War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 252

"Victor, wake up, why are you falling asleep here? Victor?"

Wei Ran, who felt that he had only slept for less than five minutes, woke up from the shaking, and subconsciously wanted to take out the pistol from the metal book.

"Have you had a nightmare?"

Seeing that Wei Ran was taken aback, Harry quickly took a step back and raised his hands at the same time, "I often do this too, but luckily the war is over, isn't it?"

"Is the war over?"

Wei Ran belatedly realized that the pistol in the metal book could be taken out, and Harry standing in front of him was also wearing casual clothes.

"Didn't it end half a year ago?"

Harry saw that Wei Ran had put the pistol he had taken out from somewhere into his pocket, and then he put down his raised hands and walked over, "I thought I was the fastest, but I didn't expect you to come earlier than me."

Rubbing his face vigorously to wake himself up as soon as possible, Wei Ran tried to ask, "What date is it today?"

"Tomorrow is Per and Pierre's birthday, what date do you say today?"

Harry leaned on the car door and replied, "Speaking of which, we haven't seen each other for four years. How have you been doing these years? Are Carlos and the others all right now?"

"I don't know. After that incident, I was transferred to other troops."

Wei Ran randomly made an excuse, he only remembered sleeping in the truck, and what happened during the four years fast forwarded by the metal book, how could he know?

"I hope they will arrive on time tomorrow, I have prepared a lot of good things for everyone." Harry said and waved at Wei Ran, "Come and see! I spent a lot of money to come here money."

"What have you prepared?"

Only now did Wei Ran have time to observe the surrounding environment. The stone well not far away was obviously the place where they found fresh water, and he was sitting in a car of the same model as the one they took when they parted from here. In the cab of the truck.

As for Harry, it was a Willys Jeep packed with luggage.In this jeep, except for the driver's seat, the rest of the positions are filled with wooden boxes of various sizes. These boxes are tightly fixed by nylon nets. There are also several fixed boxes on the front hood and the rear Oil drums painted with bright red paint.

"It's my family distilled whiskey, the best Scotch ever!"

While speaking, Harry opened a wooden box on the co-pilot seat, took out a beautiful glass wine bottle from it, and stuffed it into Wei Ran's arms, then opened the second box and asked, "Victor, are you still here?" Remember it?"

"Remember." Wei Ran nodded, "This is the tea set that was found under the well."

"That's right, that's them!"

Harry said with special nostalgia, "I keep them all the time, and I'm not even willing to use them. I promised you at that time that after the war, I would treat you to drink my home-brewed Scotch whiskey and the best English black tea. Etc. A few of them have arrived, and we still use this set of tea sets to drink!"

"What are the rest?" Wei Ran looked at the other boxes curiously and asked.

"There are many things"

Harry opened the net and said, "There are presents for everyone, tents, gasoline stoves, small generators and other things, I even brought the record player and radio, this birthday party must be more lively !"

Having said that, Harry took off the hat on his head, pointed to the scar on his head and said, "Do you remember this scar? You sewed it up for me."

"Of course, of course I remember."

"Then you must remember that you promised to go to Loch Ness and visit my house."

Harry put his hat back on, laughed and said, "So Victor, I didn't prepare any presents for you, especially I didn't prepare any silver jugs filled with whiskey. I'll wait until you go to Loch Ness Deliver it to you personally."

Wei Ran opened his mouth, but didn't say anything after all, turned around and looked at the vast desert around him, changed the subject and asked, "Why haven't they come yet?"

"Maybe the road is not easy to walk!"

Harry replied with a headache, "I encountered two sandstorms on the way here, and I was almost buried in the sand. Maybe they also experienced the same thing as me."

"I hope it's just a sandstorm." Wei Ran replied absent-mindedly, already having a bad premonition in his heart.

Harry was full of confidence, and asked as he walked towards the back of the truck that Wei Ran was driving, "Victor, what good things did you bring?"

"Look for yourself!" Wei Ran said after the other party, he didn't even know what was in the compartment of that truck.

The two walked to the back of the truck compartment, and then found that there was also a lot of food and drink in the cargo box, and even a lot of firewood, which is absolutely rare in the desert.

"Since they didn't come, why don't we set up the tent first?" Harry happily took out a bottle of beer from a wooden box and asked after taking a big gulp.

