Missing in Egypt by Rita Lee Chapman Page B

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