Missing in Egypt

by Rita Lee Chapman

  I rang John Turner and arranged to meet him for dinner. I didn’t tell him over the phone the secret that Waleed had revealed to me and I wasn’t sure if I would tell him later. What, if anything, was I going to do about it? I needed to get away and think so I left the house and wandered out into the streets of Cairo. There was a museum not far away with beautiful gardens and I made for this, ignoring the taxis calling out to me, so that I could sit under a shady tree and sort out my thoughts. I found a seat under a huge tree and closed my eyes. It would be foolhardy for me to try and do anything with this information on my own. But who could I trust? I thought of Kareem’s aunt and uncle. They were likely to be of little help – they were quite elderly and I couldn’t imagine what assistance they could offer. Hamidi? I hardly knew him and certainly didn’t think I should trust him with this sort of information. That only left John Turner. How well did I know him? He made you feel you could trust him – but could I? Working for the Australian Embassy he should be more interested in the welfare of two missing Australians than antiquities. Another possibility occurred to me – I could ring Jim and relate the story to him and seek his advice. It was not really something I could tell him over the phone though and I knew if I flew back to Sydney now I would find excuses – money, work, the impossibility of it all – not to return to Egypt. I felt I owed it to Kareem to try and find out what had happened to him and to his brother. If I did nothing and never found Kareem I would be forever haunted by guilt.

  I battled with these thoughts for over an hour. In the end I came to the conclusion that the only person I could turn to was John Turner. I thought of his twinkling blue eyes and warm smile and I felt sure he was someone I could safely confide in.

  I returned to the house and found Omar and Pili had finished in the shop. They seemed pleased to see me again and asked if I had made any progress. “I’m afraid I haven’t” I told them truthfully. “But I’m not finished yet”. We sat and talked for a while and I asked them about the missing dagger and collar. “Are they very valuable?” I inquired. “Yes, we believe so” said Pili. “They are certainly very old and the jewels are very fine specimens. We could understand if someone had kidnapped Yasmeen to obtain them, but if my father took them with him, why have they not both returned safely to us?” I shook my head – I couldn’t answer.

  I caught a taxi to the Marriott Hotel, where John had booked a table for us in the beautiful gardens overlooking the pool. He had chosen a table away from other guests where we could talk without being overheard. It brought back memories of my time there with Kareem and I found myself blinking away the tears.

  Over dinner I told John all that I knew. “I sensed there was something she wasn’t telling me” he said. “It is not impossible of course – it is well known that there are many more tombs yet to be discovered and every few years a new one is uncovered. What Mr Ahmose and his father have done in keeping the whereabouts of this one a secret is highly commendable and not many would have done the same thing in their shoes. Whether his father’s friend died without telling another living soul is something we cannot be sure about.”

  I toyed with my very rich chocolate and fresh cream dessert. “I just don’t know what to do with this information” I said eventually, licking some of the ice-cream off the spoon.

  John was quiet for a while. Then he reached across the table and took my hand in his. “If you want to know what I really think…….” he said. “Go on” I encouraged him. “Well,” he said slowly “I think you should go home to Australia. Go back to your job and your friends and if anything comes up here I will let you know straight away. But” he went on carefully “I think you also have to accept that Kareem is probably dead and his brother also”.

  I gave an involuntary gasp. John had vocalised what I had been thinking subconsciously for some time. It seemed the logical answer but I wasn’t ready to accept it. Surely Kareem couldn’t be dead, not after we had just found each other. “Many tourists disappear in Egypt every year” John continued. “The death rate from murders by cab drivers and locals for money and passports is quite high and many of

  them are never solved. The Australian Embassy does its best in these cases and has a higher success rate than many countries, but a large number are never resolved.”

  I pulled back my hand. I had to admit that John was a very attractive man and it seemed that he was quite interested in me, other than as an Australian citizen or even a friend. But I was not prepared to believe that Kareem was dead and the thought of being involved with anyone else had not crossed my mind.

