Chapter 83, ( Rated PG 16) Driver on Duty

     “A party?” Asked Efri, “with new girls?”

 “Yes, and I was asked to bring some more boys.” (Please don’t get offended; in Hebrew the words boys and girls don’t mean actual kids. It just means females and males.)

Sami from the instruments’ panel department was having a birthday party for his younger sister and she had more girlfriends than boys. He decided to invite us boys. Efri and I called Buch and Dubi and drove in Efri’s father’s Sussita to the party in Ramat-Gan. 

 

    At the stop light in Hertzelia we were about to turn left. The light to go straight turned green and the cars on our right started moving. Efri put the car in gear and before we could say, “not yet” drove forward. He was stopped abruptly with a bang and hit the bumper of the car in front of us. Lucky for us the car in front wasn’t damaged and the driver waved us to forget about it. But as we took the turn the engine thermometer gage went high. We pulled to the gas station across the street and looked under the hood of the car. The fan hit the radiator and punctured a small hole. Hot water was leaking. We were stuck, we were on our way to a party and our car was damaged.  

 “Use a chewing gum” suggested Dubi, “to plug the hole.”

 “It will not hold,” Buch said, “We need to melt some led or maybe plastic to plug it.”

Efri pulled his cigarette lighter and Dubi found a plastic bottle.

 

    “What in God’s name, are you doing? We heard the gas pump attendant yell. “This is a gas station. Do you want to blow us up? Go to the back of the station do whatever you do there.”

We pushed the Sussita to the back of the station and believe it or not, a broken down Sussita was standing there with the hood opened. I looked in and sure enough it had a radiator. You have to understand, we had to be at the party in ½ an hour. There was no way we were going to miss it. And here is a gift from God who probably thought the same. Efri had a toolbox (like most of us who were driving old cars) in the back. It took only four screws to replace the radiator. We exchanged them in less than ten minutes, filled the car with water and waved the gas attendant goodbye. 

 “Thank you!” yelled Efri toward him as the guy was looking at us like asking, “what are you thanking me for? 

 

    Sami’s sister’s party was fun, except, even before we walked in the door Sami greeted us with; “have fun and my sister is off limit.” She was pretty and friendly and went out of the way to be nice to me. But I had to remember, she was “above me” a higher class, untouchable. Efri and my friends had a great time, each went home with at least one phone number. I couldn’t wait to tell Lili who became my best friend at the base. 

 

    I can’t even believe it myself; I would look forward to the nights when I was on cleaning duties to stay late and talk with her on the phone. Our talks would last for hours and covered so many subjects. We had a lot in common except that we didn’t think of each other as lovers. Whenever she had the chance, she would let me call on an outside line to talk with Efrat through her rehabilitation. I wasn’t sure what was she rehabilitated from, whether it was from drugs or just her over sexual drive. Talking about “drive”, I became a very good driver. Every guard duty I was picked to be the colonel’s private driver or the master sergeant’s garbage truck driver. Everyone on duty wanted to join me with the garbage collecting task because we would finish early and spend time at the canteen. At the guard’s duties I would be driving the colonel at his inspections or drive the canine crew to feed the guard dogs, and even spend some time with the fire fighters doing some small runs for them. Fire fighters were an odd crew. Sitting all day waiting for a fire to happen, or a plain to crash land kept them pretty bored. So, they dedicated that time to clean the trucks, paint the facility, and even built a big fish pool. The pool was full of guppies – I have never seen so many in one place. Pretty colorful tails so crowded you couldn’t see the water.

 

    Every lab or workshop had to assign one of their technicians to be a weekly driver on duty. This title had to be given to a corporal (which I just received a few weeks before) with a license to drive trucks. Since I was the only corporal in our lab with that kind of license, I was given that task. That meant I didn’t have to do the master sergeant duties or guard duties anymore. Instead, I would have to give one evening and night to driving tasks or manning the small telephone center when there were no driving tasks. Sometimes we would have special driving duties that would take us more than just one night or even weekends. The driver on duty answered to the rescue department which was under the command of the human resource officer, Captain Pinkel. Every Wednesday which became my on-duty day and his late evening I would drive him home. At first, we would drive quietly while he would read through his papers.

 “What is your name, corporal?”  He surprised me one evening.

 “Tibi”

 “Is that your first name?”

 “No sir, my name is Nani Haim Tibi, but everyone calls me Tibi.”

 “Tibi, it is then” he proclaimed. “You are the first driver I feel safe with, I can actually take my eyes of the road and do some work.”

 “Thank you, sir.” 

 “I have a task for you this week. It will require a few days off base.”

 “I will be more than happy, Captain.”

