As usual, Aaron, Yonit, her friend Ili, and yours truly, left home around eight this morning . Aaron and I for work; Yonit and Ili to keep a doctor?s appointment.
As we reached the gate of the yishuv, Paul who was on guard duty stopped us. He'd heard that the traffic at the Hismeh Junction was backed up till yishuv Adam and people who'd left an hour ago still hadn't reached Pisgat Ze'ev. Apparently the army were on the lookout for a"booby-trapped" van. "This must be really BIG," I said "if there's such a traffic jam" .
We sat there for a few minutes trying to decide what to do. Go back home and wait hoping things would clear? Try our luck? We finally decided to drive through Ma'ale Michmash, Mishuv Alon and down to Mishor Adumim, Ma'alei Adumim, etc. "Great!" Aaron said, "but I don't know if the car's brakes will hold all the way down for 10 km perpendicular..." We all cheered for the car and were on our way.
Such a beautiful day! Not too hot and all around us the Judean mountains in their primeval splendor, the sun shining through summer clouds over the Dead Sea, the army firing range on our left, the Bedouin goat crossing on our right.
Although we were all of us quite late for wherever we were going, we all really felt as if we were out on a holiday outing! And then Aaron happened to mention that he might be running out of gas (he never really knows as the needle doesn.t work (he works on instinct).
"On this kind of day,"I said to him "we'll run straight into a gas station!", .And we did.
As we reached Mishor Adumim right at the foot of the mountains, there is was, the Mishor Adumin gas station with its Mexican gas stations attendants. Well, I mean, when you see a couple of locals lounging around with cigarettes hanging out of there mouths in the desert sun, what do you think of, really? I wasn't really surprised, I mean, it was that kind of day.
Aaron filled'er up - for 30 shequels...you know Aaron, he?s very budget-conscious.
(I seem to remember an odd look on the attendant's face. I don't know whether because he's not used to having customers, or finally a customer and , it's 30 shequels?)
By Helen Kariv
So here we are at 09:30 in the morning of a beautiful day, stuck 10 meters from an army barrier, across from Issawiya, an hostile village, with soldiers looking at us suspiciously.
Suddenly these two guys on a motorcycle all dressed in black (black clothes, black helmet, black visor) speed pass us on the other side of the road, make a sharp turn and speed back pass our stuck car. They slow down as they pass and I imagine their black eyes staring at us through the black visors? creepy Darth-Vader types or Matrix types.
Yonit calms me down and explains who they are, undercover police (and suddenly I remember how gorgeous they are. Impressive! Yonit looks at me oddly for a minute).
Meanwhile back at the ranch, our heroes are wondering how to get out of this fix.
Suddenly a taxi pulls up and the driver climbs out holding a bottle of water in his hand. How did he know our car had heated-up? I mean, in this heat, with a traffic jam at the barrier? Anyway, he slouches over (okay, now my imagination figures a Texan slouching over with a toothpick dangling from the side of his mouth).and says (or its equivalent in Hebrew) ? You folks having problems with the car? Heated-up did it? Well, lets have a look see. And, believe it or not, he spends the next twenty minutes trying to cool down our grumpy car.
Of course our car won't have any of it. He warned us. Nothing left but to call up a tow truck.
Meanwhile, all of us are now sweating our hearts out.. The h-ll with the budget , I'm taking a taxi, taking the girls, getting into this nice guy's air-conditioned car and going to where I'm supposed to go NOW!. Let my husband handle the car ( okay, it's not nice, but in the Jerusalem heat it's everyone for himself!).
After profusely thanking the taxi driver, whose name I find out is Ephraim, and telling my daughter to call me when she arrives, I finally get to work. It is now 10:30 in the morning.
A while later, Yonit calls me. Ehpraim wouldn't take any money for the taxi ride.
And here I'm thinking "All this so Ephraim can do a good deed!"