"Then let's build it up." The bad premonition in Wei Ran's heart became more and more serious, so that the whole person became a little anxious.

It can be seen that Harry is also very worried about the situation of Carlo and others, and has been trying to find something for himself to do, obviously not wanting to let himself have time to think about it.

The two hurriedly set up two tents in the corner between the two cars and the well, hung up kerosene lamps bright enough to guide the way, even lit a bunch of bonfires, and made the record player work stand up.

However, until the evening, until the next morning, until the sun went down at noon the next day, the music on the record player was played over and over again, but none of Carlo and others appeared.

"Victor, are they lost?" Harry asked in a panic.

"I don't know." Wei Ran shook his head, unscrewed a bottle of cold whiskey, raised his head and poured it into his mouth, and then coughed repeatedly from choking.

"I even prepared a birthday cake for those two bastards." Harry looked at the direction of his car and said worriedly, "Just wait a little longer, maybe they will arrive soon."

"hope so"

Wei Ran sighed, raised the wine bottle and took another sip of the whiskey he was not used to, but when he swallowed the drink and returned his sight to the horizon, he found that he was already standing on a road that looked like On an old street.

Looking at the half-drunk whiskey bottle in his hand, and then looking up at the freezing rain falling above his head, Wei Ran looked around, and was soon attracted by a restaurant that was still lit.

Looking through the clean floor-to-ceiling windows of this restaurant, you can see seven or eight tables in the empty storefront, and a birthday cake with candles on a table next to the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Next to this birthday cake, two silent men are sitting opposite each other, each eating a plate of pasta.One of the men had a crutch beside him.

After thinking for a moment, Wei Ran pushed open the wooden door of the restaurant.But before he stepped his second foot in, Pierre said impatiently, "Go out, it's closed today!"

Wei Ran paused, and put his second foot into the shop door, "At least have some pasta?"

"You are. Victor?! Are you still alive?! This is probably the best birthday present today!" Pierre and Trento, who was sitting opposite him, looked at Wei Ran in surprise, "How did you find this place? of?"

"I just happened to pass by." Wei Ran put the wine bottle in his hand on the table, glanced at the crutch next to Pierre, and then at Trento sitting opposite him, and finally couldn't help asking, "Carlo and Where's Panettone? They're not with you?"

His question made Pierre and Trento look at each other, and then sighed together.

"Let me tell"

Trento picked up the whiskey that Wei Ran had just put down, poured it into his mouth, and explained gloomily, "The two bastards died during the second battle of Alamein, and they were killed by the British. Killed by a mine."

"Did you really not survive?" Wei Ran muttered to himself, and then asked, "What about you? You."

"The burns kept me in the hospital for almost two months and I had to have my right leg amputated to survive."

Pierre took the topic and said, "Fortunately, because I became crippled and useless to the battlefield, I was able to come back alive and opened this restaurant with the gold nuggets we found in the well. .”

Speaking of which, Pierre also pulled out a necklace from his neck, besides the soldier badge of the Italian North African Army in World War II, there were three golden gold coins on the necklace, "Now I only have these three gold coins left. "

"I'm not as lucky as Pierre"

Trento also pulled out the necklace wearing three gold coins and a soldier badge from his neck and shook it, "After Italy surrendered, I became a prisoner of war of the Germans. Back in Italy, I'm afraid I'll have to spend two years in a prisoner-of-war camp before I can come back."

“Of course thanks to Pell”

Pierre looked at Wei Ran, "Speaking of this, Victor, do you have any news about Per? I haven't seen him since he sent Trento over two years ago."

Wei Ran shook his head, changed the subject and asked, "Did you go to North Africa?"

"Didn't you go too?"

Pierre picked up Wei Ran's wine bottle and took a sip, "Carlo is dead, and Panettone is also dead. We don't know how we went to North Africa. How should we explain it to Per and that British guy, Harry, and even me? I'm worried about them too, so let's not go."

"Victor, what about you?" Trento took the bottle and asked, "Where have you been these few years?"

Seeing Wei Ran's hesitant face, Pierre waved his hand, walked into the bar with a cane, took out two bottles of red wine and placed them on the side of the birthday cake, "It seems that the war also didn't leave you with any good memories , in this case, why don't we have a drink!"

(End of this chapter)