Chapter 59, The Kibbutz

“Moving again?” I asked mom.

“Well,” said mom, “yes, and we will be moving again after that in the summer.”

“Why? Haven’t we moved enough? We have our own house.”

“We bought a new house, down the road, much bigger, on the 3^rd floor.”

“Will I have to change school again?”

“No, we will move to the “Kibbutz” in Ein HaThelet for a few months until the new house is ready for us. You will be riding the bicycle to school. We rented a small house for the next few months in the back yard of a house next to your friend Avi Dagan.”

“In the early 20^th century, way before the city of Netanya was established, there was a little Kibbutz on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. It had a three-floor building right over the cliff. It was used to help the new pilgrims find their way to the shore during the British mandate. Depending on which window was lit at night the pilgrims knew if it was safe or dangerous to land ashore.

Once they city of Netanya was formed, the kibbutz was dissolved and became part of the city. Some of the residents still live there, my former classmate Avi Dagan’s family was one of them. At first, we weren’t good friends, I think he was jealous of my friendship with Dafna. But later on, we became friends and kept in touch even after I switched schools. We both were in the same science club. We experimented with all kinds of projects, but my favorites were always electronics, radio, communication.

One day, after we moved to the house close to his, I came to Avi and handed him a speaker I took of an old radio. Put it in your room I told him, and I showed him how to fasten a cable to the connections on the speakers. We extended the cable from his window all the way to my house where I connected another speaker.

“Wait here,” I said, “just listen to the speaker.”

“Nothing is coming out of it”

“Nothing yet. Just wait.” I said and left for my house.

“Avi! Can you hear me? Over.” I called onto the speaker in my room.

“Wow! Yes, I can hear you perfectly.” Avi Dagan answered in surprise. “How did you do that?”

“Well, I read in one of my hobby books that speakers have a coper reel around a magnet and when we speak to it the membrane moves the reel and creates electricity, just enough to transmit my voice.”

“That is amazing! Now we need to set up a way we can call each other. Like when we come back from school or when we get up in the morning.”

“No problems, we will run one more thread with cans on each end and a big nail hanging in the middle. When we pull on it, it will shake and ring.”

“Great!”

We ended up talking to each other every afternoon. We even helped each other with our homework.

Avi Dagan also invited me to join this youth organization called “HaShomer HaTza’ir” – The Young Watchman. We had fun there. We Sang songs every Friday night at the gatherings and even did some Israeli folk dancing. On occasions we would have activities on Saturday evenings too. One of them was a color war. We split into two groups and had a task to get each other flags. We spread out next to the “Tubruk” water tower, a little north of where the town summer camp was. I remember crawling toward the other group but then someone jumped on me from behind and tagged me. The next day the group leader came to our house and tried to convince my parents to allow me to go to a long weekend trip. Mom didn’t think it was safe and didn’t let me go. Anyway, I gave up on the “Young Watchman” because I learned that this was a lefty political party, almost communistic. They wanted to return all the land we just freed back to the Arabs. 

I tried another group, the “Maccabi” They were related to another political party. Actually, the one that was in power – the Labor Party. I didn’t like them either. They required uniforms and were too much like a military organization. Avi Dagan didn’t hold it against me, and we kept on playing with our home made “telephone”. This short move to the “Kibbutz” had one good result, I got to walk home with Ya’el. I discovered that Ya’el lived on my way home one day, when I rode the bike a little after school and saw her walking home. I stopped the bike so hard it made a black mark on the road.

“Hey!” I said.

“Hey!” she replied.

“Can I walk with you?” I bravely asked.

“Sure, I didn’t know you live that way.”

“It’s temporary.” We are moving to our new house next month. 

For the next few weeks, we walked together every day and loved talking about many subjects but especially got to sing our way in harmony. But I could never brave it up to ask her out.

“Earlier that year we took a state mandated test, something like the SAT, but for younger kids. It had 300 questions. It covered math, Bible, nature, history, Hebrew language, and we also had to write an essay. The essay I wrote was a short sic-fi fiction story about a kid who flew to Mars and met with some creatures, I don’t remember … But I do remember that on the next day when all the answers for the test were published in the newspaper to my surprise I had only two mistakes out of the 300 hundred questions. We practically forgot about it until Moshe Kotler announced one day; “Kids, I just received the results of the Standard Tests. It will help us figure out where will you be when time for high school time comes up. The kids with the high scores will be able to go to the any school they want. Unfortunately, the kids with the lower scores will not have such a great choice and might have to join the work force or go to a trade school. When I call you by name please come up and get your score and be dismissed to go home.

