Quiet descended. The only sound was an old, galvanized water bucket on the ground, sent rolling by the wind. The Germans were gone. To this day, Bruno said, I can hear that sound, a water bucket rolling on its side. It is the sound of danger’s retreat, and also a signal that is more complex for me, he said, because in the absence of an enemy, an “other,” we become, ourselves, responsible for good and evil.
