The Honeymoon Trips
Chapter 43
Written by rachel76m
Edited by Don Kaufman

The list of characters mentioned in this story belong to the various authors that created them. This is a fan-fiction story.

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We wake up in the morning when the alarm sounds out loud at 6:30 AM. “BZZZZZZ. . . . !!!”

I reach over to the clock and turn if off. “Click!”

Brianna and I turn to each other and smile. We give each other a lingering kiss.

“Mmmm . . . . that kiss is yummy, Brianna.”

“You’re a silly boy, Richard.”

“Hey, we need to keep our laughter quotient up. That way we won’t be accused of being bored with each other.”

“Laughter quotient? Then how about this?” She immediately pinches my side with a smile.

I try to jerk away. “Hah, hah, hah, . . . all right, you win.”

“I need to keep that smiling face on you. Your face looks like you’ve eaten a sour lemon when you are thinking sometimes.”

“All right, you’re more than welcome to keep a smiling face on me at anytime.”

“That’s better. Come on, we need to get ready for the day.” We turn from each other and get out of the bed. I rub the side of my torso as we walked into the bathroom to get cleaned up and dressed for the day.

We make sure the fairies have put their beds, pillows and clothes boxes into the satchel. I fold up the blankets and leave them on the sofa. The fairies use the shower set up in the sink to get cleaned up for the day.

At 7 AM we hear a knock on the door and a female voice.

“Breakfast is ready, Moores.”

The fairies quickly fly to several locations to hide. A few are still within the shower curtains in the sink.

I look around and don’t see them in sight. “We are ready.” I walk up to the door. I look through the peephole and see the same lady that served us yesterday morning. I open the door.

The maid pushes the cart into the room. I take it from her and give her a ten-dollar bill as a tip. She thanks me for it and leaves the room. The fairies quickly resume getting ready for the day. I push the cart to the dining table. Brianna and I take off the metal covers to see what is for breakfast. We see it is almost the same thing as yesterday. This time we see a small stack of matzah brie. It is matzah dipped in beaten eggs, then fried in a frying pan. There is also tabooli, fruit pieces, herring in wine sauce, pita bread and humus. The pastry choice is rugelach. These are miniature pastries filled with fruit.

We split it up onto our plates. Brianna and I also set out several plates for the fairies. The fairies quickly take their choice of nuts and fruits from the bags and bring them to the table and place them on the plates. I give the Thanks to the Creator. Afterwards they all respond in one voice. “Thank you, Creator.”

“We’ll need to put the shower curtain set up away, my fairies. The maids come in here to change the bed sheets and clean up any messes that might be in here.”

“We’ll get the shower curtain set up put away, father, mother, Omega.”

We continue to eat the morning breakfast. We all get done in about twenty minutes. Brianna cleans the dishes while I help with the fairies put away the shower set up back into their satchel.

Brianna and I walk back into the bathroom to get ourselves cleaned up and finish getting ready for the day. Once we are satisfied with our appearance, we put on the multi-pocket coats and the satchels. The fairies quickly fly into the pockets to get comfortable.

Then right at 8 AM we hear the knock on the door. “It is 8 AM. Are you ready?”

“We are, Gavri.” I push the breakfast cart out with me as Brianna and I exit the room. I leave the cart against the wall. We follow Gavri and Yoel to the elevators. We quickly arrive down at the first floor then we walk out the front door. We see Yosef standing next to the car. He opens the doors and lets us all in. We sit in the same seats like we did yesterday. Yosef drives out onto the streets.

“So, where are we off to this morning?”

“We’ll be visiting two memorial museums this morning. The first one is Yad Vashem. The next one will be a small museum. It is called the Chamber of the Holocaust. Then we’ll have lunch somewhere on Ben Yehuda Street. It is a pedestrian shopping street district. There are several cafes to choose from.”

“One of the items we’ll need to buy, Yoel, is some type of cream for the bodies. It is for the trip to Masada. Which one do you recommend?”

