A Surprise Visitor

I was paid a surprise visit by Mr. Marc Wasem, head of the Egyptian branch of the International Adoption Commission (IAC). This is a separate agency from the one Samir Amin's relative heads. I'm told this is standard procedure for the commission, to visit the homes of prospective families. I don't know how many international visits they've made, however.



We made small talk about gardening, and he revealed that he has a French mother and an Egyptian father. Besides having a green thumb, I learned that he is artistic and lucky.




Dad came in and, of course, was bragging about my book being a best seller. I did mention that I am a writer and have liked doing it.
"Well," he asked, "will your writing interfere with taking care of the children?"
"Oh, no, absolutely not," I told him.

I caught a glimpse of my mother talking to him, and I have no doubt that it was about me. I have no idea what she said, though. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

I strongly suspect Bassy is going into the family biz.

My mother long ago gave up on my prospects of becoming a musician. To be quite honest, she never really tried. And my father never pushed me. Though I like music, have had guitar lessons, and like playing, there were other things I liked more, namely painting, astronomy, writing, and chess, among others. And of course there were my secret forays to the cemetery at night.

So I'm not surprised that she is now fiercely overseeing Bassy's musical development. Of course, it helps her that he has more talent in his pinky than I have in my whole body. And he seems to have an interest in it, if only because she is pushing so damn hard. What he doesn't seem to have, though, is the 24-7 obsession with music that dad does. He has other interests, like computers and cartoons and cooking.

I think Bassy should do whatever he wants to do with his life, not because mom wants him to do it. Sometimes I wonder if one of these days, he is going to rebel. So far, though, he hasn't, and mostly it's because of his demeanor. He isn't like me at all, and about that I'm actually glad. I think if mom were doing that to me, I would have rebelled already.

C'est moi

C'est moi, Savannah, rescuing my blog from the clutches of my baby brother. Just kidding. I did ask him to keep it up while I've been gone. But I've heard he'll be getting his own site soon, sooo...

Sebastian is a cutey, isn't he? The ladies are already tripping all over themselves.

So, I was in Egypt when I got an IM from Ari. And she sounded desperate.

Moore2Love: Girl, u betta get yo' behind back here.

SavannahSkye: Why, what's up?

Moore2Love: It's crazy. They got reporters everywhere. They've set up tents outside. And poor Sebastian won't even leave the house. I tried calling and he won't even answer the phone.

SavannahSkye: That's not like him.

Moore2Love: I know. Those bastards even tried to shove cameras in MY face. I wouldn't answer nothin.'

SavannahSkye: Good for you.

Moore2Love: This is all YOUR fault, tho. The adoption is big news on 3 continents.

SavannahSkye: Why, though? It's not like I'm Angelina Jolie or anything.

Moore2Love: No, it's cause of who your dad is. Ya know he's an international superstar. His records have sold all over the world.

SavannahSkye: What does my dad have to do with this? Seriously. I'm the one adopting the kids, not him.

Moore2Love: I know. I guess they just wanna make the connection. *brief pause* Hey, why do U wanna adopt these kids anyway?

SavannahSkye: Because I love them.

Moore2Love: Lovin' the kids ain't gonna make u ready 2 be a parent, Vanna. U still young! U can still love 'em and not adopt 'em.

SavannahSkye: That's just it. Their father is an arrogant asshole who's only using them for his own gain and God knows where their mom is. Who is seeing to these kids' welfare? I think I told you the story of how I found them, right?

Moore2Love: Yeah, in your blog entry. But girl, this here is dangerous. You could get yourself killed! Not even counting all them quests, you could have died doing any 1 of 'em.

SavannahSkye: The fact is, I'm not dead yet. If I haven't died yet somebody has to have had a reason for my still being here.

More girl trouble

Yo, Bas here. Just givin' y'all the 411 on what's been goin' on here while mom & dad are runnin' around Egypt with Vanna. Don't show mom this pic of me drinkin' llama juice. She'd have a heart attack.

