Series: Snapshots of the Past
Story: Father of Daughters
Chapter 34
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Previously: The Bartlets' layover in Germany allowed them time to see the sites
Summary: On their first day in Cairo, the Bartlets explore the Egyptian Museum
- - -
The city around him still asleep, Jed gazed out at the dark water lit by the spotlight of the moon. Soon, the surrounding buildings and towers would come alive, streets would be loud with traffic, the sidewalks bustling with tourists, and the waterway that mesmerized him would be dotted with boats, but for a few precious moments that early morning in February, it was all so peaceful. There were no crowds, no noise. The banks of the River Nile guarded a tranquil inlet that hugged the Egyptian shore and the only sound in the air was the melody of small waves lapping against the rocks.
Cairo was the first stop for the Bartlets. Their plane landed in the middle of the night and Abbey and the girls succumbed to the fatigue from the long trip from Washington and their day-long whirlwind tour of Frankfurt. Jet lag forced them immediately to bed, but Jed had been unable to sleep. His mind racing with things to do, trying to shut it off proved to be hopeless, so he snuck out of bed and headed down the corniche of the Nile.
The weather was perfect. He had worried it might be hot and muggy, but in the winter, the cool desert wind kept things tolerable. It also produced ripples in the river, those gentle waves that held his attention. As nice as it was in the dark, Jed could hardly wait to see them shimmer under the full glow of the Mediterranean sun at noon or hear them bubble under the ships during those famous Nile cruises. A single body of water and so many possibilities, he thought. Elizabeth would want to sunbathe on the riverside chairs while Ellie would want to take a billion pictures. He could see them now, excited and giddy. Of course, he chuckled, they were likely to squabble when Ellie inevitably snapped a photo of Liz that she didn't care for. As for Zoey, she would be in her own little world, heartbroken when she'd learn she wasn't allowed to swim in the water. He'd have to distract her somehow before it turned into a tantrum. Finally, he smiled, he would have to set up an intimate picnic-for-two for himself and Abbey on the riverbank at dusk and a romantic moonlit walk spanning the water's edge at midnight.
It was going to a marvelous week, indeed.
- - -
The walk back to the hotel was a short one. Abbey had gone all out when she booked the trip and surprised him for his birthday last summer. They were staying at a five-star luxury resort on the river, a spacious suite on the 19th floor with sweeping views of the Nile, a private balcony with a table for five, a sitting room, and most importantly to Jed, two bedrooms - one for the girls and a larger one for him and Abbey.
"Jed?" Abbey stirred as he opened the door to the master bedroom. "What are you doing?" She sat up to see him fully dressed. "Did you go out?"
"I took a walk by the river."
"In the middle of the night?"
"It's not the middle of the night. In less than an hour, it'll be dawn." He stripped out of his clothes.
"You're like a little boy at Christmas," she said. "Come to bed, huh?"
"Are you going back to sleep?"
"I don't know, but I want to lie here a little longer and I'd like to cuddle while I do."
"How could I say no to that?" He pulled the covers back and slipped in, his arm jutting out to the side so he could tuck it under Abbey. "Better?"
"Much better." Abbey snuggled up against his chest.
They curled up together for a little while, planning out their day until they were silenced by the call to prayer. It startled them for a second, but it wasn't unexpected. They knew this was would happen five times a day, every day, and although they told the girls about it as well, they weren't at all surprised that Zoey forgot. Roused by the noise coming from a dozen minarets outside the local mosques, the six-year-old climbed out of her own bed and ran to her parents' bedroom. The voices were unsynchronized and because they were in Arabic, she couldn't decipher what they were chanting.
Rattled, she burst through the door without knocking. "Daddy, WHAT is that?"
"It's okay, sweetheart." Jed held out his hand to her, invi her in. "Remember we talked about how Muslims pray five times a day? This is their first prayer."
"Why don't they pray quietly?"
"They do. What you're hearing is the call the prayer. It's just to remind everyone that it's dawn and it's time to pray."