I waited patiently as Moshe Kotler was calling one child after the other. He went alphabetically but he skipped my name.

“Hey!” I called out, “You skipped me!”

“Yes, I know, wait till the end, I need to talk with you.”

As soon as everyone left Moshe Kotler told me he was not going to give me the results unless I come with my mom the next morning before school starts. Needless to say, Mom had a fit and wacked me over the head. There was no bus service from the Kibbutz to my school. Mom had to walk with me pushing my little baby brother’s carriage while I walked by holding the bicycle. 

“I don’t know how he did it,” said Moshe Kotler to my mom as we sat down. “We never had such a score in our school.”

“Well, we know he doesn’t have good grades, he can’t concentrate, so you made me come all the way here by foot to tell me my son didn’t pass the test?”

“I am sorry, I didn’t know you had to walk so far, but that is not why I asked you to come here. Your son passed the test like no one else in our school history.”

“What?” I screamed. “I knew I passed it long ago, I found two mistakes.”

“Three,” said Moshe Kotler. “We have a dilemma, the schools you applied to turned you down. I think you should set up a meeting with the schools’ psychologist, he will guide you to what to do next, according to him you also have a very high IQ. Anyway, congratulations! Go join your classmates, the bell is about to ring.”

Mom walked back home, not knowing what to think or what to do to me next. On my way home I was dreading what will happen when I get there but walking with Ya’el was comforting. “I am going to ask her out today.” I was sure of it. But this time she was the one who talked almost the whole way. Except for when she asked me about the results of the test. All I said was that I passed it. I didn’t mention what the score was or the whole story of my Mom coming to school. When we finally got to her house, she was about to walk home I gathered all my courage and asked; “Ya’el, do you have a boyfriend?”

“No,” she said, “we can talk about it tomorrow.”

Unfortunately, there was no tomorrow. I was so excited I jumped on my bike and drove off without paying attention to where I was driving. I totally missed the pothole and the bike flipped over. I flew in the air and fell as the bike handle hit my collar bone. The pain almost took my breath away. With a lot of difficulties, I got up and started walking toward home dragging the bike with me. After about a mile I couldn’t handle it anymore. I knocked on the first door I saw in front of me and asked for a cup of water. The woman felt bad for me and offered me a chair to rest for a while. When I finally got home, mom saw my condition and totally forgot all about what happened at school that morning. She made me eat lunch and sent me to bed. 

“Dad will be here soon, and he will take a look at you.”

Dad Just smiled and immediately said; “you broke your collar bone. I will make you a sling and tomorrow you will see a doctor.”

“There is nothing we can do about it, kid.” Said the doctor. “you are young, it will heal fast. You need to wear this sling for three weeks and rest. Here is a note for your school. You will have to stay home for the next week.”

Across the street from where we rented the house was a big villa owned by some French millionaire. It had a nice swimming pool and big windows opened all around the house it even had a Helicopter pad. As I was sitting on my chair looking at the sea, I saw many trucks coming over and unloading big equipment. It took about a day for them to set up. To my surprise they were shooting a movie. Some very famous French actors were in it. I asked them for their autographs, (I still have it in my memoir book). Yet, to my disappointment I learned that the actors in movies don’t necessarily know their lines. For each scene they had to shoot and reshoot so many times, the director was getting frustrated, and the actress was about to cry but after about a week as they were about to pack the equipment. We also were repacking our house and moved to the new apartment. No more walking home with Ya’el. 

When I got back to class, and everyone was asking about my arm I heard Sarah Markovich whispering in my ear. “You know, she has a new boyfriend. Some big kid from high school.” 

 

 

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Mango Salad

 

    A south American salad, fresh and spicy. It is served as a refreshing side dish.

 

Ingredients:

1 Mango

½ Jalapeno

¼ Red Pepper

¼ Cup Lemon

1 TBSP Olive Oil

¼ tsp Salt

 

Dice the Mango. Mince the pepper and jalapeno (make sure to take out the seeds and white spine of the Jalapeno they are very hot), mix with lemon, oil, and salt.

 

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