Chapter 25, Elephant Birds
1963
“Take this! And this! And that!” The sword in my hand was long and thin, the enemy was tall and strong, but I was quicker. Every one of his strokes were averted and avoided. It was difficult but I was hitting back. As small as I was, almost as tall as the length of my sword, I was able to avoid every attempt to hit me. He was coming from the left and from the right. I was sliding from side to side. He hit from above and my sward would be waiting for him and diverting his attack. Finally, as he was lunging forward, my sword made a big circle twisting his arm and sending his sword up high in the air. Immediately, I extended my arm forward and the sword was pushed right into the exposed, soft, tan and beautiful stomach of… Nooo! It was Leah Stetski my second-grade teacher. The real pretty woman, the only pretty woman in our school. The love of my life…
I woke up all shaking and sweating from the fear of hurting the only woman I ever loved.
The sun was starting to rise, and it was time to get up and go to school. That was a special day -- we had our yearly field trip to Tel-Aviv to visit the house of the laureate poet Haim Nachman Bialik. I remember the stories that Leah was reading to us of his childhood in Russia. He was a dreamer, like me. He never learned much in his little “heder” - a small room full of boys and a very serious Rabbi. All the kids were seated around one table, and all were trying to learn the Alpha Bet. Bialik was very imaginative. He would imagine the letters as characters. The Aleph would be a Chinese man carrying two buckets or the Gimel would be an old man with a walking stick. Bialik wrote a lot of poems that became later popular songs. Some of his stories were written for children, and some were for adults. One of his most popular songs was “Welcome Back Little Bird”. The bird was just arriving from the South East and Bialik was asking if it delivered his love to the land of Israel.
Bialik died years ago, and the state of Israel published a 10 Israeli Liras in his memory. He was one of the first settlers in the new town Tel-Aviv. After his death his widow donated his house to the town, and it became a museum. That morning we were going to visit the place. It was going to be a long day. After the museum we had a plan to visit the Tel-Aviv Zoo.
Our school was a very small school. We had only 4 classes, from first grade to fourth. There was no way that our class would fill a bus. So, we were grouped together with another second grade from a neighboring village. Avihayil, was a small farmers village right next to our town. It had a very big school that held kids from the neighboring villages. Our school was a satellite location of this school. Kids from other small villages around Netanya also were driven to attend there.
On the bus, we were all excited and eager to get to Tel-Aviv. Lea, the love of my life, was standing in the front of the bus with a microphone in her hand and she was leading us in singing our favorite songs. I was seated next to Rina “Margarina”. It was fun sitting next to her. She knew all the words for the songs. I wish I knew them too. I loved singing and with Lea leading us -- there was nothing better.
Two rows in front of me I saw something I’ve never seen in my whole life. It was soft, silky, long, and almost white. This little blond hair girl was jumping up and down in front of me singing her heart out. The hair was flowing softly from side to side almost like waving at me to look at it. And you can bet I was looking at it. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. I was trying to see the face that came with that hair. Unfortunately, she was looking forward and I couldn’t see her face. I couldn’t take my eyes off her during the whole ride to Tel-Aviv and when we arrived at the author’s house I managed to jump over Rina “Margarina” and rushed to the front of the bus. But by the time I got there she was already gone.
I don’t remember anything of what we saw in the museum. All I remember was that bouncing flowing blond hair. I followed her from room to room. Trying very hard not to be too obvious. In the library I had to push my way through the crowd but again when I got to the front of the line she wasn’t there anymore. I rushed out to the living room just to see her passing to the staircase and climb to the bedroom.
Excuse me, excuse me, I asked every person I bumped into and push my way up the stairs. Oh, no! When I got there, she wasn’t there anymore. I couldn’t believe it. She has disappeared. I spent the whole hour looking for her. Still have not been able to see her face. All I remembered was the bouncing light almost white hair.
At the zoo I remember seeing the birds and the elephants I saw the lions and the tigers but all that time I was looking for my hopefully newly found “friend.”
Early in the afternoon when it was time for us to go back home, I was dragging my feet along the way back to the bus. My head drooped down, and I had no desire for anything but going home. I lost that chance to see who is in front of that white hair. That new creature that was so unfamiliar to me. Walking slowly, I fail to notice the giggly voices behind me and not until I was just about to go up the bus steps, I heard this voice asking, “are you going up, or are you going to stay here all day?” I turned my head back to see who’s talking to me and I found myself facing these big round blue eyes with long eyelashes. Her full lips were red from the lollipop she was holding pulled into a cute smile. I stood there mesmerized, and my mouth slowly opened as I was looking at the long blond hair that hung softly around the smiling face. It felt like the world stopped moving. All I saw was the blond girl. I failed to notice Rina “Margarina” pushing her way trying to get to her seat next to the window and over the wheel. Not until she gave me a shove that almost pushed me to the floor did, I start going up the steps.
I did go up the steps, backward, I saw nothing ,I felt nothing, all I was looking at was the little cute face with the big blue eyes, the full lips and the long blond hair. I didn’t even feel Rina pulling me next to her. All I saw was the new girl sitting next to the window on top of the wheel across the aisle from us. She was still talking to her friend and being very excited she didn’t even notice my stares. Only Rina “Margarina” has felt the change that occurred to me. “What’s wrong with you?” she asked, but I didn’t even hear her.
All the way home my eyes were fixed on the new girl. I never learn what was her name. When we dropped her in her village “Michmoret” I tried to remember where her house was. And all the way home I was thinking of the day when I will be in 5th grade and join her class at the main school of Avihayil.
That night I was dreaming of the zoo. The huge birds that were as big as elephants were waddling in their fenced ground and next to the fence were walking two kids holding hands and giggling one little boy with dark skin and curly hair and a little girl with big blue eyes and long blond hair.
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Iraqi Beef Stew (Shifta)
This is a traditional Iraqi stew. Served with rice on Shabat and holidays. Usually, it is made as meatballs in red sauce, but I like to serve it with cut up beef.
Ingredients:
1 lb. Chuck Beef
2 Potatoes
1 lb. Peas
1 Onion
1 Carrot
1 Pepper
1 Celery Stalk
3 Garlic Cloves
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Crushed Ginger
2 Cups Crushed Tomatoes
1 tsp Paprika
½ tsp Black Pepper
½ Cup Chopped Parsley
Preparation:
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