You know…it's tough being in school (even though I'm not actually in classes right now…it's this really cool thing called co-op), and extracurricular stuff, and reading your-all's stories, and trying to write my own… on top of other mischegas (sorry to anyone who doesn't understand that… it's Yiddish) going on in my life… it's a lot to think about! Too much complaining, but hey, it's my mechanism. The more I complain, the more likely I am to pull off well what I need to get done. But anyway…
I'm posting this because it's ready, not because I'm getting any kind of great response, so please review! I really do want to know what you think…
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Dina Cohen looked up from her magazine as four people walked into the clothing store... it had been a pretty quiet day. She recognized the woman as her friend Chava, and two of the men as her friend's friends. She couldn't quite remember their names, though... and who was that other man that was with them? She walked over to give Chava a hug. "Chava! Ma nishma?"
"Ha-kol beseder. You remember Benny and Adam..." Dina responded with a nod, figuring out which was which. As she turned her head towards the third, oddly dressed man, Chava suddenly realized that she had forgotten to introduce their new friend. Deftly switching to English, she answered the other woman's unspoken question. "And this is Sano. The name is short for something really tough to pronounce. He's from Japan." As an afterthought, she turned to said Japanese. "Sano, this is my good friend Dina Cohen."
'Ah, so this is Dina...' "I'm Sanosuke. Pleased to meet you."
'Play it cool, play it cool! Oh, but he's so hot... even his voice, it's so melodic!' "The pleasure is mine. What can I do for you?"
After about an hour or so, everyone had a few things to take back with them. Sano had continually put up a fuss about his jacket and headband, but eventually agreed to a compromise with the women, while the men watched in amusement. They turned to each other with a look of understanding – despite Sano's supposed "worldly" knowledge, he still had a lot to learn.
~
"Oh, man… look at the time!" Chava was panicking by this point. "Places to go, people to see… we gotta get a move on! See you later, Dina!"
Dina wasn't about to let the chance for a potential hook-up escape from her. "Sano, call me! Chava has my number…"
All Sano could give in response to that was blushing and some mumbling as he was dragged out the door of the store by the other men.
"I'm gonna be so grounded when we get home," Chava whined as they got to the bus stop. "You guys will stick up for me, right? Especially you... you're my rock-hard alibi. Speaking of rock-hard, you really put the moves on my friend back there..."
The Japanese teen was completely speechless. She had caught him totally off guard. The most response he could muster was the same one he had given Dina when she asked... no, told him to call her. 'That woman wants me to call her... that was very forward of her... Kitsune or jou-chan would never do something like that... I don't even know where she lives! Wait, Hava has her number. Why is it just a number? Shouldn't there be a street name or something?'
[Sano would naturally have trouble, even in his thoughts, with pronouncing that one consonant (which also happens to be the beginning of Chava's name…) that doesn't appear in most other languages.]
"Close your mouth, you'll catch a fly!" Benny was quick to point out to everyone that Sano had been wandering around inside his head again. "Come on... how're you gonna learn any Hebrew if you're not listening?" Sano's eyes snapped into focus with a small bow and a "Hai, sensei," that sent the three Israeli teens into giggles.
~
After facing the wrath of the parents, the foursome sat down to a dinner cooked by Chava's mom. Sano had to admit, Israeli food was pretty good. It was no Akabeko, but you take what you can get, and what he could get was still better than jou-chan's cooking (not that that's hard to accomplish! [Back in Japan, Kaoru sneezed a few times. J]).
"What do you want to do tonight?" It was Adam's turn to pose the question. He punched Sano lightly in the shoulder. "We got off easy 'cause of this guy, so we should make the most of it!"
~
"Here." Chava handed Sano a rectangular object that had holes at each end, numbers in the middle, and a short pole at one end. Judging by the quizzical look, he'd had an even more deprived childhood than she realized. With a grin, she showed him how to turn it on. "Now, here's Dina's number. Just push each one as I read it off… that's it, now put that end up to your ear. You'll hear a little ringing, and then someone will say hello. You talk into the other end."
Sano was hesitant as ever, as he held the cordless phone in his hand. 'This is calling?' He did as he was told, though, and jumped nearly a foot in the air when he heard Dina's voice through the earpiece.
"Look, you dropped it! Well, maybe it was too much to start with… Allo, Dina? … Ken, eizeh chamud! We were trying to figure out what to do tonight and thought you might have some good ideas… Sure! Come on over, the more the merrier! Okay, see you in a few!"
Adam decided it was important to fill Sano in on the way the two women were. "Chava saw the way you and Dina interacted today. She's trying to set you up. If there's already a woman you've given your heart to, you'd better make that very clear TONIGHT."
~
"After all that, we're just sitting around watching television. I was really hoping to get out tonight." Benny was lying on the floor, so he rolled over to look at everyone.
Adam was perfectly content to be watching the latest film to be brought over from the United States. "We were just out and about this afternoon…"
"Yeah, but the nightlife's different…"
"I have an idea!" Dina almost whacked her friend in the face. "This'll be great, especially since Sano's new to the area. We should travel the country a little bit!"
"Thank you for thinking of me, Cohen-san, but I don't even know how long I'm going to stay in this country…" As much as Sano loved seeing new places, he wasn't sure this was the group he wanted to accomplish this with. As far as Dina was concerned, though, he wouldn't be so lucky.
"Nonsense! And by the way, call me Dina. Everyone pretty much only goes by their first names here… Now, where should we start?"
That simple question sent the four Israelis babbling amongst themselves. Sano didn't know anything, so he just sat back and listened to them argue. Adam wanted to go to Machtesh Ramon, Ein Gedi, and Masada. Chava wanted to go to Jerusalem, Tsfat, and Caesarea. Benny wanted to go to Eilat, the Dead Sea, and Netanya. Dina wanted to go to Tel Aviv, Tiberias, and Metulla.
Even though Adam really wanted to go to the three places he suggested, he was tired of all the arguing. "Look, guys, there's good and bad things about each place. We can go to many of the places, too… Israel's a small country, you can go all the way from Metulla to Eilat in a car in about a day. Let's sleep on it, and we'll start the real planning in the morning."
~*~
End Chapter 3
A/N: Well, guys, that's it. Where do you think they should go? I figure I'll take a poll based on who says what in the reviews, and then go from there… I'm sorry you probably don't know much about the different places. Lets just say that Adam's are all hikes, Chava's are more spiritual/religious, Benny's are beaches, and Dina's are cultural. All of them are interesting places. Just to warn you, good luck getting Sano up early enough to get to Masada!
Ha-kol beseder – everything's good, beseder literally means 'in order'
Ken – yes
Eizeh chamud – how cute, in this case, Chava's saying that Sano is 'so cute'