by Elik Katzav
“So during the first raids,” Koren assumes the reins of the conversation, “her numbers really sucked, so the guild wouldn’t keep her on, because she was like a kinda burden.”
Ohad opens his mouth to say something but Koren gives him this look so he shuts up and leans back against the wall.
“So one of those times it was just us five,” Koren continues, “she asked for our help in improving her game. Ohad here,” he points with his thumb, “would have loved to give her a hand, had he not been ashamed to even speak to her, so Idan took it upon himself. He volunteered to help her. I don’t have the time to go after weak gamers and carry them through, I wanna get ahead as fast as I can.”
Ohad is trying to interject again, but this time too, he avoids saying whatever he was going to concerning this subject under Koren’s watchful eye.
Naveh takes advantage of the fact that Koren picks his water bottle up to have a sip, so he interjects. “Now that I think of it, after Idan offered her his help, they spoke quite a lot, at first within the voice server and then on Skype as well. I remember calling Idan up one time about this school assignment, and he asked me to call him back later, cuz he was speaking with Lynn. It was strange. I remember it because I told him I didn’t see him online in the game, so how was he helping her learn the ropes outside the game, to which he replied he was talking to her on Skype about something that has nothing to do with the game.”
“Yeah,” Koren puts his bottle down, “also during the game, I remember seeing them chatting in a private chat room all by themselves on the voice server on more than one occasion. I tried to get in on the chat but I couldn’t, because they barred other people from having access to the chat room they were using.”
“Do you know what’s funny?” Ohad is suddenly getting closer to us.
“You are,” Koren retorts and grins to himself before Ohad completes his sentence.
Ohad ignores him and continues, “Idan was helping her for how long? A month? A couple of months? And Tzarina’s game never actually got any better.”
“Listen,” Naveh replies, “you’re talking about two very different characters. Idan was a warlock whereas she was a huntress, so it’s quite possible that what he knew wasn’t relevant for her game mode.”
“She was simply a bad player,” Koren stops them mid-flow, “That’s all. Doesn’t matter how long he would have tried to teach her, she wouldn’t have become better at it. She simply sucked as a gamer.”
- Was?
I feel the lead on Lynn is slipping away.
- She isn’t playing with you guys anymore?
“No, she stopped playing with the guild about a month and a half ago,” Ohad replies. “She told us her dad won’t allow her to play on the computer anymore cuz it was hurting her grades. She graduates next year so he won’t let her play until her grades improve, especially the final exams she’s still got.”
- So she was how old, seventeen?
“Yeah, something like that,” Ohad answers. “She spoke about it in one of our conversations, said she can’t wait to graduate and fly away somewhere for a long holiday. Koren was talking about it the whole week after, how he would like to be finished with school and go off to play basketball in the States.”
“What?” Koren responds, “You too would be glad not to have to return to school at the end of the summer break. Besides, going away to play basketball has always been a dream of mine.”
Ohad has no comeback. “So then, she stopped playing with us.”
- Pre-army vacation?
“Actually, she never even mentioned going to the army. She just said she probably won’t be joining or serving in the IDF, she’s got better plans than wasting her time on that national service bit.”
“And also,” Naveh adds, “She she’s not answering on Skype any more, she’s never online.”
Ohad and Koren are watching him. “What?” he responds, “After Idan disappeared, I tried to get hold of her and ask her if she knew anything about his plans or where he was going.”
It made sense for me to at least look into this.
- What?
Naveh seemed apologetic in front of his buddies. “They were talking a lot, you knew about it, and girls know how to keep a secret, so he must have told something, and she would like to help find him, and it’s pretty important to find out where Idan is. My parents are very worried.”
Koren is looking at him. “It’s all good, bro, I just wish you told us. We would have gone online too to look for her.”
“Yeah, it’s a pretty good idea,” Ohad agrees. “I’ll check if she’s online from now on and ask her if she knows anything.”
- But she isn’t. She didn’t even respond to you. Do you have her Skype username? Can I have it?
“Yeah.”
Naveh pulls his mobile out and flips through for a few seconds. Then, Koren turns his head, which gets him a shove and an angry look from Naveh, to which Koren replies, “What? Are you hiding something from me?”
Naveh raises his head from his screen and glares at him again. Koren is merely smiling now, and Naveh gives me the details from his Skype account. I write them down as he reads them out to me.
- Is there anything you might recall from your conversations with her? Perhaps her family name? Where is she from? Anything that might help me trace her?
“Nothing I can remember,” Ohad shakes his head. “I do remember she missed a raid one evening because she had to go with her mom to Negev Mall to buy some clothes. It was funny, because Koren asked her why she was going to the desert to pick up clothes, and she replied it wasn’t in the desert, and that the mall was actually in Be’er Sheva.”
“Right,” Koren jumps in, “it was really funny.”
“No,” Ohad retorts, “It wasn’t funny at all. If you knew anything about the world besides basketball, you would know Negev Mall was in Be’er Sheva.”
