• CHAPTER TWO
    Mohamed watched the English professor’s mouth as he talked. He wished he would slow down. He was only understanding half of what the man was saying. He raised his hand. “Could you slow down your speaking please maybe?” he said. One word Mohamed did understand. “No.”
    A few hours later, Mohamed walked out of the doors. The setting sun was hot on his back. His mocha colored skin glistened with sweat. He was relieved when he reached his small house. He unwrapped the scarf from his face as he stepped inside. He smelled alcohol, which was usually a bad sign. His father was sitting at the table with his three older brothers. All drinking some kind of strong alcohol. Mohamed turned around to go back out the door, but it was too late. His father had seen him. “Mohamed.” He grunted angrily. He turned around, scared.
    “Y-yes father?”
    “Come here boy.” Mohamed walked over to the table his knees shaking. “Where have you been all day?” he asked angrily. Mohamed didn’t answer. “ANSWER ME BOY!” Mohamed still said nothing. His father hit him hard in the chest, and he fell to the ground. He started to kick him in the ribs, as Mohamed scrambled backwards. His older brothers were laughing. “GET OUT!” his father screamed. “YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF GARBAGE!!” Mohamed scrambled to his knees and tried to crawl out the door as his father screamed curses at him. He glanced back and saw his mother staring wide eyed from under her scarf, only her eyes visible. He got up, turned, and ran out of the house.

    -~-

    Emily opened her eyes in fear as the plane jiggled a little bit. How long had she been sleeping? She checked her watch. Four hours, six to go. She looked over at her mother, who was sleeping peacefully. Emily took out a book and started to read. She couldn’t really concentrate though, so she took out a pad of paper and a pencil and started to draw. She loved to draw. She had been drawing for about an hour when she fell asleep again. When she woke up, Mary was shaking her. “We’re about to land!” she said smiling widely. Finally. Thought Emily as she stuffed her things into her backpack. She didn’t like landing either. She was shaking as they touched down, but she didn’t let anyone see. She composed herself as they pulled up to the building. She stood up, and walked slowly off the plane, wishing that the people could go faster. Finally, she emerged into the airport. Her mother grabbed her elbow, and led the way to the baggage claim. They each grabbed their medium sized luggage and walked out the doors.
    It was beautiful. The sun was shining. People were walking and talking. It was a wonderful place. Emily was filled with happiness. They waited for the bus that would take them to their hotel. When it came, Emily stepped on in a trance. Other people from their flight, and others were getting on behind them. Emily contentedly looked out the window at the people passing by as the doors shut and the bus started to move down the street.


    CHAPTER THREE
    That night, Mohamed slept in a doorway. He woke up to a woman with a broom shooing him away. He walked down the street still half asleep, not knowing where he was going, not that it mattered. He wouldn’t go back home. He was old enough to make it on his own, and he was sick of the bruises. As he was walking, he noticed that the building s were getting taller, and the streets were cleaner. He didn’t know it, but he was stumbling out of the bad part of the city which he had lived in all of his life, and into the hustle and bustles of the nice part of the city.
    Suddenly he stumbled upon the river. The river which he had learned so much about in his little school. The Nile. He had lived so close to it all of his life, and never seen it up until now. Boats were traveling up and down, and tourists were everywhere.
    There was a little building on the side of the river with a sign that proclaimed:

    Now hiring.

    Curious, Mohamed walked inside. There was a man behind a desk. He was large and had a moustache. He reminded Mohamed of his father. He almost turned and walked out the door on pure instinct, but then the man beckoned him over.
    “Are you here for a job?” the man asked. He sounded kind enough so Mohamed answered “Um. Yes, I am. Would you offer me one?” the man laughed and nodded.
    “Of course my dear boy. Here we give tourists boat rides up and down the river.”
    Mortified, Mohamed asked “The entire thing?!?” the man laughed again.
    “Of course not silly. Just a mile stretch of it. So what do you say? Do you need a job? A place to stay? Some money?” Mohamed hadn’t thought about how he would get money for food. Or a place to stay for that matter. . .
    “I don’t know how to drive a boat though” he said.
    “That’s all right boy. It’s not hard to learn. I can teach you myself.” Mohamed thought about it. What other option did he have? “I’ll take the job.” He said.

