Alright, so Thursday, February 26th, it's 7.41 am on the 101 to work and just trying to record some more thoughts about what I think should be chapter 2 of the Empire's diary or chocolate cigarettes. So we've got Omar and his family. In the previous chapter, the chapter ends with Omar losing his cigarettes at airport security. Chapter 2 needs to either, you know, we could talk about this being a chronological story, but it doesn't have to be. But for now, let me just talk about it in chronological order. I mean, the next step would be that Omar and his family get on the plane. Where is that plane headed? I mean, it's not going directly to Cairo. It's going from Houston to say New York and then from New York to Cairo, or could be that the classic TWA flight because you know, TWA doesn't exist anymore. You know, St. Louis, then New York, then Egypt there to Cairo, or could be a European carrier, you know, we got to think about whether or not it's Houston to New York, Houston to London, Houston to Paris. So anyway, what happens on the flight? Emphasize that, you know, flights at the time planes had smoking sections in the rear. So if you wanted to smoke, you smoked in the rear, you didn't smoke at your seat, at least not that I'm aware of. But anyway, and his mother will talk about whether or not they got smoking tickets or non-smoking tickets. What else? There's no, you know, there are absolutely no cell phones. Absolutely no security. Yeah, so... What else? Before it gets on the plane, we could have a scene where he's at the gate. And... Maybe he watches a girl hugging her... Her mom and stepdad goodbye. And he watches her swipe, you know, pickpocket or dad cigarettes and take them on the plane. That could be another... And then you get to have a conversation with the girl. Yeah, that would be pretty funny because then she'll give him a cigarette. He'll try and smoke it on the flight. And he'll just say he was hanging out in the smoking section. So yeah, um... But when he's in the smoking section, he'll realize he doesn't have a lighter or matches. And he needs to ask someone for it. But, you know, he obviously looks too young. And the first couple of attempts, he's told to screw off. No. So, um... Is there a way that this kid can either get someone's matches, or maybe he just gives up and because he realizes... He can't be smoking around adult strangers anyway because they're just gonna rat on him or take his cigarette away. Yeah, maybe, um... Finally, when he does get some matches and he realizes no one's in the smoking section anymore. He goes back there. And just as he's about to light his cigarette, the captain walks by and says, the sun, you know you're too young for that. And takes the cigarette and smokes it himself. Or maybe one of the flight attendants. Who knows? And that's how... Let's not end the chapter there. Well, possible, but the next scenario is that... He glosses over the fact that they, you know, they go on to... They have a layover and... Either London or Europe. Or maybe a dinner Amsterdam. And... And they didn't do much. Maybe he talks about how he ate crappy food. Yeah. And then... Because he's got to emphasize there was no McDonald's or no Burger King. So that's another aspect of this, you know, the time was that there was no... I mean, there was fast food, but it just wasn't... There was, you know, it was like catered, cafeteria-style food. So... But yeah. And then they get on the flight. So what movies are going to be on the flight? Remember... There's only... The TVs that hang from the aisles, not the aisles, the center walkways. And... And the screen that they pull down... The front row... And they play one movie. And you have to listen on your headphones... That they give you. So... Maybe though... Yeah. So... What movies are you going to watch? We're going to do some research on movies available. And then... That movie's going to get them to the European destination. And then they're going to have another movie to Cairo. And they're going to arrive in Cairo. And... It's going to have to get on... They're going to walk... The tarmac, and then he'll get on... A bus... That takes them... To... The arrivals hall. And to walk into the arrivals hall. And... Have to go through passport control... And customs. And then after that... Is when he gets mobbed by his family. So we've got... Three essential scenes again. We've got... Trying to get cigarette, not getting cigarette, watching movie, falling asleep. Waking up... Probably best that they do the Egypt Air. But I don't know if you're going to move here or not in Egypt. Probably best that they do just... Get to London. So then... Wake up... Plane arrives, and he gets mobbed by his family. And... So this is where vanity... We have to give him his vanity way ahead of time. Vanity and sense of space. Because that's just going to be destroyed. We've got to talk about how he has his own room. How he has his own things. And... And how all of that