“Anyway, Idan was also helping her with school work, all kinda stuff she asked him to put together for her, I think.”
- Do you remember what about? Which subject it was?
“History or something. He told me about it when he asked me to help him search online.”
- History? Archeology?
“Dunno. Maybe she was taking archeology and he was helping her find some things.”
I look at the three of them watching me in silence for a few seconds before I put it out there and ask them flat out:
- Do you think he would run off to meet Lynn under any circumstances?
It takes them a few seconds to digest my question. Each of them takes a long look at his shoes, before Ohad looks at me and says, “He would not have run away to her. He already saw her. They met already.”
“Ohad! We promised,” Koren tells him, half-whispering.
“So what if we promised? It’s not like they’re gonna punish him for going to her. He isn’t here anyway, so it doesn’t matter no more.”
- Do you remember whether he told you he went to see her and what happened during his visit?”
Ohad leans back and sighs. “He didn’t tell me much. It was a few weeks ago. One evening, he said he had arranged it, he was going to see Lynn. He cut class especially for that. He was really excited by the whole thing. That much I do remember. But he didn’t go to her now, I am sure about that. After the second time he went, he told me he wasn’t going to see her again, so I thought it was over and done with.”
- Why wasn’t he going to see her again?
Ohad paused to think again. “I don’t remember all of their conversations. I just remember he didn’t wanna see her no more cuz she told him she had lied to him, so he didn’t want to see her ever again.”
- He didn’t meet Lynn again, but is it possible he was still talking with her after this?
“Dunno,” Ohad replies. “Maybe. It was a while back.�
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- He didn’t tell you anything about where they met? What did they get up to or something like that?
He turns red for a moment. “They met at her place. From what I got, it was somewhere near Be’er Sheva. Idan told me he had to switch a few buses to get there. I don’t know what they did when they met. He didn’t say much apart from mentioning they talked quite a lot. Maybe they studied together or something.”
He is still blushing. No point embarrassing him. I guess he’s thinking about other stuff he prefers not to divulge in front of them. I have no intention of embarrassing him any further.
- Have you told anyone?
“My mom. But she said we mustn’t speak about this with anyone, so they won’t get us mixed up in the investigation, that they won’t blame us for being a part of it or for not turning to a grown-up, and that it was already too late to speak now, they will only accuse us of hiding information. She said it was best not to say anything.”
Oh, those parents, I think to myself while Ohad is speaking. Putting fear into their kids’ minds, teaching them to take care of no one else but themselves, never help another friend out, even if it won’t cost them a thing. Egotistical.
Koren’s cell phone is ringing. He turns red the moment he picks up. “My mom says we shouldn’t be speaking with you,” he picks up his water bottle. “She says you’ll frame us for what happened to Idan,” he continues to listen and report what she says. “You’re committing an offence. We are minors, and our parents told you they weren’t allowing you to speak with us, and you still came along and talked to us,” he’s beginning to leave.
“My mom is calling your folks, Naveh and Ohad. She’s also calling the cops to have him arrested for talking to us, so you two better stop talking.”
Naveh turns away and follows him.
Ohad looks at me closely. “I hope you find Idan. I hope he’s ok,” he runs and joins his brother.
Chapter 8
Michal calls me up later that afternoon, sounding very tired. She tells me about the fight she had with the parents of the boys I had spoken with earlier that day. I try to offer my apologies, but she cuts me off.
“Whatever it takes to find Idan.”
That’s all she cares about. Her friendships and other people in her life pale next to finding her boy.
- Could you please provide me with the details of his bus pass? I’m thinking of attempting to try and track his movements before he disappeared. Let’s see what I can find.
The line goes silent for a few seconds until Michal reads out the details for her credit card and the bus pass assigned to Idan’s prepaid transit pass.
“Just don’t order stuff online,” she attempts to joke around.
I laugh politely.
- Don’t worry, I won’t make any use of this card.
Well, not too much.
Michal hangs up and I call Rose. My heart is beating fast just at the prospect of hearing her ‘Hello.’
Calm down, what are you, twelve?
- Hi, what’s up?
“Great. Just finished the last class for today. Grabbing a quick shower.”
- Ah, oh, well, I’ll catcha later then.
“What, you wanna come over?”
- Na, you must be tired.
“No, no, come, we’ll have some tea.”
- Actually, I need your help. Do you have the time to dig up some info for me?
“For the right price, always.”
- Payment is a stretch, I didn’t get paid this month yet, so I don’t kno-
“For you—special price. Give me a foot massage and you can have anything you like.”
- Hmm, ok. Sure? Aren’t you tired?
I can think of nothing I’d like more than to rub her feet. Well, actually, I can…
“Quit stalling and come already.”
- Sure. Let me get organized and I’m on my way. Running.
I am about to knock on Rose’s door when it opens and a party consisting of a few men and women leaves her apartment. They’re joking around and laughing. Some have dreadlocks, aka ‘Rasta hair’, and have comfy harem pants on. Others are carrying rolled up yoga mats.
