Cairo 2013
Ella asked the taxi to park at the end of the alley. There was no room anywhere to park on the street and she feared keeping him circling the block would prove longer than just sitting here obstructing traffic and risking a ticket. The driver demanded to be paid first and then, not surprisingly, took off in a screech of tires as soon as Ella closed the door.
It didn’t matter. Even with the aftereffects of the revolution, the area had more tourists than downtown. She judged she had a good three hours before her plane took off and, even in the typically abominable Cairo traffic, she couldn’t be an hour’s ride from the airport.
The heat in late June made her feel like she was walking through a blast furnace. The buildings were built so close together that they stopped any relieving breeze that might have reached the area from the river. Ella hadn’t taken two steps down the street before her blouse was sticking to her and her jeans were chafing. She stopped to twist her long hair up into a ponytail but felt no real relief from the heat. Best to just find the damn book and get into the nearest air conditioned taxi. She hurried down the street, clutching her handbag to her side against any possible opportunistic pickpocket who might see her as a vulnerable victim.
She saw Yeena’s shop on the corner. It was shuttered and closed, which put an end to any internal struggle she had been waging about whether or not to get more answers from her. It did seem odd for the teashop to be closed in the middle of a bustling, active day of selling for the other shops.
When she came to the end of the street Ella noticed that although she had started out pushing through the dense crowd, there had been nobody on the sidewalk for the last several minutes. Straight ahead was obviously what Yeena had referred to as the bakery. While it had little resemblance to the cheery and bright boulangeries that Ella had visited in Paris, a hanging wooden sign depicted an illustration of a loaf of bread.
She stood out front, hesitating to go in. Yeena had said behind the bakery. Ella walked to both sides of the shop and could not see a way to get to the back. She went to the front again and stood by the grimy window featuring an empty showcase. She wondered if she needed to go inside to find a back door? Before she touched the doorknob, she knew the bakery was closed. In frustration, she turned and looked down the street from where she had come.
Should I just go? she thought. A quick look at her watch confirmed that she still had plenty of time. She took a breath to try to relax and walked back to the east side of the little shop once more.
And there it was. She could see how she had missed it at first. The darkened conduit was obviously not used as a thoroughfare.
Could this really be what Yeena meant? Ella approached the fissure and realized that it was indeed wide enough for her to slip through and when she poked her head in, she could see light at the end of the stone corridor. Amazed that people might actually be able to use this crack in the wall as a way to get to their favorite hidden coffee shop, Ella scooted sideways into the entrance and kept her eyes focused on the light that promised to be an opening of some kind not five yards ahead of her.
I hope you appreciate this, Rowan, she found herself thinking. She heard scratching sounds and quickened her steps at the thought of a couple of disturbed rodents falling on her head. There was no effing way anybody came to a coffee shop this way! It was absurd! She began to feel panicked and claustrophobic. At the very moment when she decided she would just reverse her steps and forget this whole mad caper, her foot hit a slanting stone that pitched her forward. Struggling to stay upright, she clawed at the sides of the stone opening but her feet continued to slide as if the floor of the space was physically giving way. As she felt herself falling, she was overcome by an all-encompassing dizziness that robbed her of her sight and catapulted her other senses into overdrive. The smell of rotting garbage assailed her nostrils as panic drilled into her chest. She flailed her arms out to clutch at the walls but they were slippery now and she could do nothing to prevent her fall. As she fell into the darkness below, the slanting floor steepening sharply as she slid, her mind shut down and accepted the all-encompassing darkness.
Rowan patted Maddie’s back as she wept and tried to speak.
“Are you sure she hasn’t called you?” Maddie asked, trying to compose herself.
Rowan shook his head. He had answered this question at least twice. But he knew it was an important one. The wrong answer to has she called? meant something had happened to her. Maddie knew that. Rowan knew that.
“She told you she had to pick up a souvenir for me?”
“Yes. She said it was something she saw last night when she was at the bazaar.”
“Why didn’t she just get it then?”
“I don’t know. Maybe she saw it in a window and the shop wasn’t open last night.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” he said, still stunned that Ella had not gotten off the airplane.
