Central station - a nightly observation report

Eilat (the southest city in Israel), just after midnight, August 1997

The Sting

At the square of the central station in Eilat, travelers were scattered
in different spots. Most of them young travelers.
They came back from the Sinai desert. Individuals, couples and loud
groups. The square was big enough to contain them all without extra friction.
The cashiers have been already closed for an hour and most of the people
had with them pre-bought tickets.
Among all the bleary-eyed people, there was an old man, with a nasty
smile, running around.
Grovelingly he approached the people, asking "would you be kind enough
to sell me a bus ticket to Tel-Aviv? I will pay double price..". He was
willing to do anything to reach Tel-Aviv by first light. "You shouldn't
mind, you are young people, you'll have an extra night in Eilat, plus,
you'll make a few bucks".
Maybe it was his phony smile, or Eilat's unbearable heat that caused
everyone to refuse, but he kept going.
The young guy, with the insecure walk, his eyes frequently side-looking,
was spotted by both me and the old man at exactly the same time. When he
reached the station from the dark street it was clear to both of us that
he is the perfect bait.
After a short and smily negotiation, hands were shaken and the old man
led the young sucker to the cashiers area.
They approached the most toughest looking guy ever seen in that area for
a long long time. He was about 30, extremely calm, a cigarette stuck in
the side of his mouth and his eyes were almost closed. Kind of a local
version of Al-Capon.
The old man turned to Al-Capon and fearfully introduced the sucker.
Capon didn't even bother to look at them and only raised his hand to
their direction. The sucker looked at Capon's hand, looked back at the
old man, who nodded him an "OK" nod and then put his ticket at Capon's
open hand. Capon, not even looking at the ticket, didn't say a word and
inserted it to his pocket.
A trembling smile appeared on the sucker's face and he asked "what
about the money?". For the first time since they met, Capon raised his
eyes and gazed at the sucker's face. He smiled a little smile and turned
his back to the two.
In his despair, the sucker turned with a plea to the mediator, who put on an act
as he was really enraged. The old man stood infront Capon and
talked to him with pseudo fury. Capon continued, as if there is no one around
him, to suck his cigarette calmly.
The old man, who knew his exact role in the play, left the scene, looking furious.
For many minutes the sucker stood still behind Capon, not saying a word
and shading tears infront of the sleepy crowd. After a while he turned to a
bench, as far as he could get, and wrapped himself for a night sleep.

At 1 AM Capon took the last bus to Tel-Aviv.


Menage-a-trois

In the other side of the central station, a loud and happy group was
sitting on the black asphalt. They were three girls and a boy. They
looked 16 or 17.
By the subjects of their conversation, it seemed that they were locals.
The girls, like the "peacock" who sat between them, wore an unbelievably
high black platform shoes and giggled frequently.
The idyll was violated when the peacock stood up and told the girls that
he must go now. From the moment he disappeared in the dark night,
angry voices were heard from the bunch of girls.
The smiles turned into furious looks, and the giggling to fire blazes.
It seemed that this peacock was the boyfriend of one of the girls: a
lushing pretty creature with a high voice, but while being her
boyfriend, he used to spend some few quick nights of love with her
friend, a wicked little grasshopper.
The third side of this triangle tried, uselessly, to mediate between the two.
Pretty girl: "You're a fuckin' slot! ye told me you have nothing with
him! how could you do this to me!? "
Mediator: "Ye, it ain't nice at all..."
Grasshopper: "Oh no, no, he only called me few times but I told him to
forget it.. we didn't even meet!"
Mediator: "Guys are like shit. You mustn't believe a word they're sain'"
Pretty girl (sobbing): "I don't believe ye', Rachel saw him with ye'..
and ye' call yourself a friend?!"
Grasshopper: "No, who could ever do such a thing to ye'? you're so
pretty, everyone have a crush on ye', you're the prettiest chick in town"
Pretty girl (crying): "I ain't pretty, no one wants me. I hate him!!"
At this point, the mediator came and sat infront of the pretty girl and
hugged her. In a few seconds, the grasshopper joined the hug and the crying.
There they were, sitting on the dirty asphalt at the central station in
Eilat, in the middle of the night, wondering together about matters of
great importance.

A note: The scenes described here are authentic, and took place simultaneously.

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