Chapter 4: What's the Problem?
A few days later, Claire came over to my place. She caught me writing this book, diary, journal or whatever else you want to call it.
"What?!" She screamed at me.
"Um..." I didn't know how to react.
"You've been writing about us?" She asks angrily.
"Well yeah, why can't I write, is that a crime? What's the problem?"
"About us, about our relationship with each other, then YES! It is a problem." She shouted in an even higher tone.
She gave me a death stare look, so I had to tell her whole story, "I started writing during our last week of elementary school..."
"But I wanted our relationship to be our secret, not in a book that anyone can pick up and read." She cut in.
"But it is in my possession only." I tried to explain and it worked.
"Well because our secret is in there, well it's easy to find out about." She again tries to reason with me.
"It will become an autobiography or journal of our lives." I say to make a compromise.
"Okay, agreed, it is done. So what are we going to do to make this interesting?" She asks.
"Well, um, what do teenagers typically do?" I question back.
"I don't know."
"Teenagers... are rebellious; they pull pranks and have fun as like it's the time of their lives?" That was my assumption of stereotypical teenagers.
"You definitely look like the rebellious type." Claire says jokingly.
"Sure, sure, I've been hiding it for years..."
"So what are going to do?" Claire asks going back to seriousness.
"How would I know? I'm not an ordinary teenager."
Claire then starts arguing with me for no reason at all.
"One who reads books at the library and does well at school?"
"Well what about you, going to the beach to fish with your mother." I answer back.
"We definitely know too much about each other." She then calms down and I try the stay on the teenager subject.
"True but I think we need to go somewhere different, outside the box." I tell Claire, "It can't be boring, our kids will think, oh what boring life my parents had."
My mother eavesdropped onto our conversation and quickly entered my bedroom.
"Go somewhere different... Well Malcolm you're in luck, next week we are going to Al Simhara!" She states excited.
I couldn't believe what she had just said, it sounded like it was made on the fly; if it was planned I would have heard about it ages ago. It changed the subject as Claire was beginning to fume red when I had already mentioned kids, we only just started our relationship and I'm sooner than later thinking that far in relationship, into the future.
"Al Simhara! I've never been there or anywhere else other than Sunset Valley before, you're pretty lucky Malcolm!" Claire was genuinely excited for me.
"I guess, but I wish you could come with us. Mother, can Claire come with us?" I ask politely.
"Malcolm, you don't have to do this for me." Claire's blushing; she's overwhelmed by my request.
"I do." I state to her, showing that I care for Claire.
"Malcolm, I'm sorry but this a family vacation, Claire hopefully you can come next time but I don't know what your mother would say." Mother rejects the idea; she hardly knows Claire or her mother.
"It's okay Mrs Landgraab," Claire accepted the rejection.
"I still think you should go," I speak out.
"I'll give you time to think about leaving without me, it's okay Malcolm. I should go." She wanted avoid so she starts to leave.
"You don't have to leave!" I plead.
"Something important came up, sorry."
"What has come up?" I ask puzzled, Claire hasn't told me she's has plans.
"Never mind it's a surprise." She whispers with a wink.
"Okay... See ya then." I accepted.
I thought about it, maybe it's a way to get me away from the worries of school and the whole problem of Claire liking me. Well maybe this is the chance to get it all over my head but I do wish Claire could come.
. . .
The week went past us quickly and I was excited for the trip to Al Simhara! Claire couldn't stop talking to me about it, I was only thinking about what I was going to do when I was there.
The taxi arrived to our house, Claire was already here to say goodbye.
"Malcolm, I have something to give you."
"What is it?" I ask.
It was a pair of Unitech binoculars, "the best binoculars you could buy."
"Well thank you for the binoculars. But how did you afford this?"
"I afforded it by fishing. I want you to explore, see the desert of Al Simhara."
To me fishing was Claire's answer to everything. It was time to say goodbye. "See you later, Claire and thank you again."
"Bye Malcolm, I hope you have a nice trip! Tell me all about your adventures later."
"Alright I will!" I shout as I enter the taxi door.
