by Ruth Hay
The girl replied in the affirmative, then immediately contradicted herself, saying she was now Marion McLeod. I had hardly absorbed this information when she burst into an angry explosion of words.
“Look here, if you are calling on behalf of my mother, Aileen Jarvis, don’t waste your breath. I know how she feels and there’s nothing I can do about it! Gus and I are leaving for Canada tomorrow. It’s the only way out of this mess.”
She paused and I heard a sharp intake of breath.
“If it’s you, Isobel, I never want to hear your voice again. Never!”
Confronted with this emotion, I faltered, stuttered and blurted out, “No! No! I think we could be related. I see it’s a bad time. I will call again. Sorry! So sorry!”
My worst fears had been confirmed. I had blundered into some kind of drama and ruined an opportunity to connect with Marion, my sister. My sister..........the word thrilled me.
I did not close my eyes all that night. The brief conversation played over and over in my mind until I was almost frantic.
They were leaving. The timing was awful. I had to try again.
The second attempt went no better than the first. A man answered this time and brushed aside my enquiries before I could explain. Utterly demoralised, I gave up.
It was many, many years later before I pursued the matter.
By then I had bought the estate house and resigned myself to a life without close family or friends. The remaining Fraser money was invested and the issue of who would inherit on my death became more urgent as I grew older.
I found another private investigator and gave him all the information I possessed. I had no intention of making a personal contact with the McLeod family this time. The former rejection still stung.
I learned there were two children born in Canada; a son, Simon, and a daughter, Anna. Both had married, but Anna was divorced and lived alone, while Simon had children and grandchildren.
Immediately, and irrationally, perhaps, I began to identify with this Anna Mason. She could be someone like me; alone in the world with few resources. Someone whose life I could change without ever meeting her.
If it could be accomplished, somehow I would try to be a secret benefactor to this unknown relative and, in so doing, attempt to make up for some of the mistakes I had made.
* * *
A silence fell in the bedroom where the two women were completely immersed in the story unfolding in Anna’s husky voice. When they could summon the wits to speak again, it was Alina who said aloud what both were thinking.
“My God, Anna! This is amazing! After all this time when much about Helen Dunlop was a mystery to you, to find this account in her own words is miraculous!”
“I know. I can hardly believe it.” There was a long pause while Anna swallowed the tears that would soon come. “Look, Alina, I need to get some sleep. Do you mind if we put out the lights now?”
Alina could only imagine how her friend was feeling at these revelations and she quickly moved over to her own bed saying, “I left a wake-up call for us and you’ll have time to shower in the morning. Don’t worry, my dear. Everything will be all right now.”
Anna turned away so Alina would not see her tears soaking into the pillow.
What a desperately sad story! What opportunities missed! She wished she could reach across time and enfold her aunt, Helen Knox Dunlop Fraser, in the warm, loving arms that might have rescued her somewhere along the way.
Her exhausted mind finally let go when Anna resolved that no one in her own life would lack those loving arms, if she had anything to say about it.
Chapter Fourteen
The next day was a blur of airports and passports and meeting new people in new places.
Connecting with the Jules Verne group in Gatwick Airport was the most important thing on the agenda.
Anna had been given written directions by the representative who would escort them on the trip, but when they reached the departures area, after a lengthy trek from the local-flights’ terminal, she could not see anyone who might be sent to meet the travellers, in the forest of upheld signs with peoples’ names on them.
Fortunately, Anna spotted a board with the initials VJV in large letters and remembered the web site for the company was titled Voyages Jules Verne, VJV for short. They ploughed through the crowd to meet their guide, Elaine, at last.
Elaine took charge and signalled to a porter who collected the various pieces of luggage and followed along behind the women. As soon as the luggage was out of their hands, Anna and Alina could breathe and start to think about the beginning of their Egyptian adventure.
Anna studied Elaine from the back as she led them swiftly to a quiet corridor where they entered a private Airport Lounge for the VJV group. She was smartly dressed in a knee-length navy skirt and blue blazer. A bright scarf was tied around her neck and her blonde hair was caught up in a neat chignon. Something about her style made Anna believe she might be French, which was not surprising considering the origins of the company she represented.
She decided to listen for a hint of a French accent but hoped, also, that Elaine could help her pronounce the few Arabic phrases she had tried to learn.
There were about twenty-five people seated in the lounge. Everyone looked up from their newspapers and conversations to see the new arrivals. Anna self-consciously adjusted her coat collar where the strap of her carry-on bag had ground into her shoulder. Alina looked down at her shoes and felt like a schoolgirl on the gym stage.
Elaine introduced them at once, saying, “Now we have the whole Canadian contingent assembled. Please welcome Anna and Alina everyone.”
A chorus of “Hi!” and “Hello!” met this request and Anna could tell which group were the English adventurers, and which the smaller party of Canadians in the corner by the coffee machine. They had automatically responded with “Hi!”
