The Life of a German Soldier (Upgraded/Edited)

Chapter 3- Ralph Schafer

"I'll take him."

 I had fallen asleep until early morning, around five. I woke up to a medic tapping my shoulder. They had taken Kurt away to send him to a German war cemetery back home. I'd planned to go visit him after the war, only if I survived. 

I sat in the foxhole alone. I missed Kurt a whole lot and I saw the bottle of beer he and I drank out of last night. I grabbed it and put it in a leather sack we were given at training. Then, I was busy thinking about the first time I met him. During our last years of school, we became good friends. He was a great man. 

"Hey!" I looked up and saw a man standing above me on the other side of the foxhole. "Hey you?" He said again in a whisper. The soldier jumped down into the hole. He observed me by looking up and down. I did the same to him. He scratched the top of his head, tilted his cap, and lit a cigarette with his blond hair flashing in the moonlight and blowing in the breeze. 

"Huh, where'd you get this? This pin?"

"Uh, my sister made it before I left. She made it look like her. Its beautiful."

"Cool, whats your name?"

"Albert Schroeder, you?"

"Ralph Schafer, is that man they carried away named Kurt Joachim Smith?"

"Yes. He was shot in the heart just a few hours ago."

"Kurt was our units best machine gunner, was not afraid to kill anything. I had been friends with him ever since primary school. But, when we were almost done with school, he grew into a person I did not want him to be."

"Why did you not want him to be the way he is?"

"Its hard to say, he used to be this really entertaining guy. He was friendly and always had a joke to tell of some sort. Until one day, I did not do anything wrong, he just paid no attention to me. I asked him why and he said "I'm to busy with the girls." It did not make any sense at all but I kind of started to live a new life without him."

"Oh yes, he did tell me about all of his girlfriends and how get got married at the age of 22. That's all we would take to me about if I remember correctly."

"He was still a good man but I questioned him a few times. I kind of wish he was still here and I could see him one last time. Wait, do you have any of his personal items?"

I took all of the things out of my pockets and handed them to Ralph. "These were all of the things I could find, you can figure out a way to send them to his family or keep them until you get home."

"I'll try to see if I could send them to his family. I'm sure they would want to see some of his things again. Is that his machine gun over there?"

"Yes."

"Wow. You see, his initials are carved in at the top."

Ralph ran his fingers through the engravings on the top of the gun. His face showed no emotion. He was too deep in thought. 

"We should start going back to sleep." I suggested. 

I tried to get comfortable in the foxhole. I toss and turned, no position was comfortable. I put my hands on my forehead in frustration. I sat up and listened to the silence of the night. It was quite relaxed and I started to close my eyes until the sound of a stick breaking made me jolt.