Chapter 91, (PG16) To Civilian Life

    Long ago, before I even went to the army my mom promised me that they would buy me a Vespa if I graduated high school. Well, I graduated from high school and finished my military service. I reminded her what she promised, instead of telling me the truth that she can’t afford the promise, she said; “I am not going to spend my money for you to kill yourself.” 

 

    I had to take matters into my own hands. The first thing I promised myself was to get my motorcycle driving license. Naturally I called Tamir. He was very happy to hear from me, after all I sent many of my friends his way. I didn’t need to take many lessons; just the 10 required.

 “You need to pay attention to the road signs.” Tamir told me, “I can see you can maneuver this big motorcycle well and that you don’t have any problems being in control. The testers are very picky about the road signs, they want to make sure they don’t send you to kill yourself because you didn’t stop at a stop sign. The drivers don’t expect motorcycles and most of the time don’t even see it.” He took me to the streets where the testers like to take their “victims” and showed me all the stop signs and one-way streets and so on.

 

    The way the test is being given in Israel is simple: The tester takes a group of riders, each on his or hers motorcycle and he would ride on another one. Following us and telling us where to turn or where to go. We were ten bikes raging from heavy motorcycles, light Vespas and moppets (yes you needed a license for that too) we drove to an area where he made us all do the zigzag exercise and he saw that we all drove well and had control over the bikes.

 “OK everyone,” he said with a smile. “Let’s go home.” And he drove forward not even looking back. He continued for a while and then passed a crossroad without stopping and moved to the side. I can still remember, being the last in the line how each one of the riders crossed the road and continued on. For each one of them I said: Ouch! I was the only one who stopped at the stop sign. 

 

    When I dated Aviva, Mom had hard time with Aviva staying overnight, therefore I stayed more at her place. But now, I was without Aviva and I knew Mom would have resist of me having girlfriends over. It was time to move out and find a place of my own. Not having a job yet wasn’t something I could afford yet. Avi also, was just released from the military, where he was a tank commander. Now he was getting a job with a new relative. Nissim just recently married my second Cousin Hilda. Nissim was in publishing, he needed Avi’s help with the printing of his local magazine. Avi had another friend; Yuval, from the military, who worked at his father’s print shop. That is where they were printing Nissim’s magazine. 

 

    Dad was on my case to start working for him. He decided to teach me the art of polishing diamonds. I was to learn to polish the circumference of the diamond, very small polish facets. It brings a little extra brilliance to the stone. It was an easy task for me, I finished my daily quota within two hours, so I had time to search for a house for me and Avi to share. I finally found something we can afford. It was a one large bedroom studio with a very small kitchen corner and a very small shower/bathroom stall. We were fine for now; we ate at Mom’s or at our favorite restaurants. I still visited Aviva’s house; we still had the pregnant Lady to look for. She was still catching birds in the air and I heard that she was stealing chicken from the neighbors. I matched her with a very big black Doberman that belonged to an old friend of mine from the days I was working at Bernanka’s lab. He used to buy parts from us for his new venture, the cable TV network. For some reason, it was illegal to have a cable network. We had to watch only what was available through the antennas on our roof. Shai, my friend was installing the illegal cables for whomever paid for the service. He was given fines and lost his system a few times, yet he took the subject to court and after a few years finally received a court order that allowed him to continue his service for the people of Netanya and his company slowly grew and took over everywhere in the country. 

 

    Avi was still seeing his girlfriend from Be’er Sheva so he would go to visit her on weekends borrowing Nissim’s El Camino. She even brought another girl with her over and we spent the night together, but nothing happened, the friend and I weren’t meant to be together. Yet, one afternoon Avi showed up at the door with no other than Efrat.

 “Hey boy!” She said with a smile. “Long time no see.”

 “Hey, Efrat, what’s new with you?” I said, not knowing if to be happy to see her or worried.

 “Oh, don’t worry,” she said as if she could read my mind, “I saw your brother and decided to come over for some fun.”

 “You did…”

 “I heard about your girlfriend, Avi told me everything. I thought you could use some good time. So, what do you think boys?”

 

    The nest morning at 4:00am when Nissim came to pick up my brother, He opened the door (we never locked it – there was nothing to still) and literally dropped to the floor seeing the three of us in one bed. Avi wasn’t sure if to feel embarrassed or proud, got up and got dressed quickly. Efrat and I stayed in bed for a few more hours before getting up to go work for my dad. Efrat kissed me for the last time and went on her way never to be back again.

 

    “This is Brahim,” Dad said when I walked into his office. “He will be working with us from now on.” Brahim was a tall freckled Arab man. It took me by surprise. “He will be sitting next to you, learning from you and the others the art of polishing diamonds.” 

I took Brahim to my polishing wheel and showed him the ropes.

