start running toward the watchtower, and I was sure they wanted to catch me, to knock me off my feet and get back the ball, but I looked back again and saw Remus Frunza reach the edge of the field and stop and lower the torch to the ground. And suddenly I remembered all that pitch poured between the rows of wheat, and in no time I heard it crackling into flames and I knew what would happen and why they said I should run as hard as my lungs could take it, but by then the flames were right beside me as they raced along between the rows of wheat, at first the wheat itself didn't go up in flames, only the pitch was burning in a long winding band between the stalks, and then everyone began shouting at once, the our-streeters and the other-streeters too, everyone had already sprung up out of the wheat as the band of flame split in two and then branched off in all directions, and by then the wheat was on fire too, the stalks were burning with high yellow flames, they didn't give off too much smoke, but even so there was enough smoke so you couldn't see the apartment blocks or even the city, I could hear kids start coughing all over the place, and by then even the our-streeters were getting the hell out of there, not in as orderly a way as the other-streeters but all over the place, out toward the Big Tree or the watchtower, and in the meantime I was still running straight for the flames, clutching the fertilizer bag with all my might and shouting for Prodán to come already and take the fucking ball, even though I knew the battle was over, that I should turn around and run out of the field because by now the stalks and even the grains were roasting like fat, but I still couldn't bring myself to turn around, I just kept going right toward the flames, and by then my mouth and even my lungs were full of stinging black smoke, I could feel a coughing fit erupting in my throat, and then someone I didn't recognize ran past me shouting and beating at the air, but I went on running at the fire anyway. I knew I should stop and I also knew I wouldn't, that I'd run right through that sea of flames even though I knew I wouldn't get across, and then I saw someone flailing his arms in the smoke, and suddenly I thought of Puju and wondered where he could be and what happened to that mouse we wanted to scalp. And by now I was closer than ever to the flames, the wheat stalks were crackling exactly like machine-gun fire in the movies, and I knew I was about to fall down and the ball would go flying out of my hands straight into the middle of the blaze, the flames before me were still really high and yellow, and then all at once I heard Romulus Frunza calling out my name really loud, shouting that I was now about to die, and I looked behind my shoulder and saw Romulus sitting there on his big brother's shoulders as if he was on a horse, Remus was running straight toward me and screaming that I was done for, and Romulus was spinning a lasso above his head, I heard the swishing of the noose and then all at once I threw myself toward the flames, but as soon as I left the ground I felt the noose fall on my head and tighten around my neck, it yanked me so hard that I fell back and the fertilizer bag dropped from my hands and rolled, along with the ball, into the burning wheat. I brought my hands to my neck to grab the rope and I heard Remus screaming at the top of his lungs, "Hurrah!" and he started running back toward the watchtower, his kid brother was still there riding him, they were dragging me along behind them at the end of the rope, I turned to my side to try taking the noose off my neck or at least to stand up, but my hands hurt too much, and as they hauled me along my feet kept coming out from under me and the flames got even higher, by then the fire was crackling louder than ever, and suddenly a great big thunderous boom came from the direction of the collective farm. I remembered what Puju had said about the harvest and the gasoline, and I knew the fuel must have caught fire too, and again I saw someone moving in the flames, and I wanted to shout, "This way, run this way," and the booming was getting louder, it was like thunder only much more powerful, and as the Frunza brothers dragged me along behind them, my T-shirt slid up and the cardboard armor turned and came halfway out, and I reached a hand down to take it out, but that just made the rope tighter around my neck. I felt like I was about to faint, but right then I saw someone jump up out of the wheat to my left, it was Big Prodán, he'd tied his T-shirt over his mouth and nose, and with that machine-gun-shaped blowgun held out in front of him he ran straight for the Frunza brothers, the bayonet was fixed to the end of the longest PVC pipe, and I figured he'd use that to hit Remus on the back, but instead Prodán turned to his side and body-checked Remus really hard from behind, which made Remus fall flat on his face and sent Romulus flying off his big brother's back and tumbling into the wheat, and I reached for my neck and pulled off the rope, my right hand hurt so much it felt like the skin had come off completely. I got up on my knees and coughed, and I saw Prodán thrusting his bayonet toward Remus and then all at once I heard a loud hissing, everything was covered by thick black smoke much more bitter than even our war paint, I wanted to stand up and run back to the watchtower so I wouldn't have to breathe it in, and meanwhile the booming got louder, but by now I heard the fire crackling all around me, and I knew for sure that I wouldn't have the strength to get up, that I'd wait there on my knees for the flames to swallow me whole.

By now the noise was so loud that I thought maybe I was just imagining it, that my head was buzzing from all the smoke I'd swallowed, but suddenly I thought I heard Puju's voice, Puju shouting my name, and as I again tried standing up, the smoke lifted all at once and I saw these huge machines slowly approaching, combines with flatbed trailers hooked up behind them, the collective farm's fire truck was coming too, one of the collectivists was standing on its edge and hosing the wheat with water, and then came two pickup trucks with their loading platforms full of barrels, the collectivists were up there bucketing water from the barrels and splashing it onto the burning stalks, Puju's dad was driving one of the combines, as he passed by me I could hear him swearing like crazy, and suddenly I had another coughing fit and my eyes got all watery, and only now did I see that the trailers hooked up to the combines were full of kids, Puju was up on one of them and shouting my name, and when they got up to me I saw that Prodán's dad was also up there, and when he saw me he leaned out and yanked me right up onto the trailer, and I could hear him saying that he'd give me a war if that's what I wanted, and I was still busy coughing when he gave me two full slaps on the face and said that if I was his son, he'd beat my brains out, and that's when I noticed Little Prodán sitting next to a barrel, his face all swollen and red, and then Mr. Prodán asked if I knew where his Niku was, and I told him where I saw him last, but I didn't think Mr. Prodán understood what I was saying because I was still busy coughing, and I felt my mouth bleeding a little on the inside from the slaps, and by then we'd almost reached the edge of the wheat field, and Prodán's dad was shouting left and right for his son, calling out, "Niku, Nikusor," but we didn't see Prodán anywhere at all, by then the fire wasn't burning anywhere, at least a third of that big field was history, all you could see was scorched wheat and black puddles and stomped-down, petrified grains of wheat, in a couple of places the wheat was standing just like normal, and in some places the blackened stalks were still giving off smoke.