Omar and Tal

Omar and Tal

Omar was scrolling through posts in a chat room when one particular post caught his eye. He started to read it and enjoyed the girl’s writing. Finally, after reading other posts and ideas that the girl had written in the past, he learned that her name was Tal and he became friendly with her. They had many things in common. They both loved writing, reading, and were both part of an army. The only thing was that Tal was part of the Israeli army, and Omar was part the Jordanian army, and their parents would never allow them to marry, let alone date. They both decided that they should probably just be friends.

Everyday, Omar and Tal would talk online and they began to fall in love. They really wanted to see each other in person even though they knew it was dangerous. They knew that this would cause many problems, but they were determined to see each other. After trying to think of different solutions, they decided that they would meet at a place along the border where not many soldiers went, even though it was dangerous for both of them. Excited, Omar immediately got to work on figuring out the details. Studying the routine of the soldiers on both the Jordanian and Israeli side, Omar saw that for six minutes, from 10:35 to 10:41 A.M., there were no soldiers on either side of the border.

Omar let Tal know of the situation, and she thought the idea would work. They agreed that they were going to meet up the next day at 10:37 A.M., just to be safe.

When both of them arrived at their spot, it seemed great. Nobody suspected anything because they were both part of the army. There was one person, however, a Jordanian soldier who saw Omar walking by, and knew it wasn’t his shift time. Omar was not aware that he was following him. Ignorant of being watched, Tal and Omar had a great time talking and just meeting each other. They decided that they would do this more often. Just as they were saying that, though, the soldier who was following Omar approached both of them, arrested them, and put them in jail. They were to have a trial the next morning.

Omar and Tal knew that if they stayed in jail that night and had the trial the next morning, the possibility of something happening to them was very great, especially since they were both members of armies which were only slightly at peace with each other. This was particularly dangerous for Tal because she was an enemy to the Jordanians. They could not find out who she really was.

Omar and Tal decided that they would have to escape from the prison, but they didn’t know how. They were thinking and thinking but understood that none of the options that they thought of would work because the guards weren’t leaving. They decided that they should just use this moment to talk and get to know each other because they knew that they weren’t going to be getting out anytime soon.  In a way they were kind of excited to be in a cell together, because the whole point of meeting by the border was just to get to know each other. After a little while, the guards went into the next room for their lunch break. Tal realized that this was their only chance to escape. It was either now or never. Tal learned how to pick locks in the army a few years ago, and now was the time to recall that skill. She tried and tried but nothing was working. She didn’t give up though. Finally, the cell door opened and Tal and Omar were ecstatic!  They hadn’t thought out much of a plan after that, especially because they didn’t think they were going to find a way out. Instinctively, they decided to run as fast as they could once outside of the prison. Of course they were noticed. Who wouldn’t notice two people running out of the jail? They were being chased, but there were fewer guards than usual, because many of the guards were on their lunch break. Omar and Tal were almost out of the area around the jail when all of a sudden they were surrounded. They were caught.
Omar whispered to Tal that she should run and pushed her so hard that she went flying past the guards who were surrounding them. She started running as fast as she could and eventually outran the guards. Tal knew though that the punishment for a prisoner trying to escape was execution. She couldn’t bear to think of Omar being executed! She then took her sword out, pointed it at her chest, and ran into a tree.

Little did Tal know Omar was still alive! Back at the prison, Omar used his skills and knocked out every single guard that was surrounding him. He ran to look for Tal. He found her not far from the prison and immediately saw what  had happened. He took her sword and killed himself too.