Ghost or boiler leak? Unexplained Episodes from Everyday Life. Season 1 Episode 1.

We bring to your attention a rather unusual story about a number of strange mysterious incidents that happened to us in a rented apartment.
We got the feeling that our stay there seemed to be disliked by some invisible being.

And we still have not been able to fully understand whether what happened there was caused by the machinations of ghosts.
or just a boiler leak or something else in general.

Thank you for your attention!

“Noam, Noam, what a magnificent view from this window!
I so love the gentle play of colors of the mountains on the other side of the Gulf of Aqaba and its endless blue! I see this panorama every day and as if I drink its intoxicating beauty, unable to get enough of it.” – I enthusiastically informed my son.

“I agree, it’s really beautiful! True, I’m more pleased that I will have a separate rather spacious room in this apartment, which, by the way, we quickly found and rented, and also that it is in the very center of the city of Eilat.” – he added.

“And this lovely white table near the window is so cozy.
Just think how pleasant it is to enjoy the mesmerizing view and food at the same time sitting behind it. Today is just a full moon and we will soon see how a huge bright circle of the moon appears from behind the mountains. It’s just an enchanting sight!” – I continued.

“In the meantime, I’m starting to unpack our things.
Noam, can you hear someone knocking softly? Please open the door.” – I asked my son.

“Okay, Haya.
Shalom! Very nice to meet you. Oh, is that all for us?” – I heard my son’s voice and a minute later he put in front of me a large package with a variety of dairy products – milk, chocolate milk, ice cream flavored milk, in general, everything that was the most delicious in the assortment of the dairy plant in Yotvata (kibbutz 20 miles from Eilat).

“Yuval brought all this, he works at a dairy plant.” – Noam said.

“And who is Yuval?” – I asked.

“This is our new and only neighbor on the landing, he is very pleasant and friendly.” – remarked the son.

A month has passed and along with the coming autumn, the time has come for big Jewish holidays, literally following one after another – Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year), Judgment Day, Sukkot.

And then, to our great regret, we found that the neighbors who lived on the floor below were just fans of alcoholic beverages, and with the onset of holidays, their drinking became just an incessant round-the-clock marathon.

Also, 24/7, they played the same favorite song at full volume, the words of the chorus from which firmly etched into our memory: “Let me move drunk on the dance floor …”, and its specific loud melody, accompanied by drunken screams, made me jump up and down in bed at night, accompanied by the endless loud slamming of doors.

“Noam, I’m so tired of all this constant noise and drunken yelling, we can neither sleep properly nor do anything fully. What do you propose to do? Looking for a new apartment or trying to ignore what’s going on here?” I asked my son.

“Let’s try to ignore this whole madhouse, Haya,” he suggested.

“I don’t know if this would be the position of an ostrich burying its head in the sand, although … come on.” – I agreed.

But it is possible that someone else was not inclined to agree with this …

“Finally, we’ve come! I drank so much water that I couldn’t wait to get here…” – I said, coming home from a walk and hurriedly heading to the bathroom.

However, it turned out to be not so easy to realize what I wanted – as I was convinced by uselessly pulling the door handle, I could not open it.

“Noam, I can’t get into the toilet, the door is locked, as if with a key. But there wasn’t even a key or even a lock, in my opinion.
Call the landlord as soon as possible, let him tell you what to do, I no longer have any patience to wait.

“I’m already calling. But he doesn’t pick up the phone.” – said the son.

“Look, it opened by itself. Finally!” – I noticed when fifteen minutes had already passed and hurriedly rushed through the opened door.

A couple of days later, a much stranger event happened.

My son and I were sitting and talking in his room and suddenly I noticed how the screen of my smartphone lit up.

“I’ll go see who sent us a message…
Noam, no one sent anything, there is no SIM card in the phone at all. How can this be? You didn’t take it out, did you? How could she disappear? Moreover, we even lost a special needle to open the compartment with SIM cards. “- I asked with surprise.

“No, Haya, I didn’t take your phone, and even more so I didn’t pull out a SIM card from it, and I don’t understand at all how this could happen.” – the son answered in confusion.

There was a feeling that our presence in this apartment as if some invisible being did not like it.

But then we didn’t really bother with the reasons for what happened, which we still couldn’t understand and just ordered a new SIM card.

It’s been a few more days…

That night, the alcoholic bacchanalia of the neighbors was especially loud, and new incomprehensible events began to occur in our country.

“Noam, did you turn on the light?” – I asked my son with displeasure, waking up at night from the bright, eye-catching light of the bulbs above me.

“No, but the light in my room also turned on.” – answered the son.

“It’s not clear what this nonsense is again! I’ll go turn it off! Okay, let’s sleep better, we’ll figure it out tomorrow.” – I said going to the switch.

I turned off the light, but literally a few minutes after I settled comfortably in bed, it flared up again.

“What to do ?
Idea! I will lower all the levers on the electrical panel. Well, great, you can sleep.” – I commented on my actions.

But apparently the light bulbs on the ceiling had their own plan of action, which did not coincide with ours, because now they began to periodically spontaneously turn on and off in their own rhythm.

“Now I don’t understand how to turn them off, I think I just need to try to fall asleep again.” I decided.

I closed my eyes again, but was soon roused from a state of light drowsiness by the sound of a door slamming shut between my son’s room and mine.

“I don’t understand how it could slam shut, because it contradicts all the laws of physics.” I thought, returning the door to its original position and getting back to bed.

“However, the door is no less stubborn than the light bulbs on the ceiling.” – I added to myself as it slammed again and continued, as if in spite of my attempts to leave it open, noisily slamming again and again.

“Well, let it be closed.” – I decided.

But the stubborn door began to close with a roar and open now by itself.

“Noam, how can this be?” – I asked my son.

“I don’t know, Haya, I’m trying to sleep.” – he said.

As if in response to these words, a high metal chair standing near the same door fell to the floor with a terrible crash.

“I can’t stand this anymore,” I commented, and pulling out a poor chair onto the landing, I closed the front door, and he, jumping up, rolled down the stairs with a roar …

Waking up after a hard night and opening the door, I saw him lying at the bottom of our flight of stairs.

“Poor, I understand well how much you had to endure” – I was filled with sympathy for the chair and gently stroked and kissed it.
“I understand how much you worried at night, my friend!
But please don’t make any more noise, okay?”
And I felt that he agreed with my arguments.
Apparently, a kind word and a chair is pleasant.

I woke up the next night to a bright flash and noise.
“Noam, what was that?” I asked my son.

“I don’t know, let’s sleep better, we’ll see in the morning.” – he replied.

When we woke up, we saw that the laptop charger connected to the network was torn into several pieces scattered throughout the room.

I don’t know why, we stubbornly continued to hope that the situation would somehow resolve itself, but in fact only new and new problems appeared.

“Noam, as soon as I go into the shower and turn on the water, the pipes and even the walls of the shower begin to buzz, knock and shake!
It frightens me.
What if some pipe breaks and there will be a flood?

Isn’t it a joke, it’s 114 degrees outside, and I’m all sweaty and I’m afraid to take a shower in the apartment where we live?
What do you think, Noam, if you quickly pour water on it, nothing will happen?” – I asked my son.

“I don’t know, Haya. I don’t think so.” – he answered optimistically.

“Noam, showering in these conditions is stressful for me.” – I remarked sadly.

A few more days passed and one of the nights, to the accompaniment of slamming doors, drunken screams of neighbors from below and their favorite song, a new, sad performance for us began.

“Oh, something is pouring down on me from somewhere above. Noam, are you sleeping?” I asked, waking up to find that the pillow and sheet were already wet.

“No, something is dripping on me too…” – answered the son, who was no longer sleeping on the couch in the next room.

“Noam, where is the water coming from? And why in both rooms?”

Oh, and water splashed on me from the bathroom window from the side of the street! Where does it come from?

Noam, it scares me that the water is warm! After all, there is a roof above us and on which the boiler is installed, is it really leaking?” – I commented on what was happening.

“Water flows from above throughout the apartment and I think we need to put all things in a closet so that they don’t get wet.
The time is almost 4 in the morning, our friends will soon wake up and we will be able to consult with them what to do, but for now let’s go outside, Noam.” I suggested.

We walked for two or two and a half hours, and then, albeit with apprehension, we nevertheless decided to return to the apartment.

To our surprise, it looked quite peaceful.
The puddles dried up, only small wet spots remained on the ceiling, and almost nothing reminded of the nighttime water attraction.

We contacted the landlord of the apartment about the boiler leak, but he did not find it.
And our neighbor Yuval said that the boiler is located just above our apartment and it is likely that there may be a leak. It scared me, but the next couple of days went relatively smoothly…

“Noam, look at what a beautiful sunset!” I said with admiration, standing at the open window.
Oh, you heard just now that from somewhere above, as if from a roof, water splashed.

Noam, she got caught by tourists who were having a picnic in the yard below.
Noam, how unpleasant it is, they thought that we poured water on them and shouted something completely unflattering to us. I wanted to explain to them that this is not so, but they went inside.”

“Haya, don’t worry, they still would hardly have believed.” – said the son.

“Yes, Noam, I’m afraid it’s starting again. Today is earlier than usual, because it’s still evening.
Look at my bed, water is flowing from above, it is already wet, but the main thing that scares me is that the water is warm! If it flows from the boiler on the roof, then there is a huge mass of hot water in it, and if it rushes here … I don’t even want to imagine it!
I’m afraid, let’s better call Yuval, he’s gone to work.” – I couldn’t stand it.

“Hi guys! Do you have a flood again? Okay, don’t worry, I’ll drive up soon, bring you the keys to my apartment, you can spend the night there, I’ll still be at work, you will find clean linen and towels in the closet, you can take everything if you want in the refrigerator… The boiler is really located above your apartment, but not above mine, so you can sleep in it calmly! “- he suggested.

“Thank you so much!” we said.

I began to collect things and every time I approached the door or closet, another portion of warm liquid landed on top of me, as if someone invisible was amused waiting for me with a glass of water.

“Noam, look what I came up with,” I said and heard the laughter of Yuval, who drove up to give us the key to his apartment.

“Under an umbrella in the apartment? Well, you guys came up with it! I’ve never seen anything like this …” – he burst out laughing.

We moved some of our belongings to a neighbor’s apartment and spent the night safely there.

“Noam, how great that Yuval came and gave us the opportunity to sleep in his apartment!
But… I’m not ready to stay in those apartments anymore.
Enough! Why do we pay for housing where it is impossible to live? – I said, waking up in the morning to my son.

“Moreover, I was invited to work at the Starfish diving club, you can even move there right now. What do you think, Noam?

“Hurrah!” the son responded.

So we did, but the question “Was it a ghost or just a boiler leak and why did these strange leaks occur exclusively at night and at intervals of several days?” remained open.
What do you think?

The continuation of our adventures follows, and in the next episode, absolutely amazing unexplained events await us again…

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What is this place?

“The end of January, and it’s so warm that you can walk in a T-shirt, somewhere around 77 degrees. It’s an amazing winter, isn’t it, Haya?” – remarked the son.

“Yes, dear, but how I love this piercing blueness of a cloudless sky!

Well, we are already approaching the house, where I have already prepared a delicious dinner.” – I added.

My son and I were walking along one of the small cobbled lanes of our cozy district of private houses when we were called by a grey-haired man of about 50 in a dark T-shirt with the logo of an electric company walking towards us.

“Shalom, guys! I often see you here and there and there.” – he said, stopping and adding appropriate hand gestures to his story.

In general, I often see you in different parts of the city, and especially often here. You pass here several times a day, but I have never seen you turn where at least 90 percent of the people are going.

And you are the only one who passes by THIS place without entering or even looking there.

Are you really not interested in this at all?

I thought, thought, and could not understand in any way for what purpose you then go exactly HERE?

Then, suddenly, it dawned on me, I finally understood!

You seem to be into sports. Yes?”

“Yeah, like that, probably.” – the son remarked bewilderedly.

“Well done, guys! Great!

Keep it up!”

He raised his finger up and repeated several times that he really likes it when people keep fit.

The man we met finally understood the meaning of our actions, and we realized that we needed your hint.

What is this place he was talking about?

About fear. A little story.

“We were walking along a wide deserted street alone, past an empty building with broken windows, there was no one nearby, and then I heard footsteps from behind …

The steps were slow, someone deliberately shuffled their feet to scare us.

We walk slowly, without hurrying, and he also slowly follows us … trail after trail …

Maybe turn around and see…?

No, I already have goosebumps running down my back from horror at this thought.

No, it’s too scary, it’s definitely HE, the maniac I’ve always been afraid of. I knew that he would anyway come, appear. And now he is looking for another victim … Therefore, he does not overtake us …

Those shuffling footsteps are getting closer and closer, I can hear him breathing heavily…

I already feel like I’m sweating all over from sticky horror. That’s it, he is already here and he is overtaking us, continuing to shuffle his feet.

I decide to look at him…

This is an elderly man, about five feet tall, his age is about 70 years old, he is walking with difficulty, suffering from shortness of breath, probably to the nearest grocery store. The time is noon.

How could I come up with such a nightmare?” – a frustrated acquaintance told me.

He asked me very much to find out if he was such a coward or if there are others, and whether they are haunted by unreasonable fears or not?

Have you experienced this and how did you manage to overcome it?

A parable about unreasonable fear, importance and stupidity with elements of paranormality.