"Come here, Zoey." Abbey got out of bed to pull the drapes back and allow Zoey the room to stand in front of her, facing the window. "Look right out there. You see that speaker on the building way back there? That's a mosque. That's where it's coming from."
"A mosque is like a...church?" she asked, recalling what her parents had told her before they left for Egypt.
"Exactly. It's a place where Muslims go to worship God."
"Is that where they all are now?"
"No," Jed answered. "Most of them are home now. They were sleeping, just like we were. When they hear the call to prayer, they get up and get themselves ready to pray."
"What is their prayer like? Is it like ours?"
"It's a little different. They always start with 'Allah Akbar.' 'Allah' is who they consider to be God, so 'Allah Akbar' means 'God is great.' They have to orient themselves so that they're facing Mecca when they begin."
"Do you remember what Daddy taught you about Mecca, Zoey?"
"No." Zoey shook her head.
"Sure you do!" Jed insisted.
"I don't." The truth was, she did remember some of it, but she loved hearing her father tell her stories and she was positive that the lesson on Mecca was one he would gladly repeat.
"Well then, hop on up on the bed and listen carefully!"
Zoey did as she was told, grinning from ear to ear as her mother crawled up on one side of her and her father on the other.
- - -
Jed and Abbey spent some quality time with Zoey that morning and after an hour, it was time to shower and wake their older daughters so they could start their Egyptian adventure. But when Liz and Ellie were too sleepy to respond, they gave up and ordered breakfast to be served in their room, hoping the smell of the food would lure the girls from their slumber. Abbey placed an order of chilled seasonal fruit on the side of scrambled eggs wedged in pita bread pockets for her, Liz, and Ellie, milk and cereal for Zoey, and for Jed, an Egyptian favorite - t'aamiyya, fava beans wrapped with onions, parsley, and cumin, deep fried and stuffed in pita bread.
As predicted, when room service rang, it tempted Ellie. She climbed out of bed, tired and groggy, but every bit as hungry as her parents and baby sister. Liz stayed put, comfortably hiding under her blanket, unamused when Jed appeared above her bed with a dish of t'aamiyya.
"You have no idea what you're missing, Lizzie," he told her.
"Not now, Dad. Work on Ellie."
"Ellie is up. Everyone is up and showered...except you."
"That's how it's going to be for a little while longer then."
"Elizabeth, it's 7 a.m. Are you really going to sleep the day away?"
"I'm on New Hampshire time."
"Well, I'm on Egypt time and you're wasting it." He set the plate aside and walked over to the window to pull the drapes aside. "Look at that skyline! Amazing!" No response. "There's a whole host of things to do out there! Get up and eat so you can get ready to go."
Still nothing. He finally grabbed her arm to pull her up.
"SSSSTTTTOOOOPPPP, DAD! I'm not ready to get up!"
"Should we leave without you?"
"Yes."
"Okay, but that means you'll miss out on all the shopping."
"Shopping?" she mumbled, her eyes still closed.
"We're going to the Egyptian Museum and on the way back, we're stopping by Khan Ali-Kalili. It's an open market, bazaar-type place. Egyptian jewelry, perfumes..." Not much of a response. Time for the magic words. "Souvenirs for...Doug."
Liz peeked out from under the blanket. "Like what?"
He rolled his eyes. Of course Doug would get her attention. "I don't know. I haven't been there yet, but I'm sure you can find something for him to gnaw on. Maybe a book with pop-ups."
"Your little jokes about him aren't funny, you know."
"I think they're hilarious." Jed grinned on his way out of the bedroom. "Get up. Breakfast is getting cold."
- - -
The plan after breakfast was to hit the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, followed by the Khan Ali-Kalili market, just like Jed had told Liz. When they finished eating, he, Ellie, and Zoey boarded the elevator for the hotel lobby. Being a U.S. congressman, Jed had the option of an escort around the city, but he turned it down and also rejected the hotel's offer of a tour guide, knowing that he and Abbey would want to explore Cairo on their own during the day. Plans were in the works to meet a Bedouin guide later and for him, that was sufficient.
