⊰ Look, 81 ⊱

Matilda decorated for our wedding

It was evening, and I had just left a friend’s house in Tel Aviv. I got into Matilda, my Beetle, which was parked in her spot in front of the building. Mathilda didn’t have air conditioning, so I immediately rolled down the non-electric window by turning the handle.

Then I heard a woman walking by on the street say to her partner, “Look, 81,” and pointed at Matilda.
This wasn’t the first time people, including gas station attendants, stopped me and got excited about my well-maintained Beetle. Many were surprised by its relatively modern model. I got out of the car, approached them, and gave them the brief explanation: that until 1978, Volkswagen-Beetles were manufactured in Germany, but production continued afterward in Brazil, and mine was made in Mexico.

The couple looked at me with a confused expression, then at each other. She repeated what she had said, this time clarifying:
“Look, 81 Ahad Ha’am Street. This is where we need to go.”

I took a step back, got back into the Beetle, rolled the window back up to avoid any further communication, shifted into reverse, left the parking spot, and drove off into the horizon.