And then I say to him, “Here is a funny post I read on Facebook” – I said one morning to my son during breakfast.

A man asks what to feed the household spirit so that he does not make noise at night, leave cookies or a saucer of milk?

Doesn’t he understand that the household spirit is just energy information? And he does not have a material stomach and intestines.”

We laughed. And then began to mind our own business.

Then, somewhere during lunch, the owner’s car drives into the yard, although he usually parks it near the gate of the house. I was in the bathroom and heard the car doors slamming. I leave the bathroom and see that my son looks rather strange.

“What’s wrong with you, dear? Did something happen?” – I ask.

“They so quickly carried something heavy and oblong upstairs. It looked like a coffin.” – he replied.

“What kind of nonsense? Why do they need it? True, the owner’s wife returned from the grandmother’s funeral from the village a couple of days ago, but she is already buried.” – I reacted.

“Do you remember the owner of the house said that his mother died recently, maybe this is such a rite for 40 days?” – the son did not let up.

“I don’t know, I haven’t heard anything like that. All this, to be honest, looks like nonsense. But everything is possible, I don’t know what customs and orders are here.” – I remarked.

And we were in Adjara in Batumi.

And then suddenly we felt the anxiety that appeared, we suddenly felt very uncomfortable at home and we decided to take a walk and clear our minds.

There was a bakery not far from our house and when we approached it, the son suggested: “Let’s buy some small cupcake just in case, like that man on Facebook who was haunted by an invisible creature wanted to do.”

And we really bought a small cupcake in the bakery for this purpose, while we ourselves were already choking with laughter.

After walking another two hundred meters along the street, we met a tall man walking towards us, carrying a large shovel. Surprisingly, it was I who paid attention to the shovel, although my son is usually more attentive.

“Look,” – I say: “the shovel is just to bury the object that they were carrying.” – I said and burst out laughing.

And the son said thoughtfully: “I’ve never seen anyone carrying a shovel before.”

We walked a little more and now the son says “Look, look at that stone stele, there was a candle and a portrait of the deceased” (really there are such small stone steles in Batumi).

“Yeah, I didn’t even notice” – I answered.

When we were already returning to the house, a “brilliant” idea suddenly dawned on me that the Toyota sedan of the owner of the house was not so large that a two-meter coffin fit into it.

The owner’s car was parked not far from the entrance gate, and a really two-meter object obviously couldn’t fit in there.

We laughed for a long time at our stupidity, importance and unreasonable fears.

A cupcake for a spirit, left on the table overnight, remained untouched in the morning.

And on the glass in the bathroom showed up the inscription “Ha-ha! Moron!”

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Return to Ourselves ·

Sun

Not everything happens at home is easy either.

“We don’t help anyone. Don’t get your hopes up.” – a security guard at the Social security organization told us.

“Tough. Really, Noam?” – I said to my son with a sigh.

“You can’t say more precisely. Let’s go knock on the door of my former school, Haya.” – suggested the son.

A few minutes later we did just that.

“Of course, I’ll try to help you, come back in a few days.” – suggested the school’s social worker.

“Yeah, looks like it’s a bummer.

Noam, from today’s conversation with the owner of the “Wanderer”, the hostel where we stayed, American George, I realized that he is ready to help us by lowering the price of housing?” – I asked my son.

“Yes, Haya, he is a good person, an altruist, he likes to help people.” – Noam replied.

But as it turned out, we were again in for an unpleasant surprise.

“Unfortunately, the hostel will most likely be closed tomorrow for a few days, we are waiting for the check, inspector.” – volunteer Ariel told us at the entrance.

“Which inspector?” – we asked with surprise.

“I don’t know, ask the owner, he will drive up now.” – offered the volunteer.

And indeed, while we were dumbfounded digesting the news, the entrance gate opened and a tall, elderly, gray-bearded man entered with a large plastic package in his hands, filled with buns sprinkled with sesame seeds.

“Help yourself, this is from my second hostel, I just closed it. Tomorrow, by 10 am, this one will most likely need to be closed. The inspector is expected, they called me, they said that there will be an inspection. Sorry guys, I’m sorry I couldn’t help you, but looks like you need to find another place to live.” – George added.

“Do you know any cheap hostel?” – we asked one of the hostel workers.

“Yes, I know, “Anna”, it’s not far from here …” – he answered.

“Well, let’s go look for …” – we decided.

“We have already searched the entire area, but we failed to find a hostel with that name. What should we do, Noam?” – after an hour of unsuccessful searches, I asked my son.

“Shop workers usually have this kind of information.” – he replied.

“Exactly.” – I added.

“Shalom, do you know where the hostel “Anna” is?” – we asked the cashier of the nearest store, who was clearly bored with nothing to do.

“Guys, I don’t know the name of the hotel opposite, where there is a bamboo fence and red lanterns, but I would not advise you to go there, the other day I saw how a black man was taken out of there, perhaps other hotels in this area are less criminal, but I’m not going to advise you, you’d better see for yourself…” – he replied.

“Yeah, not funny.” – I said.

“Absolutely.” – added the son.

“We need to do something, dear, let’s go with things in the morning to the diving club and the “Starfish” guest house, where I used to work and we lived with you, I think they won’t kick us out.” – I suggested.

“I hope so too.” – he agreed.

No sooner said than done.

“Starfish” was located in a spacious two-story white villa with a large yard, and a spacious swimming pool, necessary for learning to dive.

To be continued…

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Return to Ourselves ·

Jan 28

Icy reception.

“Well, you’re talking about this again, Haya. Didn’t you think that our readers would most likely ask, “And who did this, if not people? These guys write just nonsense, what do they have instead of brains?” – said the son.

“But, Noam, we describe in detail what happened to us in the book “Unexplained episodes from everyday life “Season 1. Episode 8. We described there only what really took place, but how and why this happened, we can only to put forward my personal hypothesis, because we could not find the answer to this question in any search engine.” – I objected.

“Okay, Haya, we need to do something, let’s go look for the villa of freedivers Asher and Baruch, they have always been kind and attentive to us, but on the trip we, for some reason I don’t understand, could not contact them, maybe now they something to help us when we finally see them in real life.” – suggested the son.

“OK! You know, Noam, I can’t help but feel that some tangible changes have taken place here during our absence.
But here it seems is the freediving club. The villa is similar to the one I saw on Baruch’s Facebook stories.” – I reported.

“Are we really going to see Asher or Baruch now, Haya?
We talked so much with their faked ones during the trip that actually meeting them seems like something fantastic.” – the son asked excitedly.

We pressed the bell on the gate and a pleasant elderly man in a hat, opening the gate for us, kindly invited us in.

“Look, Noam, Asher is sitting in an ice bath. I’ve already seen it in his Facebook story.” – I said quietly to my son.

“Yes, great, considering that it’s 95 degrees Fahrenheit outside.” – the son was surprised.

Indeed, from the bath, in which huge chunks of ice floated and stood near the entrance to the villa, the head of Asher, a tall thirty-year-old man, a swarm blue-eyed blond.

“I can sit here for half an hour, you can touch the water, it’s terribly cold.
But guys, you came a little out of time. Today we are resting with the whole family. My parents, my brother and my wife’s parents arrived, and tomorrow my wife and I are leaving for Italy for 10 days. Baruch left for relatives in Tel Aviv, he will probably arrive tomorrow, the diving season is ending and we have no work for you now. You can ask Baruch when he will arrive. Happily. I hope everything works out for you.” – the frost-resistant guy told us, without leaving the ice bath.

“You know, Noam, when we approached the villa, we felt that it would be so. That this meeting would not bring any positive result. But I was surprised and shocked by Asher’s eyes. They seem to be empty.” – I commented.

“I noticed it too. His eyes are similar to the eyes of Kai from the tale “The Snow Queen”, they are empty and cold.” – added the son.

“I agree, but the resolution of our problems with you, dear, does not tolerate delay.
We need to understand what to do. What action do you propose to take?” – I asked my son.

“Let’s go to Revakha (social organization), my former school to see a social worker, finally, let’s go to the diving club where you worked, its founder is a good person.
In short, we will knock on all doors.” – he suggested.

“Yes, some of them must open, otherwise it simply cannot be…”

To be continued…

History 4. Respect, guys!

Exactly, Dimka, a tall thirty-year-old handsome diver-athlete is preparing his favorite breakfast of buckwheat porridge and celery stalks here.

“Hello! Haven’t seen you guys for a long time.” he smiled broadly at us.

“Yes, we were abroad…” – we began our story…

“Yes, it’s not great, of course, but the main thing is that you returned.

I think things should work out, call Alex (founder of the dive club), you need to rebuild bridges with him. I wish you good luck and will be happy to share the products with you, I’m doing pretty well right now. And if you need a SIM, the phone at your service.” – said Dima, getting us a delicious mango from the refrigerator and muesli with nuts from the kitchen cabinet.

“Thank you, Dimka, you are so quick-witted!” – I smiled and dialed the number of my former employer and said:

“Alex, how are you doing? We’ve just arrived…”

“Come, I’m waiting for you, I’m at the diving club on the beach,” – suggested Alex.

Seeing a group of divers near the club on the beach, we went to them, but for some reason we didn’t get there, suddenly feeling uncomfortable, turned around and went back.

“How unpleasant it is to ask, really, Noam and our clothes are probably like homeless people …” – I said.

And Alex, noticing us and our maneuver, ran after us:

“Guys, I know that you have problems, you can live in the villa for a while, but not for very long, because I gave it to Antonina, and she is not a very kind woman. Sorry, but I will help in any way I can.” – he said and gave 1000 shekels.

“It’s great that he’s such a good person…” – I added.

“Yes, what would we do without him now …” – agreed the son.

Touched and satisfied, we went to the villa “Starfish”, stopping by our favorite shop for food on the way.

In the lunch area, the same Antonina, whom Alex mentioned, came. It was a full woman of about 45 with shoulder-length blond hair with a typical Russian appearance and not a very remarkable character, as Alex told us.

“On Thursday there will be a check-in of people, you will have to move out. The villa is not for beggars and vagrants.

How much did Alex tell you to pay?” – she asked sternly.

“Not at all,” – we replied.

“Understood. Free. Okay. Until Thursday.

You can take a bed on the roof. In general, we don’t have a homeless shelter here,” – she added.

“Why did she want to hurt us so much, Haya?” – my son asked me.

“I don’t know. Maybe to feel important, dear.” – I suggested.

“Let’s go and visit Asher’s companion, Baruch, Haya, he probably has already arrived. We talked with his fake one so many times on the trip. Maybe a conversation with him himself will be constructive?” – suggested the son.

A few minutes later we were already near a small, surrounded by palm trees, the color of coffee with milk, freedivers’ villa.

“Citroen Berlingo Baruch is not visible, so he has not yet returned from diving.” – said the son.

“But I seem to see someone else driving an approaching car.

Noam, this is Ziv, a diver Ziv who had a contract to work in Australia with a salary of 20 thousand dollars a month. And on Facebook, I constantly see him riding a yacht. He must be doing great! Maybe he has a job for us too?” – I suggested.

“Shalom guys! I want to wash the car before Baruch comes back, he doesn’t like it.

And in Australia, I rented a villa for a diving club, and there was no work because the lockdown began, but I still had to pay for the villa for six months and I spent all my money and now I live on Migdalor Beach, I receive homeless benefits. If you come, you are welcome.

And the yacht is not mine, it’s just a publicity stunt, you have to earn money somehow.” – the Israeli disappointed us and smiled, as usual, with his sly smile.

“Looks like Ziv was unlucky again, Haya. Baruch drove up and he looks very angry. It looks like now there will be a showdown and the time for a conversation is not the best.” – said the son.

“Shalom, guys, I don’t know how to help you, the diving season is ending, I’m busy with work now. Take a three-seater tent from me as a gift, just in case, if you settle down on the beach, some divers live there.

Sorry, I need to have a serious talk with Ziv.” – Baruch, a five-foot man of about 40 in blue breeches of typical Arab appearance, informed us, glancing at the invader with displeasure.

“Well, thanks, Baruch, for it else.” – we thought.

…Thursday morning has come… Our affairs have not progressed much, and how could they have progressed when we continued the two-week coronovirus “quarantine”.

“That’s it, have you forgotten that you have to move out today?” – asked Antonina.

In the evening, there is check-in and there is no place for you.”

“Well, dear, let’s go see the Migdalor beach, we still have a tent,” – I suggested.

After walking 5 miles along the coastline, we saw long rows of tents and trailers stretching for hundreds of yards.

“This is Migdalor beach, as the sign says, Noam, near the Egyptian border checkpoint Taba.” – I commented.

We sat down on a rock next to the shore, dipping our feet into the waters of the Red Sea.

“Perhaps, Noam, we will gradually get used to living like this, but if we move here, then it will be much more difficult to return to civilized life later,” – I said.

“I think so too, Haya.” – the son agreed.

When we were rather upset, we came to the “Starfish” to have a bite to eat and drink tea, we were “friendly” met by Antonina.

“What, are you still here? If you don’t leave in an hour, I’ll call the police.” – she said.

“Kostya, do you know where to find some cheap accommodation?” – I called in despair to one of my friends divers.

“Try calling Alex K. He rents out an apartment in the former Lev Eilat Hotel,” – he suggested.

“Thank you for the information!” – I said and dialed the number of Alex K. on Whatsapp and stated our request to him.