Meanwhile, up in the room, Abbey and Liz changed into conservative ensembles out of respect for Muslim and Egyptian culture. Abbey wore a pair of navy slacks and a lighter blue blouse and Liz sported a pair of black jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. The two women jumped on the next elevator down, the tote bags over their shoulders full of knick-knacks they'd need for a day of sight-seeing.
It was still morning in Egypt and as the Bartlets caught a ride with the hotel driver and took to the congested streets of Cairo, they got a shocking glimpse at the hectic traffic around the city. They had seen the chaos the night before on the ride from the airport to the hotel, but watching it in broad daylight was something else entirely. It was noisy, which they expected, and a thin layer of haze hung in the air.
"Look! Look! Look! He's cutting right in front of that guy!" Ellie's mouth was hanging open at the sight of cars squeezing in wherever they could while ignoring basic rules of the road.
"He's not supposed to do that!" Zoey admonished as she stared out the window to see what Ellie was pointing at. "You're supposed to stay inside the lines, right Daddy?"
"There are no lines, Zo," Liz informed her. "They don't acknowledge lanes. It's like a free-for-all."
A wicked glint in his eye, Jed replied, "What'd ya know, Lizzie? Finally, a place where you'd be considered a good driver!"
"Lame, Dad, very lame."
"I thought it was funny." Ellie laughed at her sister's expense.
"Me too," Zoey piled on.
"You would," Liz sneered.
Zoey furrowed her brows at that. "Mommy, Lizzie's picking on me!"
"Liz, be nice," Abbey replied, not looking up from the brochure she was thumbing through.
"Why? They weren't."
"Don't drag me into it," Ellie protested.
"You laughed."
"It was funny."
"Not to me."
"That's because you lost your sense of humor."
Before Liz could snipe back, Jed interjected. "Cool it, girls."
Ellie reached for her camera as the car pulled around to drop them off at the museum entrance.
"Turn off your flash," Abbey told her, stuffing her brochure into her tote.
"Why?"
"Museum rules."
The pre-teen grumbled about it, then followed her mother out of the car.
Once inside, Jed led the way to the Tutankhamun galleries on the second floor. The main room displayed statues, chairs, and other furniture, but it was the next room that drew immediate gasps from the girls. The gold, the masks, the ornaments, the jewelry, and all the other ancient artifacts. It was surreal. Everything was housed in glass cases around the exhibit, the mask the grand centerpiece. There were beds, the funerary bed among them, and the Pharaoh's throne beautifully carved and decorated with colored glass and semi-precious stones. The treasures of his tomb, they were called, thousands of pieces in a stunning presentation of history that textbooks could never capture.
Jed, Abbey, Liz, and Zoey were drawn first to the life-sized mask, made of solid gold and also decorated with stones and colored glass. It was crafted and placed upon his mummy after his death, Jed explained to his daughters as they walked all around it. Ellie, meanwhile, couldn't take her eyes off the coffin. It was the innermost coffin, one of three that had held King Tut's mummified remains when his tomb was discovered in the 1920s. It, too, was made of solid gold and it was carved with an image of the Pharaoh.
Abbey looked over to see Ellie struck by the find. She draped an arm around her middle daughter and said, "It's something, isn't it? I bet it's like nothing you studied in school."
Ellie shook her head, her eyes still fixated on the coffin. "It's so different being here."
Jed watched the exchange between mother and daughter, but unlike Abbey, he realized that it wasn't that Ellie was hypnotized by the grandeur of the coffin. It was the coffin itself. It symbolized death, a subject Ellie had become intimately familiar with in the past month. He stayed back, not wanting to interrupt as Abbey shared stories of Howard Carter, the man who discovered the tomb.
When she was done, he grappled with his conscience. The next stop was supposed to be the Royal Mummy Room and part of Jed wanted to give Ellie an out, maybe distract her with a stroll through the room they passed on the first floor with a collection of ancient coins and papyrus on display. The other part of him wanted Ellie to confront that which made her uncomfortable. He wanted her to open up, to share her thoughts and stop avoiding her feelings. He knew she was capable of conquering her fears. She boarded the plane to Egypt, after all, even after she was told she didn't have to.