I headed over to my friend Jeannine Ratliff's after school and ran into... her twin sister Paige. Let's just say, even though she's prettier than Jeannine, she's not a very nice person.

She came jumping down my throat for no reason at all. I was actually trying to be friendly with her.

School is a drag, tho. I wish Savannah was here to help me with geometry. She's the math whiz of the family. Truly, I dunno how she does it.

After I finished my geometry homework, I went outside 2 listen to Paige, who'd picked up a guitar and was tryin' to strum a few bars of my dad's pop-classical hit "I Would If I Did."

So, I was outside talking to Jeannine, and Paige came interrupting us, too. One of them is bad enuf. Both of 'em... well...

Mom and dad go to Egypt!

So, I'm checkin' my email and Vanna's blog post, and I find out that she's filled out papers to try to adopt these 2 Egyptian kids.

Personally, I think she's crazy.

Not that the kids aren't cute, from the pix she posted they're adorable... but I'm not sure about this.

Apparently mom has found out about Vanna's plan, too. Of course she's found out. It was in the paper! If mom wasn't already teed off at Vanna, if they hadn't already had this big blowup over her book, then this latest thing has really set her off. So much so, that she and dad booked a flight and headed to Egypt themselves! Since I still have school, I plan to stay at Noah and Neil's while they're gone. I can't see myself in this house by myself.
I'd only been to Noah's place once before, when I was still little and Neil's parents were getting married.

Interview with a Mummy

Hey, it's me, Bas. My globetrotting sister is in Egypt (again), lol.

Welp, here it is. It's my sister's book. It was published the day before she came back from China. It's caused all hell to break loose in the house and the whole town is talking about it. Daisy, who works in the bookstore, says it can't keep enuf copies on the shelf to keep up with all the peeps askin' about it. I'm not gonna read it, myself; heck, I've heard more than enuf about it from mom and other folks. Daisy says she's started to read it and she's like on page 49 or somethin.'

I do think the hoopla over the book caused Vanna to leave this time. She and mom had this huge fight right after she came back from China and they're not even speakin' to each other now. Mom is upset over the book; she says Vanna painted an unfair picture of her in it. For the record, Vanna says it's all fiction.

What I do know is on the front page of it there's a dedication in it to Aunt Margaret. I didn't know her that well, she died when I was a baby. Vanna says she was a 2nd mother to her, though.

Breakfast with Bassy

Very early the next morning, after the dust settled, Bassy and I were eating pancakes in the kitchen. He was starting to fill me in on what was going on while I was in China.

Then, he told me, "Vanna, mom's upset about your book. She said she didn't like what you wrote about her in it."

I shook my head. "Bassy, mom is upset about more than the book. This has been building for some time now."

"But why? Why can't you get along?"

"Bassy, sweetie," I told him, "a lot of the stuff that happened between us happened well before you were even born."

"What kinds of things?" Bassy was really, really pressing me. He was pressing me to answer questions I wasn't ready to answer.

"She doesn't like what I do for a living, for starters."

"For what it's worth, I think it's pretty cool what you do." He flashed me his gigawatt smile. It's the same one dad has, the kind that lights up an entire room. "Everybody at school wants to know where my sister is going next."

"She wants me to get a nice boring office job or to sit at home waiting for some mythical prince to rescue me."

"Say," Bassy asked, his eyes lighting up, "how'd you get that gig? And why do you do it?

"I signed up for it, at this website. Easy peasy. "

"Why do you do it? I mean, why'd you sign up for it?"

"'Cause I like to push myself, test my limits. 'Cause when I was younger I used to like to explore the catacombs in the cemetery."

"You went in there?"

"Sure did. Plenty of times."

I would have continued the conversation, but my plane was leaving for Egypt. I had a mission to finish.

Continued on The Savannah Plumb Chronicles