“Yes, well, guys, anything can happen, I want to help you.

You can live in one of the five apartments rented by me, I don’t need money from you, you will just help me with cleaning the apartments.

When are you going to get there?” – he asked.

“Now! Alex, you are wonderful!” – I answered and my son and I, picking up our suitcases, headed towards our new, albeit temporary, but home.

To be continued…

Not everything happens at home is easy either.

“We don’t help anyone. Don’t get your hopes up.” – a security guard at the Social security organization told us.

“Tough. Really, Noam?” – I said to my son with a sigh.

“You can’t say more precisely. Let’s go knock on the door of my former school, Haya.” – suggested the son.

A few minutes later we did just that.

“Of course, I’ll try to help you, come back in a few days.” – suggested the school’s social worker.

“Yeah, looks like it’s a bummer.

Noam, from today’s conversation with the owner of the “Wanderer”, the hostel where we stayed, American George, I realized that he is ready to help us by lowering the price of housing?” – I asked my son.

“Yes, Haya, he is a good person, an altruist, he likes to help people.” – Noam replied.

But as it turned out, we were again in for an unpleasant surprise.

“Unfortunately, the hostel will most likely be closed tomorrow for a few days, we are waiting for the check, inspector.” – volunteer Ariel told us at the entrance.

“Which inspector?” – we asked with surprise.

“I don’t know, ask the owner, he will drive up now.” – offered the volunteer.

And indeed, while we were dumbfounded digesting the news, the entrance gate opened and a tall, elderly, gray-bearded man entered with a large plastic package in his hands, filled with buns sprinkled with sesame seeds.

“Help yourself, this is from my second hostel, I just closed it. Tomorrow, by 10 am, this one will most likely need to be closed. The inspector is expected, they called me, they said that there will be an inspection. Sorry guys, I’m sorry I couldn’t help you, but looks like you need to find another place to live.” – George added.

“Do you know any cheap hostel?” – we asked one of the hostel workers.

“Yes, I know, “Anna”, it’s not far from here …” – he answered.

“Well, let’s go look for …” – we decided.

“We have already searched the entire area, but we failed to find a hostel with that name. What should we do, Noam?” – after an hour of unsuccessful searches, I asked my son.

“Shop workers usually have this kind of information.” – he replied.

“Exactly.” – I added.

“Shalom, do you know where the hostel “Anna” is?” – we asked the cashier of the nearest store, who was clearly bored with nothing to do.

“Guys, I don’t know the name of the hotel opposite, where there is a bamboo fence and red lanterns, but I would not advise you to go there, the other day I saw how a black man was taken out of there, perhaps other hotels in this area are less criminal, but I’m not going to advise you, you’d better see for yourself…” – he replied.

“Yeah, not funny.” – I said.

“Absolutely.” – added the son.

“We need to do something, dear, let’s go with things in the morning to the diving club and the “Starfish” guest house, where I used to work and we lived with you, I think they won’t kick us out.” – I suggested.

“I hope so too.” – he agreed.

No sooner said than done.

“Starfish” was located in a spacious two-story white villa with a large yard, and a spacious swimming pool, necessary for learning to dive.

To be continued…

Icy reception.

“Well, you’re talking about this again, Haya. Didn’t you think that our readers would most likely ask, “And who did this, if not people? These guys write just nonsense, what do they have instead of brains?” – said the son.

“But, Noam, we describe in detail what happened to us in the book “Unexplained episodes from everyday life “Season 1. Episode 8. We described there only what really took place, but how and why this happened, we can only to put forward my personal hypothesis, because we could not find the answer to this question in any search engine.” – I objected.

“Okay, Haya, we need to do something, let’s go look for the villa of freedivers Asher and Baruch, they have always been kind and attentive to us, but on the trip we, for some reason I don’t understand, could not contact them, maybe now they something to help us when we finally see them in real life.” – suggested the son.

“OK! You know, Noam, I can’t help but feel that some tangible changes have taken place here during our absence.
But here it seems is the freediving club. The villa is similar to the one I saw on Baruch’s Facebook stories.” – I reported.

“Are we really going to see Asher or Baruch now, Haya?
We talked so much with their faked ones during the trip that actually meeting them seems like something fantastic.” – the son asked excitedly.

We pressed the bell on the gate and a pleasant elderly man in a hat, opening the gate for us, kindly invited us in.

“Look, Noam, Asher is sitting in an ice bath. I’ve already seen it in his Facebook story.” – I said quietly to my son.

“Yes, great, considering that it’s 95 degrees Fahrenheit outside.” – the son was surprised.

Indeed, from the bath, in which huge chunks of ice floated and stood near the entrance to the villa, the head of Asher, a tall thirty-year-old man, a swarm blue-eyed blond.

“I can sit here for half an hour, you can touch the water, it’s terribly cold.
But guys, you came a little out of time. Today we are resting with the whole family. My parents, my brother and my wife’s parents arrived, and tomorrow my wife and I are leaving for Italy for 10 days. Baruch left for relatives in Tel Aviv, he will probably arrive tomorrow, the diving season is ending and we have no work for you now. You can ask Baruch when he will arrive. Happily. I hope everything works out for you.” – the frost-resistant guy told us, without leaving the ice bath.

“You know, Noam, when we approached the villa, we felt that it would be so. That this meeting would not bring any positive result. But I was surprised and shocked by Asher’s eyes. They seem to be empty.” – I commented.

“I noticed it too. His eyes are similar to the eyes of Kai from the tale “The Snow Queen”, they are empty and cold.” – added the son.

“I agree, but the resolution of our problems with you, dear, does not tolerate delay.
We need to understand what to do. What action do you propose to take?” – I asked my son.

“Let’s go to Revakha (social organization), my former school to see a social worker, finally, let’s go to the diving club where you worked, its founder is a good person.
In short, we will knock on all doors.” – he suggested.

“Yes, some of them must open, otherwise it simply cannot be…”

To be continued…

The Raccoon’s adventures.

“Where is our little boy?” – my son suddenly puzzled me.

“Noam, really, where is our baby, where is our little plush Raccoon, who has been with us for so many years that he has become almost a member of our family?

He was here on top of the refrigerator, but now he’s not there.

Didn’t you take him?” – I asked my son in turn.

“No, Haya, I didn’t take it.” – he replied.

“Hurrah! I found him.” – I said, standing on a chair and pushing aside the items standing on top of the refrigerator. He is right there, this baby, only as if he was hiding from the eyes of our landlady, who just now came for money for rent.

“Can he really move on his own? What do you think?” – Noam asked.

“I don’t know, but I think it’s possible in principle.

Remember, Noam, you and I have already observed many cases of teleportation of objects, for example, in the diving club “Starfish” in Eilat, and here in Bulgaria in Golden Sands, and we wrote about this in our book “Unexplained episodes from everyday life.”, in Season 1 (escaping … from ourselves) and Season 2 (our wanderings).” – I suddenly realized.

“You’re probably right, Haya.

I think that many of our readers have had cases of teleportation. It would be very interesting if at least one of them shared with us. Really?” – Noam added.

“Yes, of course, I would like that too.”

And this episode happened to us in the city of Varna (Bulgaria) in the winter of 2021, at the moment when the owner of the apartment we rented, Lina, came for rent payment.

Home!!! Return.

“Noam, Noam, look the plane is already circling over Tel Aviv. How long I have been waiting for this moment.” – I said excitedly to my son.

“Yes, Haya, a year and three months of wandering is a long time. We left in July 2020, I was 18, and now it’s October 28, 2021 and I’m already 19 years old.” – said the son.

“We landed, Noam, I imagined this moment so many times with bated breath, but now I have no emotions. We finally arrived home, just did what we had to do.” – I added.

“Yes, something that should have been done a long time ago. But do not relax, we still have to get to Eilat today.” – said the son.

After a sleepless night at the airport, my son and I dozed off on the bus and…

“Noam, look at the plantations of date palms on the border with Jordan, here are the Jordan Mountains with their incredible play of colors on one side and the Eilat Mountains on the other side of the highway and this indescribable feeling … of home! We are already approaching the city of Eilat.
Hello, dear, such native places! We missed you so much!” – I said with an indescribable feeling.

“Yes, here is the bus station. Finally we arrived, I was so tired and terribly hungry. And everything that you said is of course very romantic, Haya, but it begs the question “Where are we going to spend the night?” – Noam interrupted my emotions.

“Let’s try to spend the night at the Wayfarer Hostel, and in the morning we’ll think about what to do.” – I suggested.

“Good idea, our former Mexican neighbor Rafa told us about this hostel, it is owned by an elderly American George who does charity work.
In addition, the hostel is not far away, and now, I can already see its blue sign, and here is the bell on the blue gate too.” – the son commented.

“Good evening! Can we stay at you?” – we asked a short young man, a volunteer named Ariel, who opened the gate.

“Yes, of course you can. Come in. But I have to ask, “Do you have a PCR test?”

“Yes, please.” – said the son.

“Thank you. That’s fine then.” – Ariel replied.

“It’s good that we found shelter here for the night, but where are we going to look for it next, Noam?
After all, we have been too late abroad in our rather stupid paranormal journey and our budget balance is rapidly approaching zero. Many thanks to our relative Vlad who just saved us by sending money for tickets here.” – I told my son this morning.

“Of course, Haya, I understand this and I’m trying to come up with a plan of action.” – he began to reason.

“What fools we were when we left here a year and three months ago, from these places that I associate with home and where I love every grain of sand in the desert.

Why have we been misled and feared in such an unusual, almost unbelievable way, and as if forced to leave?
And those are not people who did it.
Why didn’t it occur to us to check the information that we were told in fake calls and written in fake notes, that almost all of our acquaintances and friends were going to leave the country?” – I continued excitedly.

“Well, you’re talking about this again, Haya. Didn’t you think that our readers would most likely ask, “And who did this, if not people? These guys write just nonsense, what do they have instead of brains?” – said the son.

“But, Noam, we describe in detail what happened to us in the book “Unexplained episodes from everyday life “Season 1. Episode 8. We described there only what really took place, but how and why this happened, we can only to put forward my personal hypothesis, because we could not find the answer to this question in any search engine.” – I objected.

“Okay, Haya, we need to do something, let’s go look for the villa of freedivers Asher and Baruch, they have always been kind and attentive to us, but on the trip we, for some reason I don’t understand, could not contact them, maybe now they something to help us when we finally see them in real life.” – suggested the son.

“OK! You know, Noam, I can’t help but feel that some tangible changes have taken place here during our absence.
But here it seems is the freediving club. The villa is similar to the one I saw on Baruch’s Facebook stories.” – I reported.

“Are we really going to see Asher or Baruch now, Haya?
We talked so much with their faked ones during the trip that actually meeting them seems like something fantastic.” – the son asked excitedly.

We pressed the bell on the gate and a pleasant elderly man in a hat, opening the gate for us, kindly invited us in.

“Look, Noam, Asher is sitting in an ice bath. I’ve already seen it in his Facebook story.” – I said quietly to my son.

“Yes, great, considering that it’s 95 degrees Fahrenheit outside.” – the son was surprised.

Indeed, from the bath, in which huge chunks of ice floated and stood near the entrance to the villa, the head of Asher, a tall thirty-year-old man, a swarm blue-eyed blond.

“I can sit here for half an hour, you can touch the water, it’s terribly cold.
But guys, you came a little out of time. Today we are resting with the whole family. My parents, my brother and my wife’s parents arrived, and tomorrow my wife and I are leaving for Italy for 10 days. Baruch left for relatives in Tel Aviv, he will probably arrive tomorrow, the diving season is ending and we have no work for you now. You can ask Baruch when he will arrive. Happily. I hope everything works out for you.” – the frost-resistant guy told us, without leaving the ice bath.

“You know, Noam, when we approached the villa, we felt that it would be so. That this meeting would not bring any positive result. But I was surprised and shocked by Asher’s eyes. They seem to be empty.” – I commented.

“I noticed it too. His eyes are similar to the eyes of Kai from the tale “The Snow Queen.”, they are empty and cold.” – added the son.

“I agree, but the resolution of our problems with you, dear, does not tolerate delay.
We need to understand what to do. What action do you propose to take?” – I asked my son.

“Let’s go to Revakha (social organization), my former school to see a social worker, finally, let’s go to the diving club where you worked, its founder is a good person.
In short, we will knock on all doors.” – he suggested.

“Yes, some of them must open, otherwise it simply cannot be …”

To be continued…

The stupefying motorcycle.

“It’s good that today is a day off!
How I love this calmness of the early morning, its silence, the sky gradually beginning to brighten, the morning roll call of birds and a special feeling of peace, peculiar only to this time of day …” – I thought, waking up as usual before dawn.

“Noam is still sleeping sweetly, but I’ll probably do my business.” – I said to myself, getting out of bed and starting my morning workout in front of the open window …

Having gone into my thoughts and feelings, I did not immediately pay attention to the approaching buzzing of the motorbike. And in vain…

An unpleasant, caustic and some kind of rotten smell coming from it penetrated into the apartment.

“We need to close the window as soon as possible.” – I thought and ran to fulfill this intention, but the desperate roar of the engine could be heard very close by.

“The motorbike is right in front. It seems that for the first time I can see it and its driver so close.” – I added to myself.

And there was something to see.

Behind the motorcyclist were two dark plastic open containers, each containing several white plastic bags.