“Well, Ahava (reg) is a very good brand. It tends to be on the expensive side, but it is well worth it. It will keep the skin moist longer than the others. They also come in scented and non-scented varieties. We’ll visit the main facility that is located in the Dead Sea area along the way. It is sold around the world. This time we’ll have to leave at 7 AM tomorrow morning.”

“It will more than likely be at a higher price in those shops.”

“They tend to be, Miss Brianna.”

After fifteen minutes of driving, we arrive at Yad VaShem. Yosef pulls into an empty spot in the parking lot. We get out of the car. Yosef locks the doors, “Beep! Beep!”

We follow them through the gardens. I use my video camera to record what we are seeing in the garden. Immediately our fairies flutter out in butterfly mode. They get their fill of nectar from the flowers in bloom. We are now walking down a row of trees.

“This is the Righteous Gentile memorial tree garden. These are trees planted in memory of them.”

Then we see a stunted tree that is no more than four or five feet high.

“Who is that one for, Yoel?”

“That is for Corrie Ten Boom. Her story is told in the movie The Hiding Place. In 1983, she died. Within a few months of her death, the tree died. So, when we planted a new tree to replace it, the new tree stayed at the original height. We then knew, Corrie was a special righteous gentile who looked out for us.”

My butterfly group quickly flutters around the tree and pollinates the flowers in bloom on the tree.

Then we are escorted to another memorial, The Children’s Memorial. Brianna and I quickly put our arms around each other. We read the text plaques and markers that tell the story of what happened. We are saddened by what we read. Some tears come down on our faces. Brianna does her best to clean up her face with a compact and tissue. She then retouches up her makeup.

Then we are led to a large building. The butterflies quickly fly into our coat pockets. They sense our sadness.

Cheer us up later, my fairies.

We will, father, mother, Omega.

We walk in to see what is inside. We see the staggering numbers of the lives lost during World War 2.

“Not only Jews were killed, but also gypsies. These are gentile people who loved the traveling life style in the European countries. They too were seen as undesirables. There are not too many of them left today. Most of them are regulated to stay in one place and not travel at all.”

After spending another fifteen minutes inside, we stop by the donation box. I drop in a tightly folded up $100 check.

We exit the building and make our way back to the parking lot and get into the car. Yosef backs out and drives toward the Chamber of the Holocaust. He pulls into a street side parking spot. We see the sign for the museum. “The Chamber of the Holocaust.”

“This museum is privately funded. It is a collection of artifacts from the European Jews only. That is the reason why it is in a house.”

Yosef locks the car. “Beep! Beep!”

We walk down the sidewalks to the entrance and down the steps to the front door. The first room we see inside is stone slabs mounted on the wall.

“Each stone slab represents a community of Jews in each town. As you can see, the numbers are staggering again. Those Jewish communities no longer exist.”

We walk into another room and see some unusual artifacts. We see a lampshade made of sheets from the Torah. Then there is a vest made from the sheets of the Torah.

“At the time, the Nazi Commandant of the local prison wanted to test the rabbis. He wanted to know how far they will go to desecrate their Torah to save their own lives. He wanted a lamp shade made and a vest made from the Torah scroll. The rabbis argued about it for days. Some didn’t want to do it all, until one of them had a brilliant idea. What if certain portions of the Torah are used for a specific purpose? For the lampshade, the lamp provides the light. For the vest they decided it should curse the wearer.”

“So, the Rabbis searched the right passages for each part of the artifact. The lampshade contains specific portions that pertain to the Light of the Torah and HaShem. The vest contained specific portions that pertain to the curses upon those people who don’t believe in HaShem.”

“You mean to tell me, they were able to curse the Commandant in a round about way from HaShem’s own mouth?”

“That’s right, Richard. So, when the lamp is turned on, it showed the passages on the walls of the room declaring the sovereignty of HaShem as the Light of the World.”

We all begin to chuckle, giggle and laugh on how the Jewish rabbis outsmarted the Nazi leadership.

