Red Beetle - 1

We drove up north from Jerusalem. To some place we've never been to. Never heard of.

For Her.

Just to see. Her.

Yes, she is just a friend to us both, we are all friends.. just friends..we all are...

"Hey man, did you hear Dina is escorting a group of female American exchange students on a tour to the holy land?"

"Are they hot?"

"They are American. of course they are hot. They are from America"

Biton proceeds to make gangsta hand signals and then says "y'know what i'm saayyyyyyyin'?"

I laugh. its funny to me. Biton is funny. sometimes we ride the bus and he would take a finger and place it on the back of the seat in front of him. and he would slowly move his finger up while whistling an uphill describing tune, like WWWWWWoooooooooeeeeeeeiiiiiiiii. and then he reaches the top of the seat and starts moving his finger down while making a downhill describing tune. You know, sort of like NNNNEEEEEeeeeewwwwwww. And when he reaches the bottom he lifts his finger in the air and whistles 'shi-shu' quickly. and without fail, 100% of the times, I sit there giggling through the whole performance, waiting to hear the 'shi-shu', and when he does it I burst out in laughter like it's not the 3000th time i've seen it. We are 16 and Biton is my best friend. I don't have cancer yet. Biton still has his Harlem spirit although he was born to a Morrocan and Polish jews. Dina is our classmate. and although we don't know it yet, we both love her to death.

We are watching the NBA playoffs live from America. it's 1997, it's 3am and i'm sleeping over his place and we have snacks and we are watching the TV.

"Where are they now? Anywhere near us?"

Biton says: "I'm not sure. Never heard of this place before. I think it's about 4 hours north. Imagine my beetle trying to make it there"

"I think it can make it" I say.

"Yo, for real homie?" Biton says in a fake afro American accent after a minute.

"Are you doubting the beetle? She will make it man. We can leave now and be there by morning."

Biton is friends with a tall lanky doofus named Eddie. Eddie was, what you would call in those days, a Retard. But he was a real fool, meaning, in the clinical sense of the word. His sister was hot though, and everyone said she was a giver. That's what you called sluts back then - givers.

Eddie also spoke with a lisp. He called Biton 'Bizon'. But Biton was nice to him. Tolerated him. Gave him some confidence, some friendship. He was popular, and being friends with Eddie saved Eddie from a lot of abuse. Kids are nasty little shits to each other sometimes.

Anyway, Eddie's family ran the local pizza shop and so Biton always had free access to pizza. today he has an entire tray of cheese pizza in the fridge, a doggy bag from the pizza place.

"Let's take the pizza, put gas in the beetle and go find Dina".

"You think?" Biton says and drops 3 popcorns into his mouth.

"Yes" I say and drop 4 Bamba in my mouth. Bamba is the best thing that was ever invented.