A River Divided • Audiobook • Fiction
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EnglishVoice Age
Middle Aged (35-54)Accents
Australian Spanish (Argentinian)Transcript
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Dead Sea Shore, January 10, 1997. The skull stared back at Evelyn through its empty eye sockets. She could see that its dome, the calvary um had been removed clearly visible were also a pelvis, a femur, and what seemed to be a clavicle. The bones were human, feeling like a fugitive. Evelyn stood up to look around. She was on the cusp of a shallow depression surrounded by lifeless earth, flat and gray. The sky was not graced by a bird, the earth not by a tree. Even the mountains beyond were devoid of vegetation. Marching beside the road were pylons bearing power lines oddly juxtaposed against Masada, which resembled a volcano with a flattened top on the horizon. To the south erosion had sculpted the earth into low lying profiles like barges stranded on a dry lake a few kilometers to the east. Evelyn could make out the shimmering dead sea, Though she was only about 100 m from the road. The desert had the silence of a cemetery. Just then she became aware of the fortress like security station at the Masada foothill. If I can see them, they can see me. She thought. She went down on her knees to look again into the austere E. It was about a meter deep and there were other things in it besides the bones, pushing herself back. She sat on her heels and put her hand on her chest. Her heart was racing and she paused before reaching for the camera. This had once been a person who breathed who played who loved. She thought the camera felt heavy and getting the settings right, took time activating the flash. She captured images from as far into the Austria as possible without touching the bones. It was a reburial. Was it recent or ancient? Could there be an engraving? She started removing the soft earth around the austere. E The earth was easy to shift but kept falling back into the area. She had cleared, sweat was running down her face and between her shoulders. The sun was getting to her. It would make sense to return when it was cooler. Repositioning the lid, she concealed the Austria with earth. Earlier on her way back to Jerusalem. After visiting Masada, she had left the road to get a good photograph of the mountain Visiting the place where 960 people chose death over slavery. Had been an emotional experience, but this was eclipsed by the discovery of the Osprey. Now the rugged landscape unfolded around her as she drove through the Judean Desert following Route 90 along the coastline of the Dead Sea. She felt like a schoolgirl dazzled by her first crush. It is illegal to dig. But I have to. She thought once, I tell them the authorities would never let an amateur like me anywhere near this place again. She passed the sign for the Conran caves. The dead sea scrolls. A shepherd had stumbled across them. The soil here is full of history. She thought this person might have died recently or thousands of years ago in the King David Hotel. Michael was just reaching for his shirt when Evelyn burst through the door of their room saying, I found a skeleton in Masada. A skeleton near Masada, he repeated. Was he crossing the road? I'm serious. It was in a stone dossari. She sketched the shape of a rectangle with her hands. I was photographing Masada when the rock I was standing on slipped from under me and rolled into a trough. When I looked down, I saw a straight edge. Nature doesn't have straight edges. So I brushed the earth aside. It was a lid. I tried to remove it, but it was stuck. I got the crowbar from the car. How come nobody had seen it before you? He asked. There might have been more soil on it. Wind erosion, rains, and many earthquakes happen all the time here. You know the Masada fault zone? And you're sure it's human. Look at these. She scrolled through the images on her camera. The calvary um has been sword off. It must be human and the orbits. The eye sockets can't be anything else. Michael zoomed in. Alas. Poor Yorick! He frowned and shook his head. I should have come with you. The gynecologists brunch was a dead affair. More dead than your skeleton. I'm going back this afternoon, she said, looking at him in. What could only mean invitation. You might get me interested in archaeology after all