 “This is a rescue mission. One of our fighter jets crashed somewhere in the middle of Sinai. We need to bring all the parts of the wreckage. There will be two semitrailers, a caterpillar crane, and you will be driving a brand-new small jeep. We have the coordinates; it will take you about two days to get there, about two days be there or whatever time it will take you to collect the parts and two to get back.” 

 “I am honored and very excited.”

 

    Needless to say, my superiors weren’t happy to let me go when finally, I was more available to work at the lab. I packed my sleeping bag a few uniform sets and my wash kit. Driving the little Jeep was fun. It was much lower to the ground than the original jeep. We left early in the morning and drove south toward Gaza. We didn’t get into town but bypassed it and drove along the northern shore of Sinai to Port Said. There we stopped at a military post for the night. It was a nice change to be at another camp. The air force had the worst food in the military. Well, except for officers, and pilots who ate the best food in the military. At other military bases, mostly small ones, they had smaller kitchens and very good chefs. For dinner we were served Shakshuka, something we couldn’t even dream on getting at our base’s kitchen. Shakshuka is a North African dish of poached eggs in spicy tomato sauce. The rooms we were assigned for was in a prefabricated modular unit amongst others spread in that desert post. It was a cold night compare to the hot day. I was glad to had my sleeping bag with me.

 

    Early the next morning we were on our own in the middle of the desert. No roads in front of us or behind us. We were using a topographic map to find our ways through the sandy dunes. I drove in the front this time searching for any signs of the plane crash. Nothing should be left for anyone to find. Our fighter planes were modified with many Israeli patents which couldn’t fall into enemy’s hands. Driving that little Jeep was the most fun driving I had at that time of my life. No roads and the vehicle managed the dunes perfectly. Up and down the hills back and forth until we found the first big section of the plane. It was almost scarry to look at that mangled piece of burnt metal. I drove back to the rest of the team and directed them to the wreckage. The big crane picked up the pieces one at a time and placed it on the other semitrailer. Now, loaded with the heavy parts the semitrailer had hard time puling itself out. It kept digging in the sand so far that the belly of the truck was touching the sand. We had to use the crane who was driven by chains, to pull the truck for some distance and only then load itself on the other bed to be driven back to camp. I picked a small, melted blob of the burnt plane and kept it in my pocket for souvenir.

 

    Every three months a soldier in the Israeli army should get a week off to visit his family or just to relax. Because of the war and other projects some of us accumulated those vacations. We had no choice, duty came first. The most one could accumulate was three weeks. You will forfeit your vacation if you go more than the vacation allocated to you. I accumulated three weeks and it was time for me to use it. It was summertime, my brother Avi had his vacation too and we decided to take our vacation in Eilat and the east coast of Sinai.

 “Let’s go to Nueiba or Dahab,” Avi suggested. “I hear there are many naked tourists on that beach.”

 “Sounds good, I also want to snorkel and rent some sailboats.” I replied.

 

    Eilat was a small town at that time. Not many hotels, but long beach where many tourists would camp with or without a tent. You could rent small sailboats for one or two people. The wind was just right, and the sea stayed calm. What the Red Sea is known for is the marine life. The colors of the fish are so bright it looked like they were hand painted. On the way down to Eilat we took a bus, so of course it stopped at Yotveta and we bought some dates and their famous Choco. We arrived at the evening so we couldn’t rent any boats or go snorkeling. We went swimming and camped out next to a group of girls, so what else can you expect? I pulled my guitar and played. Before we went to sleep, I already collected a few phone numbers. Rachel from Afula, Yardena and Beth from Jerusalem. The next morning Avi and I rented a sailboat each and were practicing sharp turns and even managed to flip the boats over and continue sailing. Of course, we took the girls for a ride. 

 

    We stayed at Eilat only one day, the next morning we were on our way to Nueba. This time we had to hitch hike, not so much of a problem in those days. We jumped in the back of a military pickup truck who dropped us at the crossroad of the Nueba beach. 

 

    Nueba was just the name of the location next to some Bedouins’ camp. It had a nice reef where you could dive. On the beach was one fast food restaurant where they served deep fried fresh caught fish, French fries, and salad. The restaurant was busy all day from early in the morning to late at night. Both Israeli youth and international tourists were spread all over the beach. There was a spot where you could shower outdoors and further away from the beach were some latrines. Besides my guitar, I also had with me the camera Uncle Moshe gave me for my bar mitzvah. It had a twelve-photo roll, so I had two more color film rolls with me. For some reason, we never worried about theft, I guess because we were far from civilization where the poor people would go. I would leave my guitar and camera and even money and know no one will still it. Not even the young Bedouins who would try to sell us some cheap souvenirs. Avi and I bought “Gallabiyahs” a dress like long shirt that Bedouin men wear. We spend all the time together, we rented sail boats so many times that the owner became our friend and finally let us use the boats for free. Even when one morning when the sea was rough, he trusted us and let us take the boat out. He didn’t have many boats to rent so Avi and I had to just go together on the same sunfish boat. We were having so much fun flipping the boat and trying to stay dry while rolling it over. Once Avi was laughing so hard he had to go to the bathroom (not number one). I tilted the boat while he lowered his bathing suit and dropped his “gift” to the sharks, still laughing his heart out.