In one hand he held one of these packages. and something smelly was apparently pouring out of it, and with his other hand he held on to the motorcycle.
The guy’s eyes shone with some kind of insane narcotic gleam and at the same time he emitted some kind of strange triumphant cry.

I slammed the window shut.

“Haya, what time is it?” – asked the awakened son.

“5.28 a.m., dear.” – I answered.

“Yes, it hasn’t even dawned yet. Before, he always passed after six.” – the son remarked.

“Yes, apparently, the schedule of his trips has changed, Noam, if you want you can take a little more nap.” – I suggested to my son and, sneezing several times, added to myself:

“And unfortunately, my head ached from the smell that penetrated into the apartment.”

Eight months ago we moved to one of the dead-end alleys of the city, and soon we began to notice that every day, except for Shabbat (Saturday), a motorcyclist drives back and forth along our dead-end alley, leaving behind an unpleasant trail of some kind of rotten, and sometimes pungent odor.

“What does he have in these white bags? What does he spill and why does he do it?” – the answers to these questions have remained a mystery to us.

“Maybe he is disinfecting against coronovirus?
But why is the smell so unpleasant, reminiscent of rotten?”

We tried to understand, but we couldn’t find an explanation.

Every morning we hear this chirring sound and run to close the window, feeling a plume of pungent smell.

We do not know if they do this in other cities and countries? And for what?

Amazing cat.

“Where is this guy?” – asked the son.

“Looks like he’s not here today.” – I commented.

“Yes, there he runs, a green-eyed handsome.” – Noam noticed.

“How you scared me, Baby with Emerald Eyes!
On the road that you crossed to say hello to us, cars were rushing.
My heart skipped a beat in fear for you.
What a pretty fluffy, shiny blue-gray coat he has, Noam, and it’s like to just drown in the delicate green of his eyes! Is it true?
Hello, our friend, cat Grey!” – I said.

“He’s a really amazing handsome!” – added the son.

“I’m very glad to see you, Baby. But please don’t scare me like that anymore, don’t run across the road in front of the cars. Did you miss?
I, too, only now realized how much I missed you, because we had not seen each other for several days.” – I continued.

A gray-blue green-eyed cat rubbed against our legs, first in front, then behind, then passing between our legs and periodically moving from me to my son and back.

“We’ve been standing like this for about ten minutes, Grey is a great guy, but we have to go, Noam.” – I said.

“Of course, let’s go. But look, Haya, this cat is walking with us like a dog.” – Noam remarked.

“Yes, it’s amazing, cats don’t usually do that. Especially since we don’t have anything edible with us.” – I agreed.

“Kis-kis!” – a middle-aged woman who came out of the entrance called the cat.

“Well, just look how shameless this cat is – I fed him red fish and chicken last night, and today he doesn’t even look at me. What an insolent one!” – the woman said loudly.

“Haya, Grey’s behavior is still a mystery to me too.
You and I have noticed many times that in the evening the woman walks here with the small dog on a leash, she calls the surrounding cats and pours food for them.
And she always pays special attention to this green-eyed handsome, but he never even comes close to her and to the stern.
I can’t understand why Grey runs to us, although we never bring him food, which, by the way, he takes quite calmly.” – asked the son a question which interested him.

The mysterious or free-spirited plumber.

“A puddle has flowed again. We should probably still call a plumber. Especially since the owner of the house, Eyal, gave a phone, his name is Shiman.” – I suggested.

“Yes, he’s just calling himself.” – added the son.

“Shalom, Noam! What are your problems with the plumbing? Can I drive up tomorrow morning and fix them?” – asked the Israeli.

“No, we will be at work since morning. In the afternoon, by four o’clock, can you?” – answered the son.

“But, at this time, I have a drug deal popping up on the horizon.” – the man objected.

“Well, we’ll try to be home early, by three o’clock. Will it work?” – the son summed up.

“Deal.”

And exactly at three o’clock the next day, the red old Honda stopped with noise at the entrance to our yechida (apartment).

“It looks like this is the plumber.” – Noam said, seeing that a thin, short Israeli of about 45 years old with curly blond shoulder-length hair and big crazy brown eyes is approaching us with a quick step, with sharp movements characteristic of a drug addict.

“Hi, guys!” – he greeted us and immediately called back the owner of the house.

“Shalom, Eyal, I’m in the cuties’ apartment. Yes, of course, well, everything will be done in the best possible way.” – he said and added to us:

“Eyal said that next time, for this kind of problem, call me directly, bypassing him.”

A few hours later, my son and I, satisfied with the order put in the apartment, went to bed.

The sound of dripping water woke me up.

“It looks like it’s leaking somewhere. We should look. Yes, again in the same place in the bathroom, the hose near the toilet is leaking. It’s 2 o’clock in the morning.

Well, I hope the puddle won’t be too big until morning, I don’t want to wake anyone up.” – I thought.

“I can’t sleep… What time is it? It’s three? Wow, judging by the sound, it looks like a flood is starting in the bathroom.

Yes, the water is already pouring and the bathroom is full of water.” – I stated.

“Noam, Noam, wake up, we should call Eyal as soon as possible, ask him how to turn off the water here, otherwise soon all our things will swim around the apartment like fish.” – I woke up my son.

“Yeah, not a funny joke. I’m already calling, he prompted me and I found a faucet, that’s it, water no longer flows. It is very inconvenient that Eyal had to be woken up in the middle of the night, but he did not swear. He is amazing. Do you know what he said?

He is in Tel Aviv and he was very interested in why our leak suddenly gained momentum at exactly three in the morning.

He began to analyze and remembered that around this time his wife usually gets up and closes herself for a long time in the toilet, where she pours water for fifteen minutes.

Their bathroom is located directly above ours and most likely our water flowed more because of the abundant water drain from above.

He does not understand and he is worried about the thought – what is she doing there?” – said Noam.

“Yes, you and I know firsthand what women do at such an hour in such a place, Noam.” – I added.

“Of course, they witch.” – the son summed up briefly.

At about eight in the morning, we heard a call:

“Shalom, can I drive up to you now to correct my oversight?

Eyal said that everything went wrong and it would be completely wrong for me if I didn’t fix it quickly.” – said the plumber.

“Ok! Come on, come on, come.” – we told him.

A few more days passed after Shiman arrived and replaced the leaking hose.

“Look, Noam, a small puddle in the same place stubbornly continues to flow.” – I told my son.

“I noticed too. I think we still need to call Mr. Shiman and inform him that the problem has not been settled.” – he suggested.

“Shalom, guys! Nonsense, fix it in three minutes, I’ll be with you in half an hour.” – Shiman said.

An hour passed, then a second, we decided to call the Israeli again and again and again … There was no answer …

“Mysterious disappearance, you will not say anything.” – we shrugged.

There was no news from Shiman either four hours later or the next morning, he picked up the phone only in the afternoon of the next day.

“I’ll be there in 10 minutes.” – he said.

We weren’t even surprised that this time needed to be multiplied by 5, we were more surprised by something else, that in addition to Shiman, who arrived in his battered Honda, another young, thick-built guy in a white T-shirt and dark breeches drove up on an old Mitsubishi, who was watching behind every step and movement mysterious plumber.

“Where were you, why didn’t you answer the calls yesterday?” – we asked the multifunctional specialist.

“Yes, guys, I accidentally fell asleep …” – he said in front of the guy and asked him to turn off the water on the street, and when he walked away, he quietly added:

“The situation is serious, I was caught in the last drug deal and put in a refrigerator, where a bunch of meat carcasses hung, and for bad behavior they threatened to transfer me to a freezer, where the end would be close…”

Then the guy returned and Shiman went on with the plumbing problem, interspersing this activity, to our surprise, with a Russian obscenity.

“Bye-bye! Litraot (Goodbye).” – Shiman and the guy finally said and left, sitting on different cars …

“Haya, did you see what happened?” – the son asked.

“What?” – I didn’t understand what he was talking about.

“The guys each got into their car and Shiman said to his obsessive companion: “Go up the alley, there’s the next object, and I’ll catch up with you.”

The guy apparently believed and did so, he did not know that our lane was a dead end, and as soon as he drove off, Shiman’s red Honda rushed in the opposite direction.

Mitsubishi had to drive to the end of the alley to turn around. It is clear that he was no longer able to catch up with the plumber …

A few more days passed and when we went for a walk we met an old red Honda from which a familiar blond head poked out and loudly shouted: “I ran away, I’m free, free, free!”

To be continued…

Grocery Store Mystery, Secret Cleaning Dangers, or Extreme Labor 2 (continuation).

“What do you think, Maayan, did Peter come to his senses?” – asked the son in the evening of the next day.

“I don’t know, let’s go to the store and try to talk to him.” – I said.
Usually the guard stood on the street, near his car, leaning on the fence, and a ginger cat, named Jinji (‘Red’), was deftly came to his knee.

Picture of Jinji near the store

For all the time we met Peter, and this is about two years, we realized that he is a very obligatory and responsible person and we have never seen him leave his workplace and go to the store or even leave it anywhere.

This time he was not visible either on the street or on a chair intended for a security worker.

“Where is he?” – the son asked in surprise.

“Look, Yaron, there he is, near the department with greens, throws up one of the packages. And what does he have in his other hand?
He seems to be eating burekases. Really? He never ate anything here. Do you remember what the filling is in this pastry?”

“Yes, of course, you can’t forget it, and it looks like it’s a burekas.”

picture burekas

“Better let’s call him. Shalom, Peter. Ma nishma? (How are you?)”

“Who says that?” – Peter asked, who had already spoken to the son dozens of times before.

“What’s wrong with him, Yaron? He didn’t recognize you?
Look, he drinks some kind of energy drink and chats with Ulyana, whom he avoided all the time. This kind of behavior is completely out of character for him.”

“I’m shocked by what happened to him, Maayan. This is a completely different person.”

“Yes, it’s scary, Yaron. One time, just a few seconds, was enough for that Peter to die. It looks like he became a drug addict. That’s what unnecessary curiosity led to.
Why did he decide to experiment on himself and go to check what exactly was going on in the toilet, because he understood that it would not end in anything good?”

“Yes, it’s a very sad experience, Maayan.”

My son and I came home upset and went to bed.

The next morning, we again wondered in desperation:
“What to do? How to earn money to pay for the apartment by the 1st of the new month?”

“Yaron, call Miguel (Peruvian security guard).
Please ask him if he is on duty here today and if Gila (the store manager) has come?”

“Yes, Maayan, he says that she has come and he will talk to her now about me.”

“Ok. Thanks to him. Let’s wait for the news.”

The news was not slow to appear.

Miguel called back and said that he was completely shocked by what was happening and, most importantly, that he could not understand the essence of what was happening.

“I went downstairs to the warehouse, – he said. – Gila was in her room.”

I asked her: “How are you, how was the trip?”

She replied: “It’s okay, it’s okay.”

Then I asked her, “What about that guy?”

She didn’t say anything to that and didn’t even ask who I was talking about, but only said:
“Miguel, go have a coffee with bourekas and go back to your workplace at the entrance to the store.”

After that, she left the store through the warehouse gate.

And then there was a text message from Roma, my boss from Alpha Security:
“I have to move you somewhere else, Miguel.”

“What’s wrong, someone needs to be replaced?”

I dialed his number several times, but he dropped my calls. I couldn’t understand anything. True, I also asked him about Peter, who for some reason does not pick up the phone. Maybe he’s worried about him?

Then Roma sent a note:
“I’m not happy with you, Miguel.”

In general, I can’t understand anything, Yaron.”

“Yeah. How strange it all is. Maybe there was something else that you didn’t tell me? Something important?” – I asked my son.

“Yes, there were some other boxes, they seemed heavy to me, they stood in the trading floor, near the oven for baking bread.

Tuesday morning Tal said to take them down to the warehouse, but then Samir came up, an elderly man who taught me the skill of a stacker, and loaded me with work so that I completely forgot about these boxes.
And on Wednesday morning, neither the Uzbek guy baking bread, nor the seven-foot Frenchman, working cutting cheeses, came, and Gila scolded me for a long time for not removing these boxes.
She said such a strange phrase – “They could scare or even kill someone …” – and she herself had a very frightened look.
Perhaps, Maayan, but it is only a hypothesis that they (these boxes) contained some household items containing a much stronger drug or even poison.”

“What a dangerous place this store is. Were there any inscriptions on the boxes, Yaron?” – I asked.

“No, just some black stripes.”

“Phone, Yaroshka. Who’s calling?”

“Yigal. Answer?”

“Certainly.”

“He offers to come to Villa Laguna and clean up.”

“Good. Tell him we’ll come now.”

Our route to work lay, as usual, past the store, and Miguel, who was standing guard there, was so excited by the incomprehensibility of what was happening, that when he saw us, he left his place as a guard and ran after us – “Gila has already sent a note that she is ill with coronovirus. All this resembles some kind of nonsense.” – he could not calm down.

he is.

“Miguel, I’m sorry, we’re in a hurry now, we’ll talk on the way back, in three or four hours. Ok?”

“Good. But I still don’t understand…” – he agreed reluctantly.

“Let’s go, Yaroshka, let’s see what surprises they have prepared for us today in Laguna. The white Igal’s Toyota is here.” – I said, opening the white door of the gate of a white villa with arched windows.

Picture Villa Laguna

Igal and Karin, as always, were sitting at a large long table, each at their own computer, in the spacious hall of the villa.

