"My name is Ahmed.
I am fourteen years old.
Today is Friday. No school on Friday."

Ahmed smiles. He is not sure that I understand him.
"Okay," I say, "you come with me. You can practice your English." Now Ahmed is happy and he continues:
"We are Muslims. Friday is the holy day for Muslims, Sunday for Christians.
My father is Amin. He is your driver.
I have two brothers and two sisters.
My sister is sixteen. In twenty days she will marry.
Business is no good. We only have a small party."

Ahmed proudly shows me pictures of his mother, brothers and sisters. One picture shows Ahmed as a baby. He laughs at himself when he shows me his baby picture.

"First we go to the police. The police gives you a bodyguard. He has a large machine gun and a bulletproof vest. His name is Ismail. Ismail is my cousin."

Ismail is maybe twenty-five. He has a khaki uniform. Ismail’s boss gives him two extra bullet clips before we leave. Ismail salutes his boss and asks me permission to smoke one cigarette before we leave.

"The police chef ordered me to drive as fast as possible," explains Amin, the driver, Ahmed’s father. Then we go. The road is new. At every ten kilometers there is a police check point. We never stop. Ismail tells Amin to drive passed the checkpoints as fast as possible. We blow the claxon non stop.

"We drive to Komombo," said Ahmed. "I have been in Komombo already three times. Komombo is the temple of the crocodile God. His name is Sobek. He is the god of the Nile river."

Ismail, the police man, tells us we can only stop at the temple for 30 minutes. I take Ahmed. He has never been inside. Ahmed is a little bit afraid to go in.
"May be the police will arrest me," he said.
"Of course not. You are with me," I said to encourage him.
Ahmed tells me, he is in Middle school. Middle school is three years. After, he will go to preparatory school for four years and then to university. He wants to become a doctor.

I tell Ahmed about Egyptian picture-writing, called hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphs is a Greek word. It means "sacred symbols". We practice and write Ahmed’s name in hieroglyph. Then our bodyguard, Ismail, tells us to move on.

"After one hundred kilometers we stop at Edfu temple, the temple of the falcon God, Horus, and his wife the cow Goddess, Hathor," Ahmed explains. He falls asleep when
his father is driving as fast as possible.

I am a little scared. There are only a few cars on the road but many cows and sheep.
A few times Amin has to put on the brakes really hard.

At Edfu temple, I buy a ticket for Ahmed. The temple is very large and we are the only visitors.
At the gate of the main temple, the guard bullies: "Who is this boy? He is with you?
He is Egyptian? He cannot go inside."

Then he calls soldiers by radio. An officer comes and explains politely: "For your safety sir, we have to question this boy."
I cannot do anything and four soldiers take Ahmed into a little room.

After five minutes, the soldiers and the officer come back with Ahmed. Ahmed is biting his lip but is not crying.
"Everything okay?" I ask the officer.
"Can we go inside now?"

Before the officer can answer, a big bang makes my ears whistle….Shocked I look around. The soldiers and the officer run up the hill and shout at each other and into their radios. Five seconds later, there are soldiers everywhere.

Ahmed pulls me into inside the main temple. Nobody is looking at us any longer.
"They are crazy," Ahmed yelled and for a moment he is no longer a scared little boy, but a man. "They are only showing off for you. They always go shooting to scare people.
They are crazy!".
We run between large pillars. Ahmed knows a backdoor.
Out of breath from running and shock, we reach the Coca Cola stand next to the ticket booth.

Amin with Ismail and an extra soldier are already waiting with the car. Then we drive back as fast as possible.

When the time comes to say goodbye, Ahmed said again:
"Don’t worry. Police was only showing off for you."
And then he said with a big smile:
"Next time you come, I will be a doctor."