 

    “Nice guitar playing and singing!” Said a short haired blond next to me in the open showers.  

 “Thanks!”

 “I also saw your crazy maneuvers with the sailboat.” She had a Spanish accent. Surprised, I was sure she was Scandinavian. 

I looked at her more carefully, it was getting dark out, but I could see her blue eyes checking me out too.

 “They call me Tibi.”

 “Judith”

 “Did you have dinner yet?”

 

    We sat at one of the picnic tables eating our fish and chips with a side of humus and salad.    “Do you play only American music?” she asked.

 “Well, I played African too,” I said, “Mory Cante, is French African.”

 “I like Israeli music more.”

 “For you, I will work on it. Where are you from?”

 “Argentina, I am here on a year college program.”

 “Only one year? Where do you live?

 “Well, it depends, I will see how I feel when I finish my education. I might come back, I might stay. Right now, I live in Jerusalem in a dorm.”

I couldn’t take my eyes of her, the whole time we were talking, which was the rest of my stay on that beach. Every night we would lay next to each other in our sleeping beds. In the morning I would take a picture of her with the sun rising behind her. Just to prove to her that she is prettier than the sun in the morning. We would go on long walks almost getting lost in the dunes and loving every moment. We took the bus back to Eilat together and before taking the separate buses I promised to come to visit her on my first “afternoon pass”.

 

    “I am sure I am in love!” I said to Lili when we met on Monday for lunch at the base’s main cafeteria. “I hate the food here.”

 “I can’t wait until we become sergeants so we can eat at the sergeant’s dining room. Tell me about that girl”

 “I don’t know, we just connected, she is pretty, soft skin, nicely tanned for a blond, blue eyes, and she likes my music.” I sighed, “I don’t think I will be a sergeant very soon. They don’t like me very much at my lab.”

 “So, when are you going to see her again?”

 “Tuesday, I will go to Jerusalem and if I get an assignment on Wednesday to Jerusalem, I will try seeing her again.”

 “Good luck! I am very happy for you.”

 

    I didn’t want to take a chance with hitch hiking, so I took the bus to Jerusalem and another local bus to her dorm. Judith had a single room decorated very softly feminine. She even had a few candles lit. In very short time her shirt was off, as well as mine. When my hands were finding their way to her underwear, she whispered, “you are going to be the lucky one, you know.” She pulled me closer to her when I suddenly realized what she was talking about.

 “Wait a moment, I want you to be sure about it.” I said, (How stooped can I be? Will I ever learn?)  “I don’t want to be your first unless you really love me.” As much as I wanted to be with her; and believe me the pressure in between my legs was hurting. Judith smiled, a little disappointed, she pulled my head and gave me a long kiss. We stayed that way until I realized, it was time for me to leave. The last bus of the day was leaving soon. 

 “I will try to make it tomorrow, but if not, I will be here next Tuesday.” I said as I was putting my shirt on. The bus ride was long and difficult when I realized my pants were wet.

    I was lucky the next day, or so I thought, the first and only run that evening was to take one officer to Jerusalem. After dropping him off I stopped at the Ben Yehuda market and bought a single red rose. I parked the car and walked to Judith’s dorm room. She was at the door dressed to walk out when I knocked on the door.

 “I am sorry,” she said with a blank expression. “I have to leave; I have a date.”

 “Wha…ha” I started to mumble.

 “You see,” she raised one hand over her head, “you love me that much, and I love you that much.” She raised her other hand just a little lower than the other hand. “I will never be able to love you the same…” 

I placed the rose on her desk, turn around and walked to the car. I am not sure how I found my way back to base. My eyes were watery the whole night.

 

    “Hey,” said Lili the next day when we met for lunch, putting her arm around my soldier. “There will be other girls, I promise! Look over there, here is that GADNA leader again, the one with the perfect eyes. I think she is looking at you …”

 

 

***

 

Kuku Kadoo (Zucchini Frittata)

 

  A Persian omelet in the oven. Simple and healthy dish. Quick and easy.

 

2 Zucchinis

1 Large Onion 

4 Eggs

1 Green Pepper

1 tsp Crushed Ginger

2 Crushed Garlic Cloves

½ tsp Turmeric

½ tsp Salt

 

Cut and fry the onion, garlic, pepper, zucchini, to soften. Mix all with egg and bake in a round dish at 375f. for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

 

-----