05 - The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (4 page)

“No problem,” she replied. “Keep your light on the floor. There’s a small
chamber on the other end of this tunnel that’s kind of neat.”

We followed the tunnel as it curved to the right. It branched into two low
openings, and Sari took the one to the left.

The air grew a little warmer. It smelled stale, as if people had been smoking
cigarettes there.

This tunnel was wider than the others. Sari was walking faster now, getting
farther ahead of me. “Hey—wait up!” I cried.

I looked down to see that my sneaker had come untied again. Uttering a loud,
annoyed groan, I bent to retie it.

“Hey, Sari, wait up!”

She didn’t seem to hear me.

I could see her light in the distance, growing fainter in the tunnel.

Then it suddenly disappeared.

Had her flashlight burned out?

No. The tunnel probably curved, I decided. She’s just out of my view.

“Hey, Sari!” I called. “Wait up! Wait
up
!”

I stared ahead into the dark tunnel.

“Sari?”

Why didn’t she answer me?

“Sari!”

My voice echoed through the long, curving tunnel.

No reply.

I called again, and listened to my voice fading as the echo repeated her name
again and again.

At first I was angry.

I knew what Sari was doing.

She was deliberately not answering, deliberately trying to frighten me.

She had to prove that she was the brave one, and I was the ’fraidy cat.

I suddenly remembered another time, a few years before. Sari and Uncle Ben
had come to my house for a visit. I think Sari and I were seven or eight.

We went outside to play. It was a gray day, threatening rain. Sari had a jump
rope and was showing off, as usual, showing me how good she was at it. Then, of
course, when she let me try it, I tripped and fell, and she laughed like crazy.

I’d decided to get back at her by taking her to this deserted old house a
couple blocks up the street. The kids in the neighborhood all believed the house
was haunted. It was a neat place to sneak in and explore, although our parents
were always warning us to stay away from it because it was falling apart and
dangerous.

So I led Sari to this house and told her it was haunted. And we sneaked in
through the broken basement window.

It got even darker out, and started to rain. It was perfect. I could tell
Sari was really scared to be alone in the creepy old house. I, of course, wasn’t
scared at all because I’d been there before.

Well, we started exploring, with me leading the way. And somehow we got
separated. And it started thundering and lightning outside. There was rain
pouring in through the broken windows.

I decided maybe we should get home. So I called to Sari. No answer.

I called again. Still no answer.

Then I heard a loud crash.

Calling her name, I started running from room to room. I was scared to death.
I was sure something terrible had happened.

I ran through every room in the house, getting more and more scared. I
couldn’t find her. I shouted and shouted, but she didn’t answer me.

I was so scared, I started to cry. Then I totally panicked, and I ran out of the house and into the pouring rain.

I ran through the thunder and lightning, crying all the way home. By the time
I got home, I was soaked through and through.

I ran into the kitchen, sobbing and crying that I’d lost Sari in the haunted
house.

And there she was. Sitting at the kitchen table. Comfortable and dry. Eating
a big slice of chocolate cake. A smug smile on her face.

And now, peering into the darkness of the pyramid, I knew Sari was doing the
same thing to me.

Trying to scare me.

Trying to make me look bad.

Or
was
she?

As I made my way through the low, narrow tunnel, keeping the light aimed
straight ahead, I couldn’t help it. My anger quickly turned to worry, and
troubling questions whirred through my mind.

What if she
wasn’t
playing a mean trick on me?

What if something bad
had
happened to her?

What if she had missed a step and fallen into a hole?

Or had gotten herself trapped in a hidden tunnel? Or… I didn’t know what.

I wasn’t thinking clearly.

My sneakers thudded loudly over the sandy floor as I started to half-walk,
half-jog through the winding tunnel. “Sari?” I called, frantically now, not caring whether I
sounded frightened or not.

Where was she?

She wasn’t that far ahead of me. I should at least be able to see the light
from her flashlight, I thought.