We walk into another room and see more stone slabs on the walls for each community lost in Europe. The last room is filled with newspaper clippings, brochures and other paper paraphernalia used to spread the lies about the Jews. Most of the text is in German of course. There were a few pieces that were in English.

We then exit the Chamber museum and walk back to the car. We look on our watches and see that we have spent at least 3.5 hours touring the two museums.

We get into the car and Yosef drives us to Ben Yehuda Street. He parks in a spot that is a block away from the street. We see a lot of people walking up and down the streets.

“We better do lunch first, Yosef. It is crowded here.”

“I’ll walk ahead, Yoel. I know there is an outside café down one of these side streets to the left.”

“I know which one you’re talking about. We might have to squeeze around a single table.”

Yosef quickly walks faster than the rest of us. “Just do some window shopping for now. We’ll have more time after we have some lunch.”

We walk down the streets to window shop. We see several jewelry shops, T-shirt shops, art studios, Judaica book shops, etc. We walk over to the side street on the left-hand side of the main street. We hear live music from several people along the street. Most of them are playing the guitar. We did find two of them are trying out my style of guitar playing. I can tell they need more practice.

Once we turn onto the side street, we see Yosef standing up and waving at us. We make our way to the café. We see it is nice and comfortable with large umbrellas and awnings. Our butterflies quickly flutter to the flowering pots scattered about the café. The people smile when they are nearby, then they resume the small talk with the other people at their table.

A waiter comes up and places several menus on the table. We look it over and decide to have a slightly different lunch than the one we had yesterday. We order some chicken, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, tzatziki sauce, along with the falafels. The chicken is spiced with the local flavor of zatar. For dessert we order the baklava. We order several colas with the Hebrew lettering on it. We decide to take two of the empty bottles back home with us. We get done eating in about half hour. We pay the bill and walk back to the shops. Our butterflies flutter about and stay near the shop we walk into. The first item we look for is a body cream. In one perfume shop we find the Ahava products. We look at the prices for how much cream is in each container.

“It looks like we’ll need the large containers, Brianna.”

“I agree, Richard. But, look at this brand. It is cheaper than Ahava.”

“Hmm . . . let’s go for a combination. My loved ones can use the Ahava. We’ll use the cheaper one for the body and Ahava for the hands and face.”

“I can go along with that.” We pick up several containers like we talked about. I estimate the bill comes to just more than $200 in US dollars. I use the debit card again.

We walk into a jewelry shop to see what is available. We see reasonable prices for silver jewelry. The shop owner takes out a tray of silver rings for us to take a closer look.

“Something simple to compliment your hand, miss?”

“Yes, it will be a reminder of our time here in Israel.”

We settle on two silver rings, a man’s and woman’s ring. Mine will be set with the malachite stone. That is a greenish-blackish type stone. Brianna settles on a similar type ring. However, the malachite stone is highly polished. It looks like an emerald set in the ring. I also purchase a paper weight filled with the malachite stone. We can easily see the rippling of the varied green and black colors in the mineral. It almost looks like turquoise found in the Southwest. But those are blue-green mineral stones there. The total comes to about $200.00. I use the debit card to pay for it.

“The greenish color comes from the copper in the mineral.”

“I thought as much. It is similar to turquoise found in the western US.”

“Yes, they tend to be on the blue-green side mostly there. The common metal is copper for both of them.”

“Well, todah, sir.”

“It is a pleasure doing business with you, sir. Todah raba. That means thank you very much.”

We shake hands with our right hands.

“Have no worries, sir. I can hear the Creator’s voice. I heard him for the first time about twenty years ago.”

We nod our heads to each other as we smile at each other. We leave the jewelry shop and continue our way window shopping. We decide to buy some postcards of the various places in Israel. Hopefully, one day in the future we’ll see those places personally.

After an hour of window shopping we gather together for another visit. “So, where are we going now, Yoel?”

