Chapter Three
Tali
"You're absolutely insane."
Tali rolled her eyes at her friend. She had been hoping that her best friend of all people would go along with this plan. "It's not insane, Sarah, it's brilliant. Risky maybe, but brilliant."
Sarah laughed harshly. "Do you know what your mother will do if she finds out? You will be grounded until you graduate high school, and maybe until you go to university."
"But if it works?"
Sarah sighed. "If it works, then you will have a relationship with your father, which is what you've always wanted, and your father and mother might be on speaking terms again. But, Tali, it's not going to work." She sat down on the edge of her bed and looked over to her friend sitting on the floor.
"Why's that?" Tali asked, crossing her arms and waiting for the other girl to respond.
"Where do I begin?" Sarah groaned running a hand through her long, straight dark chocolate hair. "You need a passport. Do you even have one?"
"Yes. I've had one since ima took me to Paris a couple years ago, remember?"
"Oh, yea, I forgot about that. Okay then, you still need money."
"Which I have! I have almost 4000 American dollars. I've been saving every bit since as long as I can remember. You know that purple lockbox on my bookshelf? It's all in there. I can load most of it onto a prepaid card if I need to."
"You have 4000 dollars just sitting in your room? Why?"
Tali shrugged She thought it was a perfectly normal thing to do. "Ima always uses cash. She said it's safer that way, so I never bothered to ask her to open a bank account for me."
Sarah held up her hands in defeat. "Fair enough. Well, there's the issue with flying internationally by yourself."
"Taken care of," Tali proudly said, pulling a notebook out of her bag and flipping it open to a page in the middle where she wrote down different airlines and their policies on minors traveling alone. "I made a list of all the airlines that allow minors to fly by themselves. Most of them have a program for unaccompanied minors, but because I'm fifteen, I don't even need to use that program. I can just fly on my own." She looked down at her notes to consult them. "Though, depending on the airline, I might need an adult to see me off…"
"Okay, and who's that going to be? Because you can't ask my parents. They'll tell your mother for sure."
"I was thinking about my great-aunt Nettie?"
Sarah raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Isn't she like 80 years old though?"
"Yea, but she still moves around like she's 40. And she can keep secrets. She always said I should meet my father. She'll help me if I need it."
Sarah rolled her eyes and Tali knew she was going to have a difficult time convincing her that this was a good idea. "Suppose all this works, what are you going to do when you get there? How are you going to find him? You don't know where he lives or works. And if you do find out? What are you supposed to do? Show up on his doorstep and go 'Shalom, I'm Tali, I'm your daughter that your former lover never told you about.'"
"I haven't thought of that yet," Tali admitted. "But I'll think of something."
"This is a crazy idea," Sarah reiterated. "Please don't do this."
"I have to, Sarah," Tali sighed, closing her notebook and shoving it back into her bag. "Ima won't talk to me about him. About why we aren't all together. About why she didn't tell him about me. All I ever got out of her was a few stories about how they used to be colleagues and he went to hell and back for her. She loved him, and he loved her. Other than a couple stories, I don't know him, and I just want to know my abba."
Sarah gave her a sympathetic look. "I know you do. I understand, I do, but why do you have to take all these unnecessary risks? You'll be of age in a couple years and then you can do whatever you want without going behind your ima's back."
"You don't get it," Tali sighed. "You grew up with your abba. You have a relationship with him. You know he him, and you know he loves you. I don't have that. At all. I have a couple pictures and stories of him and that's all." She shook her head. "I get that you think this a stupid idea, and I don't expect you to help me, but I just want you to understand why I'm doing this."
"Oh Tali, of course I'll help you," Sarah said after a minute. "You're my best friend, and you're like a sister to me. I might not agree with you, but I'll help you."
Tali grinned, jumped up from her spot on the floor and hugged Sarah tightly. "Thank you."
"Just tell me what you need from me."
They pulled apart and Tali sat next to her on the bed. "I need you to lie for me."
"Tali-"
"You said you'd help me," Tali pointedly said. "I just need you to say I'm spending the night if my mother comes asking where I am. If she wants to talk to me, just tell her I'm in the bathroom and I'll call her back or something."
"Okay...I can do that. And if my parents get involved?"
"I don't know, think of something. You're crafty," Tali grinned. "I already have my eye on a couple airlines with a reasonable fare. Once I figure out where my father works, at the very least, I'll book the flight. I'm going into town to put some of my money onto a prepaid card to pay for the tickets. And I'll just print boarding pass and stuff on your printer, just in case my mom gets suspicious and starting looking around."
"Are you going to get your Aunt Nettie involved?" Sarah asked.
Tali shrugged. "I don't know yet."
"You should. In case...in case something happens, you know? That way there's at least one adult who knows what's going." Tali's green eyes met Sarah's dark ones. She nodded in agreement.
"We're going to see Aunt Nettie in a couple days. I'll try to talk to her then. I'll have to find a way to get ima out of the way so I can talk to her though."
"Do you think she knows where your father works?" Sarah asked. "Because that would help you a lot."
"I'll ask. She should know. Hopefully he hasn't moved jobs." Tali frowned. There was a lot to this plan she hadn't thought about yet. What if she got to America and couldn't find him? What if this was all for nothing? She didn't want to return to Israel with her tail between her legs. If all goes the way she hoped for, she wouldn't be returning to Israel at all.