Letting Maddie come home alone? He shook his head. Wasn’t that the whole point of the trip? To bring Maddie back? Had she been in an accident? He checked his cellphone again. He knew he was listed as her emergency contact. Her passport was in her purse. She had been carrying her purse. If she was in a hospital somewhere, they should have contacted him by now.
“I’m so sorry, Rowan,” Maddie said, still sniffing.
“Don’t be,” he said tersely. “It’s not your fault. We’ll find out what happened. Probably sometime today. Her cellphone’s dead. It’ll take her awhile to figure out how to use the Egyptian public phones.”
“Oh! You’re probably right.”
“I’m sure I am.”
“You have a long drive back to Dothan,” Maddie said. She was making an obvious effort to pull herself together. “My folks will come get me.”
“Not at all,” he said. “I’ll take you home.” He leaned down to collect Ella’s carryon although a stab of worry reignited when he saw it. There is no way Ella would have voluntarily missed that plane. He glanced at Maddie and was glad to see she looked so relieved. He wished he could feel the same.
The first thing Ella did was put her hand to her face. The left side of her cheek was burning as if she were was too close to a really hot fire. When her vision cleared, she saw that she was lying on her side on a wet stone surface. Afraid to move for fear she had damaged herself, she lay frozen on the ground and tried to get her bearings. She heard voices but not nearby. The ground was wet because it was raining. She moved slowly to try to sit up and found that she was unhurt. She was no longer wedged in a gap between two buildings but was lying on the side of a fairly wide alley. It took a moment of blinking before she realized it was nightfall.
She jerked her wrist up close to her face to see the time. It was past eight o’clock.
She had missed the flight.
Even though she knew it was too late, she frantically pulled herself to her feet. Would Maddie have left? Ella had told her to get on the airplane. Yes, she would be gone by now. Not trusting her legs to hold her, she leaned against the brick wall lining the alley and studied her surroundings.
She still heard voices—nothing distinct so she couldn’t tell what language they were in—but she saw no people. Her clothes were wet all the way through and she had already started to shiver. In spite of how hot it had been earlier in the day, she felt a chill straight through to her bones. The shops down this street were closed and dark. She wondered if it was Friday already? How long had she been out? Was everyone at prayer? She noticed a movement at the end of the alley and instinctively moved in that direction.
Someone must have found her in the alley behind the bakery and moved her. But why just leave her in that case? She rifled through her purse to find her cellphone and wallet. She hadn’t been robbed so had her Good Samaritan just moved her and then left her? She got a sudden dark thought but within seconds definitely rejected the possibility that she had been interfered with in any way.
She moved slowly to the end of the alley. She hadn’t seen a taxi go by yet and at this time of night there should be plenty. She didn’t think the hotel looked very full. Surely, she would have no trouble getting another room for the night.
As she reached the main street, Ella gasped and grabbed the wall again for support. Instead of the modern cars of 2013 Cairo, she saw a disorganized traffic of horse drawn carriages and Model T Fords. The street was filled with donkeys and barefoot Egyptian men in turbans wearing full tunics and robes. There was absolutely no comparison to this same street of the night before. Ella watched the scene open-mouthed as a needle of dread and fear wormed its way up her spine.
Oh, please God, no, she thought. Don’t let this be happening.
She surveyed the scene in building horror, and then turned and ran back to the alley. She reached the spot where she had lain and tried to backtrack to the place where the split in the wall must be. She ran her hands along the wall, but there was no opening. She stood with her hands flat against the wall while a cold breeze blew through her thin blouse. The rain had stopped.
She turned and faced the street at the end of the alleyway once more and took a long ragged breath. She couldn’t stay here. She must find help. As she walked again, slowly and with trepidation toward the main promenade, she reminded herself that there were cars so at least she wasn’t in the Middle Ages. Taking heart from that thought, she picked up her pace. Perhaps the telephone had been invented?
And then the thought that made her stop and sink to her knees in despair hit her like a punch to the stomach. Who would she call? Rowan hadn’t been born yet. In all likelihood her father hadn’t been born yet.
She was all alone. Whenever she was. She was on her own.