Chapter 73, (Rated R) Graduating

We received two weeks’ vacation after boot camp. David Abramov, Yossi Cohen, Dani Mualem, Roni Nachum and I were on our way to eastern Sinai. Since military personnel were riding free on the train and getting a big discount on public transportation, we met at the Tel-Aviv train station. We took the train to Be’er-Sheva, and from there a bus to Eilat. Eilat, the “Mecca” of all the young adults. It is hot all year round in Eilat. The red sea is calm, clear, and full of colorful fish. There were fancy hotels but most of the young people were camping on the beach.

On the way down, the bus stopped at Kibbutz Yotveta – remember? I was there just two years before, during the GADNA training. We had some time to grab some food and of course I bought some dates and a few bags of “Choco”. The best chocolate drink in the world came in small plastic bags. It was evening when we finally arrived to Eilat. We found a spot on the beach and settled down. Our plan was to take the first bus next morning, south toward the Sinai Peninsula. Our destination was the “Fjord”. In the northeast side of Sinai there is a very deep bay surrounded by high rocks. Just like the fjords in Norway except that the water in Sinai is much warmer. And if we are talking about warm water, just a few steps north of the fjord was the “Sun Pool” a small pond that the water there is very hot. The deeper you go in the hotter it gets, the center of it is almost boiling. Those two places were our next destination, about an hour bus ride south.

“There are naked tourist girls there” reminded us David Abramov.

“Is that the only reason you want to go there? I asked.

“Oh, shut up, Plier Gun!” David answered and turned to Yossi Cohen’s who whispered in his ear; “You know, I Saw an article on TV two days ago, he was right all that time, they did make that plier gun, the “Galil”, it is an awesome rifle.”

Of course, he never apologized to me, but he did stop calling me plier gun.

The first bus of the day took us to the fjord before anyone else. I was wearing the first blue jeans I ever bought from a friend of mine and I managed to sow a yellow ribbon in the fashion of the American revolution soldiers. On my back I had my dad’s old army rucksack with extra cloths, a towel, a light blanket, a tent sheet and two folding poles. In a paper bag I had some French bread, a can of tuna, a few vegetables and fruit. I had a water canteen and even coffee and sugar. The military folding Mess kit was ready to be used and of course a box of matches. And of course, the most important, my guitar.

As the bus took the turn around the rocky hills the view was amazing. I have never seen such blue combination of clear water with the sunrise reflection. I wish I had a camera handy to capture that scene for ever, but I guess it is printed in my mine to these days.

We set our gear at the center of the beach facing east overlooking the water. I took my clothes off and put on my bathing suit on. As I was about to plunge in, I realized what was so special of the color in the water. Right under the surface were thousands of pink round jelly fish. They were smaller than my hand. Perfectly round and pink. Nothing was about to ruin my vacation; I am not sure what made me do it, but I had to make sure the jelly fish were safe and not poisonous. We knew that the top of the jelly fish doesn’t sting so I reached to the water and picked one of them holding the top. I took a deep breath and gently touched the bottom of the jelly fish. The tentacles were soft and did not sting me at all. I picked another one and one more, they were all safe. Without another though I plunged into the water. 

“Medusas!” Yelled David. “You are surrounded by medusas!”

I didn’t bother answering, I picked one out and threw it at him. He dogged it but I picked another one and threw it to where he just moved to. It hit him right in the face. He started running around waving his hands in the air and yelled “I got medusa on my face, I got medusa on my face, there goes my soft skin…” but then he stopped and touched his face and realized it didn’t hurt. He walked to the beach and looked at me playing with all the jelly fish. I was picking them up and throwing them over my head letting them fall right back in the water around me. The sensation was amazing – I was swimming in the middle of a bowl of jelly.

When the second bus arrived, we were all in the water playing with the jelly fish. We didn’t pay attention but slowly the jelly fishes were diminishing and by the time the people were settling in their spots on the beach the jelly fish have almost disappeared. They swam to the sea far from the beach. I looked at the beach to where our stuff was and saw 3 pairs of skinny legs practically tangled with each other very close to our stretched beach towels. They were two young women wearing bikinis and a very skinny and tall man wearing even smaller bikini.

“Bon jour!” Said one of the women, as we walked toward our towels.

“Bon jour to you too!” Said David with a little too much enthusiasm. 

“How did you get here?” I asked in French. “I didn’t see you coming of the bus.”

“We took a taxi, and it will come back for us in a few hours.” Unsewered the skinny man.

“How cold is the water” Asked the other woman.

“Not cold at all. I am about to get back in in a few moments if you want to join me. 

“Aren’t there still jelly fish in the water?”

“They are harmless, in fact, they are kind of fun, but they are mostly gone.”

“Oh, in that case, we will join you.”

