Chapter 81, Dimonds and then Some

     Three weeks later I had another free weekend. The first thing I did when I got home was calling Efrat’s number. Surprisingly, she was the one who answered.

 “Sorry about last time.” She said, “My family took me somewhere, I didn’t plan on, so I am sure no one was home to answer.”

 “I understand.”

 “Can we get together tomorrow evening?”

 “Let me check with my dad, maybe I can pick you up.”

Dad just bought a new car, a white station wagon Fiat 124. He traded in his old Citroen to my disappointment, just when I learned everything you can know about this car. I was ready to take it apart and rebuild it as new. The newer car was a lot better, and dad didn’t have the time to wait for me to fix the old one. The fiat was a strong car and much more reliable. My dad was in a lot better place now with his work. He ventured out and joined another Dimond polisher who helped him turn around a lot of polished diamonds in shorter time. The diamond industry became one of the two main industries of my town. Netanya was known for the pretty shore and the fancy hotels, there for the tourist industry. Tourist also loved buying diamonds. The price in Netanya was lower compare to the rest of Europe. Dad and his partner rented a small place among other workshops. They had the big noisy machines spinning a diamond dusted metal wheels to polish the precious stones. Dad went once a week to Tel-Aviv’s Diamond Exchange Center to get small packets of raw diamonds and return the ones he took the week before, nicely polished, and ready for market. Dad was very well known as the one of if not the best polisher in Netanya. He taught most of the polishers in town. 

 

    In short time the new partnership was doing so well they had to hire help. Many times, I would stop at the workshop to visit on my way home and I got to meet everyone. One of the workers was an electric bass player in a rock band. I liked talking music and exchange songs with him. Yet, there was something about him I felt wasn’t right. I couldn’t put my finger on it, so I pushed it out of my mind. 

 

    Every Friday, Dad brought the polished diamonds home, poured them on the dining room table, sorted them by size, shape or color, and put them in new paper folded packets. He would wrap the groups in a rubber band and put them in his briefcase. On Sunday morning he drove to Tel-Aviv and started the process again. His bag would have about ½ a million dollars’ worth of diamonds.

 

    On Shabat morning Dad took me for a ride on his new car and allowed me to take it for my date with Efrat. I loved driving the new car. It had a great pickup and was steady on the road. Even the inside was more comfortable. I quickly forgot about the Citroen. That afternoon I drove to Efri and showed him our new “toy” and planned our evening together as double date. What I learned about his date was that he was dating the daughter of Mr. Berman. Remember? The driving tester who failed him on his first driving test.

 

    We drove around town looking for a place to park before going to our favorite caffe to drink coke and eat French fries. I stopped at a crossroad when I recognized the bass player about to cross the road.

 “Hey! I said, looking at him getting closer.

 “Little Tibi,” he said. “Your dad’s new car?” 

 “Yes, he bought it yesterday.” 

 “Nice car! Enjoy!”

    We finally found a parking spot and walked the crowded Hertzel street twice back and forth before settling in a small caffe to look at the rest of the people passing by. It is a typical evening in Netanya. Everyone looks at everyone walking by. Sometimes it gets so crowded people rubbing one against the other. We walked to the park and sat on a bench, necked a little, looking at the dark sky over the sea before I drove everyone home. We arrived to Efrat’s driveway a little after midnight. As soon as I parked the car, she reached over and grabbed my crutch. She glued her face to mine and was about to take my pants off. 

 “Are you sure this is what you want?” I asked, “in the front seat?” (Will I ever learn to let the girls do what they want?)

 “Hmmhmm.”

 “I think you are too young to jump into this, I want you to know for sure that I am the one.”

 “Forget it,” she said frustrated, “It is getting too late, anyway. I have school tomorrow and you have to get back to your base. See you next time, we’ll talk about it more. Just so you know, you are not the first for me.”

It was late alright, both Mom and Dad were up waiting for me.

 “It is 2AM!” Yelled Dad, “how dare you make us worry so much.”

 “We couldn’t sleep until we knew you are safe.” Said Mom.

