- Author
- 06/19/2022
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Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
Goldstein, Johnson & Cole - 4. Chapter 4 Preparations
Travel arrangements and accommodation in Jerusalem were made with assistance from Mark and his brother-in-law who would meet them, they would stay with his family and meet Joseph.
At the same time Marty and The Major made their arrangements with their 'contacts' and made arrangements to meet, a few of them were in the area and had the task of discreetly keeping 'a special eye' on two visitors.
*****
It was early evening three weeks later as Marty and The Major were enjoying pre-meal drinks in The Grenadiers Arms that two men entered and approached them. Nothing about them attracted attention from other customers but to the trained eye they gave off the air of a military background, that was given away by the way they held themselves as they walked, the slight limp of the shorter man was almost unnoticeable.
The Major stood and smiling he held out his hand, “good evening Captain, Lieutenant. Please take a seat.”
The shorter man addressed them, “good evening Major, Captain.” The men sat as the formal greetings ended.
“Okay lads now we've got that out of the way let's drop the formalities we all know each other, let's have a fresh round of drinks before we eat. The same for you Alex?” The Major nodded, “and for you lads?” Marty stood with the empty glasses in his hand.
“We'll have shandy's please Marty, it's better to keep a clear head in our business,” Drew, the shorter man replied. “Do you need a hand... shit sorry that's a poor choice of words, I mean, can I help you?”
“Don't worry about it,” Marty wasn't offended, “ and yes please, a full pair of hands will carry the drinks better than my one.” Marty's face lit up with a smile.
After a very enjoyable meal of fresh sea bass, vegetables and sautéed potatoes followed by lemon sorbet, the men 'got down' to business.
Aiden, the taller man, started the conversation. “So guys, I understand that you need a bit of assistance.”
“Well, it's more like advice at the moment but some assistance may be needed down the line. I'll Let Alex explain, it's his boys that may need some help.”
The Major cleared his throat and began. After giving the men some background information about 'his boys' he went on to explain the current situation regarding Ian, Kevin and Joseph and asked if there was any possibility they could help.
“It's possible that you may not really need much help, if any, but a low level of personal security wouldn't do any harm. That's for the lads on any visits and Joseph while he remains in Israel. That's more Aiden's side of the business than mine so I'll let him assess and advise, he will need up to date photographs or to meet the people to provide cover.” Drew looked thoughtful. “If there are any problems regarding paperwork and documents then I can look into it and probably deal with that. I'd really need to know and see what they have, then I can assess properly what can and needs to be done.”
“I can introduce you to Ian and Kevin but Joseph is in Israel as are his documents, so a photo and copies is the best I can do there.” The Major felt uncomfortable as he continued. “But my finan....”
“Don't worry about finances Alex.” Aiden butted in. “You are family and this is for your family, so it's covered in full, consider it us repaying our debt to you.”
Hearing this The Major became emotional.
The conversation continued until late in the evening, information was passed and arrangements made. The only details left was confirmation of travel and accommodation that would be given in due course.
*****
Kevin soon discovered that arranging flights to Israel was the easy task and round trip flights from Manchester to Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv had been booked with Lufthansa. Both out bound and return flights involved a brief stopover in Munich, the only available tickets were in business class but were booked regardless of cost. Isaac Lehrer, Mark's brother-in-law would meet them at Ben Gurion airport and take them to his home on the outskirts of Jerusalem, where they would be staying and Joseph was now living.
Ian gave a lot of his time at work to making sure that Sean was ready to look after the shops while they were away. Before Ian and Kevin were ready to depart Sean was running the business and giving daily performance reports that proved his value to the business.
The much harder task was researching overseas adoption and legal guardianship processes. It was very long winded and complex and either way bringing Joseph to the UK meant that they needed to be approved by their local authority. They also needed to be approved by the authorities in Israel and be granted legal guardianship or allowed to adopt according to to Israeli law. All of this meant that it could be a long and expensive process.
As daunting as it seemed Ian and Kevin had taken the initial steps to register as foster/adoptive parents with their local authority. The forms were lengthy and asked a lot of personal questions about their background and current personal circumstances. After completing the forms and an initial interview they had passed stage one. Now numerous personal references, medical reports and a full criminal background check were required before going on to the next stage.
The next stage is to attend a 'training course' that is required for all prospective foster/adoptive parents followed by a final assessment. In the mean time they had to go to Israel to meet Joseph who is now living with Isaac and Shamira Lehrer and their twin boys.
2am on departure day saw Ian and Kevin dragging themselves sleepily out of bed, they had gone to bed early the night before but a mixture of excitement and nervousness resulted in a restless sleep for them both. Fresh coffee and showers woke them up before they dressed ready for the journey. Suitcases were at the door and Kevin was making one last check that passports, airline tickets and wallets were in in their pockets when Steve arrived to take them to Manchester airport.
At 3:30am when Steve dropped them of at Terminal 1, saying their goodbyes they entered departures and went to the Lufthansa desk. After checking in their suitcases and being given boarding passes they were directed to the express security gate. First stop after passing through security was to get more coffee and find comfortable seats in the business class lounge while waiting to board their flight. After a brief stopover in Berlin they would reach Tel-Aviv late in the afternoon if there were no delays. Eventually they were called to the boarding gate and were among the first to board.
Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any reactions you leave, if you have any thoughts on the story so far please lease a comment or two they are valuable to us authors and I promise to read and acknowledge each comment left.
I have written and produced this story without the aid of an editor or beta reader so ny errors are all mine if you spot any please let me know so I can put them right.
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What I enjoy more than reactions is to read any comments that readers care to leave. Promise to read and acknowledge
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
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