The people of the village needed help getting a building up. It was a small building made of mud brick that would probably turn into a house on the outskirts of town. I began helping them put up a wall by shaping some of the mud bricks for a while and hauling them up on the building. Everyone in our unit did their part, helping the people put it up. It was the least we could do. Eventually, the residents of the village didn't need to do anything. We had it all covered.

  From behind me, I heard quite a bit of arguing. They tried to hush it, but I could still definitely hear it. I tried to ignore it, but Angelo tapped on my shoulder.

  "They're arguing," Angelo said. He had a small smirk on his face. I asked him what they were arguing about, continuing on with my work.

  "You. Now, go break them up," he told me. I stopped working and went down to them. It was Maria and Lana. I asked them what the matter was. Lana opened her mouth and Maria smacked her.

  I put myself in between them, "Ladies. We don't have to do all that. What is it?"

  Lana turned away and left. I turned to Maria and asked her what happened again.

  "Me and her were arguing. That's all there was to it," she whispered to me.

  "You don't have to whisper when you talk to me, you know," I told her, honestly, "What were you arguing about?"

  "We weren't arguing about anything."

  I shrugged, "You had to be arguing about something. It seemed pretty tense."

  She stayed silent, closing her eyes a little. She looked kind of scared of my reaction.

  A sudden confidence swelled in me, "I heard that you two were arguing about me. Why?"

  "It doesn't matter."

  "Does it not matter, or do you just not want to tell me?" I asked her. I didn't want to pry, but I did want to stop the arguing. I couldn't seem to figure out what the problem was no matter how hard I searched.

  "It isn't... I... I just..." she stuttered her way through the sentence and then said in Russian, "I don't want to tell you the truth."

  "That's fine," I responded in English. I didn't know enough Russian to respond back in it.

  She looked absolutely dumbfounded, "You speak Russian?"

  I shook my head, "No. I understand it a little. But it is fine that you don't want to tell me. I don't mind. However, I do wish that you would eventually tell me before we have to leave this village. I do want you to tell me sometime, okay? I don't want you two to argue anymore. I know that it is about me, but I don't know why. It's fine for now, but I really want to know sometime."

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  "Stop rambling. I understand. And thank you."

  "For what?" I inquired.

  "For not making me tell you what the matter is. You really are very oblivious though. For that... I will tell you tomorrow."

  With that she muttered her goodbyes and left me. I continued working on the house.

  "What was that?" Yuri asked me.

  Before I could respond, Lawrence did for me, "He had to go get his girl. Or girls, should I say."

  Angelo, who was beside him, laughed a little, "You shouldn't speak bad about Felix, Lawrence. You aren't doing so good yourself. Don't you have that one girl here? She doesn't like you back?"

  Lawrence suddenly got very red and Yuri told us, "We aren't here for girls. We are here to work and move through. Focus on this."

  "Heard you got a girl too, Yuri. Heard she's real nice," Lawrence told him. Yuri joined Lawrence in being red-faced.

  I laughed, "What about... what is her name? Alena? Maria's sister?"

  Angelo flinched back, "You weren't supposed to tell anyone about that, Felix!"

  "Then you shouldn't have told me."

  Lawrence smiled, "Hey, Felix. Maria or Lana?"

  I decided to play along with their games, "Maria for sure. Maybe Angelo and I could be brother-in-laws, huh? That would be real fun."

  "I knew you'd pick her. Especially since you talk to her so much. And don't think I didn't hear your little conversation. I am going to listen in tomorrow, thank you very much," Angelo told me, "Don't think she doesn't like you. She literally called you oblivious and you still don't get it!"

  "Well, sorry. I don't think she meant it like that, either. She wouldn't like someone like me. She'd probably end up liking someone like Lawrence."

  Lawrence rolled his eyes, "Be like that, Felix. You're going to end up single on the side of a very French road when we get back to our homelands."

  "Maybe I'll go to the United States just to annoy you all the time."

  "I suppose I wouldn't mind that."

  The conversation ended there and we finished up our work. I know for a fact that Maria does not like me. Someone like her never would. I am not good enough for her. I suppose this is me admitting that I have some feelings toward the girl, but I suppose that nothing works out in the way one want it to. I won't even try to act on them. It is a very feeble situation.

  Angelo entered the room we were in and began questioning me, "Isn't Maria pretty young? Like, old enough to marry, I guess, but still pretty young?"

  I turned towards him, "What do you mean?"

  "Like that ratio that I'm talking about is from the age of like sixteen to twenty, right. She's a young lady, isn't she?" Angelo kept asking.

  "Yes, she's a young lady."

  "Aren't you older than her?"

  I thought to myself for a moment. I had made a fatal mistake. I had accidentally revealed my age inadvertently. I want nothing but to cover it up, but in that moment, I decided that there was no point in doing that. I am already nothing but a dead man standing.

  "No. She's older than me."

  Angelo looked taken aback, "There is no way! That makes you... like... my age. But you look so much older!"

  "I am older than you, Angelo. But I am younger than her. Let's leave it at that, yeah?"

  He nodded and went to sleep beside me. I am slowly unveiling myself and I cannot help it. Next, I will have another mental breakdown. I am afraid I cannot handle the tribunals of life anymore. Why did coming to this warm city create more problems for me than the war did? Or am I just focusing on them so much because it is one of the first good things that have happened to me?