Nani Haim Tibi

Transportation

    Roul was growing to be a nice-looking puppy. Black Doberman with brown highlights. He was a very smart dog and enjoyed playing. Unfortunately, Avi taught him to chase cats on command. On the other hand, he learned other important commands like to jump through hoops and even to disarm anyone who holds a pistol pointing at us. He was still young and didn’t know how to defend himself, but he was learning.

    One afternoon I heard a yelp from the front yard and saw that two big German Shepperd dogs – a mother and son attacked my poor puppy who escaped straight home. When I confronted their owner, them she just shrugged her shoulders and smiled.
  
    I think I have been very lucky, Avi and I weren’t just brothers, we were best friends. We did almost everything together, we even dressed alike on many occasions. Now that he had this new girlfriend Tali, we spent a little less time together, but we did share everything. Avi asked me one day to borrow the Sussita. Of course, I let him have it so he could drive Tali back home. As they were driving over a bridge, suddenly Avi saw a car wheel passing him on the left and then the car tilts backward, to the side and came to a sudden stop. For some reason the lug nuts fell off and the rear tire released, passing the car as it fell and stopped. Avi ran after the loos tire and placed it back using one nut from each of the tires and drove the car back home.

    Tali was introduced to Avi by her army superior when she was discharged. Ilana Greenspan (not to confuse her with Ilana the dancer) joined our small crew at the Tibi Tea and loved spending time with us. Ilana gave me an album of Supertramp for my birthday which became one of my favorite records and I still have it today. None of us was interested in each other romantically. Not to say anything about her or our look, Ilana was very pretty, she looked great wearing the tank top I designed for the tea house. We just became very good friends. So, when Avi and his latest girlfriend separated, Ilana introduced him to Tali.

    That is when problems began. Tali was a jealous person; in very short time she was picking on Ilana causing conflicts between us until Ilana left us. Suddenly Avi and I started to argue over nothing. Even Roul didn’t like her. One morning she was left at home alone with him. When it was time for her to leave to go to her camp, he cornered her in the room and didn’t let her leave, growling every time she made a move. Lucky for her I returned to pick up something from home and released her.

    I still didn’t like working with Dad, not because of Dad or his friends, but because it was boring. I would come for a few hours and leave. I promised myself as soon as the summer comes, I will look for a lifeguard job.

    As I was driving home, suddenly the Sussita has stopped with a screech as if I hit the brakes. It left long black streaks behind the car. I restarted the car and tried to drive it, but the car just stayed in place. I had to call a tow truck and asked to be driven home. I lifted the Sussita on blocks and checked under the car. I discovered that the differential was damaged. I will need to replace it or try to fix it.

    A rear accel is a big and expensive part. I had to fix it myself. I took it apart and found the broken part. This was not as easy to replace. It ended up that the Sussita had a Ford Escort engine a Triumph rear axle, but the part inside the rear axle were from a Ford Anglia. I managed to find the broken gear at a junk yard but there was one part that I couldn’t find anywhere. It was a special wedge that looked like half a circle. It was a safety part that supposed to break when the rear axle seizes. I couldn’t find an exact wedge to fit. What I did manage to figure out was that the size was exactly like two ¼ shekel cut in half. This is exactly what I did. I cut two quarter shekels in half and used them instead of the wedge.

    Lucky for me a mechanic was interested in my Sussita for some reason and was willing to exchange it for a Ford Falcon and even pay me a little to do the exchange. I gladly accepted and now owned a gas guzzler. Granted it was only six cylinders and they were pretty small so it wasn’t as bad as you might think, but for Israel it was. The price of gas was and still is four times more expensive than in the USA.

    Avi loved this car, and you could tell, he drove fast, very fast. He was a good driver with very good instincts. That is why I was surprised when he came home with a big dent on the side of the car.
 “Can you believe it?” He said, “I was standing in a stop sign and a truck tried to pass me on the left and turn to the right.”
I needed to fix that; the insurance of the truck covered the body repair. We found a body shop at the old commercial district of Netanya, but they were too slow. We had to use my bike for transportation around town. Avi would ride the bike and I would hang behind wearing my roller skates. It was my new cheap way of travel. When I needed to go to work, I rode my skates and Avi would shop with the bicycle. Even in bad weather days we would travel by bikes and skates to my mom’s for Friday night dinner or any local tasks.