There the air conditioner worked for heat and there was some kind of unpleasant smell more strongly than usual:

“Shalom! Manishma? Beseder” – Yigal said. And then Karin explained to us what to do.

“Take these blankets in the duvet covers and replace the ones already in room 2 with them.”

“Don’t take them, Yaron. Now I’ll bring a laundry basket and put on gloves … The laundry emits a sharp herbal smell, which makes me dizzy, most likely it is intended for the high of some drug addicts.” – I suggested.

Yigal, as usual, began to run around the villa and left, which made Karin very happy, who apparently really likes to feel like an owner there and does not like the accompany of the owner of the villa.

We stayed at the villa for about four hours and returning home, we went to the store:
“Yaroshka, if you want, you can talk with Miguel for now, and I’ll go for groceries.”

“Ok! With pleasure, Maayan.”

While I was choosing vegetables, talking with Artyom (vegetable stacker), Tal (store’s warehouse manager) walked by in a black mask, the expression in his eyes was simply terrible.

Picture Tal

“You know, Maayan, Miguel said that the cashier, “with teeth in the burekas”, found my T-shirts with the logo of the chain of stores, Gila gave them to me when I first came to the store. I left them at the main checkout, saying that I’ll wash them and then put them on. And then they disappeared, they seem to have been removed by Ulyana (another cashier). So she said that she found someone’s T-shirts and they were heavily drugged.”

“Let’s go, I’ll show you them.” – the cashier told me.

“Don’t you dare to do this” – Miguel said and grabbed my hand to make sure.

“Yes, Yaroshka, God saved you that Ulyana took the T-shirts, and Samir loaded you with work and you forgot about those boxes in which something terrible was possible to be.”

“Maayan, also Yakov (Mexican stacker), he, by the way, is from the desert, from the north of Mexico. So, he told such a story. I don’t know what you think, believe it or not?

“Usually I arrive at work by 8 am, – said the Mexican – but today I was asked to come early and at 6 am, when Tal opened the warehouse, I was already there and went to do my work in the warehouse. There, on one of the boxes, I saw a large bag of white powder. I did not touch it and did not attach much importance to it.

Powder bag picture

A few minutes later, it is not clear from where, because the store was still closed, some kind of inadequate-looking man appeared in the warehouse. He turned to me with a question:
“How much does sugar cost? Can I buy it now?”

“Sugar costs about two shekels, you can leave the money and take a pack, and then I’ll take it throught the checkout.”

“How many milligrams are there?” – he asked.

“Why milligrams? There is a kilogram, sugar is really cheap” – I answered.

“Are you really stupid or what? Where can I find some normal seller?
There was a guy with gray hair in sneakers, where is he?” – the man began to resent.

I went about my business, and when I returned, the bag with the white powder was gone.
Yes, and Artyom came, by the way, I’m afraid to communicate with him, I think that he is some kind of bandit and he seems to be selling coke (the name of the drug).
And yet, he is the only one of the stackers who walks in sneakers, the rest wear boots.”

“And Artyom’s hair is really gray, that is, mostly gray. And he usually comes at 6 in the morning, he told me that.” – I noticed.

In the evening before going to bed, we went for a short walk and, passing by the store, we saw how Artyom, a vegetable stacker, sold Peter a pack of cigarettes, one of which the guard immediately lit up.

“Yes, we’ve never seen a Hungarian smoke before.”

“Peter came to replace me with his car, and I was waiting for a car from Alfa Security.
We stood next to him for 15 minutes and he did not even notice me and did not say hello to me. I don’t understand what’s going on with him” – Miguel complained.

On Friday morning, I came up with a hypothesis that explains Gila’s strange behavior and the mysterious disappearance of the guy who baked bread in the store.
“Yaroshka, do you remember talking about the suspicious boxes that were in the store near the bread oven on Tuesday?
If the items in them contained some kind of very strong drug or even poison, they may have heated up when the oven was working and the guy became sick, he fell into an inadequacy and, leaving the store, went in an unknown direction and no one else saw him. By the way, the guy from the cheese department, which is located next to the bread department, also did not come on Wednesday morning, perhaps he did not feel well either.

Grocery Store Mystery, Secret Cleaning Dangers, or Extreme Avoda (Work)

After Yaron was suddenly and without explanation fired from his job, we were seized by complete despair.

“Yaroshka, where will we get the money to pay for the apartment? It’s cold and scary to live in a tent on the beach now in winter, there are so many inadequate people. What to do?”

“I don’t know, Maayan, maybe go to the CRP (center for work with teenagers and youth), consult with Nofar, maybe she will tell us something”

“Yes, let’s go, Yaroshka.”

“What do you think, we were with you in the PCR today 2 times and both times there we were waiting for this Terrible Inspector. Don’t you think this is strange?
It seems that we did not pass the test as we should.” – I told my son.

On Friday morning, we approached the familiar white fence and opened the familiar white door with the inscription “Villa Laguna”.

Picture Laguna

“Judging by the fact that there is only a white Toyota near the entrance, most likely there is only Yigal (the owner of the villa). So, there are chances that he will give us the rest of the salary.”

And indeed, Yigal was delighted with our arrival, offering to continue working cooperation.

“Sorry guys, Karin and I had a relationship crisis. As a result, I spent almost 100 thousand shekels last month on all sorts of nonsense and I had to pay a few thousand more shekels so that guests removed negative reviews about us. And now, unfortunately, there is no one at all in the villa and I have no money either. Alas!”

And now, unfortunately, there is no one at all in the villa and I have no money either. Alas!”

“Could you clean room 3? I’ll give you two hundred shekels for now.”

“Good. It’s better than nothing, Yaron.”

We went for tools needed for cleaning and then we saw a voluminous chocolate figure of Adano (an African from Eritrea).

Adano picture

“Shalom, you must have made a lot of money on the milk factory, Adano? (meaning a large dairy plant in Kibbutz Yotvata, 20 miles from Eilat). Tell me at least how much money did you get there? We will be happy for you.”

“Don’t rub salt in my wound, guys.
I was supposed to get more than 6 thousand shekels, but they not only gave me nothing, but they also said that I didn’t work there at all. It’s very offensive.
I showed the trade union notes from the factory representative with an invitation to work shifts – extra (additional) and a pass to the factory, but the management of the company claims that I never came to work.
An invitation to work, a pass and a contract in itself are not proof that I was at this very job.”

“Such a solid place and such a deceit!
Can you see the cameras, Adano?”

“So I don’t have access to them, and the management is not going to watch them. Permission to view can only be obtained through the court.”

A picture of a dairy plant in Yotvata.

“Yes, it’s nonsense. We sympathize.”

On Shabbat (Saturday) we again went in search of work.

“Yaroshka, look Igor from the Palma diving club gets into the car.

“Boker tov (good morning), Igor, how are you?”

“Nothing good, corona, there are no guests, I closed the villa.”

“Yes, serious problems, Yaron, because he has one of the most popular diving clubs in the city.”

We went down to the sea and dropped in on old friends at the diving club “Ahla” (sweet), where I used to work.
Its founder Alexander fiddled with the equipment.

“The situation with the work is absolutely sad.” – he said.

And when we entered the Shuk with sad faces on our way back, a cheerful Miguel at the entrance offered us a new idea.

“Why don’t you go to Alpha Security, I called Roma, he is now leading an additional set of guards.”

“Which of us are security guards? What of me, what of my mother? Are you laughing, Miguel?” – asked the son.

Wallpaper Alfa Security

“No, this is a great job. That is, its complete absence. In the morning, a car drives in for you, you just open the door and it takes you to the place.
You take your computer with you, sit on the chair provided at work and go about your business.”

“Well, we must try.” – we decided and on Sunday we went to Roma.

Roma turned out to be a tall, bald Georgian with a piercing look, and clearly expressing his thoughts.

We left a job application, although we understood well that this undertaking is unlikely to have a chance of being successful.

“Maybe something will already be decided in the store, because Gila (the manager) should finally arrive. Let’s go and go to Shuk” – we decided.

But there was no store manager. Avner (the manager of the trading floor) who appeared at work called her, but this did not clarify the situation. Gila said that she did not seem to fire Yaron, but he can not start working, until a personal face-to-face conversation with her. And she is going to arrive by Tuesday.

“Okay, let’s wait and see what happens. What else can we do, Yaron.”

In the evening we wanted to discuss this incomprehensible situation with the guard Peter, who usually gave reasonable advice, but when we saw him, we realized that something was wrong with him.

He told us the following:
“Today, shortly after I went on duty, a man approached me and, holding out 250 shekels, said that he need to go to the toilet. I was wondering what is there. The superiors’ toilet was locked, but I managed to find the key. I tightly plugged my nose with cotton wool, put on 2 pairs of rubber gloves, opened the door and took a couple of steps into the bathroom. I was there for only a few seconds, but I almost lost consciousness and still can not recover. I called a forensic specialist in Hungary and he explained to me the technology of turning a toilet into a place of joy for drug addicts. He also told me numerous ways to get people hooked and turn ordinary household items into highly profitable drug doses or into dangerous traps for the ignorant. A steamed sheet of drug herb is inserted into ordinary toilet paper, or rather into its cardboard middle, or the drug is injected into the paper with a syringe, and then a piece of it is enough to bake a whole batch of burekas, after eating which people fall into a strange altered state. On masks and many other items, the drug is applied with a brush and five days of a semi-unplugged state are guaranteed. “

“Yeah! What happened to Peter in just a few seconds.” – only we could comment on when we returned home.

“Yaron, a call. This is Yigal. What does he want to tell us? That he will return the money?”

“Yes and no, Maayan. He invites us to clean Karin’s apartment tomorrow for 250 shekels.”

“Good.” – we said, and the next morning, on Monday, at about 9 am, we approached the “Laguna”.

“Are we going to clean your apartment?” – we asked Karin.

“Lo. (No)” – she said.

Then we heard the familiar squeak of the bycicle, and the massive figure of Adano appeared on the threshold.

“Karin, am I going to clean your apartment?” – he asked.

“Lo” – she said again.

Then I broke down and burst out laughing and Adano began to laugh too.

“We were fooled again, again a scam” – I said through laughter.

“Yes, it was necessary to call and discuss the antics of this couple.” – added African.

“A smart idea, Adano. That’s the way it should be from now on.”

Karin suggested that I do the cleaning in room 9, and Adano in room 2.

Having soiled my hands, I wanted to wash them with liquid soap, poured into the dispenser and standing on the sink in the bathroom of room 9, but as soon as the soap suds touched the surface of my fingers, I felt that the skin began to burn. I looked at my palms, they turned red.

“What is it, Yaron? Look at my hands. Was there something added to the soap?” – I asked my son anxiously.

“Probably a drug. Maayan, keep your hands under the water a little longer. I read that after standing for several days, solutions from certain types of narcotic herbs turn into poison.

“Yeah. I’m deeply shocked by what’s going on. I don’t want to go cleaning anymore. Let’s talk to Adano.” – I said dumbfounded, continuing to keep my hands under the tap.

But Adano was no longer able to discuss anything.

When he left room 2, he looked like a complete idiot.

Maayan, when I went into his room, he was washing himself with liquid soap.

“I don’t feel well, I want to lie down on the floor, I’m cold” – he said.

“I want shawarma, shawarma” – he repeated, sitting on his bike.

“Well, yes, it turns out that he inhaled the poisonous vapors of the drug and it was absorbed into his skin.

A dangerous profession, cleaning …” – my son and I discussed what had happened.

“Let’s go to Shuk for groceries and get the latest news, Yaron? By the way, there is another one. The owner of the apartment wants to kick us out of there, because we delayed payment to him, and it got colder on the street, the winter was gone in earnest.

In the store, Samir and Yakov (stackers) told us that today the truck driver was running around the trading floor and looking for a tall, thin guy with dark hair (looks like Yaron), and an elderly man behind us at the main checkout with a completely empty cart handed the cashier a pack of two hundreds, where were a thousand shekels while his wife said: “Give him something lighter this time.”

I was blogging when I heard the WhatsApp call.

“Yaron, this is Yigal. He’ll probably be talking nonsense again, let’s call him back later when you finish your college class.”

I raised my head and saw a man near the gate, waving his hand to us.

“He’s already here, Yaron.”

Yigal offered to advertise rooms in the villa and gave 400 shekels. Before he left, to our surprise, he told me: “Maayan, you are the most important person in the world to me.”

In the evening we wanted to talk to Peter about what had happened to him and about the secrets of the soap, but it was impossible to get him off the phone, he was in some inadequate state and constantly discussed something on the phone in Hungarian.

On Tuesday morning we went to Susan’s cleaning, not knowing what surprises to expect this time. Moreover, the thought suddenly dawned on us that her apartment is completely clean and she absolutely does not need cleaning.

This time, her husband Suleiman was also in the apartment, because almost all the hotels were closed due to the intensification of the coronovirus.

After cleaning the apartment, Susan asked us to clean the staircase in the entrance.

And for those half an hour that I washed it, a few more small events happened.

A courier arrived and delivered a basket of sweets to the owners of the apartment, as he emphasized, with filling.

“Yaron, please ask Susan if there is any other work for us while I’m busy here.” – I said to my son.

Having risen to the apartment, I saw Yaron in a new jacket.

“Are you a complete fool?” – I asked and my son immediately took it off.

“Suleiman said that he bought it, but the size did not fit and asked me to try it on, so I put it on, but what should I do?”

