Chapter 11 Masada
The next morning the gang met with Michael after breakfast
"Today is gonna be the last day of our tour. We're gonna visit Masada which is in the desert. Are you guys ready?"
The group nodded in agreement and so they got into Mike's car and they were off. After about two hours of driving the gang arrived at a mountain ridge which seemed pretty ordinary. Once the car stopped they got out and stood at the foot of the mountain and Michael began to speak.
"This is Masada. It is an ancient fortification in the Southern District of Israel situated on top of an isolated rock plateau (akin to a mesa) on the eastern edge of the Judaean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea. Herod the Great built palaces for himself on the mountain and fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BCE. According to Josephus, the Siege of Masada by troops of the Roman Empire towards the end of the First Jewish–Roman War ended in the mass suicide of the 960 Sicarii rebels and their families hiding there. If you follow me, we'll climb up the mountain and walk around the fort. As a grand finale for this trip we will do skydiving above this area, giving a beautiful view of the fort, the desert and the Dead Sea"
"Sweet!" said the kids and gave each other a high five as they began their climb. Given the fact that the mountain is pretty steep the climb was pretty difficult. Most of it was walking on a spiral which surrounds the mountain but there was some rock climbing to the spirals above as well. While walking the two kids were behind the two adults and were chatting away to pass the time and having an occasional laugh. Grandpa Max looked behind his shoulder to look at them and frowned at their unusually friendly and close behavior. He knew something was up and he was determined to find out what. After a while they had to do some more rock climbing. The two adults got up first and continued walking while Ben and Gwen were climbing up a bunch of rocks. Just as Ben made it up Gwen tripped on a ledge which fell off the mountain and she was hanging from the side of the mountain by grabbing onto a single rock. She screamed in terror as Ben rushed to her aide and the two adults rushed to help
"Ben! Help!" she cried in distress. Ben set himself on the ground and reached his hand for her. Gwen looked down in fear knowing she would die if she falls. Only Ben's voice calling her was able to make her pull her eyes away from the deep fall below
"Gwen! Give me your hand!" he yelled. With a slight effort and sheer terror of falling Gwen stretched her arm towards Ben's hand and managed to grab it
"Don't worry Gwen I got you… hang on…" yelled Gwen as he struggled to pull his cousin up the hill. Finally he managed to get her to safety and they both sat on the road panting as they sighed with relief. When they finally caught their breath Ben asked
"You okay Gwen?"
"Yeah…" she said as she breathed heavily
"Thanks" she added as Ben nodded at her still trying to catch his breath.
Overcome by adrenaline and being caught up in the moment Gwen cupped her cousins cheeks and kissed squarely on the mouth. At that moment Max and Michael showed up to see the unusual scene. After a few seconds Max was the first to get over the shock and cleared his throat loudly to catch their attention. Upon hearing his voice the two kids separated and gasped in shock as they saw their grandfather look at them with his arms crossed and looked slightly mad
"You kids mind telling me what just happened?" he asked
The two kids looked at each other nervously and then at the two adults. Their eyes eventually rested on Michael who looked slightly shocked but didn't know what to say. They knew they had to give an explanation but they didn't want to do it while Michael was around. Eventually Gwen spoke
"We'll give you an explanation but we prefer to do it in private. We'll tell you later…"
"You'd better. And I hope that kiss was a thank you one and not something else. If I haven't paid and reserved those tickets for the skydiving I would have cancelled it. But given the circumstances we'll do it anyway. Once we're done with that we have a few hours till our flight home leaves. I hope you two have a good explanation…" said the man as he turned around and walked on. Ben noticed he had his hand clutched in fists as he walked which he doesn't normally do. The kids sighed sadly as they walked on. Suddenly the rest of the trip didn't seem as exciting as it did five minutes ago. Not even the skydiving part…
For the rest of the climb the two kids were mostly silent except for when Gwen spoke up briefly
"I'm sorry I kissed you like that Ben. Because of me our secret is out and we might get separated…"
"It's not your fault Gwen. We would have been found out sooner or later…"
Gwen nodded sadly as Ben wrapped his arm around her shoulder
"Cheer up. It's gonna be okay" he said as she smiled sadly at him as they did the rest of climbing in silence…
To be continued…
Well this is an unfortunate and unexpected development. Let's hope they will get out of it…
Stay tuned for the rest of the story and don't forget to review…
Thank you…