    “He Kid!” I heard one day as I crossed the road on red light. “Stop right there!” I looked back and saw a policeman with his tickets pad and a pen in his hand.
 “Come over here!” He didn’t say please.
 “Yes officer!” I said lowering my head, not looking at his eyes. I didn’t want to crack up laughing.
 “You know you crossed the street on red light?”
 “Sorry sir, I didn’t pay attention, I was in a rush to get some groceries for my mother.”
 He flipped a page on his pad and wrote a note for my Mom telling her to watch over me. he handed it to me, “Watch it next time! And be careful out there!” Again, it was one more reason to be happy for being so young looking and small.

    One Friday afternoon I heard a very loud yelp, and right after that even louder yelp. I ran outside to check if Roul was attacked again. To my relief I saw the two big German Sheppard running away in different directions and Roul chasing them away. I looked at their angry owner, smiled and shrugged my shoulders.

 

***

Girls, Girls, Girls

    “Montana?” asked Nehemiah when we finished the rehearsal.
 “Are you crazy? It is cold out there,” Said Tzvika.
 “Yes, I know, that’s the whole idea. Tibi can’t say no to ice cream. I love seeing him shiver.”
 “Are you paying?” I asked Nehemiah.
 “No, it is Giyora’s turn.”
 “Let’s go.”

     Montana was a soft ice cream parlor in Netanya. We called it American Ice Cream. The Israeli ice cream was a little harder and mostly lactose free. Being lactose intolerant didn’t stop me from loving that ice cream and even in cold weathers I could never say no to an offer. My friends would take me to the parlor and buy me the biggest sundae they offered with the nuts and cherries and chocolate fudge on top. Because they loved seeing me enjoying it and shivering. The bigger the portion, the longer I shiver. 

   After the freezing experience I walked home and as soon as I walked in, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
 “You have guests,” I heard Avi saying from behind the counter. He was watching something on the small TV I got him. Next to the first tray in the main room two girls were sitting and one of them was very familiar. Leah the younger daughter of the logistic officer and a friend of hers, got up to greet me.
 “Tibi! Surprised?”
 “How did you find me? Us…”
 “A friend of mine was here and told me about it. Oh, this is my friend Anna. We decided to stop by before we join the military.”
 “It is so nice to see you and it is nice to meet you,” I said looking at the new girl. And she was a hot girl. A little shorter than Leah, blond short hair light green eyes and very broad shoulders for a short girl. “Maybe she was a swimmer” I thought to myself.
 “Why don’t you join us?” I yelled at Avi who was still sitting in front of his TV. He and Tali were on a break, which mad me kind of happy. Whenever she was here, Avi and I were finding reasons to argue.

    Avi came and sat next to Leah who became enamored with him.
 “Can we stay over here for the night?” Asked Anna while caressing my arm, “The last bus has left already.”
 “Of course,” answered Avi who was always happy to spend the night with a girl. “We will close the tea house in about half an hour, we’ll figure something out.”
 “Show me your room?” Asked Anna, “I heard so much about it.”
 “We spent the night together; Anna in my room and Leah stayed with Avi. Anna was very exciting, she loved playing in bed, but I respected the fact that she just met me and didn’t want to take advantage of her.
 “What do you think?” I asked when we were both naked, “we can wait until next time, when we know you really want to do this.”
I think it was the same deal on Avi’s side of the house.

    The next morning, I drove them back to Ramat Gan where Leah lived. The girls left me their numbers and we promised each other to keep in touch. But when I called Anna two days later, she didn’t pick up. I called Leah and she informed me that Anna didn’t want to keep in touch, she had a boyfriend.

    Walking toward my parents’ home for lunch, I met Miriam – the girl who couldn’t go out with me because her mom thought I was Yemenite – too dark for her.
 “Hey Tibi!”
 “Hey! I said turning back to see who was calling me. “Miriam! How are you?”
 “Great! Thanks! How are you?”
 “I see you got married.” I said pointing at her rings, one of them with a nice size diamond.
 “Yes, it’s been almost two years.”
 “Happy?”
 “You might say so, what are you doing now?”
 “I’m on my way to visit my mom for lunch, why? What do you have in mind?”
 “Go there later, come over for coffee first.”
Curious about her place, I agreed, and we walked to her new apartment, not too far from my mom’s house.