 

    “Where did he come from” I asked Dad when I stopped by for dinner.

 “That’s a long story.” 

 “I have nowhere to go”

 “This goes back many years, to before the Six Days War,” he started to tell. “I was on guard duty on the border with Jordan. A little after 1:00am I heard footsteps coming from the direction of the border. I yelled stop! And asked for the password. The correct password was given by a man with an Arabic accent. When he got closer, he asked for our commander by name. Since I couldn’t leave my post for another 30 minutes, I offered him some of my coffee and after we talked a while, I learned that he was from Tulkarm across the border. I took him to see our commander and left them.

 

 “Last week a man who showed me his credentials from the secret service came to our office and asked me to help our country by offering a job to a man without asking any questions. He would be working for us and sometimes will disappear without letting us know and will be back whenever his task will end. Of course, I agreed. And sure enough, it was the same man I met so many years ago on the old border between Israel and Jordan. He is an informer who works with the department of intelligence. He needs a job in Israel to show good reasons for traveling daily between the West Bank, and the rest of Israel.” 

     I spent a little more time at the workshop teaching Brahim how to polish and left to the beach or visit Lady at Aviva’s place. Not even three months passed since I was dismissed from the military service, and I received a letter inviting me to a new Airforce base for me to settle my future yearly reserve service. I decided to take the buses this time instead of hitch hiking. I stopped at the familiar Wimpy burger and bought a Jerusalem bagel for the road as well as the lemon ice pop for dessert. When I arrived at base located a little south of my original base Tel-Nof. I was directed to walk toward the training department.

 

    “Tibi!” I heard a female voice coming from a pickup truck driving in front of me. Suddenly two figures jumped of the bed of the truck and started running toward me. Michal and Margalit were running toward me and both jumped at me almost knocking me down. They hugged me and talked with excitement together, I could barely understand what they were saying.

 “Tibi, Tibi! Tibi you are the best! So nice to see you.” 

 “I am very excited to see you too” I said almost out of breath as they were hugging me and making me jump with them.”

 “Did you hear? Did you hear about us? It was all because of you.” Said Michal.

 “What? What happened? What did I Do?

 “You taught us everything we know.” Margalit added, “we received a medal of excellence from the president of Israel.”

I was dumbfounded; can you fathom what are the odds of someone to receive a medal of excellence. Every year the president bestows medals of excellence to ten soldiers who did their job beyond their duty. Many soldiers are nominated but only a few actually receive this honor. If one soldier in a camp receives the medal it brings pride to the everyone at the camp. But imagine how I felt; two of my girls were honored. It was the first time I felt that I really have done what I was meant to do in the military service. The girls walked me to my destination and spent the rest of the day parading me around the camp and telling everyone about me. It took me a short time to register at my new post, but I was enjoying my day with the girls too much to leave. I spent lunch with them and gave them a hug again before getting a ride back home.

 

    The first thing I did when I got home, was to visit Lady. She was about to have her puppies. By the time I arrived, she already had six pups. I marked the first one with a ribbon and came to visit them daily. Imre was a good “parent” to them. He knew exactly what and when to feed them. He even managed to revive the runt who was born unconscious. Even lady was being a good mother and protected the little ones. Imre was making sure they were all fed by her. I don’t know how he could tell between them they were three brown and three black ones. That was all I could tell. Except for the one I marked with the ribbon. 

 

Chicken Souvlaki

 

  Served on top of flat pita or wrapped with it, this Greek dish is healthy and tasty. At the restaurants they serve it with Tzatziki sauce, but as you know by now, I cook Kosher style. I replace the milk product with Techina.  

 

Ingredients:

2 Chicken Breast

1 Cups Vinegar

3 TBSP Kosher Salt

2 Cups Water 

½ Onion 

3 Garlic Cloves

½ Red Pepper

½ Green Pepper

1 Tomato

1 tsp Oregano

½ Lemon

1 tsp Salt

½ tsp Black Pepper

½ tsp Paprika

1 TBSP Chopped Fresh Parsley

2 TBSP Olive Oil

Flat Bread

 

    Sauce:

2 TBSP Raw Techina

1 Small Cucumber

¼ Onion

½ tsp Salt

3 TBSP Lemon

 

Directions:

  Marinate the Chicken in vinegar, kosher salt, and water over night. 

Rub the chicken with herbs and spices roast it and cut to strips.

Cut the Onion and pepper to strips. Sauté the onion, garlic, peppers, and spices. 

Cut the tomatoes to 8 slices and chop the parsley. Mix all together.

 

 Chop the cucumber and onion very small. Mix with techina, salt and lemon until you get a smooth sauce.  

 Serve on top of flat bread with a dash of oil and the sauce on the side.

 

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