gets... And kind of ruined... When his family comes... So... What are things like... They're going to be hugging him and kissing him and saying we miss you so much. And he's going to be talking about what the hell are these people talking about? They've never seen me. How could they miss me? And so... It really angers him that they do that because he doesn't want anyone to be close to him that way. He's emotionally unprepared for this. And so... His reaction is more of trauma than... ...than of... ...something to enjoy. He's never raised to... ...to actually sit there and talk about how much he loves his family. That was something he just didn't understand. You're telling me that there's these people who I never see... ...and they live far away. And I'm supposed to like them. I'm supposed to miss them. Not going to happen. You know? And they speak very little English except for Ashraf who kind of translates... ...for everybody. And his mom speaks broken Arabic. And he speaks even less Arabic and is definitely broken. So... So, you know, the... ...his family hustles them... ...into a set of cabs. We're waiting for them. And the minute he... Well, let's say the minute he gets off the plane, he notices the smell, the smell of the dust. And that's one thing. His mom, of course, is crying as they're getting off the plane. He's got to note that. And I mean, she's crying kind of... He can't tell if she's happier or sad. It's again one of those things. And... That's another thing that he notices. So, you know, and he's sitting in the cab and he's watching... ...basically Cairo go by before his eyes. And he's completely disoriented. He doesn't know where he was. He's like talking... ...we're driving down this street and I see... ...I'm trying to figure out where we are, but I don't know where we are. Back in Houston, you know, the airport hooks up with the 59, which hooks up with the I-10. Is this road like a state highway or an interstate? I can't tell. And... Oh yeah, the traffic. He doesn't know how to drive yet, but he knows enough to know that these people drive crazy. And the ushruf is going to be in the passenger seat. He's going to be constantly talking to the rear. And the driver is going to be one of those silent types, but smoking a cigarette. And every now and then says something to ushruf. So... You know, the first thing that happens is everybody freaks out because they think they're about to have an accident. And they're not about to have an accident, it's just Egypt. And so what happens, well, it's um... No, maybe his mom screams, maybe he screams. But, you know, ushruf reassures them that people here drive like they walk. So if you have to get out of the way, you just honk everyone and say, excuse me, I'm moving over here. And that's what happens. So... But, you know, he has broken English and he just has to... He's going to tell them in the best way he knows how. So they drive for what it feels like an eternity. But it's not, it's like an hour drive. And, you know, he sees all different kinds of buildings. And the streets get smaller and smaller until he thinks the cab just can't... There's no way this cab can go down the street and it barely does. And it stops and he's thinking, great, traffic jam or something like that. Something's blocking the road. But nope, everybody gets out. Or, you know, he's thinking to himself, oh my god, why are we stopping here? What is happening? Is this where the cab driver lives? Does he have to like get something? But then that's when Omar realizes that's where they live. And that's where they're spending their summer. And his reaction is... Oh my god, there's something like that. Something... But, you know, and that's when we have to see where they like walk up to... The entrance of their apartment and... And... And his other relatives are trying to carry the bags in. And then he watches them argue with the driver over the fare. And then once everything's all settled, he realizes there's no coke, no Doritos, no... You know, no TV. Even though they have a TV in another apartment, this apartment is the one that they're sleeping in. And there's no TV. So... I'm thinking that's probably where it shouldn't. It's him crashing on a bed where the pillow is harder than the mattress. Pillow is literally harder than the mattress. And... It's kind of hot. There's no air conditioning. Maybe the next day, you know, he tells his mom, or maybe he sees that he remembers the fan. They brought... But... So, yeah, maybe he's going to try and maybe we're going to have the incident where he tries to put it together and realizes... They don't have the same. The current is different. The circuit is different. So, that's another... But he essentially crashes for the night after he talks. After he practically breaks his neck on the pillow. I think you should definitely have the next chapter start when he wakes up. But, you know, we're going to have to have some event that I think speeds up time because