“We’ll stop by the Damascus Gate and see the cemetery garden nearby.”

Our fairies follow us as we walk back to the car. Once the door opens, they flutter in quickly and sit on the back side of the seats. We then get into the car. Then the butterflies flutter into the coat pockets to get some rest. Yosef drives us to the Damascus Gate. He finds a parking spot that is two blocks away.

“Did we hear right; we are going to a garden, father?”

“We are, Tiger.”

“That’s great. We didn’t find too many flowering plants on Ben Yehuda Street.”

“Then we’ll do that first, Richard.”

We get out of the car and gather together on the side walk. Once the doors are locked, we walk toward the cemetery garden. We come to the entrance of Golgotha. Once we enter the grounds, our butterflies flutter about quickly. They quickly get themselves recharged up by drinking the sweet nectar from as many flowers they can find.

We walk down the paths toward several locations. I take out my video camera and record what we are seeing. We see the place where Yeshua was laid to rest.

“The stone is long gone. It was probably broken up by visiting pilgrims and taken back as souvenirs or treated as holy objects in some far away churches.”

I continue to scan the garden area to get a full sense of the beauty there. We continue walking our way until we see the ‘skull’ in the side of the hill.

“On top of the hill is an actual Moslem cemetery. Amazingly, it still looks like a skull after all these centuries. Down below is a bus station.”

I scan the area again. I also show the bus station as well. Then I turn off the video camera and put it in my satchel. I quickly button it up and use the clasp to secure it.

We meander along the pathways. Our butterflies quickly follow us once they see us walking out of the garden. They flutter high above us and rest on several street signs as we wait patiently for the walk signal to change. We see the Damascus Gate a few blocks away. Once we see the light change, we walk across the busy street safely. Our butterflies flutter high above traffic as they follow us.

We arrive at the Damascus Gate and see it looming up right before us. Our butterflies take their rest on several awnings from the vendors set up in front of the gate.

I use my video camera again to record what we are seeing. I also get our butterflies in the recording as well.

“We will now go inside. There is something we need to show you.”

Quickly the butterflies flutter above us. One by one they flutter into the coat pockets. There are some children who are amused when they see it happen. But then they go back to follow their parents once we walk into Damascus Gate.

“We are walking down a level that is nearby.”

We follow Yoel down some stairs to a lower level. Soon we see a tiled map of Jerusalem on the floor.

“This is just a copy of the map that was found here. The real one is located in a museum. What is interesting is the time of the map when it was made. It was made during the Byzantine era of the 600's. Hence, this area over here is where the Temple should be.” He points to it. “But it is not shown. Why? It was torn down and laid in waste. Hence, the pilgrims saw only the Holy Sepulcher as the new place of worship and the old has passed away.”

“But, now you are rebuilding the temple.”

“Yes, we are, Richard. This has proven to be the hardest concept for the Christian churches and Moslem groups to comprehend. Their mind set is still two thousand years old. There are only a few groups from both sides supporting us in this endeavor. We feel, that once the Temple is rebuilt and it becomes engulfed with the presence of HaShem with the clouds, then they will see they have been wrong for centuries. Then they will come to us ask forgiveness of their sins they committed against us.”

“That is a lot to take in.” I look at Brianna. “Since we both have been changed, Brianna, I’m sure our perception has changed as well about the Creator.”

“You’re right, Richard. He is now more personal to us. He does want to be with his Creation.”

“That is the whole point about the Temple. When the Temple is engulfed with the presence of HaShem, we see it as if Heaven has come down to us. Therefore, we ‘go up’ to Jerusalem to meet HaShem.”

“This level where we are at is the original floor level of the Cardo.”

“That is a lot of fill on top of Jerusalem.”

“Yes, it is, Richard. It took centuries of sandstorms, buildings being toppled by invading armies and the blocks reused elsewhere. We will now walk toward the Moslem Quarter from here. Keep the hands on the satchels. There are still some boys and young men who are pick pockets here.”

