Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Who Said They're Right ❯ Quality Time ( Chapter 3 )

If it haven't been such a long day, Debra's return home would have been form the north, by a bus and not by a Renault of an Petty Officer who had driven her home from the debriefing,. It would also mean that she wouldn't be so tired that upon entering her apartment, she did not even bother to lock the door behind her as she collapsed onto the couch. This startled the head of the so called "Domestic Zoo" of the Bar Raban family, a talking parrot named Goradish, for his tendency to curse at anything and anyone. He had lived with General Bar Raban ever since he was a lieutenant back in the 1990's in Lebanon. He had acquired the bird in Maraj Ayun from the local Christian warlord, in exchange for some extracurricular work with his unit. Unlike most ATBASH related personnel, Bar Raban was a true Special Forces officer.

 

The parrot had lived with him in his office and in the communications center, learning Hebrew as he went form the soldiers around him, finally picking the military jargon

And radio short-talk so much that he always talked with them now. He also knew how to use a standard radio transceiver and the phone, and all things which where linked to operating an office in the IDF. So much he had accumulated in his extremely evolved brain that he was considered Top Secret. Good for a Gray Jocko in his prime.

 

Of the family members, Debra was his second favorite, second to the general himself. He landed on the back of the sofa, analyzed the situation with his black beady eyes and then flew into the kitchen, returning with a cookie in his beak.

 

"Debra, this is Goradish, would you like a cookie, over"? He cracked, totally mimicking a good ether transmission.

 

"Roger, if you didn't take a bite of it first, over".

 

"I never would do such a thing, over".

 

"Then positive" she took the cookie out of his beak, eating half of it and leaving the bird the rest. The reason she answered in she used short talk back to him was that it calmed the bird. Watching basketball on TV did the same, why- only the one who wired Goradish's brain knows.

 

"Mrs. Bar Raban left us some food in the fridge, if you defrost it, for I haven't had a thing edible but this cookie all day, you copy" the parrot complained.

 

"You are always hungry, Goradish!"

 

"Not true. Besides, you're lucky to be back in the pens, how was the mission, over" even he knew that she had ATBASH missions. So much was the bird involved that it answered the phone all day for her, using Debra's own voice to say she is unwell and will miss the rest of the forum and likely the next school-day. A good bird who'll find?

 

By that Debra's problems where finally over, as she ate dinner alone (her little brothers where in a very large amount of extracurricular study and returned home about 8pm), then fed the family's "home zoo", and finally going back to the living room to watch the news. Suddenly the door opened and her little brothers, the twins Alon and Erez rolled into the house accompanied by their large schoolbags and sports bags indicating the end of a long day (Israeli schools have no lockers for the most part, as it is an added cost and target for vandalism, and tends to be avoided) and without hello joined her on the couch for the body of the news. Mrs. Bar Raban returned just before the weather and the General only came after the commercials brake an hour after the evening (8pm) news.

 

Watching the news with Goradish was always funny, the parrot mimicking the reporters, the announcers and doing so with rightly placed curses and static. Whenever a political personality was the subject of an item, it was rewarded by static sounds and a reminiscence of his lineage back to the first whore in it.

 

This meant that the entire household was sitting in the living room, watching TV, the general still in half-uniform (took his shirt off), talking of what happened today, Debra getting lots of attention (some of it unwanted) form both her family and the "home zoo". Despite the fact they had three TV sets at home this was their main one, being more of a home cinema than just an ordinary TV/DVD combo. After the news the general insisted that they all sit and watch the recording of his choice, that being another episode of MK22, a satirical animated series. Of course the twins where waiting for almost a week for him to make this request (they wanted to see how the army looked when Dad was only a regular). To them (the general and the twins) the opening did nothing; because they weren't pilots, but each time Debra head that song she stiffened in seat, emotions filling her.

 

Being music inspired person and a performer herself she was very sensitive to the way music, tempo and lyrics mixed, and the feeling hearing this song gave her was similar to piloting the Biomech, an overfilling sensation of power and loneliness.