We ran back to the water with our new friends and got to play catch with a few jelly fish flying above our heads. More than once one or the other women rubbed against me. I am almost sure it was on purpose. 

“There is the Sun Pool,” I said to one of them, “want to come with me and see it?”

“I would come with you,” said the tall skinny man.

“Yes, why don’t you take him with you,” the other woman said. “He has been a little too clingy today.”    

There go my hope to score with a pretty, sexy woman. (Forget the fact that I didn’t turn 17 yet.) I suggested to the guy to put his shoes on because of the rocks on the way. I walked barefoot – I was used to walk barefoot in Netanya whenever I went to the beach. We walked slowly maneuvering between the rocks almost to the opening to the sea. We walked toward the water when I stood on top of a rock overlooking the water below maybe 10 or 15 feet over the water. Yet, I could see the ground 30 feet below the water. Suddenly the skinny tall man approached me and extended his hand and touched my crutch. 

“Sorry, that is not my style,” I said as I moved sideways almost falling to the water below. 

“Sorry, this will not happen again,” he said.

“You will have to walk back on your own,” I said as I dove into the water and yelled; “I am swimming back.”

By the time I reached the shore, I saw the skinny man trying to run through the rocks toward his friends who were waiting for him on the road next to the taxicab.

“What happened?” asked Dani Mualem.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“The girls asked if we are planning to go back to town.” Said Yossi Cohen.

“Not I,” I said. “I thought we were going to camp here, that was part of the plan.”

“Yes,” said Roni Nahum. “But there is nothing here, there is so much more to do in town, we will be taking the next bus. We will return tomorrow morning to see the rest of this place.”

 Alone, I don’t think I was ever alone in a foreign place with no civilizations for miles. No electricity, water supply, or people around. I wasn’t sure whether to worry or relax and enjoy the new experience. I put up the half tent. I looked around for wood around the beach and found a few dry pieces that were dumped by the sea. I piled a few in front of my tent and started a small fire. When the fire diminished, I put a small pot with water from my canteen, a teaspoon of coffee and a teaspoon of sugar on top of the coals. I pulled my guitar out of the case and practiced a few tunes. I stayed up a little after dark, playing and singing some songs new songs I just picked up. Before you know it, the fire was off and the stars in the sky were brighter than ever. I crawled in my sleeping bag and fell asleep on my back looking up counting stars.

I woke up to the sound of distance footsteps. I sat up and looked to the right. A man dressed in a blue striped long dress called Gallabiyah, and sandals was walking toward me. On his shoulder was hanging the tallest rifle I have ever seen. He was walking slowly toward me as if I wasn’t there. I ran to the water and washed my face. I set the fire on with the last few pieces of wood I had left. I put some water in the pot with the coffee and sugar and placed it on the coals.

When the man arrived, I stood up and welcomed him in Arabic “slamu aleikum!”

 “Aleikum salam!” he answered. I invited him to coffee. He graciously accepted and sat next to the fire in front of me. I am not sure where from, he produced a large pita and a few dates. We sat there and talked about his place about a mile in toward the dessert where his wives and kids are waiting for him in his tent. And I told him about the town I lived and about the other Bedouin I met years ago. He showed me his gun, an old British gun from World War two. He uses it to hunt for mountain goats.

Before the first bus arrived, the Bedouin said goodbye and left. The Pink jelly fish were back, and I was having fun swimming amongst them. Off the bus came all my deserting friends and walked toward my little camp.

“They asked for you,” said David Abramov.

“Who’s they?”

“The French people,” said Yossi Cohen.

“The man or the women?”

“One of the women, the blonde one.” Said Roni Nahum.

“Good!”

“What do you mean good? You were here, you missed an opportunity.” Said David.

“Well, I am glad it isn’t the man. He tried to grab my balls yesterday.”

“What?” They all said in unison. 

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“You just did,” said Dani Mualem. “Tell us what happened.” 

“He just tried to grab my balls, so I jumped to the water and swam back. Meanwhile you missed the fun here.”

“What fun? You were here alone all night.” Said David. “You could have spent the night with the blonde.”

“It’s beautiful hear at night. No lights around except for the stars. And this morning I had a visit from a Bedouin, we drank coffee together. He had a huge gun.”

“An Arab with a gun?” Said David “Did he try to grab your balls too?”

I didn’t bother answering. I know David Abramov liked to bully and talk down to people. No matter what I would say, he would find something to make it look bad. We spent the rest of the day walking to the sun pool where I was too scared to get in. I didn’t want to get cooked like the frog experiment when it doesn’t realize it is getting cooked. We swam a little more at the fjord and took the afternoon bus back to town. And of course, all the way back home David didn’t stop talking about my balls.