  “Thank you for a lovely dinner” I said as I made a move to leave. “It has been great to see you again and I really appreciate your interest in my problems. You are a very good friend. I will go back to Waleed’s now and return to Luxor tomorrow and decide what to do next”.

  John, as always, was a perfect gentleman and insisted on walking me back to the Ahmose house. I knew as he left me he wanted to kiss me but I pulled back quickly before he could make his move. “Thank you John” I said quickly as I knocked on the door. “Goodbye for now Anna” he replied. “Don’t forget I’m here for you if you need anything”. With that he turned and was gone and Waleed opened the door and I joined her for coffee before going to bed.

  It was not the best night’s sleep. I tossed and turned and had brief nightmares that woke me up but which I couldn’t remember and I was relieved when it was finally time to rise.

  Waleed pulled me to one side after breakfast and asked me what I was going to do next. I had to tell her that I really didn’t know. I would go back to Luxor and think about what she had told me. I said that John Turner had suggested I go back to Australia and resume my life but that I was not sure I was ready to do that yet. “You are strong” she told me. “I am sure you will make the right decisions. I just pray that our loved ones will soon be back with us safe and sound.”

  Omar, Pili and Waleed gave me a good send-off in the morning. I felt I knew them quite well by now and our shared grief and worry helped to bring us close.

  When my taxi pulled up at the hotel Hamidi was there to greet me in the foyer. He was grinning from ear to ear and was bubbling over with his news. “Mr Kareem” he said “Mr Kareem is back. He is waiting for you in your room”.

  I took the stairs two at a time, not wanting to wait for the slow lift, and opened the door. Sitting on the bed smiling at me was Kareem. “Oh my goodness” I exclaimed when he released me from a huge bear hug “where on earth have you been? I’ve been so worried about you”. “Its okay now” he answered. “I’m back and everything is going to be alright.” From the way he kissed me I knew that he had really missed me.

  “But where on earth have you been?” I asked when he finally let me draw breath. “In a small hospital” Kareem replied. “I had amnesia and couldn’t remember who I was.” “But John checked with the hospitals” I told him “no-one answering your description had been admitted to any of the local hospitals.”

  “This was just a very small local hospice – basically run by two nurses and a doctor who came in once every few days.” “Well, how did you get there?” I wanted to know.

  “When I took the ransom money to the temple I never saw Ramy, nor anyone I thought might be looking out for me. I stood near one of the tall columns at the back of the temple and then, suddenly, I was pushed from behind and the money was gone. I went headfirst into the dirt and it took me a few seconds to get myself together, but I ran after him. I saw my bag disappearing into a car and, as luck would have it, a taxi pulled up to let a man out. I jumped in and said “follow that car” – just as they do in all the American movies. Anyway, we went for quite a way and then the car turned into a small town. Anna, it was quite amazing. There was a small square and a big building with “Camels and horses for hire”. Can you imagine – camels for hire!” Anyway, the man with my money got out here and went inside the building. I paid off the taxi and followed him. It was dark inside the building and it took a while
for my eyes to adjust. “This one for you, sir?” said a man who was holding on to a

  slightly underfed camel. “He very nice camel”. “No, no,” I cried “where did the man go who came in before me?” “Out the back, sir” came the reply.

  I ran through to the back of the shop and out the back door into a dusty alleyway. Next thing I knew I woke up with the camel man staring down at me. “Oh, thank goodness” he said “you have woken up. I thought you were dead – you have been unconscious for more than 5 minutes.”

  Well, I may have been awake but I didn’t have a clue where I was or why I was there. When I asked the camel man what I was doing there he said he didn’t know, I had just come running into his shop asking where the other man had gone to.

  “I will call you a taxi sir,” he said “to take you home. Where do you live?” “It was at that point that I realised I not only didn’t know where I lived but I didn’t know who I was. The camel man was very kind – he made me a cup of coffee and let me sit there for about an hour, hoping my memory would return. But, try as I may, I couldn’t remember anything. In the end he suggested I see a doctor who lived nearby. The doctor asked me lots of questions, but I couldn’t answer them. In the end, with much shaking of his head and “tut-tutting” he said he would take me to his hospice, where I could rest quietly for a few days. I asked him how long it would be before my memory returned. “I hope it will be soon” he replied “but sometimes….you know, these things…well, we’ll just have to wait and see”. Every day one of the nurses would come and talk to me and ask me if I remembered anything. “Did you dream about anything?” they would ask me. The answer was always the same – nothing.

