Stairways to Heaven
by Maria D., Israel
In Jewish tradition, a person responsible for a wedding of at least three couples earns his way to heaven. According to this tradition, I shouldn’t be worried, because I will end up in the heavens. In this article I will tell you about six people that ensure my existance in the next world.
Yossi went to the same high-school that I did, and he is still one of my dearest friends ever. He was always the serious one in our gang. He was also a sweetest one.
During few years after we finished high school, he couldn’t find a steady girlfriend. He was too shy to court after girls he worked with, and the girls we introduced him were not serious enough. But we didn’t give up, and introduced him every girl we believed was worth him. I and two of my friends also made a habit of interrogating him after each date he had, and he would tell us in details what went wrong. At a certain point we decided that he’s a big boy, and we should stop interfering with his personal life. A few weeks after we stopped introducing new girls to Yossi, I bumped into an old acquaintance of mine. Actually, I didn’t know Shiran so well- we took a grad course together once, and haven’t talked since. But I remembered her to be a nice serious girl, and thought it was worth a try. So I just asked her if she had a boyfriend and, after receiving an answer I wanted to hear, took her phone number. Yossi wasn’t very enthusiastic, but promised to give it a try.
After their first date Yossi, as usual, told us how it went, and consulted us on his next moves. After his second date Yossi didn’t talk much, said it goes OK, and he doesn’t want to ginks it. The next time I asked him about Shiran, he refused to discuss her with me. On my surprised “why?” he said he believes she might be the one. Yossi knew from the third date, that he is going to marry Shiran, and he did. Yossi was the first guy to marry in our gang, and I was the guest of honor in his wedding.
About two month after starting dating Yossi, Shiran threw a birthday party and used this opportunity to introduce Yossi to all of her girlfriends. I was also invited to this party. Being an only Yossi’s friend invited, I was afraid to get bored and asked a friend to accompany me. Alex never refused a good food, so he agreed to come with me to the party. It was a strange party indeed. Apart of Yossi, Alex was the only guy invited. All the rest of the guests were Shiran’s girlfriends who came to the party by themselves. The food was good, but the company was a bit boring. Yossi was introduced to Shiran’s friends, and did a great job to maintain a conversation with all of them simultaneously. I and Alex amused ourselves by deciding which of Shiran’s friends Alex should date first. Eventually Alex decided on a girl, which was sitting in front of us. However, Shiran told us that that girl had a boyfriend, and he simply couldn’t make it to the party.
After a few weeks Shiran asked Alex if he’s still interested with that girl, Anna, whom he met at her birthday party. Apparently Anna heard us talking about her, and she also liked Alex. So after breaking up with her boyfriend she remembered meeting a nice guy at Shiran’s birthday, and decided to go out with him. The rest, off course, is a history. This couple is also happily married, and I take a credit for introducing them.
Once I had to take a work-related course far away from home. The course lasted for one week, but during the course I met few interesting people. One of them was Natalie.
Unlike vast majority of my friends, which are engineers or computer programmers, Natalie was a literature student. Nevertheless, we enjoyed each others company very much, and decided to keep in touch after the end of the course. Due to the fact that we lived and worked far away from each other, I couldn’t meet with Natalie on a regular basis. However, she managed to come to one of my birthday parties. I couldn’t pick her up, so I asked one of my friends to pick her up from the train station on the way to the party. Probably, John expected to meet someone older, or more mature than Natalie. That’s why he was surprised to meet a young girl with a walkman, listening to one of the popular pop-music bands. Being a classical music listener himself, John made a few jokes about her musical taste, and did not show much interest in her later. Even though we continued to keep in touch with Natalie, she couldn’t visit me often, and didn’t become a part of our gang.
After a few years John received a good job offering away from home and away from his friends. On his rare visits he told us that he felt a little lonely in a new city, living by himself. I remembered that Natalie lived in the same town, and asked her to show him the around. She happily agreed. Next time John called, he was very excited. He told me that he and Natalie visited every major art museum in the town, and that he enjoys her company very much. To my next birthday John came together with Natalie. He seemed very happy, and told me that he was falling in love. When I came to congratulate Natalie, she was a little surprised. Apparently, she did not regard the time spent together with John as romantic hangouts. Moreover, she was taken aback a little by his enthusiasm. Knowing that John might be a little shy, I ask Natalie to reconsider her attitude towards him, and she promised to give it a chance. A week later, Natalie called me to tell that she was completely and totally in love with John. On their third anniversary John still made jokes about Natalie’s musical taste.
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