The nights are the worst of all. I rarely fall into a deep sleep, into a world where I can forget all my problems. Giant rats scampering across my body frequently awake me. Worst of all though, my own foolish nightmares refuse to rest. Once I am awake there is no chance of falling back to sleep because this terrifying trench is never, ever silent.

I fear the dark, for when night comes I shall risk my life once more, for my country. It is my turn to take care of the dreaded job of fixing the barbed wire across the boundary lines, which seem so far away.

It is Friday night, the Sabbath

“Ok,” I had whispered, “let’s get this over and done with and we can be back at the trench within the next hour,” I had whispered in a wishful voice. We had both known there was no hope. I looked around and the sight that greeted me; was bone chilling. The land was not dissimilar to a cemetery. Hundreds of bodies were scattered around me like leaves fallen from an autumn tree. I had stopped concentrating and had made a mistake. A rusty coil of barbed wire had dug into my grey, discoloured skin and I had cried out in pain. I looked down and saw where it had pierced my arm. The blood trickled round my skinny arm like a snake round a tree. The reality of what had just happened had sunk in and I realised why David had such a look of horror on his face. I had screamed when this had happened, I had screamed too loud.

“Walter, Walter, Walter! …”

Louis was eleven, and he was so naive. They joined their mother at the table where the now eight month pregnant lady had laid out the candles for the Sabbath.

night. Physically my body is stationary in this deep, muddy trench that I have grown to loathe so much. Yet my mind is with my family, who are most likely gathering around the table at this very moment, praying with all their hearts.

Some topics in this essay:
Walter Walter, , Happy Birthday, David I’m, Richard Louis, leaves fallen autumn, autumn tree, fallen autumn tree, fallen autumn, leaves fallen, i’m wet, arm blood, barbed wire, cold i’m wet, cold i’m, it’s cold, it’s cold i’m,