Mummies in the Morning (2 page)

Jack and Annie looked out the window.

The tree house was perched on the top of a palm tree. The tree stood with other palm trees. A patch of green surrounded by a sandy desert.

“
Meow
!”

Jack and Annie looked down.

The black cat was sitting at the base of the tree. His yellow eyes were staring up at Jack and Annie.

“Hi!” Annie shouted.

“Shhh,” said Jack. “Someone might hear you.”

“In the middle of the desert?” said Annie.

The black cat stood and began walking around the tree.

“Come back!” Annie called. She leaned out the window to see where the cat was going.

“Oh, wow!” she said. “Look, Jack.”

Jack leaned forward and looked down.

The cat was running away from the palm trees. Toward a giant pyramid in the desert.

A parade was going toward the pyramid. The same parade as in the Egypt book.

“It’s the picture from the book!” said Jack.

“What are those people doing?” asked Annie.

Jack looked down at the Egypt book. He read the words under the picture:

When a royal person died, a grand funeral procession took place. Family, servants, and mourners followed the coffin. The coffin was called a sarcophagus. It was pulled on a sled by four oxen.

“It’s an Egyptian funeral,” said Jack. “The box is called a sar … sar … sar … oh, forget it.”

He looked out the window again.

Oxen, sled, Egyptians, black cat. All were moving in a slow, dreamy way.

“I’d better make some notes about this,” said Jack.

He reached into his backpack and pulled out his notebook. Jack always kept notes.

“Wait,” said Jack. And he wrote:

“We’d better hurry,” said Annie, “if we want to see the mummy.”

She started down the rope ladder.

Jack looked up from his notebook.

“Mummy?” he said.

“There’s probably a mummy in that gold box,” Annie called up. “We’re in ancient Egypt. Remember?”

Jack loved mummies. He put down his pencil.

“Good-bye, Jack!” called Annie.

“Wait!” Jack called.

“Mummies!” Annie shouted.

“Oh, man,” said Jack weakly. “Mummies!” She sure knew how to get to him.

Jack shoved his notebook and the Egypt book into his pack. Then he started down the ladder.

When he got to the ground, he and Annie took off across the sand.

But as they ran a strange thing happened.

The closer they got to the parade, the harder it was to see it.

Then suddenly it was gone. The strange parade had disappeared. Vanished.

But the great stone pyramid was still there. Towering above them.

Panting, Jack looked around.

What had happened? Where were the people? The oxen? The gold box? The cat?

“They’re gone,” said Annie.

“Where did they go?” said Jack.

“Maybe they were ghosts,” said Annie.

“Don’t be silly. There’s no such thing as ghosts,” said Jack. “It must have been a mirage.”

“A what?”

“Mirage. It happens in the desert all the time,” said Jack. “It looks like something’s there. But it just turns out to be the sunlight reflecting through heat.”

“How could sunlight look like people, a mummy box, and a bunch of cows?” said Annie.

Jack frowned.

“Ghosts,” she said.

“No way,” said Jack.

“Look!” Annie pointed at the pyramid. Near the base was the sleek black cat.

He was standing alone. He was staring at Jack and Annie.

“
He
’s no mirage,” said Annie.

The cat started to slink away. He walked along the base of the pyramid and slid around a corner.

“Where’s he going?” said Jack.

“Let’s find out,” said Annie.

They dashed around the corner—just in time to see the cat disappear through a hole in the pyramid.

“Where did he go?” said Jack.

He and Annie peeked through the hole.

They saw a long hallway. Burning torches lit the walls. Dark shadows loomed.

“Let’s go in,” said Annie.

“Wait,” said Jack.

He pulled out the Egypt book and turned to the section on pyramids.

He read the caption aloud:

Pyramids were sometimes called Houses of the Dead. They were nearly all solid stone, except for the burial chambers deep inside.

“Wow. Let’s go there. To the burial chambers,” said Annie. “I bet a mummy’s there.”

Jack took a deep breath.

Then he stepped out of the hot, bright sunlight into the cool, dark pyramid.

The hallway was silent.

Floor, ceiling, walls—everything was stone.

The floor slanted up from where they stood.

“We have to go farther inside,” said Annie.

“Right,” said Jack. “But stay close behind me. Don’t talk. Don’t—”

“Go! Just go!” said Annie. She gave him a little push.

Jack started up the slanting floor of the hallway.

Where was the cat?

The hallway went on and on.

“Wait,” said Jack. “I want to look at the book.”

He opened the Egypt book again. He held it below a torch on the wall. The book showed a picture of the inside of the pyramid.

“The burial chamber is in the middle of the pyramid. See?” Jack said. He pointed to the picture. “It seems to be straight ahead.”

Jack tucked the book under his arm. Then they headed deeper into the pyramid.

Soon the floor became flat. The air felt different. Musty and stale.

Jack opened the book again. “I think we’re almost at the burial chamber. See the picture? The hallway slants up. Then it gets flat. Then you come to the chamber. See, look—”

“
Eee-eee
!” A strange cry shot through the pyramid.

Jack dropped the Egypt book.

Out of the shadows flew a white figure.

It swooshed toward them!

A mummy!

“It’s alive!” Annie shouted.

Jack pulled Annie down.

The white figure moved swiftly past them. Then disappeared into the shadows.

“A mummy,” said Annie. “Back from the dead!”

“F-forget it,” stammered Jack. “Mummies aren’t alive.” He picked up the Egypt book.

“What’s this?” said Annie. She lifted something from the floor. “Look. The mummy dropped this thing.”

It was a gold stick. About a foot long. A dog’s head was carved on one end.

“It looks like a scepter,” said Jack.

“What’s that?” asked Annie.

“It’s a thing kings and queens carry,” said Jack. “It means they have power over the people.”

“Come back, mummy!” Annie called. “We found your scepter. Come back! We want to help you!”

“Shush!” said Jack. “Are you nuts?”

“But the mummy—”

“That was no mummy,” said Jack. “It was a person. A real person.”

“What kind of person would be inside a pyramid?” asked Annie.

“I don’t know,” said Jack. “Maybe the book can help us.”

He flipped through the book. At last he found a picture of a person in a pyramid. He read:

Tomb robbers often carried off the treasure buried with mummies. False passages were sometimes built to stop the robbers.

Jack closed the book.

“No live mummy,” he said. “Just a tomb robber.”

“Yikes. A tomb robber?” said Annie.

“Yeah, a robber who steals stuff from tombs.”

“But what if the robber comes back,” said Annie. “We’d better leave.”

“Right,” said Jack. “But first I want to write something down.”

He put the Egypt book into his pack. He pulled out his notebook and pencil.

He started writing in his notebook:

“Jack—” said Annie.

“Just a second,” said Jack. He kept writing:

“Jack! Look!” said Annie.

Jack felt a whoosh of cold air. He looked up. A wave of terror went through him.

Another figure was moving slowly toward them.

It wasn’t a tomb robber.

No. It was a lady. A beautiful Egyptian lady.

She wore flowers in her black hair. Her long white dress had many tiny pleats. Her gold jewelry glittered.

“Here, Jack,” Annie whispered. “Give her this.” She handed him the gold scepter.

The lady stopped in front of them.

Jack held out the scepter. His hand was trembling.

He gasped. The scepter passed right through the lady’s hand.

She was made of air
.