“To say that you do not want to measure, and that’s it.”

“He came up to me and offered to work for him, Maayan!
Take 1000 shekels to start, wweety, and then you will earn 700 shekels a day. Would you like it?” – Suleiman asked.

Before leaving, Susan put a lot of sweets in a bag for us, some kind of cake, croissants with chocolate, tea and honey and drove us home.

Approaching the nearest trash bin, we lowered the jacket and all the sweets into it, with the exception of a closed jar of honey.

Then, going to the store and putting on the masks necessary for entering the store that were in my bag, I felt some kind of sharp herbal smell from them.

“Do you smell that, Yaron? Why do they smell like that? Or is it already paranoia?”

We did not go to the store and until the evening were in a state of deep shock, completely not understanding what to do.
It was already beginning to get dark when I began to gradually come to my senses.
I threw away the donated jar of honey and felt that it became a little easier, then I began to wash the floor in the room with plenty of water and remembered that about a quarter of an hour before we left, I saw that Susan seemed to be hiding several hundred shekel in her hands. I thought that she took them to give us for work, but she did it a little later, when we were already getting into the car.

“Yaron, I realized that the smell from the masks most likely was not paranoia, it is possible that Susan put some kind of drug on the banknotes given to us, and I put them in the pocket of the bag next to the bag in which the masks were. The point – apparently, is to get us hooked on the drug and get us into selling it.
Let’s go for a walk to the mountains, my dear, otherwise we can go crazy from all this.”

“Of course, I really want to go there too, Maayan.”

And in the place where we usually climb the Eilat mountains, on a stone, there was a jacket with the inscription “Champion”.

Picture Eilat mountains.

“Champion of stupidity” – I said and laughed.

After desert therapy, we felt better.

On our way home, we peered through the open door of the store.

“Maayan, do you think Peter came to his senses?”

“Hardly, Yaron. He didn’t even say hello to us, continuing to endlessly talk to someone on the phone.”

You know, Maayan, Miguel also said that when Peter became a victim of his curiosity, he became so ill that he could not even stand his shift and he called Roma, he was replaced by another guard, and he himself went to the hospital and was diagnosed severe poisoning of the body and put on a drip, but his mental state is still difficult.

To be continued…

The collapse of the stacker’s career.

Shuk shop. Day three, Wednesday.

The working day in the news store is chaotic.

I took Yaron to the entrance and sat down to write a blog.

When I opened WhatsApp an hour later, I saw several messages from my son.

“Maayan, the here is some bullshit.”

“The chiseller and breadmaker are gone.”

“Therefore, the director and Tal are running around the hall and yelling”

“Samir in the hospital”

“Peter came to say goodbye. He can no longer. This woman, Ulyana, from cash desk, jumped on him right in the trading floor in front of everyone. He left his number and ran away. He said we were almost friends.”

“It’s all right, my dear. Don’t worry. Nothing extreme happened.”

What actually happened?

Well, the cheese cutter, the tall seven-foot Frenchman, and the five-foot Russian-speaking guy who bakes bread didn’t show up.

“My heart was not good. I’ll go to check” Samir, his teacher for laying out goods, told to son and left.
But, he came later.

Well, Peter (Hungarian guard) came to say goodbye, he was tired of the increased harassment of the cashier Ulyana and asked to be transferred to another job.

Well, Tal (assistant director) walked around the store in a not-happy mood and constantly yelled something with displeasure.
Then, he decided to start baking bread himself and burned his hands, from which he began to yell even more. Taking out only the baked bread from the oven, Tal dropped it on the floor, picked it up and, without even brushing it off, threw it on the shelves intended for it.

Well, the guard Asaf again could not stand the atmosphere even before lunch and was replaced by the Peruvian Miguel.

“In general, little things of life, Yaroshka. Nothing special happens in the store. You just have to mind your own business” – I wrote to my son.

Seeing Yaron in the trading floor, the Peruvian security guard greeted him in a friendly way.

“Does this guy work here now?” – he said about Yaron to Gila (the director of the store).

“Yes. He’s in training.”

“Yaron, today there is a condition to stay on more than the usual shift, up to 4pm, there is a lot of work,” Gila said.

“Of course, good.” – answered the son.

At that moment, Tal brought his large polythene bag with hot bourekases and left it at the entrance to the trading floor.
“Take it! I give to everyone!” – he offered.

“Well, you can take a short break, Yaron, you did a good job today, and the time is already 2.30 pm, you need to take a break” – said Samir, who returned from the doctor to the son.

” Thank you.” – he answered and went out to stand a little on the street not far from the fence at the entrance to the store, where Miguel was already.

“A few workers didn’t show up today, you can talk to Gila, maybe she’ll hire your mom too” – suggested the Peruvian.
“It would be great!” – answered the son.

“Then you need to find Gila, Yaron. But her car is not in the parking lot, she seems to have already left. Look, the mishtara (police) has arrived again, they often drive here in recent days, it seems to be looking for something,” the guard noted.

“Hi, dear! Have a nice day, Miguel! How are you, everything is fine?” I asked, approaching them.
“You, Yaroshka, are you going home soon?”

“No, Maayan, today Gila said to be late for another hour.”

“Okay, then I’ll wait for you at home.
Yaron, why does Miguel have such strange eyes today? And as if he was very tired and somehow even seemed to have aged?

“I think it’s because he ate Tali’s stuffed burekas.”

“You hope you didn’t eat them?”

“No, of course, Miguel complained of drowsiness and headache after eating a coffee muffin, probably there are unconventional additives in them.”

“Looks like it. It’s no wonder that a month ago, a woman with a cash register told us about the teeth found in the burekas. After a portion of weed, a lot can be imagined …
Okay, see you in an hour, Yaroshka.

“Of course, Maayan.”

I stood a little longer near the store, and was about to go when Ulyana came out of it with an empty cart, looking at me with hostility.

The gate door of our house opened in a few minutes …
“Were you released early, my hungry boy?”
“No, I got fired.”
“How?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t understand anything, Maayan.
The woman at Ulyan’s main checkout, when I approached, said loudly: “Yaron, the company has a large loss now, the store doesn’t need so many pickers, you don’t work here anymore.”

“Why did you get fired anyway? Did you tell Miguel about it?”

“I don’t know, Maayan, I tried, you yourself saw when you went into the store that I worked. Sameer said that he was pleased with me.
And the Peruvian also said that he did not understand anything, because today at 12.30 Gila confirmed to him that I understood that I had taken the job. He’s nervous but can’t get through, she happens to have gone north before Sunday.”

“It’s so strange that he was fired for no reason and the headmistress didn’t even tell him about it herself, at least by phone or a note. Artyom, a vegetable picker.

“You know, Maayan, Peter said some very serious and even frightening things to me the other day.
The store does not need workers now.
And most likely I was hired by Shook, planning that I would be engaged in the delivery of the goods that were in cardboard boxes. Understand?”

“How dangerous it is, Yaron. I don’t know where we can find work and money for

Yaron’s labor debut.

“I think it’s great that I was hired, I hope that at least we can pay for food and an apartment.” – said the son.

And now my dear and beloved boy went to work for the first time. It was located nearby, in the Shuk store.
He was taken to lay out the goods and we both understood that this was not an easy test for both of us.

Because… strange things started happening in the store a couple of months ago…

By 8am, my son and I came to “Shuk” and began to look for the director of the store, Gila, and someone who would teach Yaron the new stacking skills for him.

His “guru” in this matter turned out to be an elderly, relatively sensible Jordanian Arab, Samir, and the first thing he told us was:
“Gila won’t come today because the Inspector is expected to come.”

“And then it starts again!” – we involuntarily thought.

“And I’ll teach you how to arrange the goods on the shelves.” – he added.

I left the store and soon saw a note on WhatsApp from Yaron.

“Maayan, Tal, the man who usually sits with Gila, lit a fire in the warehouse to burn the garbage and told Samir and me to help him.”

“But it could have burned down the entire store. It’s good that it’s been raining recently. What did you and Samir do?”

“He said that he would not participate in this and then told me that Tal is a real jerk and a drug addict.”

“Thank God it all ended well.”

A little later, I went to the store for a few minutes to see how Yaron’s first working day was going and to buy groceries for lunch. I noticed a few loitering people there (my son informed me that they were stackers too)

One of them, a young guy with a shock of curly dark hair, made circles around the hall, senselessly approaching the greens and throwing one of the packages, then the bread, doing the same thing there.

Another, a man of small stature, about 40 years old, with a crazy look, pestered all the employees of the store, including the security guard Asaf, talking about underpants and some intimate parts of the body, which, according to him, did not fit in any way, and as a cover for his powerful tool he needs a machine gun.

Entering the Shuk an hour later, I noticed that another guard was sitting instead of Asaf.

“Apparently, he could not stand it, he asked to change him.” – we thought.

And in the evening, passing as usual by the Shuk, we saw Pieter, a Hungarian guard, who was distinguished by sufficient sanity.

“Shalom, Peter. Did we think you left the store?”

“Alfa Security ordered me to finish it here by the end of the month, what can you do.
And the store will probably work for another two months, no more.”

“Why do you think that, Peter?”

“I heard that a rich Indian wants to buy this chain. That big store in the industrial area is even more of a mess.”

“And today was my first working day here and in general.” – said the son.

“Congratulations! It’s still better than cleaning. From cleaning the head will wither and fall off.” – for some reason he said.

We did not ask him for clarification, and the next day, after accompaning Yaron to the store, I returned home and sat down to write a blog, but I felt strange anxiety.

When I opened WhatsApp, I saw a note from my son:
“Some kind of car arrived and Tal called Samir and me to help unload it.

Samir, seeing the arrived car, immediately went to the toilet, he probably knew what they brought there, and I began to help Tal. The boxes were light, but one of them burst open and spilled grass with a sharp intoxicating smell. Tal began to swear that he had suffered great damage, and I went to my shelves to lay out the goods further.
Samir also told me that Avner, an elderly man who had been watching the trading floor, had disappeared. But before that, it turns out that he sent back a batch of shampoos paid for by the store to the company, without even asking to return the money for it, and the man talking about underpants turns out to be a representative of the company that sells shampoos and set prices for them at 3.90 instead of 13.90.
Here are some interesting things.

Yes, during the break, Samir and I went to drink coffee with milk, but when I poured myself a cup, I saw that the milk in the refrigerator for workers had run out, and one of the stackers said that it could be taken from Tal.

I didn’t want to go to Tal, but Samir still managed to drink coffee before the milk ran out and I saw that the drink somehow had a strange effect on him, he changed his face and began to grumble on various occasions, and I already began to fear drinking there at all anything.”

“I saw when I came in, Yaroshka, that there were tourists.”

“Yes, today there was such an interesting episode – a woman came in, she asked something from another stacker in English, but she could not understand her.

I came up and asked:
“What are you looking for, maybe I can help you?”

“I am looking for Indian flour with coconut, I can not imagine how you can live without it, I need it every day, in Arizona it is in all stores, it contributed to the resurrection of Buddha.” – she said, and her eyes were wild and empty.

“Yeah, it looks like in the States also a spider from India has wove its web and catches in it everyone whose head is not quite in place, those who do not see their way.”

Further spread of the “severed head” virus and the “scary inspector” syndrome in Eilat.

“Shalom! Yakov will arrive in half an hour, wait.” – said African woman Marta, who opened the door for us at the center for working with adolescents and youth, located on Shkhoret Street.

Picture CRP

Then she laughed:

“Ha ha! No, it’s a joke. I don’t know when he will be. I talked to him, he’s not himself, he seems to have drunk.”

“I don’t understand what’s funny about Yaron, I should try to get through to Yakov and find out if he went to the Laguna villa and what’s wrong with him.”

“I agree and I don’t see anything funny here either.”

“Yes, Yakov. How are you?”

“Maayan, he says he doesn’t want to tell yet what happened to him, because he remembers almost nothing, only that he was at the villa, then a complete blackout and the next thing he remembers is only that he came home in the morning and that’s it. He could not explain anything to his wife and she did not let him into the house. At that moment, he could only shout something incoherently and wave his arms, then he ended up in the hospital and was diagnosed with severe poisoning. But he plans to come to work in the coming days.”

“I would like to see him in reality and understand what happened to him.”

And after the weekend, on the first working day of the new year 2022, we decided to go to a familiar address on Shkhoret Street.

There were always quite a lot of people in the center, but here, to our surprise, only one employee was present.

“Today there is no one, because the inspector should drive up, I’m in touch with him now, don’t distract me.” – she said with a worried look.

“And here, too, a terrible checker??????”

Scary checker virus picture

While my son and I looked at each other in puzzlement, a pickup truck drove up to the building, in the back of which there was some kind of device, like a lawn mower and several bags of soil.

In the car, we saw two men, one of whom, a tall brunette, went to inspect the courtyard of the center, and the second, fair-haired, of small stature, remained sitting in the car with an extremely displeased face.

“They look more like not scary inspectors, but like a city gardening service.
Yaron, let’s ask them what’s going on here?”

picture machine gardening

“Good.” – answered the son and addressed this question to the man sitting in the car.

“Maayan, he says that there are some strange people working in the center who are not all right with their heads, they complain that they were called and told some disgusting horrors, like flamethrowers will be put in their asses.”

“Let’s go, Yaron, I don’t want to listen to this nonsense.”

“I’m not interested either, Maayan.”