  The days were very long, Anna. My head would ache from trying to remember who I was and where I came from. Did I have a wife? Children? The doctor was fairly sure I wasn’t from Egypt – he thought I was American and apparently notified the American Embassy. Then one day a woman came into the hospital to visit one of the patients. She sat on his bed and took his hand and something in her expression turned a light on for me. She reminded me of you. “Anna” I cried out. “I need to find Anna”. The nurse came running to my bed and from then on little fragments kept coming back to me. Within a few hours my memory had completely returned. As soon as they could get in touch with the doctor to sign me out, I caught a taxi straight back to here. Only to find you were in Cairo, of course” he added. “Anyway, Hamidi was pleased to see me and so I spent the night here to await your return. And now, my love, what have you been up to?” he inquired, gazing intently into my eyes.

  I quickly filled him in on the events of the past few days since he had gone missing, only leaving out Waleed’s disclosure. I felt it better to tell him this later when he had fully recovered. “Enough talk, now you must get some rest”. “Yes, nurse” he responded “I was just thinking the same thing. Come to bed”.

  A couple of hours later we were drinking coffee in the café and pondering our next move. “How long do you have to rest for?” I asked him. “I’m fine” Kareem assured me. “Now that my memory has returned I just have to make sure I don’t take any more blows to the head”. “Ha, ha, very funny” I replied.

  I was ecstatic to have Kareem back. I kept glancing at him, to make sure he was really there! I decided he was rested enough now for me to tell him about the secret tomb. He listened intently. “Wow” was his comment when I had finished. “Now we could really be on to something”. “But what can we do with this information?” I asked him. “We have to treat this carefully. No-one has been able to find out anything about Ramy, Yasmeen or Masud since they disappeared. Our only line of investigation is this tomb, but where do we start?”

  Kareem was thoughtful for a while. The idea of a secret tomb full of treasures was a little hard to comprehend and I felt sure he was trying to figure out what could have happened to Ramy. “If my brother is still alive” he said at last “then I must continue my search for him. Judging by the way they attacked me it would be easy to imagine that something has happened to Ramy too. If he is no longer alive, there seems little point in us putting our lives in jeopardy. However …. I cannot face my mother without being able to tell her definitely what has happened to Ramy. Therefore, I must keep looking for him. I just have to work out what to do next. But I think it is time you went home, back to work and the safety of Australia. I will follow you as soon as I find out something about Ramy.”

  I had been thinking of going back to Australia before Kareem reappeared. Now, however I couldn’t bear to be parted from him again so soon. “No, Kareem, I’m staying with you. We are in this together. I still have a little more leave. I want to stay and help you”. I could see Kareem, although worried for my safety, knew I had made up my mind and that, deep down, he was pleased I was going to be with him.

  Section II Life Decisions - Ramy’s Story

  1. Yasmeen

  It was a dream come true – to be in Egypt again, seeing the land of my forebears as an adult. I had been to Egypt once before, when I was very young, but this was so different! I spent a month with my uncle and aunt in Cairo exploring the city and soaking up the atmosphere. It was hot - very hot - and there were tourists everywhere. The streets were noisy and filled with vehicles which followed no rules that I could understand – cars just crossed lanes when they felt like it, pushed their nose in front of the next car, did a u-turn in front of 3 rows of traffic – to me it was just chaos. Every time I went out on to the street taxi drivers called out to me – although I am tanned and have some of my ancestor’s Egyptian looks, I guess my Australian shirts branded me as a tourist – at least from a distance. I thought I fitted in well in my jeans but apparently not. I visited the pyramids and marvelled at their grandeur. I went to the Museum and saw the Tutankhamen display, the mummies and the statues. I visited King Farouk’s Palace and witnessed the wonderful displays of knives, guns and ceremonial gifts. My uncle was a great fan of the Egyptian hookah and I spent many hours sitting in cafes with him sharing this waterpipe, which I found very relaxing. After a month of enjoying all Cairo had to offer I decided it was time to go and see more of Egypt.

