Like arrows from legions of archers, the sun cast its rays over the edge of the horizon. The shadows of the night fled in haste and the mists faded away. A new day began.
Dizzy in the head and tormented by vermin, I woke up at the sound of a series of loud exclamations. It was B… who was greeting the day.
“Look here!” he shouted, cursing violently. His body was covered with red spots and blisters.
“I think the lieutenant has come down with measles—would it not be sensible to seek a doctor?”
“Mock me not, Marius! Last night I drained the bitter cup of suffering to the very bottom! It is fleas—divisions of giant fleas that have attacked me—my friend! Have you not heard how I have been tormented?”
Fleas are unpleasant creatures to fight—almost worse than the partisans—but they still cannot compare with lice, let alone the horror of horrors: bedbugs. These four things, as it seemed, were supplied in abundance in Croatia.
It was, for the time being, fleas we became acquainted with. A couple of fleas can be quite harmless; at times they may be a little annoying, but one quickly gets used to them.
Good heavens—they too have to live. Only when entire swarms begin to feed on you does the idyll disappear.
We held a war council! Move quarters? Impossible. There was surely worse elsewhere.
“Then!” said B… solemnly, “we must take up the fight on the spot. Now we know the enemy and his methods of attack. Do you have a suggestion?”
“We could fetch one of the groups up here and organise a little manhunt?”
“No! That won’t do—it won’t work. There’s only one solution—we must make ourselves immune to their bites! Alcohol—yes, alcohol—that’s the solution!”
“Yes—when you bathe the blisters in alcohol, the pain disappears.”
“Man alive!” shouted B…, “you’ve been with me for over twelve hours and you come out with a thing like that! That’s sacrilege! Alcohol is for internal use only. You ought to know that!”
B… reflected: “We must get drunk every evening before going to bed, then we won’t feel the fleas—it’s obvious! But where do we get all that alcohol from? That is less obvious. Well, I’ll think about the problem—go and fetch the coffee.”