A Huge Flip in the Story

Everything changed now! It's like the story just flipped in these last four chapters. Let me start from the beginning. Our protagonists went to the Edfu Temple which is where the changes started.  So, once they were inside the temple, listening to Mohammed's usual blah blah blah, Salah separated from the group and went to discover the chambers on his own. Of course, Octavia followed behind him and, following Rosie's advice, so did Sam. While looking for Octavia, Sam saw Salah alone by some statues, so he took advantage of that to find Octavia before she could find Salah. He founds her leaning on a column in one of the chambers, with a sad look on her face. "I was hoping that Salah would meet me here you know? So that we could have a moment. So that he could find me," she said (O'Connell, 147). Trying to sound romantic and to stop her crush on Salah, Sam said "I found you!"(O'Connell, 147). This apparently worked and let Octavia forget about Salah. In other words, they spent the rest of the visit together. Since Octavia thought that Rosie fancied Sam, she refused to believe that she was starting to like him more than Salah but the love for him was growing inside her. Once they were in the boat, she even commented everything that had happened with him to Rosie so that she wouldn't be jealous.

Realizing that Octavia was actually starting to like Sam, Rosie decided to stay in the boat with Salah during the afternoon visit to some ruins to give them some time by themselves. It all went smoothly, and before they knew it, Sam and Octavia were kissing in the darkness of the Egyptian ruins. I know, right? It happened so quickly!!! everything was falling into place for everybody. This is what I've been waiting for! Salah can finally be with Rosie and Sam can finally get Octavia's attention.

Meanwhile, in the Nefertiti cruise, Salah was trying to have a conversation with Rosie while she was working on her music, but she got so nervous that she made him look like a fool when he tried to talk about music.

That night, Rosie finally confessed to Octavia that she liked Salah while regretting her attitude towards him that afternoon. To her surprise, Octavia seemed extremely happy about it as she got the relief that she hadn't kissed the boy she thought her best friend was into. Finally, just to put the cherry on top, Salah knocked the girl's door and left a present for Rosie. It was a bunch of Bach's music sheets that he had bought for her. How romantic!

"She snatched the page back from me , shuffled the sheets into a pile, and put them in a folder." 
-SALAH (O'Connel, 161)
This part just confused me. Why is Rosie acting all weird with poor Salah. He hadn't done anything new for her to treat him that way. I suppose that maybe that is her way of treating people when she gets nervous or maybe too caught up in her activities. Anyway, I am hoping that with this gift that Salah gave her, she will go and apologize so that they can be happy just like Sam and Octavia are starting to be.


"...and that's when it occurred to me that perhaps Salah was inside waiting for me the way I'd waited for him at Edfu. That was exactly what I'd wanted that morning but not anymore... I was enjoying being snug under Sam's arm." -OCTAVIA (O'Connell, 157)
I have read, seen and even experienced many situations like this before, where you get so obsessed with what you think is right for you that you don't realize that the better options may be nearer than you think. Like Octavia for example, she idolized Salah so much, that it took her the whole trip to finally realize that the guy who truly loved her was Sam, who was there the whole time. When I read this in the book, I even felt some type of Deja Vu since the same happens in the book "Paper Towns" by John Green, and also in many real life experiences.

I am definitely finishing the book next week, so if you want to avoid spoilers about the end of this romantic novel, I will leave the link below if any of you would like to purchase the book and experience the end of this Egyptian adventure on your own. I can't wait to know how the story of these four teenagers will end after so much drama. Probably, Salah and Rosie will get together just like Octavia and Sam. Maybe true love will be able to win after all. I have enjoyed every piece of this novel and I wish it didn't end because of all the fun that it brought me. I'll share my final thoughts and comments on the last chapters on my next post. See you soon in Scriptum Interpretations!

http://www.amazon.com/True-Sphinx-Other-Unsolvable-Riddles/dp/1599900505