We make our way slowly through the catacombs of the Gate and take several left and right-hand turns. We stop before an opening. “This is a narrow staircase. We are going up the steps and get on top of the Gate itself. We will get a grand view of the area. From there, we’ll descend down the newly built metal stairs to the current level.”

We follow Yoel in the narrow staircase, one by one in a single file. It is very dark in the stair case. Occasionally there is a light bulb at key turns to keep the way lit. Then we walk through an opening that opens out to the top of the Gate. We see that we are on a metal platform that has railings to keep us safe. I take out my video camera and record the view in 360 degrees. The fairies flutter out in butterfly mode to take a look as well. I get their pictures with the video camera as well.

“As you can see from both sides, the street level in Moslem quarter is higher than the outside level.”

We then walk down the outside metal steps built into the side of the walls. We follow Yoel through the Moslem Quarter. Our butterflies take a drink of nectar from the many flowering pots on window sills and balconies. They keep up with us with no problems.

“We are walking to an open area. It contains the ruins of a Twelfth century church. But, also nearby there is a Roman ruin for a garden dedicated to a pagan G-d.”

We make several right and left-hand turns until we come to the open area. Then all of a sudden we see how much rubble is piled on top of Jerusalem from the excavations that took place. I get out the video camera to record what we are seeing.

“Over there is a Roman pagan site. The archeologists have a tough problem in deciphering what they find. They need to know the correct era or century where they find the ruins. As you can see, the pagan site is very close to the Christian church site. There is a mound called the Dothan Tel in Israel. It probably started out as a small village. Then an invading army came in and wiped it out. The rubble stayed where it fell. Then centuries later another community gets built on top of the ruins. They would probably take some of the stone blocks to build new buildings. Then another army comes in and wipes it out. This would continue for a thousand years or more. Hence, the top of the mound is the youngest and the bottom is the oldest. The archeologist would do a slice into a Tel mound of several feet wide. They would leave the rest of the mound undisturbed. They would record every detail they find and determine which era over lapped the other.”

“That’s amazing, Yoel.”

“Yes it is, Richard.”

“Why is this church here?”

“A lot of the Christian pilgrims tried to find the story locations found in the scriptures and with their Testament Writings, Brianna. Underneath that church is the Bethesda Pool. In Hebrew we are in the Beth Zeta Valley.”

“This doesn’t look like a valley. Aren’t valleys found between two mountain ranges?”

“Heh, heh, heh, that’s right, Brianna. The problem here is scale. When we say valleys, it is a valley between two higher elevations. When the scriptures get translated into other languages, care must be used in picking the right words. Hence, in the Himalayas, valleys are huge. Therefore, they have to use a different word that describes a rivulet type valley that is much smaller than the mountain valleys.”

“Hmm . . . that’s interesting.”

“This is one of the pools that collects rain water. This pool is located near the Sheep Gate. It became associated with healing when the people came here through the Sheep Gate from their long travels. The Sheep Gate is the main gate that accepted livestock. There is a lot more history about the site you can find on the internet or in books found in the bookstores here.”

We walk down the stone pavement steps to get under the church. Soon we are standing on the edge of a large vaulted chamber. We see water collected and sitting still. Our fairies are sitting on our shoulders and heads. Then all of a sudden we see a swirling motion in the air on the far end. It is curling along the water surface. It engulfs all of us quickly. Soon we feel our energy totally restored and don’t feel tired at all.

“I think we just encountered a blessing from the Creator.”

“I agree, Richard. It is said there is an angel who disturbs the waters. For a brief moment that it happens, one has to dip oneself into the water to be healed of any ailment or disease. But, since we are already healthy, this is a nice bonus from the Creator.”

Then as if we are being heard. Our eyes become a bit blinded, not from the cave darkness, but within ourselves. It is like coming in from bright day into dark room. We hear a subtle voice in our minds.