    -~-

    As Emily and her mother stepped off the bus, their moods were exactly the opposites of each other. Emily was overjoyed at the cute little hotel, and her mother was mortified that it wasn’t the five star hotel she had booked online. They just stood there out in front for a few moments, and then her mother said “ . . . Well I suppose we better go inside and check in”
    They walked in, and Mary was relieved that it was at least air conditioned. They went over to the reception counter and checked into their room. They were on the top floor, which was only the second. They unpacked their suitcases into the small closet. Emily sat down on the single bed with crisp white sheets. Her mother sat down next to her unhappily. Emily wondered what was bothering her, but instead of asking her that, she asked “so what are we doing tomorrow?”
    “We’re going on a tour of the pyramids and the sphinx.”
    “The next day?”
    “Just a shopping day”
    “The next?”
    “That’s up to you. I wanted to leave a few days open to do what you wanted to.”
    “Do you think we could go see the Nile river?”
    “Sure why not.”
    Emily smiled. She had always wanted to see the river that she had heard so much about. This was going to be an amazing trip.


    CHAPTER FOUR
    Mohamed sat next to the large man, whose name was Akhom, in the boat. It wasn’t a very big boat, but it was big enough to hold about ten people.
    “Okay. First you turn the key like this . . . ” said Akhom. He turned the key, and the boat shuddered as the motor started up. Mohamed went into a panic, and almost jumped off the boat, intending to swim back to shore. Akhom grabbed his arm “It’s all right boy. Just the motor.” Mohamed sat back down reluctantly. “Okay. Then you move this lever here . . . like this” as he did, the boat moved forward slowly. Mohamed had at least been expecting this, because he had seen other boats on the river do the same thing. “Now the farther forward you move it” said Akhom “the faster the boat moves.” Mohamed nodded. “You turn like this . . . ” said Akhom moving the steering wheel from side to side. “Got it?”
    “I think so . . . ” said Mohamed. The big man laughed. “Well give it a try then!” They switched seats. Mohamed took the steering wheel in both hands, and gripped it until his knuckles turned white. “Not so tight boy.” Said Akhom. Mohamed loosened his grip. He reluctantly reached down and pushed the lever way forward. “Woad!” said Akhom, and he pulled the lever back toward him.
    Mohamed was sitting wide eyed, his knuckle’s white on the wheel again. Akhom laughed.
    “It’s all right boy. Just not so far forward.” Mohamed loosened his grip again and tried the lever once more. This time he only moved it forward a little bit.
    “Good, good . . . now turn” he did. “You’ve got it!” exclaimed Akhom. “With a little practice, you will be a pro.”

    -~-

    The next day, Emily climbed into the jeep that was waiting outside the hotel. She smiled at the driver, and he smiled back. “Are you ready to go see the pyramids?” he asked. Emily nodded. Her mother climbed in beside her. Then they were off.
    Emily smiled at everyone they passed on the street. Only a few smiled back at her. She felt like she was on top of the world.
    When they were out of the city, it was only a fifteen minute drive to the site of the pyramids and the sphinx. There was already a ton of people there. All of them were taking pictures and laughing. That was exactly what Emily didn’t want to do. She didn’t want to be a typical tourist. She didn’t want to intrude. She wanted to learn. She smiled at the guide. “ What is there to learn about the pyramids?”
    “Well,” the guide “The Great Pyramid, the biggest one there, was built for the Pharaoh Khufu. It was built in the fourth dynasty. It took about twenty years to build, and was finished around 2560 BC. There known to be three chambers inside . . . ” as much as Emily wanted to learn, she was bored by the way the guide was talking. For one thing, it was almost a monotone, and for another, he wasn’t speaking in an accent of any kind. She loved the challenge of trying to figure out what someone was saying in broken English.
    She let her eyes wander. She took pictures with her mind, while others took pictures with cameras. She breathed in the smell of the desert, soaked in the feeling of the hot sun. She knew she wouldn’t forget this.
    Her mother was listening intently to the guide. Emily smiled. She was so thankful that her mother brought her here. She was having the time of her life.
    Two hours later, they had learned all they needed to know about the pyramids and the sphinx, and were on their way back to the hotel.
    “I expected it to take longer” confessed her mother. “What should we do for the rest of the day?”
    “Up to you.” Said Emily smiling. She would be happy doing just about anything.