    “I’ll be right back.” She said after showing me to her living room. The apartment looked nicely decorated with soft colors and was almost as clean as my mother’s house.
 “How do you like your coffee?” she asked as she walked back from her bedroom wearing only a light transparent bath robe.
 “You know what,” I said as I was getting up. “I think I better go. I am getting hungry.”
 “Don’t you want to continue where we left a few years ago?”
 “Not my cup of tea.” I said as I was walking toward the door. “Thanks, and it was nice seeing you.” She leaned forward gave me a kiss on the cheek and I closed the door behind me.
“What is wrong with you women?” I was thinking to myself. “All the women that are after me are taken.”

   Yuval Avi’s best friend came to visit us one Friday afternoon with another friend of theirs and two girls. One tall blond with long hair and an American brunette. We sat all together drinking tea and I made mlawah for everyone. I pulled my guitar and played some popular songs. The American girl had the most fun since she didn’t know all the Israeli songs and couldn’t tell my mistakes.
 “She likes you” whispered Yuval in my ear. “Ask her to come over again.”
“As I understand she stays in Jerusalem, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt. What’s her name anyway?”
 “Susan, and the blond is Orna.”
 “Come to the movie night,” I asked the girls as they were leaving, “It’s on Wednesday, we are showing Blazing Saddles.”
 “I like that movie” said Susan, “but I will be in Jerusalem. Maybe next weekend.”
 “I will come,” said Orna.
 “That would be nice, See you then.”

    Blazing Saddles was hot, and I am not talking about what we showed on the screen. Orna who was an avid horse rider was sitting on my laps through the whole movie and after that in my bedroom. The following Friday Orna arrived without Susan.
 “What happened?” I asked, “Susan promised to come with you.”
 “Oh, she got busy.” I wondered if it was Orna who convinced her to stay busy because we didn’t get out of the bedroom much the rest of the weekend.
 “I will not be able to come over the next two weeks,” said Orna before she left late Saturday night. “I am on duty up north with the Paratroopers.”
 “I will miss you,” I couldn’t hide my disappointment, we really had a lot of fun under the sheets. “Can you send Susan instead?”
I don’t think she liked that comment, because she never called back, and I never found out how much Susan really liked me.

    What can I do? I couldn’t keep my mouth shut, after Aviva it wasn’t easy for me to fall in love again, and I was trying to stay honest with all the girls I was involved with.

    The first elementary school to open in Netanya was called after the famous poet Haim Nachman Bialik. I remember visiting his house when I was in second grade. Every Sunday evening at this school we had an Israeli folk-dance session. A tall, skinny, lightly bolding man called Israel was in charge. The choice of the dances he picked weren’t the most advanced or popular, but it was a good warm up for the rest of the week. I tried going to his sessions whenever I could. Most Israeli folk-dancing sessions have a few sets of circle dances, line dances and partners dances. Most Israelis come with their own partners to the session. But for some reason, not at this session. It was a good place to discover new dancers, form new partnership or just come and learn the basics.

    A very pale looking girl, about my height, with two very long black braids approached me.
 “Do you have a partner for the next set? She asked.

    “They call me Tibi,” I said as we danced the first partner dance together.
 “I know,” she said, “My name is Hadar.”
We danced together the rest of the evening and walked home together.
 “You were Aviva’s boyfriend,” she said suddenly as we were getting close to her house.
 “How do you know?”
She kept silence for a moment. “I was Arnnon’s girlfriend.”

***
Germany

 

    “In three weeks, we will be flying to Germany again,” said Moshe our dance troupe leader. “The town of Netanya will be paying half of our ticket. Each of us will have to pay the other half.”
 “I’m paying nothing.” Said Tzvika, “My mom is the only one working since my dad died in the war.”
 “We will have to figure it out,” said Moshe. “We are not going without you.”
Tzvika was the best dancer in our group, he had one more year of high school before joining the military but because of the loss of his father to the war he was destined to a lighter post and will be home every evening. I felt bad about the options, Tzvika and Nehemiah became even better friends to me after teaching me all the repertoire of or dance company. I would hate to leave him behind. I wasn’t a rich man, my job at Dad’s wasn’t paying a lot, I wasn’t putting many hours anyway but for some reason I decided to help and offered Moshe that I would pay for Tzvika, if he promised not to tell him. But as we were about to bord the plain in his last speech he expressed his thanks to all the people involved and forgot his promise to me. Tzvika wasn’t happy but said nothing.