Only “it” again continued on the same day.

“Those guys are talking about a severed head again. Are there really no other topics? About something interesting, pleasant, beautiful, or even just delicious?” – said the son in the evening, when we went to the Shuk store for a minute and while we were choosing vegetables there, involuntarily overheard the conversation of workers.

Picture in store head

“I think we need to focus on the good stuff and on our own, Yaron.
Tomorrow we have a visit to Boris M, an elderly but very professional psychiatrist, we need his resume for a positive solution with army affairs.”

“It’s been raining for the third day already. The gray sky is so unusual for these places. But let’s go, Yaron, it’s time for the reception soon.” – I told my son the next morning.

“Yes, let’s go, Maayan.”

“From you 54 shekels, go to room number nine.” – we were told in the mental health clinic.

“Thank you!”

“Shalom. Manishma? (How are you?)” – said a gray-haired man of about 50 who came up to us.

“Yakov, did you come? We went to your center 5 times, but didn’t find you there.” – I said in surprise.

Yakov looked somehow exhausted, he was without his usual glasses, and his eyes shone with some kind of abnormal brilliance.

“I promised I’d come” – he said.

“I would really like to know if you have been to Villa Laguna?”

“I’m not ready to talk about this incident yet, especially since Martha laughed at me and said that I was not in order with my head, and if I now tell everything to the doctor, I’m afraid that he will give me a psycho certificate” – he replied. .

“You changed your names. Are they some kind of Indian ones?” – doctor Boris M. asked us, starting the appointment.

“No, these are traditional Jewish names.”

“Are you vegan like Indians?”

And a few more times in a conversation with a doctor, a mention of the Indians came through from him.

“Yakov said that the doctor has two villas, he is single and he is 69 years old, and during the reception he mentioned India several times. What do you think, Maayan, maybe they took him seriously too?”

“Anything is possible, Yaron. Look, the car of the chain of stores that the Indian Amit bought.”

“Yes, I see and the driver even winked at me.”

picture shop

“But it looks like another performance of our energy worlds, Yaron.”

In the evening of the same day, in order to get a more realistic picture of what was happening, we decided to go back to the familiar house on Shkhoret Street.
Unlike usual, in the Center, a bright light burned in all the rooms, and we approached the door, hesitantly opened it.

“Shalom! Manishma? Would you like to drink tea with us, otherwise it’s cool outside today?” – Martha asked hospitably.

“That’s very kind. Thank you! But we just wanted to know what happened yesterday?”

“Someone poured hot water over the electrical wiring from above and there was a short circuit, we called the master, he fixed everything.”

“Yes, and we came yesterday morning and saw that the gardening service came to you.”

“Yes, they have done a yard landscaping project and are making an estimate.”

“And Yacov? Was he here today?”

“No, he was gone for a long time. In general, he is not a very adequate, and prone to alcoholism person. I advise you to listen to him less.”

“Yes, thank you! Have a good evening!”

“By the way, Yaron, I remembered that Dr. Boris M. had a wedding ring on his finger, which means he most likely lives with his wife and it is likely that he does not have a villa at all.

Why do people endlessly senselessly lie and so often tell horrors?”

“I don’t know, Maayan.”

picture of question marks

The next day, my son and I went to clean Susan’s apartments, as it seemed to us, an absolutely adequate woman who is engaged in the hotel business with her husband and usually expresses her thoughts clearly and concisely.
We visited her twice before and each time before leaving, she thanked us for the good cleaning and put fruit and sweets in a bag for us.
This time, she seemed to have forgotten about the tradition that had begun, and while she was driving us home, Susan also began to … tell horror stories …

“Susan, what do you think of our employers at Villa Laguna?” – we asked her on the way.

“This man,” she said, without giving a name, “is just a terrible sadist and a maniac, several criminal cases have been opened against him, he threw a hot iron and a kettle of boiling water at his wife, which is why she left him.

That woman is a worthy couple for him, more than one criminal case has been opened against her, she pours something on people’s clothes and then they get skin cancer, and her husband has lost some intimate parts of his body.

The social services guy you called ‘is just a complete jerk, he’s bothering me with requests for help.
And anyway, next time I’d better leave you the key under the rug. I’m very busy with my business right now.” – Susan told us while saying goodbye.

“Yaron, is it really Susan, such a reasonable woman, who told us such inadequate and terrible stories?”

“Looks like it.”

“Dangerous job of cleaning…”

To be continued…

Crazy cleaning at Villa Laguna.

It was Thursday …

My son and I went to Villa Laguna to clean up.

“Yaron, will you stay at home or will you come with me?”

“How do I leave you, Maayan, at such a difficult moment? Of course I’ll go.”

“But this is just cleaning, Yaron.”

“Maayan, you yourself know how things are there.”

Less than three minutes later, my son and I came to a white three-story villa with beautiful white arched windows, a pretty little white fence and the owner’s Toyota, also white, standing next to it.

“Yaron, look, the large Adano’s (a tall, heavy-built African who sailed from Eritrea a few years ago and also works in the villa) bycycle is standing.” – I said, opening the gate.

“It’s kind of calming. Yaron, there is also a black girl of 5-6 years old, so big-eyed and pretty. Apparently this is Adano’s daughter. Ah, here he is.”

“Yes, Maayan, Adano says he can’t be here alone anymore.
And although he knew that we would come, he was invited an hour earlier than us and he decided to take his daughter with him so that it would not be scary and there would be someone to talk to.”

“Okay, Yaron, let’s go and say hello to Karin (the manager of the company and the common-law wife of the owner of the Igala villa) and find out today’s work plan.”

“Ok, Maayan, she says to take a vacuum cleaner and clean the artificial turf in the yard, removing the remains of a corpse from it.”

“Okay, Yaron, let me vacuum, and you work out on your computer courses.” – I said and got down to business.

“Well, the yard is clean. What else needs to be done?” – I went up to Karin.

“Okay. Now we have to go down to the basement, grab the big mattress and put it on the bed in room three.”

“Good!”

“Yaron, help me.” – I called my son.

Together we went down the stairs in the villa leading down, where there were also several rooms, and saw in one of them a pile of mattresses. We took out the right one and put it on the bed in room number three, but the mattress turned out to be very small, about fifteen inches narrower than necessary, and there was a huge yellow spot in the middle. In addition, the mattress apparently lay in a twisted state for a long time and did not want to lie flat, swaying on the bed like the hump of a camel.

“What is this ugliness? Why are you putting it in? It’s just awful” – said Adano, who entered the room at that moment.

“It really is. Karin, please see what to do with the mattress” – we asked the manager.

“It doesn’t matter how it looks, the main thing is that there is no smell of a corpse.
Yesterday we invited insect killer, because a cockroach crawled into one of the clients and he tried to pull the insect out of him, but failed, as a result of which the visitor fell apart, and his leg ran around the villa at night (we looked at the cameras).”

“I’m terribly tired of listening to this idiocy, and only one, rather gloomy topic.
A normal person will not agree to sleep on such a bed, but in the end it is not our business.
Is there any more work, Karin?”

“Yes, we need to clean room number seven, which was recently freed by a terrible inspector with three girls.”

I went up to room 7, from which two Israelis in kippah, who are hardly inspectors, actually emerged recently.

The room began to clean by Adano, who was already in some strange state, and his daughter was capricious.

But finally, we finished cleaning there. I was glad that it was time to leave this insane asylum.
But everything turned out to be not so simple.

“Finish? Finished cleaning?
Maayan, please sit here. Igal wants to talk to you.”

I sat down on a chair opposite the owner of the villa, who was writing something on the phone, as I noticed, in the translator.

“I want you to work for me” – he wrote.

“Yes, I do not mind.”

“I want to change clothes every day” – he wrote further.

“How can I help you with this?” – I asked in bewilderment.

“You will now change into these clothes, which were bought for one of the girls of the inspector, and you will give yours to me, I will take them to the washing machine and then I will put them on. And you will wear this one.”

With these words, he went to the bag with things and took out of it a new white T-shirt, dark breeches, socks and two pairs of sneakers and laid it out on a large white table, which they spread out in the morning for some unknown purpose.

“Yes, and I really need your sandals too.”

“This is some kind of nonsense, Yaron.”

“It’s hard to put it any other way, Maayan.”

I refused to change and Karin had a real hysteria.

“You should be ashamed that you do not allow the owner of the villa to change, he has to walk in dirty, bad-smelling clothes.”

She screamed for a long time, until we were very tired of the inadequacy of this scene and left, and she still continued to scream after us …

“Yaron, why does she need my old shabby clothes so much? It’s not clear.” …

“The only thing that is clear is that Karin needs clothes and shoes for some reason, and not for anyone to wear them, Maayan …”

In the evening I entered into a store in the center of Eilat, and Yaron delayed, taking out the mask necessary to enter.

After looking at the product I needed, I went out and saw that Yaron was still standing near the entrance.

“You have no idea, Maayan, who I saw just now.”

“Whom? Tell me.”

“Adano, he was passing by on his bike right now.”

“That’s good. Did he stop? Have you arranged to meet with him and discuss the situation at work?”

“Yes, tomorrow at three, near the entrance to the Shuk store. He also said that Karin had recently called him and said that if he was not ready to give his clothes to Igal, then he might not come to work.
And she asked him to say it to us too.
Yeah, well, it took her apart …”

“Yaron, I think I understood why Karin needed my clothes and shoes so much, and you said that she also wanted to cut some of my hair for Igal.
It all adds up …
Remember that they for some reason spread out the table. In some cases, what do put on the table?
Do you understand my point?”

“Yes, Maayan. The coffin they ordered before.”

“An spreaded table, a coffin, wearable things, shoes and hair – the picture is taking shape, isn’t it, Yaron? But not from the funny ones.”

“Yeah, creepy enough. Looks like they were going to do the rite, Maayan …”

A joke about a severed head (continuation). Part 2

On Sunday and Monday, my son and I, passing by the “Shuk” in the evening, did not see Peter, who was usually on duty from 5 to 10pm.

“I wonder why he’s not there? Let’s ask Miguel” ― I suggested to my son.

“He left for Hungary for the Christmas holidays for two weeks, he will only be in January. He was lucky, it is a pity that I was not in his place. He received a decent sum of money and an unscheduled vacation from the store in compensation for the unpleasant situation that you know.” ― said Miguel.

“Great!” — we answered.

On Monday, Karin asked us to clean her five-room two-story apartment near the Eilat Mountains.

About an hour after she left, taking us there, a short woman knocked on the door, she brought a criminal case summons for Karin.

“The criminal case is serious. What is she, interestingly, involved in?” ― we thought.

And on Tuesday in the “Laguna” events began to get not amusing, but rather sinister character.

“We need to clean room number nine very cleanly and quickly. Igal will go to bed there. He could not get home, he has some problem, the police are in his house” ― Karin gave us an assignment.

“Yaron, do you hear the great Adano’s (African’s) bycycle squeaked, so he is leaving. What happened, after all, it was only about an hour after we arrived, the time is only the beginning of ten in the morning? Why is he leaving, please ask him.”

“Adano said that he can no longer endure all this madhouse. He said that Igal asked him for clothes, change clothes.
And now Karina asked me if we bought new clothes for a voucher and can I give them to Igal so that he can change, because he could not get home and he has no change of clothes?”

“Yeah! The African has a good instinct. If he has already escaped, then no good will be expected.”

An hour passed, I was finishing cleaning in room 9, when we heard that some noisy work was going on upstairs.

“Strange, Adano has left, but then who could be there?”

“Karina said that a man came with a device for searching for the bones of a corpse and he looks for them in the walls and drills the walls where the bone finder shows their presence. You can go and see the car of this “specialist” is standing near the gate.” ― said the son.

“Are they completely out of their minds?
Where is Igal? Will he come here to sleep?” ― I asked.

“No, he didn’t wait and left after Karina fed him something. Before that, he told me that he slept normally at night and was not going to go to bed.”

“I don’t understand. I’ll go and throw out the trash and at the same time see what’s going on near the gate.”

“Yes, Yaron, there is a big tinted Ford Savannah van, and its owner looks so unfriendly and inadequate …”

“Do you have anything suspicious here?” – when he saw us, the “bone finder” asked.

He was a tall, densely built middle-aged man with large dark circles under his eyes, he looked quite aggressive.

“No, no, nothing.” – we answered unanimously.

“He has such a terrible expression …” – I said.

“Yes, it is clearly dangerous to talk to him, he looks angry and inadequate, plus a fairly massive size.” – added the son.

“You hear, he really does drill through the walls on the second floor.”

Indeed, going up to the second floor, in one of the rooms we saw several holes made in the wall. The man continued to drill new ones, standing on the stepladder. Because of the noise he made, he did not notice us.

“I wrote down the number of the car and took a picture of him. I do not understand what he is doing and why, but I do not want to stay here any longer. Yaron, call Igal and let’s get out of here.”

“Maayan, the owner of the villa says he is sleepy and asks to be left alone for a while, he is going to sleep in the car in the parking lot on the beach.”

“Did you tell him what’s going on here?”

“Yes, I said that some man was ruining the house, but that didn’t make any impression on him.”

“I don’t understand anything. Let’s go.”

“No, don’t go, you still have to hang the laundry from the washing machine.
We also need to sign where what lies in the closet …” – Karin did not let us leave.

“Yaron, why did she deliberately delay us with all sorts of nonsense?
In general, I am terribly tired of all this. Well done Adano for leaving on time.”

