Chapter 1 Part 1: David

Chapter 1: David
David woke on the day of his sixteenth birthday with a headache and sore feet; like he had been running all last night and forgot to put shoes on. It was January 1st in Cairo and the sun was shining through the cracks the hotel room window. Across the gray carpet, the door of his parent’s bedroom was open, and the radio could be heard crackling through doorway. “Brzz… violence on eastern border of Gaza causes death of families… brzz… stock market failing inside northern Europe still spreads western causing more job losses… brzz… students in L ‘Aquila, Italy celebrate New Year’s in basement of the school… brzz… the President plans to send troops to Afghanistan to–” At this point the radio is switched off before David could here any more, and his mother walked through the door with a old cord phone rapped around her; she was ordering breakfast for the family.

“David do you know what you want to eat? No not you my son. Well just send up anything at all, it really doesn’t matter. Oh but we must have some of those dates…” David watched his mother ramble off in Egyptian on the phone with the poor employee who got stuck with the job of dealing with the foreigners. He then slid out from the couch because his “room” had now become the living room. He put on his hat, then thankfully grabbed a box of Cheerios (he hated dates) and walked out the door. Egypt isn’t really like those storybooks: it’s dry and ridiculously hot. You’re in a poor city with lots of rich tourists looking at the pyramids in the middle. Those were why he was here: David’s father is an archeologist so he’s always off somewhere finding old things. David’s mom decided that all three of them should go to Egypt for Christmas break. His father had already been paid to come to Cairo and David and his mom some how found a way to get there too.

David missed his home. He thought Cairo was hot and boring, although his mother said he should be happy to go anywhere when times around were so bad. He missed his house on Ele Street Virginia, which was a sign he must have heat stroke, since there was nothing else in Virginia that he could miss. So while David wandered around Cairo to where his father’s digging sight was, he munched on his dry cereal and looked at all the people that sat on the streets covered in sand and smog. He poured Cheerios into the hands of all he passed, apologizing for his lack of actual food until his dad found him, which sadly put an end to his feeding of the poor.

“David what are you doing? Stop wasting your breakfast. Don’t feed those people, because they’ll only want more.” David’s father pried the box from David’s hands and grabbing his son by the arm, dragged him into the dig sight. The woman who had been getting her breakfast cursed and yelled in Arabic, which David didn’t understand and his father ignored. “Why is it I always find you feeding things? Now I know why you’ve been going through a box of these a day.” His father said gesturing with the box wildly spilling the o shaped cereal all over. David and his dad had very controversial ideas of the world; which made David sad, since he often found that his father could be cruel for no reason except because he was. By then they had passed under the lines and into the sight of many other archeologists who were at work. David watched them move pieces of rocks and pottery, shifting through sand, and looking little pieces of something. That was his job since his dad needed to concentrate and David needed to stay here until 1:00 p.m.

It was hot for January in Cairo; it is often only about 60˚F, but today it was well above ninety and many of the workers spent more time next to the water cooler then at their stations. David had been sifting sand for about two hour’s when his dehydration and lack of hearty breakfast caught up with him and was told to go inside the tent and sit down. His father graciously kept him in the shade for the rest of the morning and released the boy at noon for lunch.



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(thanks! yeah this is mostly just intro to the story i have more that i've written i just hadn't finished up the next section yet)
Back at the hotel David met up with his mother, who wanted to tour the city again, and was forced into coming along. She soon had him standing in front of the famous Gaza pyramids, which his mom had looked up on NationalGeographic.com and would not stop talking about them for hours. His mom’s “idea” took more then three hour’s to accomplish and soon had them in need of dinner.
Sitting at a table in Pizza Express, Main St. Cairo, David waited for his indecisive mother to pick one of the thirty-seven styles of pizza.
“My favorite is the raisin pizza but wouldn’t you love to try mango chutney pizza, David?” Grabbing David’s arm in excitement.
“I’ll have five slices of Pepperoni, Mom.” David grumbled trying to detach his mother from her clingy position. “Do you mind not touching me in public mom, I’ve said this before.” David said but his mom was already back at the menu listing, writing them down, all the choices she thought would good.
“Well which one do you think, David?” David looked at his mother’s list, which included every thing on the menu.
“Mom, why don’t you let me order and you can call Dad.” David said holding out his hand for some pounds, which are Egyptian currency, his mother handed him her credit card and opened her cell phone.
David watched the TV relay the news while his order was cooking and checked on his mom every once and a while. She was busy talking to his father, trying to give him directions to the restaurant.
“Yes Rayne you want to turn right from root 32 south onto root 23 stay left on 23 and pull in the second drive, and then right and right and then your there.” She at this point sounded exhausted. “Oh yeah, no I didn’t forget but thanks for the reminder.” She turned to David and mouthed ‘happy 16th birthday’ before going back to the phone. It was the first time in years she remembered how old he was.



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David wished he could pause this moment in time and keep it in a box. His parent’s decided to remember his birthday for once. Although, why he didn’t know, the last birthday they had remembered was his ninth and only after he made a fuss over it. So they brought strawberry frosting, white bread, and a candle and gave him a birthday cake. That was the year David’s father lost his first job and they had to move back to Ele St. where his mom grew up. Although David always got presents from his Dad’s parents and Uncle Jay, his mom’s brother who always sent him a card with sixty bucks in it and a sole altoid attached to the back of the card which was still weird even now.

He wondered if Jay would send him his card to Cairo or if David would find it after they got home tomorrow. Even though David’s parents were never around during his birthday they always checked out his gifts with a strange interest. Today however David just ate his pizza and listened to his mom and dad squabble over who was going to pack for the return flight that night.

“Anna is there any reason you can’t just pack for both of us? I have to deliver the artifacts to the Marilena Museum later and I don’t have enough time to drive back to the hotel.” David’s father said tiredly and as if the problem was resolved said, “Also make sure you don’t forget my packet of sedimentary rocks.” After his final bite of pizza, David’s father retreated back to a white van that waited impatiently for him on the road.
David’s mom handed David a small blue card and a little box before she walked off to the car.

“David, you make sure to get to the hotel before twelve.” She sighed before walking out the door. David nodded and checked out the card his parents had got him inside was a blank card with “Happy Birthday” written in it, a driver’s license, and “you need 40 hours of diving time before we can let you on the road” written in his mother’s handwriting next to it. In the small box was a gold “charm bracelet” with one charm attached, it was a David’s Star or a six-pointed star, which was what he, was named after.
David looked at the bracelet and wondered what had driven his parents to get him something so strange with no explanation. He decided to wear it today for them and lose it coincidentally on the flight home tomorrow.



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