Memories & Dreams

Chapter 22 - Impressions

A chartered van was used to transport the production team for the American Hebrew School educational project to their work site every day. It arrived to pick Greg up in front of his hotel in Jerusalem early on Thursday morning. Greg supposed it was extra early, but there had been so many of those during the week, he was beginning to get used to them. They had two more days of filming to do outside the city, then they would be finished. After that, it would be up to the editors to see what they make of the material the film team produced. On Saturday Greg would be flying home to New York, a place he hadn't lived in more than forty years, but already his thoughts and mind were there.

After exchanging emails with Susan very early that morning, Greg made it a point to download the materials she sent so he could study them during the drive. Scrolling through them, Greg counted eleven properties that Susan viewed in one day.

"She has been busy," he remarked to himself.

"Who has?" one of the members of the production crew who was riding with them asked.

"My wife. She's been house hunting while I've been here. She viewed eleven properties just yesterday," Greg shared.

"Wow, eleven! Why so many?" the man asked.

"From what she's sending me, it looks like she is having trouble finding properties with the right combination of features," Greg replied.

"What's wrong with them?" his companion asked.

"Some are too old or in a state of disrepair, some are in a bad location relative to the structures around it, some are too small, some of a style she or I don't care for," Greg listed off some of the problems he'd seen.

"How does this batch look?" another of the passengers in the van asked.

"So far, very encouraging. I shall have to make a better study of these, but I will let you know," Greg said.

Greg spent the next three hours during their drive studying the materials Susan sent as closely as he could. It was obvious she was favorably impressed with one particular property due to the number of photos she sent. It featured the floor-to-ceiling windows he knew they both liked, but she didn't say much else about it. It had the right number of rooms, though he knew rooms in buildings like this one sometimes tended to be extraordinarily small. But Susan didn't provide those sorts of details in the notes she sent. She only commented that she'd already asked Mr. Jordan to include it on the list of properties they would view together on Monday.

There were two more properties of interest in what she sent, and Greg flagged these to be seen on Monday as well. He wasn't home yet, but he was beginning to recognize that Monday was indeed going to be a very busy day.

The last two days of filming in Israel went about as Greg expected. Then finally, on Friday afternoon, his work there was complete. He returned to his hotel to pack before joining the Wilsons for one last dinner in their home.

c

Greg arrived at his friends' apartment about an hour before Karen intended to serve their evening meal.

"I hope I'm not too early," Greg said when John opened the door. "However, I cannot stay late, so I thought perhaps I would come early to give us more time to visit."

"I'm glad you did," John said. "And it doesn't matter at all that dinner isn't ready."

"Absolutely not," Greg agreed.

"Come on in," John invited. "I'll let Karen know you are here."

"Hello," Karen said, coming from the kitchen with a towel in her hands. "I'm making fried chicken tonight. I hope that's okay."