The Celestial Gate by Avital Dicker (red white royal blue txt) 📗

there was still water in it. From the depths came an odd scratchy sound. He peered down, but there was nothing to see in the dark shaft.

Yam felt something crawling up his leg and shook it in disgust. It was a big black creepy-crawly.

“Look!” Anise pointed. Many of the same black creatures were crawling out of the well and crowding the well’s edge.

“That doesn’t look like anything I know,” said Mor, peering at the black critters with curiosity.

Anise took a step back. Yam laughed. “Anise, they’re only cockroaches.”

It wasn’t fear of the bugs that stopped her. Anise felt her stomach clench and was then overcome by a strange sensation. They were on the wrong path.

“Listen, guys. Something’s wrong. We have to turn back,” she said loudly. The ground all around her was crawling with the big black insects. She turned on her heels and started walking back the way they’d come.

“Anise, you’re being irrational. This is the way out. They’re only bugs, for crying out loud,” Mor tried.

“Everything down here is irrational,” Anise shot back over the shoulder, without stopping. She picked up speed and, running, disappeared down on of the alleys. Let them think what they want. She knew what her gut was telling her. It’s a sign, she thought.

The boys looked at one another. “She’s so freaking annoying,” Yam said.

“Yup. She’s annoying, all right,” Mor couldn’t agree more. But their concentration on Anise was broken by a loud noise from the well. Water was bubbling over its edge and spilling down onto the ground. The speed with which the water was rising did not bode well.

“You know, maybe she’s right,” Yam muttered. A worried Mor nodded his agreement. Both turned around and started running the way Anise had gone. Just then, the sides of the well succumbed to the intense pressure. Mud sprayed in every direction as a waterspout shot up, drenching the plaza in white spume. The boys ran faster than they’d ever run before, the rush of water at their heels. Anise, by now at the end of the alley, stopped in surprise. Nearby, sunrays danced on the steps marking the exit, making her smile in victory. I was right, they took the wrong turn, she thought, looking at the exit. This is the right way. “Yam, Mor,” she called out and without waiting for them to answer she flew up the steps two at a time, craving the fresh air aboveground.

Chapter 16

Theo, Sual, Amalia, and Ido climbed down into the wadi behind the edge of the new development. They weren’t worried that anyone would hear the shots. Explosions and light arms fire had become the new soundtrack of life. Besides, the crowded and generally busy neighborhood now resembled a ghost town.

“C’mon, let’s see if you remember anything,” Ido teased Amalia.

Amalia, giving him a challenging smile, positioned herself at a comfortable angle, aimed at the cans of cola Ido had just set down on a rock, and shot.

Theo’s jaw dropped at the sight of a line of perforated cans. He had not expected this. Amalia had hit every single one. What other secrets is the muscular, blonde Tel Aviv attorney hiding? he wondered.

“Tell me – did you serve in the Mossad or something?” He tried to inject a joking tone, but the look in Amalia’s eyes discouraged him from pursuing the subject.

Instead, Amalia showed Theo how to cock the gun. Surprisingly, he turned out to be a fairly good shot. By the end of the session, it seemed he had even enjoyed the experience.

Ido assumed the mission of training Sual, but Sual used her bandaged arm as an excuse to stubbornly refuse to hold the weapon. The thought of shooting another human being made her shudder. She’d never be able to take a life, even to defend herself. Pointing her chin at Amalia and Theo, she said, “I trust the two of them,” thereby shutting down any further argument.

The sun was now low on the horizon and the four walked back up to the apartment. No one was particularly hungry, but Sual insisted on making dinner. Who knows when we’ll be able to sit down at a table again, she thought.

The plan was to leave two hours later. After eating, Sual lay down in the bedroom to rest. Theo stretched out on the living room sofa, fiddling with the TV remote. Then he remembered there was no reception and put the remote down.

Amalia and Ido went out to the balcony where they shared a cigarette. Amalia looked at the flashes of fire above the Old City. An entire city on fire, she thought, saddened.

“How did we get to the point where people are destroying generations of history and killing one another?” she said and took a drag. Ido shrugged. “You know,” she continued, “it astounds me every time anew. For all our scientific progress and technology, nothing’s really changed. People are just like they were in the Middle Ages, murdering one another for no good reason.”

Amalia took a last drag on the cigarette before stubbing it out on the railing.

“Priests, rabbis, sheiks, and imams, and all their brain-washed, slogan-spouting religious soldiers… all killing in God’s name. But it’s really about power, control, and money,” Ido answered.

“You know that Yoav broke up my family because of some rabbi who told him I wasn’t dressed modestly or something like that,” Amalia laughed bitterly. “Does that seem normal to you?” she asked without expecting an answer. She sipped at her wine.

“But Yoav loves you,” Ido said, surprised.

Amalia turned her face away to hide her tears. “Well, it turned out he loves the rabbi more,” she retorted.

Although he couldn’t see her expression, Ido could hear the pain in her voice. Without thinking, he grasped her shoulders, turned her toward him, and kissed her lips softly. “Nothing’s changed. I’m still here,” he whispered.

Amalia, looking into his eyes, stroked his cheek. “Maybe, in another life, we’d have had a chance.” Coming back to the present, she said, “Let’s wake them