Family Affair / The Brons By Avner Avrahami and Reli Avrahami Kiryat Ono The cast: Yariv, 35, and Mikey(Maya), 6. Advertisement The home: Housing project apartment, six tenants in the building, all elderly ("The youngest is 78"), second floor, 105 square meters, large living room (extending from the kitchen to the plastic blinds), two bedrooms and a study. Yariv bought the place two years ago for the shekel equivalent of $176,500, after a lengthy and unsuccessful search with the aid of a real estate agent. "In the end I saw an obituary notice on an electricity pole, called the heirs of the deceased woman, and we shook hands [on a deal] that very day." Before entering he invested $25,000 on renovations ("We replaced everything, the place was a ruin"). The designer was Ofra, his mother ("The only thing I contributed to this apartment was a credit card"). The design: "The whole place is IKEA," he says, inaccurately. Only the dining table, the chairs, the bedroom furniture and the white sofa in the living room were bought there. The second sofa is from the flea market, the lamps are from South Tel Aviv and the red chest of drawers is from friends of his parents. We go on a tour. The tour: Mikey's room has a wooden floor and pink walls ("It's what the kid asked for"). The study contains a computer and small library (with books on accountancy and fiction by Yael Hedaya); in the bathroom there is a standing sink that a good friend, a marketing executive at Negev Ceramics, got him at cost. We peek into the kitchen ("My dad did the planning") and see a microwave. "I don't cook," Yariv admits without hesitation. "I eat at my folks' place." On the walls are many pictures. The pictures: There are four oil paintings in the dining area, all of them by Sivan, Yariv's sister, a painter who lives in New York. In the living room is a large print by Ori Reisman. "I have no idea what it's worth," he says. "I got it as part of a barter deal." He was looking for a big picture, he says, and this one was just right. The story: Yariv is divorced plus Mikey and Ketem ("Stain," a dog). His parents live on a nearby street, and his ex is also in the area. Visiting rights: Mikey is with Yariv every Monday and Thursday from 4 P.M. until the next morning, and every other Friday-Saturday. "I spoil her crazy; the teacher has already spoken to me about it." Livelihoods and occupations: Yariv has been an accountant for 12 years and is the deputy CEO for finance of a car-leasing company in Kfar Sava, which has a fleet of thousands of vehicles including Hummers, too ("NIS 14,000 a month"). He likes his job very much ("It fits me like a glove"). Being in charge of finances: "No matter what happens in the organization, you will always be to blame," he says resignedly. As part of his job, he signs dozens of checks every day, quarrels with banks "over financing arrangements," deals with financial problems that crop up, and has lunch with the CEO ("a colorful guy, whom I admire"). He often finds himself in situations of tension. Situations of tension: "Standing in front of the board of directors to make a presentation of financial reports." A good day: "When I went to a car importer's deputy CEO for finance and got him to agree to a credit line without having to work too hard, and was able to lower the interest rate." A moment of grace: Thursday in the office with the traditional carrot cake baked by the girls. The girls: There are 21 and, according to Yariv, they all say he is "a manager with compassion." In this connection he notes that since the case of Haim Ramon, the former justice minister who was convicted of sexual misconduct ("He was wronged"), he decided not to get into an elevator with one woman ("There have to be two, minimum"). He works a five-day week, starting early ("From when I get up, even 5 A.M.") and returning late (7 P.M.), apart from Monday and Thursday (because of Mikey). He travels to and from work with whatever car is available from the company. He especially likes the Citroen C-5 and the Renault Scenic. On Saturdays he will sometimes take a van for an outing. Mikey's occupations: She's a first-grade student in a Kiryat Ono school and takes judo lessons. She gets to school ("five minutes") with Mom or Dad ("according to the days"). She wants to be a veterinarian. Yariv's bio: Born 1972 at nearby Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, where he spent his childhood in the compound of the hospital staff. His mother, Ofra, from Kibbutz Ginossar on Lake Kinneret, was a nurse in the internal medicine ward (she is now head nurse of the Assouta chain of medical