There was no time for further introductions, however, as Elaine promptly announced their plan for the next two days, consisting of a flight direct to Aswan, via a brief stop at Cairo. They would stay at The Old Cataract Hotel, from which they would take several excursions, then join their cruise ship for the sail on Lake Nasser.
“Collect your itinerary on the way out of the lounge and follow me to Departures. When you have been processed through the security scanners I will show you our assembly point. After that you are free to shop or eat until our gate is announced on the TV monitors. If you need further assistance I will be nearby.”
“Just like school trips, isn’t it?” whispered Alina. “It’s kind of nice not to be the one in charge, though. We’d better pay attention to instructions from now on. I wouldn’t like to be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. This Elaine person is pretty scary!”
“I’m not sure I like this group approach,” whispered Anna in turn, as they took their place in the exit line. “I hope we won’t be expected to stay with the group every minute.”
“Never mind, Anna! It’s only two weeks then we meet up with Philip.”
Anna’s reply was a deep sigh. Two weeks was beginning to sound like an endless amount of time.
* * *
The Monarch Airline plane was filled with different groups flying to Egypt for winter holidays.
Anna and Alina were seated together with their party and they soon discovered that the flight would touch down in Cairo to allow one group to disembark there.
Anna had a conversation with a man next to her about the advisability of visiting Cairo in the present volatile circumstances of political unrest. He agreed that it might be risky but he added that since tourists were the lifeblood of the Egyptian economy, any tourists could be assured of the best possible protection wherever they went in the country.
Comforted by this thought, Anna settled back in her seat, first asking Alina to make sure she was awake when the plane approached Cairo as that would be their only chance to see the pyramids on this trip.
Alina was as good as her word. Anna opened
her eyes as the plane descended from 33,000 feet.
Soon they passed over the coastline of Africa and before long they could see the outskirts of a large city. Identifying Cairo became easier when the broad blue pathway of the Nile River came into view.
Anna and Alina were beside the window and craning their necks to catch every glimpse through the tiny porthole. Anna was astounded at the width of the Nile. Crossed by several substantial bridges and bordered by tall buildings interspersed with parks and clusters of lower housing, it was like looking at New York or London from the air. Nothing could be seen of the Great Pyramids and Anna was imagining they must be located far from the city itself as any pictures she had seen of the pyramid complex indicated it was surrounded by desert and rocky outcrops.
“Oh, look!” exclaimed Alina, as the plane’s wings dipped for the landing. There, on the very edge of the great city stood one of the most famous sites in the whole world. On a raised, flat plateau stood the three pyramids fronted by the iconic figure of the Sphinx.
Glimpsed then gone.
There was a moment of total silence as the fortunate passengers on the near side of the plane tried to take in the immensity of the structures, then there came an excited outburst of delight.
“We’re here!” yelled one of the women, and everyone laughed in relief.
Moments later they were taxiing along a runway and familiar modern civilization was restored.
“Well!” sighed Anna, “that was just a taste of the wonders to come, but we must return here some day and tour the pyramids for ourselves.”
“Yes, we will, when things have settled down in Egypt!” cautioned Alina.
As soon as the Cairo passengers lined up to disembark, a waft of hot air entered the cabin. The remaining passengers began to remove outer layers of clothing that had insulated them in the high altitudes. Anna and Alina were still wearing the heavier clothes they had needed in Scotland but they pulled off sweaters and cardigans and stowed them in their hand luggage.
An announcement came from the crew asking passengers to please relocate in the cabin to balance the weight, now that a number of people had left the aircraft. Anna took the opportunity to get her own window seat a few rows behind Alina, allowing her companion to stretch out and sleep if she wished.
She needed some time on her own to work through the revelations from Aunt Helen’s writings.
The description of her attempt to contact Anna’s mother was tragic and yet so important.
It explained what Simon had learned from their father before his death about their parents’ regrets. The mention of Isobel’s name was also significant. Anna could now understand what Helen Dunlop could never have guessed. The reason Anna’s parents left Glasgow so suddenly after their marriage was because Gus had made Isobel pregnant.
Anna tried to put herself in their place and could deduce that her mother might have insisted they leave their homeland to escape her new husband’s disgrace. This could have been a condition of their marriage.
Anna now knew Isobel had married Kyle Purdy and her son, Philip, a half-brother to Simon and Anna, was accepted into their family. He never knew his real father’s name until his niece, Caroline, and Bev’s son James, helped put the pieces together decades later in the Lake District in England.
It had seemed as if Marion’s mother, a grandmother Anna had never heard anything about during her childhood, had been most unsympathetic to her daughter’s decision to emigrate and go so far away from home. Anna could imagine how upsetting it might be for a mother to lose her only daughter in this way. This situation could have brought about a split in the family that lasted a lifetime.
Much of this was conjecture, of course, but it could explain a number of unusual factors in Anna’s childhood. There were times when the atmosphere was strained between her mother and father.
There was no sharing of family stories about their early days in Scotland. The McLeod’s were a small family unit, unlike most children Anna and Simon knew from school.