I entered the taxi and we were off on our way to Al Simhara!
As soon as we arrived at Al Simhara, I could feel the heat cooking my face; I looked and saw the heat wave effect in the air, so you couldn't see too much in the distance with the sun glaring at your face. The town is situated by the Nile River; this was the narrow part of the river, so you could see the other side. It is also situated near the coast of the Simterranean Sea. It is a land of exploration, danger, archaeological drifts and I'm excited to be here.
We arrived at the Sultan's Sanctuary Hotel, it was very luxurious. The building resembled The Taj Mahal and the owner of the Hotel, Samir Amin told us that the palace used to be called The Almond House but was recently turned into a luxurious five star hotel, that we are now staying in.
The foyer of the hotel was amazing, a fountain stream running down to the staircase right in front of you. At both sides of the room were some luxurious cashmere seats and couch to wait and have a chat in; down the seats and chairs there are two sets of dining tables, big enough to hold a feast! In the little gap between the stairs and the back of the hotel is the chef's kitchen which is small and cramped.
Upstairs is where the bathrooms and the "Sultan's Suite" rooms are, fortunately we were staying at the Sultan's Suite rooms, taking both, one for my parents and the other is for me all by myself! The rooms were beautifully furnished, sadly the rooms weren't really catered to suit my needs but once you went upstairs, it seemed they took care of it already. On the third floor was the entertainment area, with the massive WallVuu XXXXL widescreen television, arcade machines, a pool table, a chess set, a dominos table and arcade tables. Ah, I knew where I was going to spend the rest of my holidays at!
The next above that, which was the last level, was where the Scraptronic™ Workbench and the Pedestrian Sculpting Station and some bunk beds for some of the hotel's staff and the same beds were also for the §50 a night for a bed and breakfast deal.
The next day, I really just wanted to play in the games room but Mother insisted that we see the sights of Al Simhara, such as; the Abu Simbel, The Pyramids, the Ruins of Karnak, The Sphinx, The Temple of Queen Hatshepsut and the Mastaba Ruins. There wasn't much to do here anyway except sightseeing, we were staying in Al Simhara for two weeks or 14 days, I am scared that we will do everything we can do in one week.
Today, we went to the Al Simhara Market. There were a few stalls, one sold food and another sold books, relics. I went to the relic store, to find a valuable gift for Claire as she gave those binoculars. The shopkeeper showed me all of his items, ranging from gems to common relics found from tomb raiding, not illegally of course. I bought her a heart shaped Amethyst, I would have loved to get her a pink diamond but they are just extraordinarily rare. At the market I saw some Snake Charmers; they sat next to each other. One of the snake charmers even got their snake, a Cobra, to kiss them!
Over the two weeks we went on own tours or adventures as I like to call them, to the monuments like The Temple of Queen Hatshepsut and Abu Simbel, we saw a tourist camping on the monument, the Egyptian Police didn't even seem to mind. But during the second week, the heat had started to affect us and so we stayed in the hotel, Mother watched television and looked at her face in the mirror and Father just had some downtime and played some pool, while I played chess, some arcade games and I read some Egyptian books, "Ra! Ra! Ra!" and "From Dead to Mummy: The History of Healing", the books were mostly about mummies, which I think are terrifying! They are dead people resurrected and have been bandaged. They can give the fabled Mummy's Curse that can kill if not cured in 14 days. Wouldn't they be scared of fire? Well I don't know I never seen a mummy before.
The two weeks at Al Simhara went by so quickly. Maybe I was having too much fun? It didn't matter, I couldn't wait to see Claire and give her the present that I had bought her, I didn't really use this time to think about the thing, about Claire loving me but I guess it doesn't really matter as well, it will just come along.
We went by taxi from The Sultan's Sanctuary Hotel to the Airport where we took a plane all the way back to Sunset Valley, to home. When we arrived from home we were too exhausted from the plane ride so we took a day off to relieve us from the jet lag. The next day was a Tuesday so I had school and I couldn't wait to tell Claire all of the adventures I have had and give the gift I got her.