On the morning of the second day of being a spy for the CIA, we got a rude awakening. It was a message from Sam, Omar and Sam. They would let us continue on our tour, but if they saw us outside the hotel by ourselves, we would be killed. They weren't kidding either. They had found out that we were supposed to spy on them.
How? Well, it seemed that the night before I had called Sandra's room to talk about what had happened at dinner. A switchboard operator was a friend of the 3 Arab boys, and the operator listened in on our conversation. Apparently, the 3 boys had a lot of friends, because we found out early on that we were being watched. The operator, or someone else, told the 3 boys what was going on, and they were not happy about it. We both confirmed that suspicion on the 14th, when we were talking about stuff that wouldn't matter to anyone, and we both heard a click on our phones that proved someone else was listening.
On the morning of July 14th, we started our tour of Jerusalem and its environs. Our tour started with the Garden Tomb. There were actually two tombs on display in Jerusalem where Jesus was to have been buried, but the Garden Tomb made more sense. We had a very worshipful experience there. We then visited Lazarus's tomb and onto Bethlehem. It was very crowded, but we got to see where Jesus was born. We then carried onto the old city of Jerusalem. When we got there, a little boy attached himself to our group. He was trying to sell us rolls of mints--1 for a quarter or 2 for 25 cents. We thought this was funny, as he had no concept of American money. We talked him down to 1 for a quarter or 4 for 25 cents. He got excited that he made a sale. We found out later that he was also a friend of Sam, Omar and Sam and he was sent to watch us.
In the old city, we saw a lot of places, such as Pilate's court, Solomon's temple, the Wailing Wall, and the Dome of the Rock. We went inside there, and I found it to be one of the worst smelling places I had ever been in. One had to remove one's shoes before entering the site, and they had these beautiful Oriental rugs on the floor. Imagine hundreds of smelly feet in one place. It was pretty bad. There was one area of the city we were going to after lunch--the Church of the Holy Sepulchre but the four girls and I decided not to go there, as we wanted the afternoon free.
At this time, we still did not know that the hotel staff was feeding information about us to Sam, Omar and Sam. We just thought they were nice people, so the girls wanted to find a beauty salon nearby to get their hair done. They asked the desk staff where they could go, and they were told of a salon behind the hotel and across the street. Since we knew that the boys, or their representatives, were watching the front of the hotel, I asked if we could use the service entrance in the back to get to the salon. The hotel staff said yes, so I went first, and the girls followed me. We ran from the back of the hotel, across the street, and into the hair salon. We explained to the owner why we had to run, and why I was watching out the window of the salon. We told her about the three boys and the threat they had made toward us. While we were in there, the three boys showed up and started banging on the window of the salon. They were calling us names, and we were very frightened. It was apparent to us that the hotel staff and called the boys to tell them where we were. They could not have found out about it otherwise, because only the desk knew where we were. The salon owner told us that the 3 Arab boys were crazy, and she called the police to get them to leave. The police came, and cleared the area, so that we could return to the hotel. The girls looked nice, but I was a nervous wreck.
When we got back to the hotel, I got the girls to go to their rooms, and I ran across the street from the front of the hotel to a drug store. I needed something to calm my stomach. An elderly Arab man was there, and I explained my situation. He asked me who was causing this, and I said Sam, Omar and Sam. A worried look came upon his face, and he told me that those three boys were crazy. Exactly what the woman in the beauty salon said. They had a reputation for causing trouble, and he said that they made that neighborhood look bad in the eyes of the authorities. I can't say whether they were terrorists or not, as the CIA man said, but I can say that they seemed to be in charge of a group similar to a crime syndicate interested in making life bad for decent people. I thanked the druggist, and he said he would watch out for us, and call the police if he thought we were in danger.
The rest of the group got back from their tour, and told us how we should have gone. We didn't tell them about our experience. Supper came, and so did our new friend from the consulate. We told him what had happened, and he took some notes. He seemed to take it all in stride. What had he gotten us into?
After supper, we went to our rooms, and I picked up the phone to call Sandra. That is when we heard the click. We decided that we would no longer trust the phones or the hotel staff. Everything would be said to each other in person and in small groups. We could hear the boys outside our rooms on the street yelling at us. That went on for a while, and then we left. We were prisoners in our hotel, and the hotel staff were the guards. Sleep was at a premium.
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