10. The Olympics

A couple of days had passed relatively incident free (although Karen had challenged the waiters on their personal hygiene after she saw one of them cough near an elderly woman), then the boat stopped close to Olympia, the destination of the very first Olympic Games. Those who wanted to get off would be put into a couple of coaches which would take them inland to the ancient city.

"Well, kids," Pete announced, as they arrived in the city, "this is the site of the very first Olympic Games. They happened in around 770BC…"

"What's BC daddy?" Karen asked

"It means 'Before Christ', so it happened 770 years before the year 0 or the year Jesus was born." Sue explained.

"Thank you dear," Pete continued, "anyway, it was a bit similar to the Olympics that we know today – they had running, javelin, discus and wrestling. However, they also had different things like chariot racing, but there was no diving or football or anything like that."

At this point Jake made a sarcastic comment about his father teaching history even in summer holidays but any reply was immediately stopped because Ben had thrown a large rock in Karen's direction, missing her head by a matter of inches. Karen immediately screamed and began to cry.

"Oops!" Ben exclaimed, as he picked up another – smaller – rock to throw. He put it down when he saw the deathly glare both parents (and Jake) were giving him. Karen had stopped crying but she was still visibly shocked and scared by what had almost happened to her.

"BEN, WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?" Pete screamed, "KAREN COULD HAVE BEEN REALLY BADLY HURT"

"The Olympics," he replied, as if he'd been asked the world's stupidest question, "and that was the practise discus round. You'll be pleased to know I won" he continued, unabashed by the near-injury he'd caused.

"THAT DOESN'T MATTER BEN," Sue shouted "YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE IT. NOW APOLOGISE TO KARN"

"Sorry Karen," he said meekly "I won't do it again"

Karen nodded and smiled slightly, apparently having forgiven him. Pete and Sue smiled at each other and continued on their walk around the town. They had an impromptu 100 meter race across part of the believed site of the Games, which they let Karen win to cheer her up, she accepted Ben's congratulatory high five. Their parents smiled at the reconciliation and decided it was time that the family walked off to the nearest café to get some ice cream. A few minutes later Jake's mobile phone buzzed. He got it out, looked at it and changed his expression from normal-moody-teenager to one of sadness.

"What's up J-man?" Pete asked, trying to use humorous names to cheer his son up

"Nothing," Jake mumbled. He sniffed and let out a few silent tears. Ben quickly snatched his brother's phone and read the text from Jake's girlfriend: Hey Jake, know you're on your hols but I have something to tell you. The other night I was at McDonald's with some of our friends. Mikey was one of them and we began to talk. After a while he asked me out and I said yes so it's over between us. Can we still be friends? Xxx.

Near to the end, Ben's voice began to fade away, knowing that the situation was fairly icy for a boy of Jake's age. The rest of the family looked pitifully towards Jake and Karen moved in to give him a reassuring sisterly hug. Usually Jake would probably have pushed his sister away but, this time, he didn't resist and let Karen carry on as he failed to hold himself together and let his feelings out in tears. Karen patted his shoulder and backed off slowly, not really knowing what to do. She looked to her mother for some idea, but Sue simply shrugged.

"Come on," Pete whispered to Sue and the two younger children, "let's back off a minute and give the boy some space." They retreated a few meters and – once out of Jake's earshot – tried to work out what was the best thing to do. Eventually, it was decided that they'd just go back on to the boat and see where it went from there. It looked like once again they'd have to leave Jake in the cabin alone for a while. It was at this point when Sue wondered if the issue that had been troubling Jake after Mikey phoned a few days ago was in any way linked to this current situation – and her motherly conscience told her she was correct.

About 20 minutes later – after Ben had attempted and failed to demonstrate Olympic wrestling on his father – Sue calmly walked over to Jake and asked if he was okay to go back. He was, so the family wandered back towards the ship. Ben, Karen and Pete hung back a few yards so that Sue could talk to, and comfort, her 13 year old son.

"Jake," she said, soothingly, "Is this incident related to the phone call you got from Mike the other day?"

Jake nodded slightly and whispered, "He said that everyone was going to town to see Inception and then go to McDonald's for Matt's birthday"

"Ah." Sue sighed, now aware of the issues that had been troubling Jake recently, not knowing what else to say. They got back on the boat and realised that they'd next stop in Tunis – capital of Tunisia After this, and a couple other stops in Italy and Spain, it was the bit of the holiday that Pete and Sue were dreading most – the week-long trip across the Atlantic to Miami.