we can't keep the pace this way for... You know, an entire book for him. So anyway... Maybe the second chapter should begin with him waking up to the call to the aden... Or someone throwing the newspaper up in the balcony. Yeah. Or... The guy selling propane something funny. The aden would definitely wake him up first. But... You know, he won't be told to get up by his family because they will assume he just wants... You know, it's okay, let him sleep in. Maybe they'll hear him sleepwalking and say, turn off the TV. Turn off the TV. But, yeah, so we're going to figure out how to make a light joke of that without insulting him. And then... But, you know, you could hear it off the distance, maybe they're not right next to the mosque. I mean, I don't know what's... Maybe I don't have to make a promise. The newspaper is definitely a funnier way to go to throwing the newspapers up into the balconies. Yeah, maybe in the middle of the night. Yeah. And then he opens the shutters, the balcony door and shutters. And then he does so he doesn't realize that the newspaper guy is going to throw it up into the bedroom without him whacking. So, yeah, that's another possibility. But either way, he's going to wake up and pretty much... The only breakfast is going to be available to him. It's Peter bread, olives and this... Basically, fava beans. And he's not going to be hungry. And he's not going to want to touch anything. It's going to be... To drink. Everyone's going to be drinking tea. Well, he'll be holding up for tea. So, that's another... And then he's going to sit there. And he's going to mark how they were sitting on this tablecloth that looks like it. Something from another era. Everything just looks completely foreign to him. They have fruit, so he's going to eat like an orange. It's got to be in season. I've got to check to see if oranges are in season here in the summer. So, maybe he'll have mango. They're going to get, you know, mad at him for not eating his breakfast. Maybe he's going to make his mom make him special eggs. I don't know. And so, the first thing that he wants is... He wants me Donalds. And they don't have it anywhere. There's, you know, he's like, I'm craving an egg muffin now. It's so bad. But of course his mom doesn't know. And there probably isn't to be Donalds anywhere in Cairo anyway. So... You know, she wants to take her boys to the museum, maybe. And, you know, then we can talk about the mummy scene in the museum. But if their apartment has no TV, then mom knows they've got to get a TV. And second, if they have no fan, you know, then they've got to get a fan. Actually, no, he knows that they packed a fan just never built it. So, that's what he's going to do. But he's going to realize that they... What is life in Shobra? Like maybe he walks around Shobra. I'm not sure. And he's going to wake up super late. Like at noon or something. Maybe he wakes up late too. Maybe he wakes up. They eat and then he just goes back to bed. But yeah. The first thing to do is... The museum. Now the subject of the pyramids should that come up at the very end of the trip. Should there be an awkward moment in the trip at the pyramids that then is allowed to replay itself at this time. And not so awkward the second time around. I don't know. Do the pyramids represent closure. I mean, they are, you know, basically one big. I think they should because they should definitely be a closing scene at the pyramids. And it should be a scene where like, you know, he kind of tells his mom they have some moment further. They're both mourning the loss of his father, but they're also there. They kind of know that in order for their relationship to improve, they need to close the issue of his death. And, you know, you could also signal the turnaround in his character. It doesn't have to be, you know, like at the end of the book. Because the book is, you know, it's going to, I mean the end of the story is going to reveal that, you know, there's more to come. Not, you know, another story, but, you know, kind of like a new day. So, ending at the pyramids would might be too. And not be enough. So, but anyway, you know, the dialogue that occurs between him and his mom, you know, there's going to be all these things that represent that signal, the fact that, you know, death hasn't, hasn't closed for him. The death of his father. You know, maybe they're going to have, you know, he's going to have the flashback in the museum. But what's going to happen to him in the pyramids? Maybe he's going to have some moment where, you know, he accepts that his dad has gone, you know. You know, life is like a camel ride around the pyramids. We keep circling death. So, maybe that. The camel rides and chocolate cigarettes. That would be cool title. Our life is just a camel ride with chocolate cigarettes. Life is just camel rides and chocolate cigarettes. It's not like that, you know. Anyway, that's just a couple of things that are going on. Let's stop here.