The Bridge Tournament

'Okay everybody!' Declared Everon clapping his hands together, to retract his audience's waning attention. 'We're having a mini Bridge tournament. Reuven and me are on a test run as a pair - and that's your once in a life chance to beat me. where are the cards?'
'We can't play before putting the kids in for their afternoon nap, they'll mess everything up.' Reminded him Hilla.
'All right, all right, summon then that boy of yours, he must not sit on his ass and watch the pots in the kitchen! Tell him to feed the kids in there and put them to bed right afterwards! We are wasting precious time, don't you think?' To Shatz's amazement Everon's instructions were carried out right away, Pascal their boy was summoned to erect the green-topped bridge table and took the kids with him to the kitchen. Hilla who supervised the whole operation followed the three of them, to prevent any unexpected naughty reaction. Returning she found the three men round the bridge table ready to play
'What's the matter with you all, what's the rush? Lunch would be ready in less than half an hour!' She reproached them as if they were her own kids.
'That half an hour of yours is going to take a long time, sit down and let's start our game.' Answered her Everon.
They played, had a lunch break and went on playing, but after several rounds the Priels' little one woke up and came down. Hardly five minutes passed and Leeat their little daughter started to wail, calling her mother - and that was it, the game was over. 'Okay I've got to move!' Declared Everon standing up, pushing his chair back. 'There're still some urgent matters that I've got to settle this weekend!' He added pompously and made his way to the doorway.
Hilla with their little daughter in her hands and the rest of them except Pascal, who was left behind to put things back in order - followed Everon to his car. 'Give our regards to Rivka and Yossef and do apologize in our name.' She asked Everon as he was pulling the car's door open, eager to get started and leave. 'As far as I know you didn't feel well that night, if that was the case...' He answered her with a frozen look. 'Why apologize?'
'That's right, I didn't feel well and I didn't feel like coming, that's why!' She retorted impatiently.
'Oh come'n! You're leaving in a few days!' He muttered as he entered his car. 'See you on Sunday!' He called out, switched on and left with screeching tires. 'Don't stand there watching him! Let's get back right away!' She ordered them angrily, shouting almost. 'That grown-up child, who can't do without an audience!' How embittered she is! Wondered Shatz as he followed them both to their dinning room. Pascal took the kids out again, to play in the sandbox, while Shatz and his hosts sat next to the table in gloomy silence.
'Where are the other members of the delegation located, where do they live?' Asked Shatz who wished to break the oppressive silence.
'What...?' Asked Hilla smiling with wonder. 'He didn't tell you?' She added bursting into an uncontrolled laughter. Moshe who was still caught in his deep thoughts, turned to look at Shatz with wide open eyes, utterly amazed and joined his wife in a gay burst of laughter.
'Well,' she said overcoming her fit of laughter at last. 'As from next Thursday on, the delegation would sum up with you alone. You are the delegation!' She repeated her message with a short laugh.
'Let's not forget the head of the delegation.' Exclaimed Moshe and they were laughing again, getting rid of their frustration.
So, the delegation is just an empty title, It's Everon and myself plus the embassy crew, who are a secluded sect as far as the "delegation" members are concerned. Nevertheless that bit of information didn't shock nor troubled Shatz. So what! He almost muttered aloud, I'll get along with him, Everon respects me Thought Shatz, consoling himself.
'We won't leave you groping in the dark, I'll explain the whole thing to you right away.' Turned to him Hilla. 'About a year ago the delegation included four more experts or rather farmers, just like us. They instructed the locals in their villages, each one of them was posted in a different district - the district he was responsible for. Each one of them lived in the main village of his district with his family. You can't imagine what they had to endure, in what conditions they had to live - no electricity, no running water! We've hardly met them, as they were allowed to get down to Mouaka once in a couple of months; Everon who had to pay them a visit from time to time, never bothered. That's because the Minister wouldn't let him have a car at his disposal, a Landrover for that purpose. They never had enough fuel, and when they did have the Landrover ready, it had to run errands for the Minister, or some other local VIP - while Everon as you may guess, had no intention to ride over the "Piste" with his brand new sacred "Quat-Cent-Quat" (Peugeot 404's nickname) '
'One visit to Mouaka in a couple of months? I can't grasp it, were they exiled, or what?' Interrupted her Shatz with amazement.
'It isn't that simple, they had to live quite far from here, some several hundred kilometers from Mouaka and the only place where they could get most of the basic provisions, was down at Mouaka - and it still is the only place. So they came down once in a couple of months, as I said. These are the embassy's rules and they were supposed to get back after a couple of weeks stay, no more. Now then, if you'll ask me I wouldn't have agreed to be stuck there, in some god-forsaken village, which is in fact a real miserable hole nothing more, without electricity and without running water. I don't know how they could live there, and how they managed to survive at all?' She added thoughtfully. 'Well, except the Harpazs' who lived some five hundred kilometers up north, the others had a two days one-way journey on coming down to Mouaka. There's no need to explain that such a trip down was summed up in four days of travel plus a couple of days for shopping and arrangements - plus a week or ten days of rest at the Etoile, just to remind oneself how civilized people are living.' 'We'd better stop chewing the past!' Suggeted Moshe, 'they've left more than a year ago, and above all, it has nothing to do with us!'
'Don't interrupt me!' She reproached her husband angrily. 'We have nothing to hide and there's nothing we should be afraid of - we're leaving next week, remember!' Turning back to Shatz she went hastily on. 'There's just one thing I'd like to add concerning the old delegation. In fact it was the Minister who decided that there was no more need for foreign aide in those remote districts - and that's why no one was sent to replace them.'