He didn't know how to handle it, but he had only a few minutes to wrestle with his approach before everyone shuffled out of the King Tut galleries. In that last second, he swallowed his objection and decided instead to keep an eye on Ellie as only a concerned father could. He protectively wrapped his arm around her as they started toward the Royal Mummy Room.
- - -
It took a few hours for the Bartlets to explore the museum to everyone's satisfaction. To Jed's relief, Ellie's discomfort in the Mummy Room faded after a while, and as soon as they left that room, she was back to her old self again. They toured most of the other exhibits and although there was still more to see, they were a bit tired and welcomed a break at the museum's coffee shop by mid-afternoon. After a round of coffee for Jed and Abbey, soft drinks for the girls, and conversation about all the treasures they had seen, they were all ready for a run through the gift shop to fill their bags with trinkets to remember their visit.
"One souvenir each," Abbey directed the girls. "And don't forget, we're not going back to the hotel, so make it something you can carry with you the rest of the day."
As Ellie and Zoey scampered off down the aisles, Jed teased his wife. "So when you're the one with half a dozen bags overflowing with stuff, are they allowed to make fun of you?"
Liz interrupted then. "Mom, I was kinda hoping I could go out on my own after we leave here."
Abbey laughed off that request. "Good one."
"I'm serious."
"So am I. Absolutely not."
"I'll be careful and I'll check in at the hotel before dinner. Please?"
"No."
"I'm 17. Why do I have to tag along with you guys all day?"
"Because you're 17. You're not going to walk around Cairo by yourself. End of story."
It was clear to Liz that Abbey wasn't going to budge. Instead of starting an argument she was sure to lose, she gave up and went off to roam one of the aisles, too busy sulking to notice the young man who had been eyeing her from a distance and followed her toward the back of the shop.
"That was weird," Jed said to Abbey.
"What?"
"When one of us says no to her, she usually asks the other. She didn't even try to get me on her side. It would have been a lost cause, of course, but she didn't know that."
"She's mad at you."
He was taken aback by that newsflash. "What? Why's she mad at me?"
"She's been mad ever since your crack in the car."
"She's mad about that?"
"You haven't noticed?"
"Not really, no. How'd you pick up on it?"
"Mother's intuition. I know her better than she knows herself sometimes. Incidentally, do you think it was a good idea to tease her about her driving four months after her accident?"
"Hmm, good point." Jed chewed on that for a moment, then admitted, "That might not be the only thing that pissed her off. If she's cranky, it probably has something to do with Doug as well."
"Have you been on his case again?"
"I made a joke this morning. She didn't find it very funny."
"Can't imagine why." Abbey shook her head at him with the slightest hint of a grin as she scanned the paintings of the pyramids. "This would be perfect for my parents."
"You're going to carry that around all day?"
"We can pick it up at the end of the day. I bet your brother would like one too."
This time, it was Zoey who interrupted. "Mommy, Ellie's buying two things. Can I?"
"I said one item each. You can tell Ellie that too."
"Eeellllllliiiieeee, Mommy said you can get only one thing!"
Jed waited until Zoey was gone to say, "I told my brother we'd send them one of those antique rugs Kellie wanted."
"We can get them one of those too."
"Hon, we can't buy out the store everywhere we go."
Abbey smirked, then continued browsing until she and Jed were jolted by Ellie calling out for them.
"MOM! DAD!"
The elder Bartlets rushed toward their middle daughter's voice. When they got to her, Ellie was standing beside Liz, who stood with her arms crossed over her chest next to a man who couldn't have been more than 20 or 21 years old. He had a hand on his cheek and he was quite obviously steaming mad. He yelled something in Arabic and Abbey reached for the Arabic-English dictionary in her tote.
"Don't bother," Liz said plainly. "He speaks English just fine. At least he did when he propositioned me and tried to grope me."
"Excuse me?" Jed turned on the man, his eyes flaming with anger at the mere accusation.
"I demand the police," the man replied. Pointing to Liz, he went on, "This woman hit me."
TBC