 

Min ha'shaot ve'ha'shniyot, (from the hours and seconds)

Me'ha'kolot ba'ozniyot, (form the sounds in the earphones)

Min ha'kochav al ha'migdal. (Form the star on the tower)

Umin ha'ruach letzido, ( and form the wind by his side)

Ve'ha'khaver sh'e'al yado, (and the friend with him)

Asher merim lo agudal. (who sticks his thumb to him)

Min ha'avim ha'niftakhim, (form the opening clouds)

U'me'kanfey ha'malakhim, (and form angel wings)

U'mi'leyolot lelo sheyna, (and form sleepless nights)

Tamid ola ha'mangina! (always comes a song)

 

Min ha'rakiya ha'bahir , (from bright skies)

Al gagoteya shel ha'yir, (over the city rooftops)

Ve'ha'sadot ha'rechavim. (and on the wide open fields)

Ukshe'ha'laila mealav, (and when the night is above him)

Ve'ha'shamayim mitachtav, (and the sky is below him)

Ve'al'ha'aretz kochavim. (and the earth is star streaked)

Amok amok betock ha'lev, (deep, deep inside his hart)

Betoch ha'rosh ha'mistovev (in his wildly spinning mind)

Min ha'katzhe, min ha'pina, (form the edge, form the corner)

Tamind ola ha'mangina! (always comes a song)

 

You need to be a blind man, her literature teacher offered, so to not to see the pictures these two segments bring to mind. The image was a powerful one, and each time it came to Debra's mind, it also filled her soul. Amit Simchon, her literature teacher said that the way to study literature and poetry was first understanding the writer's world and then imagining the images which the work was meant to create in ones mind. His daughter, Ayala studied in a lower grade in the same school and was quite acquainted with Debra, but this is another story for another time.

 

Debra turned as much form her concentration away form the TV and towards today's mission. The unit was poorly equipped for what she did, it took some damage. Thankfully that AT field trick was not to hard, a shame though they didn't make her try it BEFORE actual combat, it might have allowed her to avoid damaging the unit. Despite the looks of it the damage was less than a million NIS, mostly to the electronic sensory systems and to the reactive armor. They built it to take a direct APSCHVP form 1000 meters and the armor should hold. It was also made to take a Hellfire missile and not to melt. All in all it was well as armored as the Mk. Mark 6. but still they should have at least smoke tested the AT generator before using it! What if it malfunctioned? She was going to try and chew off the chief engineer's head off the next combative staff meeting, next Monday. Boy she didn't want to be him…

 

On the screen, the NCO was terrorizing his two "workers" in the stationary depot, where they held, not to surprisingly all the equipment of the base, form marker pens to the nuclear warheads that where the reason for the base in the series to exist. Hallerious, South Park like humor erupted when they misplaced a warhead and had to "improvise" one for an inspection, which they did form a boiler, this mayhem was the main line in the episode, while the background line was about an Israeli woman astronaut (a paradox, since the only Israeli who had ever ventured to space was Ilan Ramon) which was used to the outmost cynical shovinistic humor possible to squeeze out of this situation. So funny that it in fact took Debra's mind of the troubles of the day and let it rest.

 

G-d bless the two maniacs who made this show Debra thought and when it was over she went to her room to sleep as she had school next morning. It would be interesting… to say the least, but that story which was mentioned will come first and in the next episode.

 

Aouthor's note:

 

The translation form Hebrew is mine, so if you think you can do better, lets see you!

Samuel-Shmuel Gonen (Goradish) was the commander of an armored brigade in the Steel Division in the Six day war, when he became a hero of Israel, only to lose his status because of the faulty defense and first counterstrike of the Yom-Kipur war. Probably the most discredited general in Israeli history, who couldn't control ether the situation or General Sharon (Ariel Sharon, the current Prime Minister, back then a Division commander). He took much of his style form his icon, Gorge E Patton, that's why the parrot who is verbally offensve is named after him.