I had no reason to be concerned Rose might be waiting up. She just gave a yoga class.
The class passes me by. They smile as they look at me. The girls keep their heads down, feeling self-conscious. I follow them with my eyes as Rose calls out through the door, “And if you please, try not to check out my students’ asses when they pass you by.” She’s saying it loud on purpose.
The group’s laughter reverberates all through the stairway.
I smile sheepishly and turn to Rose.
- Well, if a girl has a nice ass, why not stare at it?
My comeback only adds to their merriment, with the men joining the chorus now.
Rose is looking right at me. “What’s wrong? Why is your face so scratched up?”
- Oh, I had an unpleasant run-in this morning. You should have seen the other guy.
What a poor attempt at joking around.
She’s sulking. “You were in a fight?”
- No, honest. The police picked me up. They weren’t too gentle about it.
“What? You got arrested? What for?”
- They didn’t arrest me. They called me over for a chat and saw I was packing, so they jumped to the wrong conclusion, overreacted and, to make a long story short, broke a desk with my face.
“So, you’ve been walking around like that all day? Looking like a boxer?”
- It looks that bad?
“You’re all scratched up with swollen bruises. It sure doesn’t look good. Does it hurt?”
- Well, not too much. Not anymore.
“Ok. I figured you’d get here later than that. I just gave two classes one after the other,” she says as we enter the hall.
“Do you mind terribly if I took a quick shower? I went through a great deal of energy these past two hours. I wanna get a good wash before we get to it.”
- Sure thing.
I let her walk into the living room in front of me. She walks over to the large window, stands on her toes to shut it. “I know you’re checkin’ me out,” she says, her back towards me.
- What I said outside is the honest truth.
Smiling, she turns her head halfway towards me. She finally succeeds in closing it shut.
“I had to bring some fresh air in after class. Feel free to turn the AC on. Oh, and there’s some tea in the pot. It’s freshly brewed, not even twenty minutes ago. Make yourself at home. Oh, how silly of me, you are home,” she says on her way from the living room to her bedroom.
I nod. I have such a stupid grin on, the same smile I always get whenever I see Rose. Back when we met, she took me in when I was physically broken and in one of the worst slumps in my entire life ever since I can remember, in the throes of a mental crisis, or spiritual void. She picked the pieces up ever so skillfully, insisted on never letting me embrace the sense of feeling sorry for myself. She doesn’t have much formal background, she’s simply a giver, as well as headstrong and highly intuitive. She helped me get back on my feet. So yeah, her apartment is indeed kind of like my second home, the place where I won my foothold back, in more than one sense.
True, the tea is still warm. Hmm. A bit bitter. Not like coffee, but still.
Sage, lemon and honey. The lemon and the honey refresh, restore and energize you, and the sage, bitter though it may be, nevertheless calms the body, releases the toxins away, mostly through sweat. Rose loves sage, relishes it, but doesn’t use it so much, because it is an acquired taste not everyone is keen on.
I grab the leftover cookies and take my seat at the small table outside her kitchen.
This small table is home to Rose’s laptop. Underneath, I can see Idan’s PC attached to her laptop
.The computer lights keep flashing.
Rose’s screen is off. I hit one of the keys and it wakes, only to reveal line after line of gibberish running across. No matter how hard I try, I can make no sense of these.
I suddenly feel hungry, so I go in the kitchen and raid her fridge. A pack of vegan cheese and a can of olives, one tomato, a cucumber. Exactly what any hungry man craves...
At least when it comes to buns, Rose gets the real stuff. I make myself two sandwiches and return to the table as I chew on one of them.
Rose is standing barefoot in the corridor, drying her hair with a towel. She has this scruffy long shirt on which barely covers her short skivvies. She must have caught on that I was staring at her bare feet, because she’s sashaying towards me and then leans over.
“I sure hope you’re not gonna be sitting here, spreading crumbs all over my laptop.”
- No.
I take a big bite so I can barely swallow. I relocate to the other side, my back to her laptop. Rose smiles as she takes her own seat in front of me.
“Did you take a peek?”
- Me? I know better than to touch your laptop when it’s on.
She looks at me and frowns. “The screen was off and now it’s on. Did that just happen for no reason?” she says, sounding like a schoolteacher.
- I don’t know what to tell you. I sat down with my tea, and it suddenly came to life. Honest!
“Oh well, there’s nothing interesting going on at the moment anyway,” she immerses herself in the screen. “I’m still trying to pull up data from Idan’s PC. All I have for now are a few clusters from his messaging program, but I found nothing relevant, which really gets my goat.”
This gets a smile out of me each time. Rose doesn’t like to be outsmarted when it comes to computers. If anyone succeeds in getting the better of her in some way, she’ll do her utmost to give as good as she got. ‘Karma,’ she’ll say, ‘right back in your face.’
She turns towards me and lays her hand on my leg. “So, what do you need a hand with?”