centers). His father, Shlomo, Tel Aviv-born, is production manager in a factory that makes packing equipment in the Segula industrial zone of Petah Tikva. Yariv attended high school in Ramat Gan (sociology-economics track) and was considered a good student. He also joined the Scouts, but was not a counselor. "They wouldn't have me, because I stutter." Stuttering: In first grade, he says, a boy laughed at him and he cried. Yariv: "Dad, a moderate type, said it wasn't so terrible. Mom, a tough nurse, told me to let him have it." He let the kid have it and was sorry afterward, and understood that this was part of him ("It's what God gave to me"). The stuttering never hurt him, he says; on the contrary: "My first girlfriend took pity on me, and in the army I was always let off to go to the ear-nose-throat clinic." When making his presentations to the board, he says, he has ways to avoid embarrassment, and often everyone laughs with him. Army: After failing to get into a prestigious navy unit ("I stuttered in front of the committee - it was horrible"), he was sent to a decoders' course at Uvda airbase and served with young women ("We were 140 girls and me"). He still has the course T-shirt. After his discharge (1994) he studied accountancy at the College of Management, and for a living worked in construction, breaking down walls ("Not thick ones"). It was a terrific job, he says ("I got out all my aggressions"). After graduating he was hired by the giant Haft & Haft accounting firm ("relatives of mine"), and two years later moved to a vehicle-importing company as assistant accountant ("Every morning I sat for a while in a Porsche Jeep"). He was there for five years until moving to his present job ("I was recruited by the CEO"), which he has held for a year and a half. Being in charge of finances, Yariv says, is far more than a job - "It's an avocation." Love: One Friday in 2000 he met her at a food fair in Kfar Azar, outside Tel Aviv. He was then assistant accountant at the vehicle importer and she had just completed teachers' college. When he saw her standing by herself at the bustling fair ("And, strangely, holding a Bible"), he felt he had been magnetized ("She was really cute"). They started talking and their souls connected. They didn't live together, didn't go abroad, but married straight off ("She was pregnant") - and immediately understood that they weren't right for each other ("This was after we had bought an apartment and driven our parents crazy"). The situation now: "Today we are good friends. She lives right here, five minutes away. We don't visit, but we keep updated by phone - for instance, what Mikey said." What Mikey said: "That [Mom] wants a rabbit, and together we decided to talk her out of it." Romance: Yariv does a lot of thinking about relationships: "I want to be with someone, but I'm also a little afraid." Someone: He doesn't have many demands. "She should be a friend." A sense of humor is also important for him, "and she should be like my mother. All my friends admire my mother." To date, he says, he has had five girlfriends. "Girls are touched by me. I'm a little childish and a little naive and terribly optimistic, and that makes them feel good, and straight off they want to educate me, to change the shirts in the closet, to move the potted plant in the living room from here to there." God: "Once I went out with an amazing girl, and I said to myself, 'Walla, God is helping me.' On the other hand, there is all this suffering in the world. My daughter says, 'Let's adopt all the dogs at the SPCA.' And I tell her, 'One is enough.'" One: Ketem, two years old ("She has chased away burglars"). Ten years from now: "My daughter will be 16, which is a scary age, and I will have a psychologist wife, very important, and we will have twins." He will also live in Kiryat Ono ("There's no place like Kiryat Ono"). Going out: In the evenings Yariv goes to Griffin, a Tel Aviv bar ("It's the wildest pickup place in town"); every Friday he hangs out with friends at Bugsy, a bar in Tel Aviv's trendy Florentine neighborhood. Music: Norah Jones, the Tarnegolim and the Dudaim - the latter two are former Israeli groups. He doesn't watch TV ("There's nothing to see"). Happiness quotient (scale of 1-10): Mikey - 10; Yariv - 9.85. "I miss having a relationship, and there is always the war." The war: To lose weight. "I always start a general war on the first of the month. The refrigerator is packed with tuna, fat-free cheese, diet bread, vegetables - and in the middle of the month I crack and throw it all out."

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