“Money comes and goes — who knows if I’ll always have it? I want to know I can get along without it if I have to”
ante Hindy’s armchairs were soft and comfortable. Yonatan settled into one right after the Friday night seudah, thinking over the events of the past few days and wracking his brains to recall when and how that absurdly important scrap of paper had made its way into his backpack….
“I know!” he suddenly said, and his young cousins all looked at him, amused.
“What do you know?”
“Nothing… I just remembered something I’d forgotten,” Yonatan stammered. “Of course I was at the Central Bus Station! I came to Israel for a few days in the summer to check out the job market, and I had an interview lined up. I had a package with me from my neighbors, the Bodners, for their son, and I was supposed to call him when I arrived and arrange to have him come and pick it up. But I wanted to walk around town on my own, so I decided to go to this little place, the Hotel Avital, where Jeremy Bodner was staying.
“It was very hot, but I didn’t take a taxi. I have this thing about experiencing life like a poor person, especially in Jerusalem, where so many people can’t afford luxuries like taxi rides.”
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