“Greetings, Omega Unicorn Dragon, Richard, Brianna and fairies. Indeed you all have been blessed and recharged with energy. The world will humble themselves when the Temple is finished and the presence of HaShem has descended upon it once more. Mossad, you must stay alert. There will be some groups who want to see the new Temple destroyed. They will be from the smaller splinter groups who still have a hatred for what happened when the King brought peace to Israel and the Arabs. The foundation is sound, it is the first course of blocks that are compromised.”

Gavri speaks up, “Thank you for the warning, Emissary from the Creator.”

Yoel speaks up, “We’ll do a thorough investigation of the materials being brought in. Thank you, Emissary.”

Then the light fades from our view and we see the darkness of the vaulted pool once more.

We make our way out of the underground pool and onto the main ground. We think to ourselves of what we just encountered.

We slowly make our way back to the Damascus Gate and back to the car. It takes about an hour to walk back. We see the time is now 4 PM. We are taken back to the King David Hotel. Once we come inside to our room, we see the dishes have been put away by the maids and the two blankets are put back into the linen closet.

I get their shower curtain set up in the kitchen sink. Brianna puts some plates onto the dining table for the fairies to use for their evening meal. I take out the two blankets and put them on the sofa for the fairies.

Brianna and I walk back into the bedroom and cleaned up for another dinner in the hotel. I put on a different colored shirt with the jacket and tie. Brianna puts on a different dress.

When we come back out, we see the fairies are watching the news again on the TV.

“Have a great dinner again, father, mother, Omega.”

“We will, Traphel. We’ll need to be in bed earlier tonight, my fairies. The alarm needs to be set for 5:30 AM this time.”

“We understand, father.”

Brianna and I exit the room and walk to the elevators. We arrive on the first floor. We walk into the dining facility in the hotel.

The Maitre d’ escorts us to our table. This time we get a window view of the gardens. We order the roasted chicken with roasted vegetables. For dessert it is a selection of different sweet pastries.

The evening proved to be quieter than last night. We get done eating in about an hour. We walk to the outside porch and watch the sunset in the western horizon. Then we look up and see the stars shining brightly in the night sky.

We arrive back in our rooms and see the fairies have arranged the blankets and brought out their beds and pillows like last night. We change clothes into our night clothes. We come back into the living room and sit in the two-seater sofa. They fly over to be near to us while we watch the news at 9 PM.

After the news we discuss what we saw this morning.

“It is said all those people died because of some bullies, father.”

“Sigh . . . I know, Tiger.”

“How did you deal with the loss of your family, Richard?” Brianna and I keep our arms around each other while I talked. The fairies start to hum a soothing melody to ease my emotions.

“I was at college when it happened. I got the news from the secretary at the Engineering Department. I was stunned by the sudden loss. It felt like I was on autopilot. Fortunately, Anna Dawson took control of the situation. Then we opened the Will package my mom and dad made. Fortunately they made a video of their last words to me. Their voices still echo in mind.”

Traphel speaks up, “I remember the day you came to the garden on the college campus. We tried to give the best encouragement we could at the time.”

“I remember it, Traphel. I was given some sleeping pills from the campus nurses. I used one of them. It was during that night I met Caliber in heaven. It felt like I cried for hours until I was drained. The four fairies with Caliber sang a song to soothe my soul.”

“I know which four fairies they are, Richard. They are the closest to his heart. Their names are Primrose, Copper, Peacock and Heath. Their hearts are very tight with Caliber. Oren and his sister, Pearl were born next. Then White Dove and her brother, White Eagle was born next. Pearl and White Eagle stayed behind with the other fairies and unicorns in the Forbidden Forest.”

The fairies continue to hum the soothing melody, eventually all of our hearts at ease. We then feel the love and the peace from the Creator emanating within all of us.

“Thank you, my fairies.”

“You’re welcome, father, mother, Omega.”

After the talk we all get into our beds. I set the clock alarm for 5:30 AM. I call the front desk to have the breakfast cart brought in an hour earlier. They said it is no problem to do that. We have another great night of sleep during the night.