    They were waiting for us at the airport. Hans, Peter, some other people, and a touring bus. Almost everyone from the company knew our hosts, they met them on the last trip to Germany. We were in the northern part of West Germany called Osnabrück, destined to a dormitory of some local club. Peter who was a flight attendant brought a box full of small buttles with schnaps. By the time we arrived at the dormitory we were all a little tipsy.

    The next morning, we were led to a large hall for breakfast. a long table was set for us with nice fresh bread, plates with vegetables spread along the table in between other plates with baloney and cheese set nicely one slide of the meat and one slice of cheese making it look pretty.
 “I guess they forgot to tell the kitchen we were Jews.” Said Nehemiah. “Mixing the meat with the cheese?”
The interesting part was that no one cared that the meat was pork, but they did mind that it was mixed with cheese.

    I, of course, had a different problem; the amount of butter.  I think that in Germany they cooked everything with butter. Even the cookies they gave us on the bus were made with, what felt like 70% butter. I think except for the bread and the breakfast vegetable I ate nothing, that is until I discovered the Italian Ice-cream and of course the beer.

    After breakfast we cleared the room for a short rehearsal. We had a performance that night and it looked like almost every day for the next two weeks. Every time at a different location. One of them was an international folk festival which was the main reason we were invited.
After the first performance our hosts threw us a small party. At the dining hall and many people showed up. Tzvika and I started talking to two girls, Susan and Christina. I guess Tzvika forgot he was the boyfriend of Mira’s sister back home.
 “Let’s go out from this noise,” said Christina to Tzvika and then asked, “coming Susan?” Susan took my hand and we all walked out of the campus toward the quiet street.

    “What a crazy driver!” Said Tzvika as a roaring car passed us quickly.
 “A Porch,” I said when suddenly we heard a loud screech and a big bang. We all ran toward the crash and saw the front of the Porch mangled under a big truck. The driver who didn’t have a seat belt on was halfway out of the front shattered windshield, bleeding. People were coming out of the houses, some with a phone in their hand. I let go of Susan’s hand and ran to the crash site. Without thinking much, I reached over and pulled the guy out of the car. The truck driver came out and climbed off the cabin and helped me pull the guy out. We pulled him to the far side of the road when we heard the ambulance and police sirens. But before they arrived the Porch blew up.
 “My hero!” whispered Susan as she kissed my cheek on our way back to the party. Almost everyone was out looking at the accident as police cars and the ambulance were about to leave.
 “What happened?” Asked Nehemiah and Mira.
 “He saved the guy’s life,” said Christina.
 “Bedtime!” Moshe’s voice came over the noise. I kissed Susan a quick kiss on the lips when her sister gave me one on the cheek.

    There was a group of people with down syndrome and their guides sharing our dormitory. I was impressed by how patiently they supported their group. I saw a tall young woman wearing a blue jean overall working with two patients. They were loud and did not cooperate, but she was soft and patience and slowly got them to adhere to her instructions. They were sited on a bench facing the Ping-Pong table the management placed on the lawn. Avi and Nehemiah were playing when they suddenly stopped, looked at the grass and discovered that they actually killed the grass. The grass was all mashed and the dirt below was all exposed. In many places around Israel, you would find signs asking people to avoid stepping on the grass just for that reason. And here, we spent less than an hour playing, and the grass was crushed. They dropped the paddles and walked away.
 “Why did you stop?” asked the tall girl with the overall. “We were having fun looking at you, didn’t we?” She asked her patients.
 “Yes, Yeah, Play! Play!”
Both Avi and Nehemiah didn’t even know they were talking to them – they didn’t speak English.
 “They don’t want to ruin the grass anymore.” I said.
 “Oh, they shouldn’t worry, as soon as the rain comes down it will grow right back.”
 “I am impressed with the way you handle your patients.” I told her, “What’s your name?”
 “Lisle, and yours?”
 “Tibi” I said. We continued talking that morning about her job and our trip here and what we’re all about. She expressed her wish to visit Israel, so we exchanged phone numbers and addresses.
I promised to write her and keep in touch and left to pack my costumes for our next performance.

