Death on Tour - Janice Hamrick [40]
I said, “You pretty much heard it all. And you were right. Just a pushy salesman. I saw him later down at the market area, and he seemed to know one of the other vendors, so I’m sure that’s all there was to it.”
“Ah. Well, that’s good.” He considered for a moment. “Did he seem threatening when he approached you?”
“No, not really. Just insistent. Kyla was the one who seemed threatening. She sent him packing,” I added, with a little laugh.
“She didn’t want to talk about it with me. She kept changing the subject.”
Well, of course. She wanted to flirt, and talking about pushy little salesmen was not conducive to romance. I wondered if he was really that oblivious to her motivations.
“You know,” he said slowly. “Sometimes people lump siblings together. Judge all of them based on the actions of just one.”
I nodded in agreement. I saw it all the time at school, and teachers were notoriously bad about it. In fact, I did it myself. I’d have a fantastic student one year and then get a sibling in class and expect the same stellar performance. Sometimes it happened, sometimes it didn’t. The same was true the other way, although I tended to feel sorry for the siblings of a troublemaker and tried to give them the benefit of the doubt. But I definitely watched them more closely than the other students. It wasn’t fair, but that was the way it was.
Alan looked out over the water. He seemed to be weighing his words. “Sometimes we get into something with a brother or sister, and then they go further than we intended. It can be hard to get back out.”
“Did your brother get you into trouble, or was it the other way around?” I asked with a smile. I could envision him in the midst of any number of pranks, but I couldn’t imagine any real trouble. He seemed like a decent guy.
He ignored this, and went on earnestly. “I just think you don’t always have to finish everything you start. You know, if someone talks you into doing something and then things go bad, you could always back out. Just turn around and go home. Even if it seems too late, maybe it’s not.”
I blinked and let his words sink in, as if giving them a couple of seconds would make them more intelligible. It didn’t. What the hell was he talking about? The twilight was turning the shadows purple all around us, and the last of the sunlight was deepening to crimson and violet on the western horizon. His eyes looked dark gray now as he watched my face, his eyebrows drawn together in a worried frown. He leaned forward, as if conveying something of great importance, but I could not figure out what it was. I thought back to the questions at the hotel, the odd way he’d stuck by Kyla and peered into her bag when they searched it at the airport, his interest in our encounter with Aladdin, and now this.
“Walk away from what?” I finally asked, as the silence between us lengthened.
He sat back abruptly on the seat, then gave a shrug and rose. “It’s nothing.” He looked grim, and yet somehow disappointed, as if I’d done something wrong.
“Tell me what you mean,” I said. I could hear a pleading note in my own voice, and I didn’t like it.
“Never mind. Come on, let’s go back. It’s about time for dinner.”
And have Kyla blow a gasket if she saw us walking up together? “No, I don’t think so. I’m going to sit here a few more minutes. You go ahead.”
I watched him walk up the path until he was out of sight, but he never looked back.
Tuesday, Abu Simbel
Spend the morning at leisure in Aswan or join an optional excursion to Abu Simbel near the Sudanese border. Here you will see the magnificent sandstone temples of Ramses II and his beloved wife Nefertari, rescued first from the desert sands in the early nineteenth century, then again from the rising waters of Lake Nasser in the 1960s. In the afternoon, board your luxury cruise ship and begin your journey up the Nile, Egypt’s mythic river of destiny.
—WorldPal pamphlet
Chapter 6
CHANGELINGS AND CHALLENGES
I awakened in the darkness to the sound of prayers broadcasting