Danny didn\u2019t want to do his army stint. He wanted to go abroad and study art.<\/p>\n
But there he was, stuck on a farm unit, at an out-of-the-way border settlement, where the thought of spending his days picking apples in the orchard and sorting them in the warehouse only got him down. Night duty was just as bad: revving up the jeeps, riding out to the border \u2014 except there was no border, just roving patrols from opposite sides of a makeshift line hoping not to run into each other \u2014 then sitting there for hours\u00a0in the dark\u00a0with nothing to do but slap mosquitoes \u2018til it got light enough to call it quits and head back to the settlement.<\/p>\n
Then\u00a0one Shabbat, there\u2019d been a break in this lack of action when,<\/span> perched on the seat of a John Deere, Yigal and Hanina, the settlement\u2019s lovebirds, came chugging across the quad to pull up at a jerry-rigged huppah.<\/p>\n A rabbi from a nearby village came to do the honors.<\/p>\n Then the bride and groom cut the cake and passed the slices around.<\/p>\n \u201cGood cake,\u201d Danny said.<\/p>\n \u201cYummy cake,\u201d Tami nodded.<\/p>\n Unlike Danny, Tami didn\u2019t seem to mind it at the settlement. Life had a pleasant rhythm: three squares a day, a ten hour work shift, then board games or maybe a talk or a film at night.<\/p>\n Tami had long\u00a0dark\u00a0silky straight hair, fair skin and blue eyes. Danny\u2019s hair was dark and wavy, his skin sallow, and his brown eyes soft and limpid.<\/p>\n One day, a homemade bomb went off under a shed.<\/p>\n A day or two later, Tami found herself in Danny\u2019s room at the men\u2019s barracks. Tami thought it was Benny\u2019s room. Tami and Benny had arranged to switch shifts.<\/p>\n \u201cOops, my bad.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Tami was about to go when she noticed a couple of watercolor paintings push-pinned onto the wall. One was of a boat. The other one was of a tree.<\/p>\n \u201cAre those yours?\u201d<\/p>\n Danny nodded.<\/p>\n \u201cYou did them?\u201d<\/p>\n Danny nodded.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re nice. Where\u2019d they get done?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt the lake.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lake where you live?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNear. And you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere are no lakes where I\u2019m from.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI mean what did you do? Before you got here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou mean like for school or work?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOr for fun.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor fun, mostly tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTennis. Like with racquets?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMm.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHave you got a good serve?\u201d<\/p>\n Tami thought about it. \u201cI guess it\u2019s an okay serve.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou need to break service before you can serve,\u201d Danny said. \u201cThat\u2019s all I know about tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s real tennis,\u201d Tami said. \u201cI just play.\u201d<\/p>\n A few days later another homemade bomb went off under another shed.<\/p>\n Danny got to thinking about how it would soon be winter and how they\u2019d have to work inside all day and then it would be really dull. What made it worse was the card Danny got from his mom. Danny\u2019s mom and her boyfriend were in Florence. The card had a picture of Venus on the half shell.<\/p>\n \u201cCan you believe Benny\u2019s getting out?\u201d one of the guys called out in the barracks.<\/p>\n \u201cBenny\u2019s getting out of where, here?\u201d one of the other guys said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou got it!<\/p>\n \u201cHow\u2019s Benny getting out?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBenny says he\u2019s getting hitched.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHitched? As in\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYah, like with his girlfriend.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo like Benny gets to be in the reserves.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou get to be in the reserves if you\u2019re getting hitched?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cApparently.\u201d<\/p>\n Hmm. So they let you be in the reserves if you\u2019re getting hitched.<\/p>\n That night at chow call, Danny took his tray to the table where Tami was sitting and asked if the seat next to her was taken. When Tami said it wasn\u2019t, Danny asked if he could sit down, and Tami said sure.<\/p>\n \u201cDid you hear when that thing went off the other day?\u201d Danny said.<\/p>\n \u201cI heard something <\/em>go off,\u201d Tami said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wiped out the shed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was\u2026 was it a bomb that went off?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy, what\u2019d you think it was?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUri\u2019s truck?\u201d<\/p>\n Uri\u2019s truck sounded like a bomb going off when it backfired.<\/p>\n \u201cDid you hear about Benny getting out?\u201d Danny said.<\/p>\n \u201cI heard one of the girls saying something about Benny getting out,\u201d Tami said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe dude\u2019s getting hitched.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFifteen love,\u201d Tami smiled.<\/p>\n \u201cFifteen loves? Hey, it\u2019s Benny, not Casanova.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s when you score.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cScore?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn tennis. When you have the advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey call it love when you have the advantage?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFifteen love, thirty love, forty love, ad in.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy do they call it love?\u201d Danny got up to go.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s how you keep score,\u201d Tami called after him.<\/p>\n Tami watched Danny tote his tray to the bussing station where he sorted the plate, the water glass and the silverware. Danny had nice eyes. They weren\u2019t mean. Why do<\/em> they call it love when you have the advantage? Shouldn\u2019t it be the opposite?