Something was opaque in the atmosphere of that time, something impenetrable, hard, nervous, unpleasant, seeking revenge, as it surrounded everything, maybe it was the year that September ceased to be the month of autumn from the drimia flowers songs and 'homeland' lesson of yesteryear, and the color of the nights was as gray as the color of the days, without a star, as Shimi Tavori sang then. So I pretty quickly forgot Chapa and the last day of August, which did not belong to all of that, when we finally met him, near the pile of stones that looked like an ancient mound, where today it is a road and a huge mall.
Zvi and The Stolen Stoli were the first to see him, while the historian still looked in his eyes for other directions in this wild environment to which they had reached in almost an hour's walk, and where, as Zvi said, he was waiting for them. At first he saw his face, in front of his friend's backs whose faces were also turned towards the face of the man who spoke to them. What he will not forget, is the garment, the attire that was unlike any attire the historian knew, that in the same they will be given in exchange for a boat motorcycle, and the backpack on his back, which resembled large butterfly wings. He looked like a black butterfly man, and the historian immediately realized that it was him, when the man smiled, this time to him, through a black beard and round eyes that looked at him from another universe and said quietly barely heard but sounded well "I am Chapa. I am your person". The man was very brown, and the historian who every summer in the pool tried to tan himself and all he got was red skin until they thought he is wearing a red shirt, asked himself where in space he got so tanned, and his hair was black and long as a man who for many years did not come in contact with scisssors (Although he had with him, as the historian will learn later). "What is the date today?" The man asked them. "August 31" they replied. He smiled again and said something they did not understand then "I succeeded. Exactly the day of Tamket's return."
Then they started walking, in the historian's pocket were still the 50 Israeli pounds (green banknote with the picture of the first president) that he "dragged" from his parents because Zvi said that surely the manhave no money, not Earthly money anyway. He will have to be given, at least on the first day, food, suitable Earthly clothes and a place to live. The last thing is taken care of by the Stolen Stoli. Zvi himself 'removed' 200 pounds (two blue banknotes with the picture of 'the state prophet') from his parents and the historian still wondered if they became thieves, an inconvenience that did not leave him all the way to the meeting place and still remained a bit when they started walking again, and although they knew the way and they led, it seemed to him that the man was leading them . As it actually was, all last year, when they had not yet met him at all.
The Stolen Stoli said it might not be good for people to see him with this outfit, we should get him plain clothes, it seemed a bit strange to us that the Stolen Stoli said that, and we even objected a bit to this idea, to hide from people, after all aint it what we were supposed right now to stop? But the man agreed, so we walked all the way to the road side where the city is still open and there are no houses close to the road. We went through one tunnel and were in the big park, where the man stayed to wait for us and we went to the market, where we bought him clothes: black pants and two shirts with buttons and plaid, and also bought big white bread cut with pieces of yellow cheese, we were not sure if he brought food from there and not we knew when he last ate, certainly not what food. He thanked us very much when we returned and we apologized again for the devices we tried to build for him, failed. He said he knew it, it's not our fault and added "soon the blue will send help, the matter will be settled". His pronunciation sounded a bit strange to us, nor did we understand who or what this 'blue' is, but there were many other things we did not understand.
When we got out of the park the stolen Stoli said we had better split up, he will continue with the man on foot and take him to the room he had prepared for him, and we will get on a bus to the neighborhood, and we will meet later. Zvi and I objected "We have already passed the age of hiding and the games of the 'secret seven'" Zvi said. "We're the punch group!" I added. And while we were arguing, the man got into a conversation with someone on a boat motorbike, quite old, who stopped in front of the traffic light near the sidewalk we were on, and even before the traffic light changed, we suddenly saw Chapa on the motorcycle and the man who was there before turning away with Chapa's folded space suit. "I have one place, who wants to travel with me and show me the way"? Chapa asked and thus solved our problem, the stolen Stoli went with him on the motorbike and Zvi and I walked back to the old land.
The next day I went to school, to a new class, it was the first time since first grade that Zvi did not study with me because he moved to another school, and in the following days I only met him once, on Rosh Hashanah, when he told me that Chapa had left the room the stolen Stoli had brought him to, and is now working with his motorcycle in a newspaper distribution. Zvi saw him once, when he brought Haaretz to his parents. The punch-parade group, which had not met for months, only continued sending grades for the punch-hit-parade to Stoli continued to wait for a meeting with Chapa, and in the meantime I sank into the school year, tenth grade, new grade, difficult grade, and it already seemed to me that it was all a dream at all.
בלוג הצועד The VValker's blog 