The plane ride in from London had been long and crowded, and passport and customs lines and the effervescent Panos were the last things I wanted to see when I was disgorged into the hot and busy immigration hall at Ben Gurion Airport. I wanted nothing more than a stiff glass of scotch on the rocks, a shower, and four hours of sleep in a Tel Aviv hotel room before I went any farther. But there was my office manager from my new assignment, Panos Mikalides, holding a placard with my name on it and bouncing around between me and that long passport control line, which looked all the more daunting by the stern-faced Israeli soldiers prowling around with their Uzis at the ready. I sighed and acknowledged to my new, exuberant Greek employee that I indeed was the new Israel bureau chief for the International Press news agency and prepared myself for the worst.
From the beginning, however, Mikalides demonstrated for me how he'd become a legend in the IP system as Mr. Fixit. In no time, he had escorted me through a reel of red tape at the airport, turning stern and suspicious expressions of a parade of officials into broad smiles and thumpings on the back, and we were out of the terminal and into an Opel sedan and racing toward the towers of Tel Aviv and the blue Mediterranean in no time. Mikalides was driving with his hands and his mouth, both of which were going a mile a minute, and I wasn't able to establish that I wanted nothing more at the moment but a slug of scotch and my hotel room before he had veered off south of the city center and driven into what appeared to be a village dolled up for the tourist trade.
"This is Jaffa," Mikalides explained as he pulled up and parked in a spot that a young boy had obviously been protecting for him. "It's the oldest part of Tel Aviv. Thousands of years of habitation here. I wanted it to be the first place you saw in Israel."
He pushed open his door and started to get out of the car. I made no motion to join him and overrode his discourse on early Israel history of this region with an objection. "I'm sorry, Panos, but I've just had a long and tiring plane trip. I only want a drink and a shower and a good nap. And then I suppose I need to check in at the office."
"Yes, yes, all is well at the office," Panos responded through the window of the car door he'd already shut. "The drink's why we're here. Then it's off to your new house."
"My house?" I asked incredulously, as, resigned, I unfolded myself from the car and followed Panos toward a gap at the end of the street, where I could see the blue waters of the Mediterranean. Panos had flipped a coin to the Israeli boy, who had chirped his thanks and disappeared in the opposite direction.
"I just got here," I objected. "I assumed I'd be in a hotel until I could find a place. And I understand that it's not that easy to find an affordable rental in Tel Aviv. I'll have to have a small flat of some sort in Jerusalem too."
"Both all arranged," Panos said, as he pulled me into a crowded terrace café overlooking the sea and guided me to the only empty table in the place. It was in a prime spot and obviously had been kept clear in anticipation of our arrival. "It so happens I own several places I rent out and the main office has already approved the rental of my beach house in Herzliya, the international area on the coast north of the city, and a small flat I have in the American sector in Jerusalem. I've arranged furniture for the house and have stocked the kitchen. So we can go right there from here."
"But then I'll need transport right away to get into the office in Tel Aviv," I said, trying to maintain some sense of control here
"All arranged as well," Panos said, giving me a sweeping gesture with his arms. "As it happens, I have a few rental cars as well. The Opel is available to you until you buy something of your own."
He sat there beaming at me, and I couldn't think of much of anything to say in return. His legend was bearing out. Despite this, I was flabbergasted when a waiter plunked down a double slug of scotch on ice in front of me even though we hadn't ordered anything.
"Jack Daniels Black label," Panos announced with a big sloppy grin.
"Quite right," I answered. "How did you know that was what I'd want?"
"I know all about you," Panos said with another grin. "That's my job here for IP; I'm what you Americans call the Jack of all trades for the operation here."
I wanted to counter that this particular saying had a second part, "but a master of none," but I sensed I did not want to get off on bad footing with the office manager. This was my first manager assignment, and I didn't want to immediately start alienating key local staffers, especially an office manager who obviously had his thumb on the pulse of everything I needed to be in good working order. But Panos was overpowering. And I was afraid that this might be leading to a struggle for power within the office, especially since Panos seemed to be in his mid forties, at least fifteen years older than I was.