  I bought a plane ticket to Abu Simbel and bade farewell to my uncle and aunt and headed off as an independent traveller. Abu Simbel was everything I had expected – and more. The sight of the huge statues rising out of the desert was truly amazing. To think they had been moved to their present site, piece by piece, from where they would have been flooded when the dam was built, defies belief. I looked closely and could just see where the cuts had been made; huge sections had been cut straight through, moved and then put back together.

  Even now they are still very close to the water’s edge – I tried to imagine the reactions of anyone travelling up the Nile, coming around the bend in the river and suddenly seeing these huge, imposing monuments in the middle of nowhere. The Great Temple has four colossal statues of Ramses II, seated. Between his legs are several much smaller statues representing his family. I wandered inside, along with the hordes of tourists, to marvel at the interior - two rows of pillars ten metres high with the features of Ramses. Above, on the ceiling, are great vultures and the aisles on either side are painted with stars. From there I entered the Sanctuary – a small room about 4 metres by 7 metres in which sit statues of Ramses II, Ptah, Amon-Ra and Ra–Harakhti. The Sanctuary is built on a pre-determined axis and twice a year, corresponding to the equinoxes, the sun rises and lights the statues of Ramses, Amon-Ra and Ra-Harakhti. Somehow, Ptah, the god of darkness, is never lit. All this I had studied in Cairo before leaving, so that I might have an understanding of the sights I had set out to see in the context of my background. However, all the reading had not prepared me for the grandeur of Abu Simbel.

  I went to see the Small Temple, just a little further around the river bank. The Temple was dedicated by Ramses II to his wife Nefertari and the six statues, all standing, gave the impression they were walking out of the wall to meet you. Inside the chamber carved with imag
es of Nefertari as Hathor, are engravings depicting stories about Nefertari and Ramses. In the small sanctuary Ramses is shown honouring Hathor, who is set between two pillars and seems to stand out from the rock.

  As I stood admiring this beautiful image I turned towards the entrance to see something even more beautiful. There in the doorway was the most gorgeous girl I had ever seen! She was obviously Egyptian, with long black hair, huge black eyelashes and olive skin. The sun caught her profile and her face was bathed in the most extraordinary golden light. It seemed as if there was nothing else in the world at that moment other than her as everything else around ceased to exist. Her lips, full and sensual, moved enticingly as she addressed a small group in front of her. I let my eyes fall to her body and noticed the way her simple black dress clung to her curves. I moved towards her to listen to her voice. She appeared to be a tour operator and was speaking in very clear English. Her voice was almost musical and she turned towards me as I approached. Huge, almost black eyes, met mine for a moment and I was locked in her gaze. Till that moment I had not believed in love at first sight but from that first glance I wanted to be with this woman more than I had ever wanted anything in my life. I felt a need and a desire that I had never known before. I wanted to possess her and protect her at the same time. Surely this was my destiny – my reason for being pulled back to Egypt!

  I followed the tour group around for a while, from what I considered to be a discreet distance. I learned her name – Yasmeen. I was also learning more about Abu Simbel than I had intended! I followed the group back outside into the sunlight and as they clicked away with their cameras Yasmeen came towards me. “So, you want to learn all about Abu Simbel and not pay the poor tour guide?” she questioned me in a mocking voice. ‘Its not Abu Simbel I want to learn about” I replied “it’s the tour guide herself”. She looked straight into my eyes and I felt the muscles in my stomach knot. “You are more beautiful than Abu Simbel itself” I said. “I’m sure you have heard that line many times before but believe me, I really mean it”. There were no rings on her fingers so I took a deep breath and asked her to have dinner with me that night. “Sure” she said “it’s the only way I’ll be compensated for the free tour”. She laughed a deep, throaty, sexy laugh and I found myself totally captivated.