Sunday, early in the morning I was on the train to the academy all excited about the new track we were going to study. All about the new navigation system for the newest jet plane or the instrument panel of the helicopter. We also were moved to the new lodging; only 6 cadets per room and much cleaner bathrooms. Still the public Chinese stalls but much cleaner showers. Every Friday before the exam, we had a room inspection by the department head. Our room had 2 floors. The bottom floor had 3 desks with 2 chairs next to each one. The top floor had 3 bunk beds. Each floor had a big window overlooking the runway. We decided to divide the tasks. My task was to clean the windows. Yossi Cohen had the floor washing of the first floor. Roni was washing the second floor. David was to dust the shelves and the rest of the tasks were divided with the rest of the roommates. 

Having hard time reading dry information; I realized I had easier time with schematics than reading the manuals. Yet the schematics were getting more complicated and some with many long wiring lines. It was hard to follow from one side of the wires to the end of it without losing my way. The next time I went home I stopped at an office supply store and bought a set of colored markers. Every Thursday evening, after dinner I would clean the windows using my towel before putting it in the wash pile. That took me about ten minutes. I took my spot on one of the desks and started coloring the lines on the schematics, each wire a different color. I went to the showers and went to sleep early. When I got up in the middle of the night my roommates were still studying the systems and all kind of troubleshooting to memorize. Next morning after the inspection, we went to take the exams. I finished before everyone and got a perfect “A”. You see, because I colored the wires, I didn’t have to memorize anything. When I was presented with a problem, I just followed the colored lines of the schematics. – it was the only thing we were allowed to bring to the test. 

Every Tuesday we received the afternoon off to go home or just have fun and relax. Sometimes I would get a ride with one of the instructors all the way home and back early next morning. Most of the time I would go and hang out with Efri or just go home to play with my young brother.

“Meet my classmate Meir,” said Efri when I got in. “He is a dancer, and he likes to sing too.”

“Nice meeting you!” I said with a smile.

“I hear you like dancing too,” he said. “I have been taking dance classes at “Studio Bash” twice a week. Want to join me?”

“I am not sure; I am at a military school. I get only one afternoon off per week.

“Well, you don’t have to come twice a week, you may come once a week. In fact, we have a new guest teacher next week – Joukie Arkin, I hear he is a very good teacher.”

“The mime?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“I am definitely coming; I know this guy. He went to my school.”

The following Tuesday I made it right on time to the studio. Mrs. Bash was at the door when Meir and I walked in. Another dance teacher was just finishing a ballet class. She was short and skinny, her black hair was pulled and twisted tight above her head.

“As soon as Sarah Yochai clears the room, we will let you in to the studio,” said Mrs. Bash. 

Behind Sarah Yochai was a very pretty, even smaller dancer. She walked to Mrs. Bash and asked: “I’d like to stay for the jazz class. I hear He is a good teacher.”

“Sure, Nurit, the more classes you take the better you will become.” 

 Nurit stood right next to me during the class which was pretty easy for me as well as for her. We followed Joukie like mirrors. I enjoyed the class and was looking forward for the next one.

“Mrs. Bash Was watching you the whole time,” said Meir when we walked out of the class.

“Oh oh!” I said, “I hope she isn’t that kind of a woman.”

“I don’t know, see you next week?”

“Sure, I hope Nurit comes too.”

Nurit did come to the dance class, I was getting a little brave and even spoke with her a few words but when the class was over Mrs. Bash approached me and took me to the side.

“You are such a good dancer!” she said while holding my hand with one of her hands and caressing my soldier with the other.

“Thanks!” I answered.

“Hope to see you again next week, I will even give you a stipend if you have hard time paying.”

It felt very uncomfortable, I wasn’t sure if she wanted me for my body or for my dance skills. I was new at the dance scene. I decided never to come back. And even after Meir was telling me every time we met, how much she wanted me back or how many times she asked him to tell me so. I had other things on my mind. I had the electronic systems to learn. and paint the schematics. My roommates would spend hours every Thursday night practicing scenarios and troubleshooting, while I was coloring the lines on the schematics and going to bed early.

Every week I repeated the same routine for 6 months until our graduation. I never failed not even one exam, in fact I Aced them.

 

***

Sheppard Chilly

 

 A play on a Sheppard Pie with my own twist.

 

Ingredients:

½ Lb. Ground Meet

4 Large Potatoes

1 Onion 

2 Garlic Cloves

1 Celery Stalk 

1 tsp Crushed Ginger 

2 Cups Cooked Beans

1 Large Carrot

1 Egg

 

Preparation:

 Cook the potatoes and mash them. Chop and sauté the onion, garlic, ginger, celery, carrots, ground beef and beans, in this order. Spread ½ of the mashed potatoes on the bottom of a deep tray. Put the mixture on top and cover with the rest of the potatoes. Brush bitten egg and bake in 375f for 20 minutes or until brown.

-----