A Warner Avenue Synagogue

Saturday morning found me stranded, without my car Dolly, my little Cavalier. Yet I felt hungry for prayer and  food. But it had been a turbulent month, so I felt a bit dizzy. I just could not believe that my Dolly, my companion for over nine years had vanished while I took my nap at the Five Points Senior Center. I could not believe that even my disabled license plate had been ignored.
   Why Dolly and I had been in a lot of close calls. Even with the gas tank read empty, she still struggled drive me to my destination. When I stopped in Baker eight year ago on a Sunday with the noonday temperature hitting one hundred and five, she struggled to get my locked gear box unlocked. Her car seat needed propping, the AC no longer worked, as well as the radio and several other features, but she carried me through heavy storms, fogs and streets filled with mud holes. R...g R..g R..g 
   Excuse me, that was the phone. "No I can't see Dr. Gold next week. My brother is in the hospital with pneumonia. Let me call you next week."
    Going on nine, I showered and shaved and picked up my yarmulke, my prayer cap, and out the door I went. On the corner of Elis and Beach are Jack-in-the-box, and a car wash. On the corner is a barber shop and new apartments building. My legs felt tired but the more I walked the more they bent into shape. The #29 bus took me to the Warner Avenue bus. My blue bus book told me the times the buses arrived.
   The Warner Avenue bus came on time, nine, fifteen. I would be one of the early daveners today at the Chabad on Warner and Bolsa Chica. I wrapped shawl over me and grabbed two books. The chants of yesteryear softened the past month. I became stronger with each prayer. At about eleven thirty the Reb presented his speech.
   He spoke about Moses come down from the Temple Mount with the ten commandments. In shock when he saw that his followers had produced an idol made of gold, he broke the tablets but then though better about it.
   "Hey God, give my people another chance. Just maybe they are slow learners."
    God agreed and he again  climbed the mountain only to return with his face blazed in gold. The people could not face him so he put a mask over his face.
    "And so it is with prayer. Those who come everyday and believe have gold inside their veins and nothing can tarnish their lives. Those who feel can climb any mountain."I forgot that I had been without food for a day, but that Saturday's Kiddish gave my stomach nourishment that had already been provided to my mind.
   On the lunch table were melons, beans. herring, lox, a mixed salad, dill pickles, chips and a pumpkin pie,
   Well I inhaled this exhibit of food in honor of Helen who had recently died She spoke eight, yes eight languages and her grandchild spoke lovingly about her.  I ate three dishes before I looked at my little time piece. Now I wasn't supposed to return on a bus, we need to walk on the Sabbath but a ten mile walk to my apartment was bit too much.
I returned the way I came and felt so good in the mid=afternoon, I played a few ditties on fourth floor piano. I did not hear them enter, but when I had played a Cole Porter favorite, Night and Day, I met the wife and daughter of one who had entered the apartment recently. Daughter Dina spoke.
   'You are a master player of the piano. My Dad,  Delbert Mudd  who just  moved in. We would be only too happy if you would knock on his room number 522."
  "I would be delighted and will also take him across the street for food and drink."
   "Come with us to meet him!"
  Well not to bore you Delbert looked just like me, old but still handsome. He invited me to Mario's across the street, a few stores down from Trader Joe's and to the west of the Java restaurant. But what kindled my interest was when he spoke about dentistry.
   "Now Mario's was busy. The talk was loud and everyone celebrated life. We received a phone that shook when our fifteen minute wait was over. Delbert had a martini and I asked for the usual, a cherry coke with a clean straw. When the phone shook, we were escorted to a table. My stomach, now accustomed to food, wanted more.
   I ordered the enchilada with tacos and he ordered only the enchilada. The the two of us had a ball enjoying the Mexican meal. For the first time in ages, my stomach told me "enough is enough". We high-balled it back to our residence.
    "You know George, I was top in my class in high school and Chicago University. In dentist school, nobody could produce an better mold for a tooth than I. I taught dentistry at Pepperdine University in the seventies.  We used gold filling then, since they last a long time. But I covered the God, I mean   Gold with titanium so the crown would last."
    "Wait a second Delbert, you just gave me an idea...My Rabbi told us that when we pray real hard,   we become like your mold, but instead of a tooth, we now have a shield to make us stronger in our times of trial."
      The next day, we breakfasted at the Java and he had five refills for his coffee. We ate dinner later at the Five Guys and played two game of pool.
     I even forgot about my lost car, as my new friend will soon be driving me around in his Jag.
 Guess  I must have prayed real hard since I got more than what I had asked for.