    Our next performance was at the international festival out in the town square. To our dismay there was no stage to perform. The town square was paved with uneven cable stones. We had to dance wearing our sneakers. Lucky the girls weren’t wearing high hills, except for Rachel but she could dance in anything. The festival was not just for dancing it was a festival of culture, food and BEER. I never knew I liked beer so much. We served beer at our tea house but the amount and way it was presented here was new to me.

    At the bar the night before I sat eating a scoop of ice cream and drank my mug of beer. It came with a coaster made out of recycled paper. It had the logo of the beer company. When I asked the bar tender where one can buy those coasters, I told him about our tea house. He simply walked back to his office and came with a bag full of coasters and handed them to me.

    The food served at the festival was not for me either, remember? Butter in everything. Well, except for some of the Turkish food which was very close to what I am used too. I ate some of it but most of all ate that Italian real fruity flavored ice cream.

   There were dance groups from Spain, who danced flamenco, Austrian group with colorful suspenders for the men and country dresses for the men. An extremely boring dance group from Turkey, I learned didn’t really come from Turkey, they were immigrants who were doing the hard cheap labor. But our favorite was the group from France. They came from Normandy, from a town called Le Havre. They had musicians, singers and dancers. Although they weren’t professional, they were a lot of fun. They demonstrated dances from their heritage. We sat together with them for dinner and exchanged addresses and phone numbers. Promising each other to keep in touch. They even invited us to stop at their town if we ever come to France.

    We visited Bergen Belsen on our way to another dance location and stopped at a very reach castle where everything was covered with gold, even the walls. At Hamburg where we were held a little longer because of Pnina who was arrested for shop lifting.

    On the way, back to our dorm I saw for the first time in my life a pig. As you know, it was forbidden to rase pigs. (Some kibbutzs grow pigs on high platforms so they won’t desecrate the holy land.) From books and some cartoons, I always imagined pigs to be small and cute. I did not expect that big pink blob of a sow. She was in a large pen all dirty with mud. I felt bad for eating those white stakes in a pita.

    We were invited to a big party at the campus on our last day in Germany. There was a small lifeguards convention. Another group of people I never saw before was there. They were all wearing black, full of tattoos and body piercings. One of them had his key chain hanging on his cheek. Or another one who cut his mouth to make it bigger, but it looks like he regrated it, because he sawed it back with a metal wire.

    “I am not going to get into a conversation with any Israeli until they return the lands they stall from the Palestinians!” said a pretty lifeguard from Austria. When I tried to say hi at the bar.
 “I don’t mind talking to Israelis” a prettier red hair girl whispered in my ear. I usually stay away from trying my luck with red haired women. I am not sure why; they simply don’t like me.
 “Want to go out of this noisy place?” I asked handing her a beer mug.
 “I’ll be happy too, thanks!”
 “I guess you don’t belong to this group” I pointed at the self-mutilating people.
 “No, I am a lifeguard.”
 “Me too, but I am here with the Israeli group.”
 “Yes, I know, I saw you dancing at the festival.”
 “Did you like it?”
 “I loved it, and you caught my eyes right away. You are a good dancer!”
 “Thanks, I am still new at this.”
 “Tibi? is that your name?”
 “Yes, that is how they call me, and you?”
 “Beate”

    We left the empty mugs on a table outside the hall and walked to the street.
 “I heard you saved a man’s life here the other day.”
 “Nothing anyone else wouldn’t have done, I was just in the right place at the right time.” We turned around and the road led us somehow to my room. But, as soon as we took our shirts off Nehemiah knocked on the door.
 “Hey, Tibi!” He yelled, “you have guests waiting for you at the bar.”
 “I will be there later.”
We snuggled again and as usual, I said that I didn’t want to do anything she would regret tomorrow. Since I am leaving anyway.
 “I will not regret a thing,” she whispered and put her hand down my pants when again, a knock on the door. This time it was Tzvika, “Tibi! Susan and Christina are waiting for you, they want to say goodbye.”
We got dressed and exchanged addresses, promised to write. And walked back to the bar to say goodbye to all or friends as Beate was fixing her hair.

***

 

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