<\/p>\n Danny and Tami crossed paths a couple, three more times. They said hi each time except for the last time when Tami was having cramps.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t mean to not say hi the other day,\u201d Tami said the next time they were sitting at the same table in the dining hall. \u201cI was starting to have my per\u2026 You were heading that way and I was heading that way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo problem,\u201d Danny said.<\/p>\n Tami got up to go.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere\u2019d\u2026,\u201d Danny said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere\u2019d\u2026?\u201d Tami paused.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere\u2019d you get the blue eyes? Most of us haven\u2019t got blue eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy mother had them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd she, what, gave them to you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI guess.\u201d<\/p>\n Danny had this vision of Tami\u2019s mother plucking her eyeballs out and handing them to Tami. Dumb but that\u2019s sort of what parents do, don\u2019t they? Dole out parts of themselves to their kids?<\/p>\n The troops had a rare day off. Major Damon took them to see the statue of Joseph Trumpeldor, the hero who gave his life,<\/span> a generation earlier,<\/span> in defense of a nearby settlement.<\/p>\n \u201cDulce et decorum est,\u201d Major Damon translated the inscription. Then he made some comments about heroes and how Joseph Trumpeldor got to be one.<\/p>\n \u201cYour thing\u2019s undone,\u201d Tami glanced at one of Danny\u2019s boots as she passed by on her way back to the truck.<\/p>\n Danny looked down. One of his bootlaces was undone. He bent down to do it up.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019d that girl just say?\u201d one of the guys said on their way back to the truck.<\/p>\n \u201cAbout my thing being undone?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a funny thing to say.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy? It was.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI mean that isn\u2019t something you\u2019d just sort of say.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt isn\u2019t?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe if you sort of knew each other.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t like saying my fly was undone.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, but it\u2019s on a scale.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo what\u2019d you think of the statue?\u201d Danny said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou mean the guy or the statue?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u2019Dulce et decorum est.\u2019 That\u2019s Latin.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow come it\u2019s a statue of a bird and not of the guy?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a bird. It\u2019s half eagle, half lion.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMajor Damon said the guy got shot chasing the Arabs off.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA griffin!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA what?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHalf eagle, half lion. That\u2019s what a griffin is.\u201d<\/p>\n The next day, it was Danny who was switching shifts with Benny. Tami, who was going to meet up with Benny, met up with Danny instead.<\/p>\n \u201cSo what\u2019d you think of the trip?\u201d Tami said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was okay,\u201d Danny said.<\/p>\n \u201cMajor Damon said the guy gave his life for the cause.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo you know what a griffin is?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo I know what a what is?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA griffin.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUh uh.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou always wear the same thing,\u201d Danny looked Tami up and down. \u201cGray shirt, gray skirt, gray socks, gray runn\u2026. Are those Keds?\u201d Danny gazed at Tami\u2019s running shoes. \u201cThose\u2019re Keds. I had Keds.\u201d<\/p>\n Tami glanced at the label on the heel of one of her running shoes. It said, \u201cKeds.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd they always look so ironed,\u201d Danny said.<\/p>\n \u201cThese?\u201d Tami looked at her running shoes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe things you wear,\u201d Danny said. \u201cYou don\u2019t seem to not like it here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s okay,\u201d Tami said. \u201cYou want out though.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou can tell, huh.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMm.\u201d<\/p>\n The uniforms weren\u2019t ironed. They just got washed with a lot of starch. And \u2013 regulation dress \u2013 the women had to wear bras whether they needed them or not.<\/p>\n That night, Danny ripped the watercolors off the wall, crumpled them up and tossed them in the basket. Stupid things. A boat and a tree. She\u2019s pretty. Her face. Her hair.<\/p>\n That night, lying on her cot, Tami reached under her t-shirt and fondled her breasts. She stopped when her nipples got stiff.<\/p>\n Word made the rounds that Colonel Baran was coming to the settlement. If a colonel was coming to the settlement, something must be up.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a letter came from Danny\u2019s mom. \u201cDanny, you\u2019d love it here. The place reeks of grandeur. You walk out the door of the penzione<\/em> and there\u2019s Michelangelo. You stroll across the Ponte Vecchio and Brunelleschi\u2019s staring you in the face. And there\u2019s Donatello. And there\u2019s Botticelli. And over there is the magnificent Andrea del Sarto. After lunch, it\u2019s the treasures of the Medicis. And Dante: Paolo and Francesca, the lovers who gave their lives for love. It\u2019s all here!\u201d<\/p>\n And in the warehouse, another flimsy crate filled with wormy apples for domestic consumption, being too wormy to get shipped to market.<\/p>\n \u201cSo long, suckers,\u201d Benny tossed his duffel bag onto the transport that was taking him to the bus station. \u201cHave fun watching the tires on the Land Rovers deflate.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cScrew you, Benny. Go keep your date with the rabbi.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo rabbi involved. An officer\u2019s gonna do it.