I didn’t answer, I washed up and went to bed for the next 3 hours before going back to camp. The ride to camp took me about 2 hours. I arrived just about the same time dad was leaving for his drive to Tel Aviv. I called home as soon as I go to my Lab to let them know I arrived safe. It isn’t easy to get an outside line, but I guess I lucked out that day.

 “Your father was rubbed this morning.” The voice of my mother was shaken.

 “What do you mean?” I asked, “is he OK?”

 “Yes, he is talking to the police now. Someone punctured the back tire of car and he put the briefcase on the ground to take a look when a car drove by and picked up the case and drove off. We don’t know who it is.”

 “I know!” I said right away, “Let me talk to the police.”

 “Ok hold on.”

 “There is only one person who knows what kind of car dad bought besides me, my best friend and our girls.” I said to the police officer “It is the bass player I saw him last night downtown. I suggest you better check him out.”

 

    Sure enough, the police found him at his house, arrested him and within 5 hours of interrogation he gave his accomplice and the location of the diamonds. For a deal of a lower sentence. 

 

    My father’s partner was behind all that for an insurance settlement. Of course, they were all arrested, and Dad had to continue on his own with a smaller crew for a while. That evening I felt good about myself and went dancing at the canteen hall. A folk dancing teacher from Ashdod came every week to teach and run a dance session. We became friends and I promised him I will go to his sessions whenever I am in Ashdod.

 

    Our Airforce base was a very special one. It had three bases within one big base. One with the air squadrons, each with its own hangers. The second was our repair and development section. We had the body shops where they would fix the aircraft’s bodies and create new parts. There was a mechanics where they would work on engines once they were taken off the planes. And of course, our building. The third was a total other branch of the army. It was a paratroopers’ camp. With a jumping school and a command center.

 

    Our building had different labs, like the clean room where they worked on the navigation systems, and auto pilots’ systems. A lab where they fix the panel instruments like air speed or altitude meters, and others. The lab I worked at dealt with gyroscopic systems. We worked on French system for the Mirage fighter plane, the American Skyhawk and the Fantom even the Italian Bell helicopter. Each had a different Gyroscopic system. In our lab we had people in charge for each system. Most of them were civilians. They were watch repair men with some training on the equipment.

Soli was a Romanian immigrant who worked on the French system. We weren’t sure about him he was a little feminine and very argumentative. Yet he was the only one who knew the French gyroscopic system that kept on breaking, maybe because he didn’t really know it well enough.

Reuven was a Polish immigrant a very good watch maker who was specializing in the American system and was very friendly. I worked with him, that is, when I didn’t have to be at one of the two weeks long chores. Ever since the war we had a lot of repairs to do. Many of our planes were damaged and we needed reinforcement.

 

    At this time, we had a new wave of Russian immigrants. Many of them came with high education certificates. Unfortunately, many of them were fake. Many of the diplomas were simply paid for instead of earned. We found out about it the hard way. Some of the engineers who were hired by our labs showed very high credentials, but once they were put to the actual task, they fail miserably. Most of the engineers who made it to work at our lab were good but had problems with the language. Being so good with languages it was easy for me to show the engineers the ropes. Very quickly, I learned every curse and bad word in Russian and they learned to communicate slowly in Hebrew.

 

    Now that the war was over, we didn’t have to work on Shabat, but we did have to stay and man the labs. We would be sitting in our labs waiting for an emergency order but mostly doing nothing. At the evening after the “festive” Shabat dinner I went back to the lab and sat at the front desk. Feeling bored I picked up the phone and asked for an outside line. The girl on the other side politely said that the lines are busy now and if I would call in an hour, I might have a chance. She was very polite compare to the other girls who were short tempered and just say “no!” and hung up.

 “What’s your name?” I asked.

 “Lili” she almost whispered. “Yours?”

 “They call me Tibi.” I answered, “How long have you been a telephone operator?”

 “I am new here. I just joined after the war.”

 “Aha! That is why you are so nice.”

 “Am I nice? Do you really think so?

 “OH yes, and I hope you stay that way. It isn’t an easy job to be under such pressure as a telephone operator.”

