Mom."
The hospitality of the monks was genuine. Most of the pilgrims, including Penelope, spent the night at the church, praying. The next day, they crossed the Suez Canal and reached Cairo, exhausted from the heat and the bumpy road. Penelope wondered how Joseph and Mary had journeyed through such an inhospitable desert with only a donkey to carry the baby Jesus and Mary.
They arrived in the bustling city of Cairo in the early afternoon. The bus was covered with dust. They checked into the Hotel Pharaoh, and the guide told them to come down in an hour to take a tour of the prison where the great martyr, St. George, had been imprisoned and chained in his cell. Those who did not wish to go could visit the pyramids.
As the bus left, it created a cloud of dust in the street overcrowded with carts, donkeys, and sweaty people talking to portly shopkeepers and vendors. With difficulty, the bus passed through narrow sections of the streets. Poor, barefoot, half-dressed children were running alongside the bus in their dirty, once-white jalabiyas, some yelling, others chasing it from behind, waving their bony little hands.
Penelope gazed out of the window on the bus, only to find un-swept streets full of litter and human and animal waste. Everything was stifling inside. The passengers onboard the slow-moving bus used newspapers, brochures, or fans in an attempt to cool their faces.
Exhausted, Penelope fell asleep
Upon their arrival, Eleni tried to wake her mother, but was unsuccessful. Heat and exhaustion had taken their toll on the elderly woman. The group left her with the bus driver and went on the short tour.
Penelope had fallen asleep thinking how kind the woman from the Church of the Resurrection had been to her. She wondered why she disappeared so quickly before Penelope could thank her. She hoped to find her again, she thought, as the image of the lady continued to occupy her mind. She was startled in her sleep by the appearance of the familiar angelic man in white. "Wake up, Penelope," he said. "This is where the Christ child came for safety," continued the voice. Upon seeing Penelope restless in her sleep, the driver came close to her and shook her gently awake. Her eyes opening, she asked, "Where are we?"
"We are at the place where Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus for safety," answered the driver.
"Oh dear God," she murmured. "Where are the others?"
"They are all on the tour."
"I must go with them."
"Are you sure?"
"I have never been more sure in all my life," replied Penelope.