CHAPTER 6
Sharing a room with Yippee was a not as bad as I thought it would be.
He knew that I was having a hard time dealing with things, and that
I was prone to fall into a depressive funk. He was a genius at cheering
me up, and I felt very lucky to have him around. No one had ever
made me laugh like Yippee could, and it occurred to me that this was
one of the greatest qualities a person could have. Better than
generosity, friendliness or cleverness, the quality of humor was the
best thing to have among friends because it was really all three of
those qualities rolled into one.
When we would get ready to go to the pub in the evening, Yippee
would put a bow tie on one of his Hawaiian shirts, run a brush
through his natty blonde mop and exclaim proudly, “You know, Jake,
I’m uncouth, undignified, unrefined…” and he would pause, grin
goofily, and strike a pose, “…and unbelievably good looking.” Then
we would shuffle over to the pub and he would try to pick up on every
girl there until finally the homeliest one in the place might let him
kiss her on the dance floor. He would always make a public spectacle
by blatantly begging her to come back to his room with him. When he
finally did get laid one night, he waited until the woman had fallen
asleep, and woke up all the male volunteers to come see what he had
done. He was proud like a kid with a new bike. It turned out that the
next morning she demanded a 100 shekel fee. Poor Yippee had
picked up on one of the recent immigrants, a Russian prostitute. The
worst part, he said, was that he actually had to beg her to come home
with him. Still, he laughed. I loved him to death.
One evening, I was walking to the kibbutz store for an ice cream
and I saw Lenny sitting on his little terrace, reading Emily Post’s
Guide to Etiquette and chuckling. I told him that I was off to the store
and asked if he needed anything. He thought for a moment,
scratching his chin for emphasis and replied, “Yeah, could you pick
me up a new bum? Mine’s got a crack in it.” He decided that he would
come along for a walk, and we stopped by Greta’s place on the way.
Lenny had a huge crush on Greta, but although she was generally
affectionate, she didn’t seem to have special feelings for anyone in
particular. She reminded me of a cat who sweetly rubs against your
BIG AMERICAN BREAKFAST
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