She realized now why she had gravitated to Alina’s home where an extended family of cousins created a more natural environment for a child.
So many secrets. So much unnecessary pain.
Anna had to remind herself how different society was just before the mid nineteen hundreds. Today, unplanned pregnancies and unmarried couples were not as shocking to most people. Rules and taboos were relaxed now. She wondered if people were happier because of it.
* * *
She turned from these unhappy thoughts to look out of the plane’s windows again. They were flying south to Aswan and following the line of the Nile, a blue snake winding through the desert below. She noticed at once how clear the view was from the plane. There were no clouds obscuring the scene. It was like flying on the wings of a soaring bird.
On each bank of the Nile a blackish green stain spread out from the water into the sandy terrain where the soil that the floods had washed down each year for millennia had made agriculture possible.
She began to understand how the Nile meant life, itself, in Egypt, and how a religion could develop to appease the forces of nature personified in a panoply of gods. If the floods should fail, the desert would swiftly reclaim the river’s banks and the people would starve.
She saw rocks of red, purple, or occasionally grey tones, which formed high ridges further back from the Nile. Roads followed the ridges passing infrequent settlements of red clay houses. The rest of the visible land was dry baked surfaces and winding valleys of soft sand that looked as if they might once have been river courses.
Anna saw little in the way of towns or cities although her map indicated they must have flown over the temple complexes of Luxor at some point. Tiny buildings that could have been temples could be seen briefly on high dunes but only small villages clustered near palm groves dotted the shores. When the plane approached Aswan, the alluvial soil disappeared to be replaced by dusty roads on each bank, more houses and taller buildings and rocky islands in mid-stream.
Anna felt her excitement grow. Soon they would touch down and begin their adventure.
Aswan airport lay outside the town and gave the travellers a first vivid impression of the heat they could expect. A hot wind blew through the open structures and left a layer of fine sand on marble floors. Workers in white clothing were busy with brushes and brooms sweeping the sand away from their footsteps. Elaine gathered her flock together and hustled them through passport controls, then into a long line where those who had not previously purchased visas were required to obtain them.
Anna and Alina were passed quickly through the passport area and assigned to a uniformed official who bowed to them and invited them to wait for their party in an air-conditioned office to the side of the visa lines.
Anna looked around for Elaine to confirm that this was the correct procedure and she received a smile and a nod. Polite conversation ensued in the office and, unexpectedly, the official expressed great interest in their home town of London, Ontario.
In a few minutes their luggage was brought to them. Alina was watching through the glass doors where the VJV group were still standing waiting at the far end of the Arrivals hall for their luggage to appear from the plane. She caught Anna’s attention by raising her eyebrows to express surprise at this special treatment. Anna could do no more than shrug her shoulders in mystified agreement before Elaine arrived to collect them.
They emerged from the office after thanking the official with Anna’s first attempt to use the Arabic word ‘shucrun’. She was relieved to find he replied with the same word and a very close pronunciation.
Alina wasted no time in asking Elaine why they were segregated from the rest of the group.
“You have been red stamped because of the seal attached to the visa you presented at passport control in England. You can expect to receive special treatment everywhere we go on this trip.
It is an unusual thing in my experience. You must know someone in high places, ladies.”
“Ah!” exclaimed Anna, with relief. “This is my brother Philip’s doing. He said he would arrange for our visa applications to be speeded through. I certainly did not expect this kind of treatment. I hope the other travellers will not be upset by this.”
“Don’t be concerned about that. I will explain the situation to them. Now, give me your cases. They will be transferred to your rooms at the hotel. We are boarding a bus for a short ride through Aswan. We will dine tonight on a terrace overlooking the Nile.”
As Elaine removed their cases into the hands of a young Egyptian boy, Alina whispered to Anna,
“I hope the rooms include a shower so I can change my clothes. I am melting here!”
Anna added quietly, “I need a cup of tea and some real food. The snacks on the plane were not filling and it seems like an age since we ate breakfast in Glasgow.”
“My dear girl,” laughed Alina. “That was a world away!”
On the bus, Anna looked at the first clock they passed on a bank building on the broad, palm- tree-lined street running along the Nile. It was almost 5:00pm and the sun was descending behind the high dunes on the opposite side of the Nile where rocks met the shoreline and showed there was no easy access.
Can we have been on the plane all day, she wondered, as she watched the traffic pass. Cars and buses were in evidence but interspersed with horse-drawn carriages and boys on donkeys.
She looked down at the itinerary supplied by the travel company and noticed they had gained two hours somewhere along the way.
Fortunately, the bus trip to The Old Cataract Hotel was not long. The travellers were weary and longing to rest for a while. They approached the hotel entrance along a driveway. Gardens were arranged on both sides but the covered porch looked no different from other hotels they had used in North America.
“What’s with the name of this place?” murmured Alina. “I’ve never known a hotel to be named after an eye problem before.”