    CHAPTER FIVE
    Mohamed practiced again and again at the boat. Akhom was right, it really was easy. When Mohamed walked back inside the shop, Akhom said “you are doing well . . . maybe tomorrow you can lead your first tour . . . really you don’t have to talk much . . . they only want to see what it looks like, take a few pictures, eat and leave. You know?” Mohamed didn’t know, but he nodded anyways. “Good. Then it’s settled. You can lead a tour tomorrow. I’ll bring you on one early in the morning, so you know where to go, and then I’ll let you have a go.” By now Akhom was talking to himself, because Mohamed wasn’t listening. He was thinking about his family . . . particularly his mother. He remembered how scared for him she had been when his father had been beating him. He hoped she was okay. He promised himself that when he left Egypt, he would take her with him.
    The next day, when Mohamed woke up, he was excited. Although he didn’t like tourists, he was excited to drive the boat. He was beginning to love the Nile very much. The legendary Nile of his ancestors.
    Mohamed heard rustling in the next room. Akhom must have been waking up. Mohamed slept in the front room, in a bed made of sheets behind the desk. It was much better than doorways or the bare floor of his father’s house. Mohamed scrambled up as Akhom walked in. “Are you ready?” he asked? “Yes.” Said Mohamed. “All right then.” Said the big man.
    They walked outside, where there was already a line of tourists at the boat. Fearfully, Mohamed tightened his scarf looking for his father, but he only saw the faces of eight tourists looking back at him. There was an older couple, a man in a Hawaiian shirt with his blonde wife and their two young kids, and a mother with her daughter who was about Mohamed’s age. The girl smiled at him, and he smiled back apprehensively under his scarf. He climbed onto the boat, and unhooked the rope that hung between the tourists and the boat. He collected money, and took each passenger by the hand to help them on. The girl was last in line, behind her mother. When it was her turn to get on, she blushed as he took her hand. She joined her mother at the rows of seats, and sat down. For some reason, Mohamed couldn’t look away. She wasn’t particularly pretty, but she was definitely not ugly. She reminded him a little of a scared rabbit, or something of the sort.
    “Ready Mohamed?” called Akhom. “Yes!” he said, and he ran up to the small room with the steering wheel where Akhom was waiting. “Okay, so I’ll take this one, so you know where to go next time.” Said the large man. “All right.” Said Mohamed. “You don’t have to stay up here if you don’t want to. I’m pretty sure you will learn the route better down there” he said pointing to the deck where the tourists were sitting. “Okay” said Mohamed.
    He walked back down the steps, and looked over the side, down at the dark water. The motor made its familiar shuttering as Akhom started it up. Mohamed tried to memorize the buildings on the side of the river. He turned around. The tourists were all happily conversing, and taking pictures over the side of the boat. Mohamed smiled. He was happy to be a local. He turned back to the buildings. I really only have to memorize at what point I have to turn around. He thought. Suddenly, he felt someone beside him. He turned to look, and found the girl tourist looking at him. She smiled. “Hi. My name is Emily.”
    Confused he said “I’m Mohamed.”
    “Nice to meet you.”
    “And it nice meeting you as too.” He said. She giggled. Not knowing what was so funny, he turned back to the river. She looked out over the water with him.
    “This is such a beautiful place.” she said.
    “Yes.”
    “Could you teach me about it?” she asked. He looked at her in surprise. Akhom had said that tourists were perfectly content taking pictures and just seeing what it looked like. He wasn’t expecting this.
    “Maybe...” said Mohamed.
    “Please.” She said. “I don’t want to be like a tourist. I don’t want to take pictures and leave. I want to know. I want to learn.” It was like she had read his mind. He smiled.
    “I guess so,” he said. She smiled again. She has nice teeth . . . he thought.
    “So what is there to learn?” she asked.
    “Um . . . it’s the longest river in the world entire”
    “I know.” She said smiling. Does she ever stop smiling? He thought. Does she have a care in the world? “That’s mostly all that I can tell you because it all I know to be true” Her smile is pretty though.
    “Oh.” She said. Her smile faded. She had been hoping for much more information. “Well. . .thanks anyways” she started to walk away. He didn’t know why, but he started to panic. He didn’t want to let this little rabbit tourist girl get away. He had the feeling that she wasn’t your average girl.
    “Wait. . .” he said. She turned around, a questioning look in her eyes. “Maybe I can find out about the river.” He said “and then you could come back. . .and I could teach you”
    She thought about it. “Yes.” She said. “I will come back in a few days.” Now it was Mohamed’s turn to smile. She will come back he thought happily. He still didn’t realize the reason that he was so reluctant to let her leave, and he wouldn’t for a long time yet.

    -~-

    Emily smiled again and said “I’ll see you in a few days then” and walked away from the boy back to her mother, who was taking pictures off of the other side of the boat, and hadn’t even noticed her absence.
    “Emily! Look at this one! It’s almost professional!” she said turning to her daughter.
    “Almost mum.” Emily replied, her thoughts elsewhere. How am I going to come back here? Her hotel wasn’t too far away, but she knew better than to walk the streets of Egypt by herself. That would be crazy. And how would she get away from her mom? She supposed it wouldn’t be super hard to get out of the hotel while her mother was sleeping. Am I that desperate though? Why was she even doing this? She could learn about the Nile from books. Not in the same way though, Emily. She turned around, and looked back at the boy. She would come back. She wouldn’t be able to stop herself.