 “Well, it is underground you know, no sunlight, and yes, some of the girls here are not very friendly.” 

 “Hey,” I said suddenly, “When are you off?”

 “I will be late tonight and then I work in the morning until lunch.”

 “Want to go to lunch together tomorrow?”

 “Sure.”

 “I will pick you up at the bunker. I think I will be suntanning on the roof in the morning.”

 “Have Fun! By the way, I have a free outside line, are you still interested?”

 “Yes, thanks!”

She connected me and I called Efrat’s number. Her father answered.

“Oh, hi Tibi, Efrat told us about you. She is not home now, and will not be home for a while, we had to send her to a rehab center. You may come visit her next time you are here. We will take you if you are interested.”

“I will, I am off in two weeks.”

 “Great, we can go riding after that if you want.”

 “That would be nice, thanks!”

 “Oh, you are the only one who knows about Efrat’s situation, so please keep it between us.”

 “Sure. Talk to you soon.” Rehab center? I thought to myself, what for?

 

    The next morning, after doing all the small chores I climbed the staircase to the roof of our lab building. The building was the tallest building in the camp except for the air control tower. You could see everything from there, I could see the runways close to the edge of the base, and to the south I saw the jumping towers at the paratroopers’ school. I spread the towel I brought with me on the floor and undressed totally. No one would see me here. I laid down and in very short time fell asleep. I don’t know how long I was laying there, but when I finally woke up, I was read all over. It reminded me the time when I went with Uncle Rone to the beach. This time it was my front that was all burned. Not to mention to my private parts. I put my clothes back on – painfully. And walked to the shower where I cooled myself in a cold shower.

 

    Lili was waiting for me at the entrance of her bunker. She was a little heavy girl with a long braid hanging in front of her.

 “Is that you, Tibi?”

 “It is,” I said as I was barely walking from the burning pain. I braved it, remembering of my friend Asaf who got burned at the boot camp. “Sorry I am a little late, I had a little mishap.”

 “Well,” said Lili “It helped me recognize you, you told me you were going to suntan. I guess you were overcooked a little.”

I smiled painfully and we walked slowly to the dining room.

 “Would you like to see our lab? I asked as we sat down with our food trays. Cholent, the usual Shabat military lunch. I packed 4 bananas too.

 “I would love to, but you have to promise not to tell anyone where I work.”

 “Will do.”

 “Look over there,” she whispered. “The group of kids, I think they are the Airforce GADNA. See their instructor?”

 “Whow!” I don’t think I ever seen a woman so pretty in my whole life, not in the movies or even in any of the adult magazines. 

 “She is pretty.” Whispered Lili, “Never seen her here.”

 “Well, they don’t come here often. Maybe once or twice a year we would have the GADNA kids come to look at the plains.”

“Look at her eyes,” Lili said, I have never seen such clarity, and I am wearing my glasses.”

We ate quietly, both of us ogling at the beautiful woman. I was more like, drooling.

 

    My roommates and I had a new “pet”. A big roach, it lived in the corner of our room. I have no idea why we didn’t kill him. In fact, we fed him daily with some breadcrumbs. This week I was, again, on the Master sergeant’s duty. A new roommate of mine was also working with me. Feder, we called him. Mordechai Feder was the newest recruit to our lab. He was assigned to the small parts department. His job was to sit in the small warehouse, receive order forms with part number on them, locate the parts and give it to the technician who ordered it. Feder wasn’t a nice guy. He was slow, and lazy. When you came to him, the first thing he would say was: “I don’t have it, what do you want?” Now he was working with me as a garbage collector. Our routs sometime would go through late at night. The dining room was opened at midnight for people like us who worked late.

 “Hey Feder,” I called him. Would you please pick up a sandwich for me the dining room while I park the truck?”

Feder didn’t answer and walked to the dining room. When I arrived at our room, he was there eating his fat sandwich. He didn’t get one for me. I didn’t even ask him about it and went to wash up. The next morning, we went to our garbage duty. I drove the truck to the dump, unhooked the trailer bed and left Feder to clean it up himself without doing my regular reverse trick. Instead, I drove to the Family’s’ super canteen. 