We were already exhausted from the stress and decided to take a walk to our favorite place in the mountains, in the desert.
Desert therapy helped as always, but in the evening, when we returned home, we again saw three missed calls from Igal.

“Yaron, call him back. Need to find out what’s going on there?”

“Igal says he’s with Karin, who’s making dinner right now. He’s going to stay overnight at her.”

“This is your business, Igal, but it looks like she is mixing something into your food and trying to manipulate you.” – the son told him about our suspicions.

“What should I do? Where to spend the night?” ― Igal asked.

“I don’t know. Spend the night with friends or rent an apartment, we can tell you one of our friends.”

It took about half an hour and we again saw Igal at the door.

“Yaron, this story is already starting to get boring …” – I said.

“I agree” – the son replied.

“Come in, would you like some tea or coffee?” – I asked Igal gloomily.

“No, thanks” – he replied, and sat down on a chair and began some kind of infinitely long story.
The conversation was in Hebrew and the son did not translate anything for me for a long time.

Finally, he reported:
“Igal asks if we can wash his clothes in the washing machine and let him to take a shower?”

“Of course, I would not want to. But it is somehow inconvenient to refuse, tell me that in principle it is possible.”

“Okay, then I went to get my things in the car, now I’ll bring them.” – said Igal and left.

“Listen, Yaron, but he seemed to say that he rented an apartment at our friend?”

“Yes, and it seems to be in the 8th entrance here.”

“That’s great. Call and tell them there is a machine and granules for washing.”

“Exactly. I’m already calling. He also says he didn’t find towels there.”

“There are 6 of them in the closet, let him have a look.”

The son sat down to his studies, but we were very excited and now and then again began to discuss what had happened.

“You cannot imagine, Maayan, how much filth, abomination and horror he told me.
That some maniac came to him and scared him, that he would stuff his cat with dynamite, shove a flamethrower up his ass, etc. … for almost an hour he told me such crazy stories.”

A day later we went to the “Laguna” again, sincerely hoping that Adano (an African who also works there) would come and we would discuss the situation together. A white tinted van was parked outside the villa’s entrance.

“I don’t know what was there, something incomprehensible, but we need to collect the crumbling plaster in the 5th room and put things in order there” – Karin gave us instructions.

“Good!” – we answered.

Literally five minutes later, we heard the great Adano squeak and were very happy to see him.

“It’s so good that you came. But here at work it’s already getting scary, especially alone” – he told us.

When we went to the second floor to clean the 5th room, I noticed that my son was looking at the sign on its door with surprise.

“You have no idea what is written here.”

“Of course not. What exactly?”

“Guess.”

“Better tell me, don’t waste time.”

“It says here that Yaron A. lives here.”
(A is the surname of the owner of the villa).

“Why did they write this, Yaron? What could it mean?”

“I don’t know, it’s hard for me to understand their logic, Maayan.”

“Me too. Have you agreed with Adano to discuss the situation?”

“Yes, we decided to talk when he goes to throw the trash in the bin outside the villa.”

“You can also grab the trash from the room so as not to arouse suspicion.”

“OK!”

I had almost finished cleaning the room when my son returned.

“Yaroshka, have you talked to Adano?”

“Maayan, you can’t imagine, there is again some kind of performance near the villa – at the entrance there were three shaking drug addicts, one of them brandished an ax, he chopped off palm branches with it, and right next to the garbage dumps there was a tall, densely built man and he was very disapproving, to say the least, looking at us. So we hurried back, deciding to discuss what was happening later.” – said the son.

“Ok! Yaron, please ask Karin what else needs to be done?”

“She said that we need to quickly clean the stairs from the traces of plaster so that it dries up, otherwise the undertaker might slip and fall.”

“What other undertaker? This is something new. The inspector won’t come today, neither will the bone searcher, but already the undertaker will come? And vampires are not expected to visit?” – I said and laughed.

“I don’t know, but Karin said several times today that they are waiting for the undertaker.”

“Yaron, did you ask if she understands what she is saying?”

“You know, Adano told me the sensible idea that if Igal and Karin were that insane, they would have gone broke or had an accident long ago.
However, they remember everything, they count money and drive the car neatly.
And drugs may be hidden in the wall near the air conditioner.
This is a fairly real and prosaic guess.”

“Well, very likely. Okay, I went to clean room 9” – I said.

“Okay, I’ll still sweep on the second floor.” – Yaron replied.

“Yaron, are the stairs dry? Otherwise the undertaker has already come” – Karin asked loudly.

“Yes, it seems to have dried up.” – answered the son.

“Yaron, who is the undertaker?” – asked African, watching at that moment something is on the phone.

“I don’t know for sure myself, Adano.”

“Then I’ll take a look on the internet.
Horrible! Look, Yaron, how terrible he is!”

“Adano, you’re looking at something wrong. This is an American wrestler. And the undertaker is most likely the one who makes the coffins.”

I began to tidy up the room number nine and, passing by the room that the African was cleaning, I saw that he had come out and showed me with signs that he really needed to talk.

“Yaron, go discuss what is happening with Adano and please write down his phone number. We need to discuss the situation with him after work, which is becoming more and more incomprehensible.
Then, they have a large strong community and they support each other …” ― I suggested to my son.

“I took his number, Maayan, he really really wanted to talk. After all, everything that happens here really gets on his nerves too. When I approached the African, he was sitting on the bed in the room he was cleaning in a strange state and could not come to his senses. Although it is understandable how much he went through in life, because he sailed from Africa, having sailed 3 thousand kilometers from Eritrea, where the war has been going on for decades and the standard of living is one of the lowest in the world. In general, we agreed to contact and chat after we leave here.”

“Good!”

“So that’s what I wanted to tell you more, Maayan. They pulled out a coffin from that white van that stood near the house.” – the son began his story on the way home from work.

“Coffin? Really? What color was it?”

“Yes, coffin, black.”

“Ebony?”

“No, probably dyed. Adano told me that. He saw how the coffin was pulled out of the van and while the door of the van was open, he saw that there were several more coffins, shovels and boots. The coffin was carried to the second floor, to the room that you cleaned up and then brought down.”

“Where, to the basement? Where was the ginger cat?”

“Yes, I already saw it myself. And then the master came, wrapped it with a chain and hung a lock on it. He also asked Igal which lock to hang on the coffin ― mounted or coded one?”

In the evening we went to do some shopping at the Daniel store.

On the way, we were overtaken by some clearly inadequate person who approached a car standing on the side of the road and suggested to the driver: “If you want masks, they are as ordinary in appearance, you cannot distinguish them, but whoever wears them for five days, will be in a thrill.”

And we saw that a dialogue began between then…

“It looks like the deal took place. Why are there so many inadequate people , what is happening?”

A joke about a severed head (continuation).

Saturday came.

“Today I am going to the villa “Laguna”, Yaroshka, to do the cleaning there.

“No, of course I’m with you, Maayan.”

“Okay, let’s go then.”

Igal, the owner of the villa, saw us and showed the door to the fenced off and canopy part of the courtyard and said:
“There was a diving club here, but the business has recently fallen into disrepair and I recently sold all the equipment to the Indians.”
Indeed, the walled off room was empty.
He pulled out a large vacuum cleaner from the territory of the former diving club, and my son and I enthusiastically began to clean the artificial turf in the yard.

“Maayan, Igal said that today there are many arrivals and it will be necessary to prepare several more for the arrival of guests.

“Good!” – I said and began to put things in order in the next cleaning object – room number 1.

Less than ten minutes later, Igal arrived.

“Guys, we have a problem. There is a suspicion that inspection may come after one in the afternoon.
It is necessary that when they come, none of the workers are here. Finish cleaning here, and let the rest of the rooms remain uncleaned.
And I will inform the clients not to come …

Well, unfortunately, I can’t get through to them, no one picks up the phone.” ― and with these words Igal, having run through the villa for several circles in search of the car keys, finally found them and left.

“Why are they so afraid of this inspection? I don’t understand. But nevertheless, if that’s the case, let’s go, Yaron.”

“Yes, of course, Maayan. You know, today Yigal told me a lot of some rather strange information.”

“Not about the severed head, I hope?”

“No. About the Indians. He said that they were staying at the villa and as a sign of friendship between them and their Jewish brothers, they gave him some kind of lion and juices with herbs.
And Karina (the manager of Laguna), it turns out, also came from India.”

Imperceptibly Thursday came next week, when there was work again at the “Laguna.”

“How are you, Yaron? How are you getting settled? Do you have clothes, do you, mother?”

“Well, she doesn’t walk naked.” – the son shocked him a little with his answer.

“Yaron, were you really so hungry when you first came here?”

“Yes, it was true, as well as the fact that our entire budget at the moment is 80 shekels.”

“I would like to help you. I can offer you cleaning my house once a week.
There work at least 6-8 hours.” – he said.

“That would be great!” – answered the son.

“Okay, we’ll come back to this conversation later.”

Then the traditional game of the evil inspector who was already on his way began again at the villa. Now Karin was actively involved in her, who for some reason went and turned on the TVs in all rooms, saying that this would harmonize the space and the inspector would be more benevolent. Igal left again.

“Yaron, I really want you to take the courses that I found for you every day, I ask you to seriously take up your studies.” – I said to my son when we returned home.

But literally a couple of minutes later the phone rang.

“Maayan, this is Igal, he is here and asks if we are at home.”

“Yaron, it turns out, he called us several times already. I see three missed calls from him.”

Entering, the owner of the villa first of all looked into our refrigerator.

“Large refrigerator and wardrobe, in general, yours is pretty cozy,” he said, sitting down on a chair.

My son and I looked at him in bewilderment. There was a moment of strange silence.

“Maybe some tea or coffee?” – I asked hesitantly.

“No thanks. I wanted to say that the situation in the villa worries me a lot. I think that this is some kind of intrigue of competitors and I need a trusted person who could do the cleaning there on a regular basis. In a few months I would raise him salary for a couple of thousand.”

“Yes, this offer is interesting for us. We could have vegan breakfasts or yoga classes there.” – suggested the son.

“Yes, it is possible. And you also wanted to sell a voucher for clothes? So we will assume that I am buying it. Here’s 400 shekels, 100 I will add later. Only I don’t need a coupon, you better really use it.” – he said before leaving, taking money from his wallet.

On Friday around noon we went to the “Shuk”, which was soon to close on Shabbat and open only on Sunday morning. A new surprise awaited us there.

The first thing that surprised us was that not one, but two guards were standing near the entrance to the store. In addition to the usually cheerful Peruvian Miguel, who worked that day, there was another Hungarian Peter, who was supposed to rest.

Contrary to his custom, Peter was dressed in some kind of house clothes, all stained with cat hair.
He looked as if he had just jumped out of bed and he was clearly annoyed by something.

“Something is strange here …” – said the son.

The same woman who told us about the teeth found in the burekas worked at the checkout counter. And there were several people standing near the cash register, who were busy checking checks, because almost all the goods were sold by the cashier with an error.

I stood in line to the cashier, and my son approached the Hungarian to find out what had happened and why he had come.

“Strange, stupid and disgusting story” – said Peter.

“I was asleep after my night shift when this woman cashier from the store called me.
I have a day off today and I decided to sleep well after the night shift, but she began to scream heart-rendingly into the phone that something terrible was happening in the store.
I didn’t even understand what exactly happened, I only realized that Miguel was not coping and my help was also needed.
I grabbed a pistol and ran out into the street, without even closing the door of my own apartment and running out into the middle of the roadway, began to hail a taxi.
Taxi drivers, seeing a man with a pistol in his hand and a worried expression on his face, were in no hurry to stop. One of them then all the same slowed down for a minute and that was enough, I pulled the door, climbed into the car and shouted:

“Let’s go quickly!”

“Where to go then? What happened? Why are you so disheveled?” – asked the taxi driver.

“Something terrible happened in the store, my help is urgently needed, go quickly,” I said to the taxi driver, not letting go of the pistol.

“Okay, guy. Just calm down and don’t wave your revolver, it makes me nervous. I’ll take you where you want and even for free. See the speed on the speedometer drops to a hundred, and we’re driving along narrow streets” ― the driver replied.

When we stopped near the store and I and the taxi driver saw that nothing special was happening there.

“You lied to me, you were in a hurry just because you were late for duty and wanted to sleep longer, you were just too lazy to get your fat ass off the couch early and you were afraid to get a scolding from the chef. You deceived me, this is mean, let’s then 30 shekels instead 25 on the counter. You are just a lazy and idiot, come out, you are disgusting to me.” – the taxi driver told me and it was very unpleasant.” – the guard complained.

“Yeah! Yaron, the Hungarian is usually not inclined to come up with anything, but let’s still ask Miguel what exactly happened here.”

“Okay, Maayan.”

But when we approached the Peruvian, who was sitting with rolling eyes, half falling out of his guard chair, we realized that he was unlikely to clarify the picture of what had happened and that it was indeed non-trivial.

“It’s good that they didn’t call me, but Peter, he was unlucky. But I don’t understand what happened” ― Miguel said.

On Saturday, Shabbat, when I was cleaning the apartment in the Lev Eilat complex, when I saw Yaron through the open door, a short man called him and asked:

“Have you seen if someone without a head washed the floors here?”

“No, I haven’t seen it,” the son replied.

“Although it is possible that there are not so few of them …” – we thought later.