\u201d<\/p>\n An officer can do a wedding? And it\u2019s kosher?<\/p>\n For military purposes. If it\u2019s higher than a major. Otherwise, yeah, a rabbi\u2019s gotta be involved.<\/p>\n \u201cGo for a walk?\u201d Danny said to Tami the next time they bumped into each other.<\/p>\n They met up after work and strolled along the path behind the warehouse.<\/p>\n \u201cEver notice how green everything is?\u201d Danny said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou said you\u2019re from near a lake,\u201d Tami said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd you\u2019re from where, a development?\u201d<\/p>\n Tami nodded. \u201cMaybe that\u2019s how come they ended up here. \u2018Cause it\u2019s so green.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s \u2018cause they got a grant from the government,\u201d Danny said.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean back in the Bible.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou mean like Abraham, Isaac and What\u2019s-His-Face?\u201d<\/p>\n Tami stole a glimpse at Danny\u2019s hand. Better not, he might freak.<\/p>\n \u201cSo what\u2019ll you do if you get out?\u201d Tami said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re not gonna let me out,\u201d Danny grumped.<\/p>\n \u201cBut if they did. Where would you go?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFlorence.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFlorence, Italy?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJust to be there. Just to take it in.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen I hope you get to go.\u201d<\/p>\n Later that week, another bomb went off. This time it wasn\u2019t homemade.<\/p>\n When Colonel Baran arrived, he told the troops to gear up for some potentially nasty stuff. For the guys, it meant more patrols. For the women, it meant beefing up the shelters.<\/p>\n Carpe diem! That, too, was a Latin phrase. What did Major Damon say about heroes? A hero sees an opportunity and goes for it. Not everyone can be a hero like Joseph Trumpeldor, of course, but when your only chance is staring you in the face and you don\u2019t go for it, you\u2019ve only got yourself to blame.<\/p>\n I know it\u2019s crazy, but she seemed to mean it when she said she hoped I might get out. And it\u2019s just for military purposes. For everything else, like Benny said, a rabbi\u2019s gotta be involved.<\/p>\n Danny asked Tami to go for another walk.<\/p>\n Tami took a jacket \u2013 it was cooler out in the evenings \u2013 but she left her bra off. At least she didn\u2019t put it back on after she\u2019d had her shower.<\/p>\n \u201cDown beside where the waters flow, down by the banks of the O-hi-O\u2026,\u2019\u201d Danny burst into song as they ambled along the path.<\/p>\n Tami chuckled at Danny\u2019s warbling.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about this guy and this girl who go for a walk down by the banks of the O-hi-O where the guy like whips out a \u2018weepin\u2019 knife\u2019 and like does her in. It\u2019s a river in the States, the O-hi-O. I learned it off a Joan Baez album.\u201d Then Danny blurted, \u201cThere\u2019s so much to see! So much to do! So many places to go! You seem content to just\u2026 hang.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Tami said, feeling defensive. \u201cYou have bigger dreams than I do. You have a mom who goes on trips and sends you cards and letters.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s on one now,\u201d Danny said. \u201cWith Ron.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRon\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHer boyfriend.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo your mom and her boyfriend kiss and cuddle when they go on their trips?\u201d<\/p>\n Tami gasped. Where did that come from?<\/p>\n \u201cWell, yah, if he\u2019s her boyfriend,\u201d Danny gave Tami a funny look.<\/p>\n \u201cSo where are they now?\u201d Tami said, a bit flushed in the face.<\/p>\n \u201cFlorence.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo that\u2019s how come you want to go to Florence.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI want to go\u2026 everywhere. I want to walk out on the Ponte Vecchio where boats and trees are grand and glorious, not where they\u2019re\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot where they\u2019re what?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPlain and stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n Anyhow, Danny had a plan. It might sound crazy but it wasn\u2019t really crazy or it wasn\u2019t totally crazy in light of what it might accomplish. And Tami did say she wanted him to be able to go where he wanted to go and do what he wanted to do. Colonel Baran was going to be at the settlement for twenty-four hours. Here was Danny\u2019s window of opportunity if Tami might be willing to help him open it. It worked for Benny. It could work for him. And he\u2019d be free. And she\u2019d be somebody he\u2019d always be grateful to.<\/p>\n \u201cYou want me to\u2026 you want us to\u2026 that\u2019s crazy. Danny, that\u2019s nuts.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t be official. It would just be for military purposes. And nobody needs to know. Colonel Baran says a few words, a form gets filed and that\u2019s it. It\u2019s my ticket outta here. It\u2019s my only hope.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat if he knows it\u2019s not for real?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow\u2019s he gonna know?\u201d<\/p>\n I’m an attorney in Amherst MA, where I offer home and alternative school seminars in “Community Economics for Sustainable Living” online at http:\/\/www.communomics.com. This story comes from a time when I was living and working on a border kibbutz in Israel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Danny didn\u2019t want to do his army stint. He wanted to go abroad and study art.<\/p>\n But there he was, stuck on a farm unit, at an out-of-the-way border settlement, where the thought of spending his days picking apples in the orchard and sorting them in the warehouse only got him down. Night duty was just as bad: revving up the jeeps, riding out to the border \u2014 except there was no border, just roving patrols from opposite sides of a makeshift line hoping not to run into each other \u2014 then sitting there for hours in the dark with nothing to do but slap mosquitoes \u2018til it got light enough to call it quits and head back to the settlement.<\/p>\n
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