 

   Our base had a section where families of officers, mostly pilots, live. They had a special canteen where you can get more than just candy or snacks. They even had cloths and other necessities. I felt like buying some big waffle wafers. The only place you can get them here was at the family’s canteen. The Family’s area was closed to the rest of our kind of soldiers. Yet if you had the money the cashier in the canteen would take it. I drove in ignoring the no entrance sign, bought my wafers, and drove right back out. As I was leaving the street, about to turn left to the main street, I was stopped by the camp’s military police. He gave me a ticket for entering a one-way street. I was devastated, there is no way I am going back to jail. These kind of traffics offenses are judged by the base’s logistic officer. He doesn’t sentence anything below 30 days in jail. It goes on your record and you will have to make the time up at the end of your service. No way I am letting this happen. I drove back to the dump to pick up Feder and as we drove back, I realized that the sign for the families’ area was in the wrong place and pointing to the wrong direction. I came up with a plan. I will write a letter to the logistic officer requesting that they will fix the error. The street needs, by traffic law, two signs one of each side. I explained that I came from the right and turning left into the street when I realized my error was too late because I couldn’t see the sign from the direction I drove. I immediately turned around and that is when the MP saw me coming out. I handed my letter to the officer’s secretary. Two days later, as I was driving to the dump, I saw two brand new signs at the junction for the families’ street.

 

   The next day, Thursday, one day before the end of my camp duties was my trial day. I dressed up with my cleanest uniforms made sure I was well shaved and that my shoes were brushed and shiny. I stood in front of the logistic officer in attention as he was reading my charge.

 “You are changed of driving to the wrong direction in a one-way street. How do you plea?”

 “Not guilty, sir!”

The officer lifted his head looking at me, I could see the pen in his hand about to write my 30 days sentence.

 “Excuse me? did I hear you correctly?”

 “Yes sir, I sent you a letter about the signs…”

 “Oh, that was you? Get out of my face!” and he ripped the form.

 

    I was ecstatic, to say the least. That night when Feder and I went for the midnight meal we both got a meatball sandwich. And walked to our room. Feder left the room to go to the latrine and I prepared a little surprise for him. 

 “Bon Appetite! I said as I saw him take a big bight of his sandwich. He heard the big crunch too. And I could see the guts of our late pet oozing out of his sandwich.

 

  Friday, I went home looking forward to my visit with Efrat. Unfortunately, I could spend only half an hour with her. Her father took me back to ride with him. I told him that it was my first time ever riding. So, he picked a calm horse for me and we went out for a long ride around the fields of his moshav. Efrat’s younger brother was also there. He was a good rider and rode fast in front of us. My horse tried to chase him, but I managed to slow her down. That didn’t help much because after three hours of riding my bottom was full of blisters and I couldn’t sit for the next three days.

 

***

 

Vegetarian Meat Balls

 

   I love Italian food, when it doesn’t have cheese. Now we will try to make something we all love in Italian dishes, yet again, with my little twist.

 

Ingredients:

5 Slices White Bread

¼ Cup Oat Meals

½ Cup Canned Chickpeas

½ Cup Canned Black Beans

½ Cup Canned Red Beans

½ Onion 

2 Celery Stalks

2 Garlic Cloves

1 TBSP Crushed Ginger  

½ Bunch Parsley 

2 Eggs

2 TBSP Flour

½ tsp Basil

¼ tsp Oregano

½ cup Crushed Tomatoes

1 TBSP Tomato Paste

1 Cup Water

 

Toast the bread or let it dry for a few days. Soak the bread and squeeze all the water out. Chop the onion, celery, and parsley. Crush the garlic. Sauté in that order, Onion, garlic, celery, and ginger. Mash the beans and mix with the fried ingredients. Mash the bread, eggs, flour and oatmeal into the mix.

Crate balls and place in deep tray Bake for 10 minutes in 400f. 

In a separate pot boil the crushed tomatoes with the Tomato paste, basil, Oregano and water. Boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Pour the sauce on top of the balls, place back in oven for 20 more minutes at 350f.