'What bothers Hilla or what rather she's almost obsessed with, is how Everon managed to survive.' Explained Moshe to Shatz, taking advantage of the short pause his wife made, and enraging her once again.
'He should have left with them, what's he doing here after all that parasite!' 'Hilla, get off that subject will you? Didn't we decide that the whole issue is behind us already? So no slander please!'
'Don't exaggerate, I'm not slandering, and if he would have left, things might have looked quite different - for you would have had his job, and he wouldn't have been there, to object to the extension of our contract for two more years!'
'Don't be ridiculous I've not the capabilities nor the ties or the experience, to head a delegation.'
'That's right! But the issue isn't your capabilities! If that parasite was sent home with the rest of them, we would have lived in Mouaka away from Da-Silva... Plus all the advantages he has!'
It isn't the first or the last time that he has to listen to such sermons, the poor devil... Shatz thought watching Priel's sad and rather pathetic expression.
'Let's go outside, see how the kids are doing.' Suggested her hurt husband, trying to divert the conversation's course.
'Go ahead, I want to stay on and exchange a few more words with Reuven.' She retorted heatedly. 'I don't think Reuven was left here to snoop after us, if that's what bothers you! On the contrary, I believe Everon was asked to keep him away from the Etoile; and there's no need to wreck our brains, to find out who on earth could have asked it.' She added laughing sarcastically.
Priel did not dare to leave them and stayed on sulking, but he didn't express his own views to support her this time.
Shatz, who could only guess whom she might have meant, did not even try to - he was tired of the whole issue already.
'All that superficial knowledge in agriculture the very little knowledge he has, that head of the delegation of yours, he learned from Moshe...'
'He doesn't have to be an agricultural expert himself, to lead an agricultural delegation.' Remarked Shatz trying to ease the atmosphere as much as he could. 'Besides you can't ignore his assets, he impressed me as a good administrator, and a person who gets along with the right people. He has a real knack for it, that's how it seems to me; and he acts as the Minister's counselor, that's what he has told me himself.'
'The Minister's counselor, and you believed him?' She was laughing again, but stopped it abruptly and went on explaining. 'Yes, he leaves one with a very good impression, I do agree with you.' She admitted dryly. 'But when you get to know him just a little better, you realize that most the things you'll hear from him, are either exaggerations or worse - sheer lies. Let's take for instance that fairy tale about being the Minister's counselor; as far as we know the Minister's maneuver had one main purpose, to get rid of Everon. That's why our colleagues who were responsible for the Northern districts were sent with their families back home - in spite the fact that the villages that were abandoned in the northern districts still needed our aid and very badly! We on the other hand were left intact, and that farm if you don't happen to know it yet, is the first Israeli project in this country - and Da-Silva doesn't need Moshe's to advise him nor to instruct him, he wants us to stick on though for some other reasons!' She added vehemently; 'and there are the rumors about his poarticular relationship with his delicate boy.'
'I see...' Muttered Shatz. 'I've got a lot to catch-up with, it seems.'
'What's more, it had nothing to do with financial difficulties, as these projects are backed up by the American and the German Governments, and in this certain case the foreign support budget to this country was cut three quarters off, as an outcome of the Minister's absurd decision! The Agricultural Ministry of this country simply lost that money.' She went on explaining ignoring Shatz's remark. 'The aid we supply is just manpower and except the Embassy's small crew who have nothing to do with us, the delegation stopped to exist and Everon had to go. Why the Minister failed and Everon kept his post, it's quite a riddle isn't it...? Well, Everon managed to persuade the Ambassador that the Minister's absurd decision was some kind of a punitive act against the foreign policy of our country. According to Everon's opinion it was just some kind of a bizarre whim, which might be cancelled any day; a common fact of life in these parts of the world. The delegation according to Everon's prediction is about to regain its full force - or might even grow bigger in a matter of some months, who knows. Whether the Minister didn't lose hope, or simply doesn't want to admit failure, it doesn't really matter. What really matters is the fact that for all that the Minister cares, the Northern districts may suffer famine or simply fade out into thin air - that's how things are run over here!'
So that's what Yossef believes to be the delicate creature. Wondered Shatz quite amazed. 'What makes you so sure that these are the real reasons?' He asked both of them.
'Most of the things concerning the delegation are openly known to everyone, and besides we have sources of our own - we keep constant correspondence with these sources of ours at home.' She answered him decisively.
'I see,' Shatz muttered somewhat tired, he had enough of that matter, and wasn't curious at all to know who these sources she so proudly mentioned might be.
'Why won't we get outside for a change? He asked hopefully, repeating her husband's early suggestion.
'Didn't he introduce to you the "exclusive arrangement" with Claude yet?' She asked him smiling. Moshe burst out with an embarrassed wild laughter, blushing to his ears. Shatz who was caught off guard was dumbfounded.
Good god! What a talent that "Rachel" has, to drop such bombs unexpectedly! Wondered Shatz thoughtfully and quiete amazed. No wonder they don't like her, the embassy's females. On top of her exquisite looks she's ambitious and she knows how to exploit her charms. Then how did she end up with someone like Moshe? She rules him that's the answer.
'All right!' She declared without waiting for Shatz's answer, she didn't expect one. 'Didn't you wish to go outside both of you? Well let's go.' She added in French.