Lod : Scene 2

After several dates, Dan and Jill arrive to Jill’s neighborhood from a restaurant. The taxi-cab driver tells Dan “You forgot your change”. Dan responds “Keep it”. “Thank you boss, you just made my day” says the cab driver. Jill smiles as they walk out of the cab. Before Dan there is a tall white building with balconies and occupants who are up late at night as he can see the lighted rooms through the windows. Dan “This is your place?”. “Yes” she responds. The building before Dan is nothing like he saw around Israel, so big and clean maintained streets. Jill tells Dan “Lets walk over here”. Dan follows Jill through into a beautiful park that’s specially made for little children to play In during the day time. Dan responds “Nice place”.

She grapples the rails before the park smiling and attempts to feel how it’s like to be taller than Dan. They walk around the building and finally return to the street that’s next to the entrance into the lobby. Parked outside is brand new 2007 silver Toyota FJ Cruiser. Dan thinks to himself These cars must be rare here, we’ve got plenty of them in the USA. Dan walks with Jill into her lobby before the entrance into the condominiums. “Thanks for tonight” Jill tells Dan. “Sure” Dan tells her and they call it a night.

The next day Dan takes the bus to the Lod mall from his cousin’s house in Ramla where he temporarily resides and plans to meet Jill there on her day off. Dan takes an apple with him after his breakfast there and walks to the bus stop in the hot and heavy feeling climate. Dan throws the apple pit over a nearby fence after waiting for the bus to arrive which took approximately a half hour. Dan thinks Damn!, this is going to take forever. I must have missed the bus a few minutes before I came here. He asks a woman who is waiting nearby to double check “Excuse me, Do you know if this bus is heading towards Lod Mall?” . “Yes, that’s right, if you’re not sure where to get off ask the driver and he’ll tell you”. “Thank you” he responds. The bus arrives from a distance and Dan digs into his pockets for change. He gets off the stop and meets Jill inside who is sitting on a bench watching a boy play his remote control car.

“Hi” says Jill as she rises and they head out to a bus stop where they are planning to go to a much bigger mall that’s called Azrieli. They sit on the bench under the bus stop roof and a many of the buses that stop there go to different routes. After a long wait surrounded by a really hot temperature they stood up and watched the sidewalk under a large tree where much of its berries have fallen. She then tells him “I’ve got a better idea; there’s a lot of stores here that sell similar stuff at the other mall” she informs him. He follows her as they encounter a big clothing store. There is one customer sales representative that is at the cash register and the other strolling around the store making sure everything is neatly organized.

“Can I help you?” he asks Dan. “Thanks, maybe in a moment” Dan responds. Dan looks around the store and finds many t-shirts and collar t-shirts that have unique designs on them. Dan feels the material of the clothes’ fabric and finds many of them to be polysynthetic which is tough to wear, especially in hot climates. Dan looks through the jeans too and finds many of them to be too tight and European lacking the loose and comfortable feeling that’s predominantly worn by men in the USA. Dan tells Jill “Big store, wide collection, but not really my taste”. “Do you want to look some place else?” Jill inquires. “Sure” he responds.

They exit and on their way they encounter a grocery store where Dan buys snacks and a couple of drinks. They cross the street and enter another store and this time they find t-shirts that are one hundred percent cotton. The salesman is excited to sell his products and offers Dan two shirts for a man and a woman imported from the United Kingdom for a really good price. “I’ll take it” Dan tells the salesman.