“Sari?”

There was no place for her to hide in this narrow space. Was I following the
wrong tunnel?

No.

I had been in the same tunnel all along. The same tunnel I had watched her
disappear in.

Don’t say
disappear,
I scolded myself. Don’t even
think
the
word.

Suddenly the narrow tunnel ended. A small opening led into a small, square
room. I flashed the light quickly from side to side.

“Sari?”

No sign of her.

The walls were bare. The air was warm and stale. I moved the flashlight
rapidly across the floor, looking for Sari’s footprints. The floor was harder,
less sandy here. There were no footprints.

“Oh!”

I uttered a low cry when my light came to rest on the object against the far
wall. My heart pounding, I eagerly took a few steps closer until I was just a
few feet from it.

It was a mummy case.

A large, stone mummy case, at least eight feet long.

It was rectangular, with curved corners. The lid was carved. I stepped closer
and aimed the light.

Yes.

A human face was carved on the lid. The face of a woman. It looked like a
death mask, the kind we’d studied in school. It stared wide-eyed up at the
ceiling.

“Wow!” I cried aloud. A real mummy case.

The carved face on the lid must have been brightly painted at one time. But
the color had faded over the centuries. Now the face was gray, as pale as death.

Staring at the top of the case, smooth and perfect, I wondered if Uncle Ben
had seen it. Or if I had made a discovery of my own.

Why is it all by itself in this small room? I wondered.

And what does it hold inside?

I was working up my courage to run my hand over the smooth stone of the lid
when I heard the creaking sound.

And saw the lid start to raise up.

“Oh!” a hushed cry escaped my lips.

At first I thought I had imagined it. I didn’t move a muscle. I kept the
light trained on the lid.

The lid lifted a tiny bit more.

And I heard a hissing sound come from inside the big coffin, like air escaping a new coffee can when you first open it.

Uttering another low cry, I took a step back.

The lid raised up another inch.

I took another step back.

And dropped the flashlight.

I picked it up with a trembling hand and shined it back onto the mummy case.

The lid was now open nearly a foot.

I sucked in a deep breath of air and held it.

I wanted to run, but my fear was freezing me in place.

I wanted to scream, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to make a sound.

The lid creaked and opened another inch.

Another inch.

I lowered the flashlight to the opening, the light quivering with my hand.

From the dark depths of the ancient coffin, I saw two eyes staring out at me.

I uttered a silent gasp.

I froze.

I felt a cold chill zigzag down my back.

The lid slowly pushed open another inch.

The eyes stared out at me. Cold eyes. Evil eyes.

Ancient eyes.

My mouth dropped open. And before I even realized it, I started to scream.

Scream at the top of my lungs.

As I screamed, unable to turn away, unable to run, unable to move, the lid
slid open all the way.

Slowly, as if in a dream, a dark figure raised itself from the depths of the
mummy case and climbed out.

“Sari!”

A broad smile widened across her face. Her eyes glowed gleefully.

“Sari—that wasn’t funny!” I managed to shout in a high-pitched voice that
bounced off the stone walls.

But now she was laughing too hard to hear me.

Loud, scornful laughter.

I was so furious, I searched frantically for something to throw at her. But
there wasn’t anything, not even a pebble on the floor.

Staring at her, my chest still heaving from my fright, I really hated her
then. She had made a total fool of me. There I had been, screaming like a baby.

I knew she’d never let me live it down.

Never.

“The look on your face!” she exclaimed when she finally stopped laughing. “I
wish I had a camera.”

I was too angry to reply. I just growled at her.

I pulled the little mummy hand from my back pocket and began rolling it
around in my hand. I always fiddled with that hand when I was upset. It usually
helped to calm me.

But now I felt as if I’d
never
calm down.

“I
told
you I’d found an empty mummy case yesterday,” she said,
brushing the hair back off her face. “Didn’t you remember?”

I growled again.

I felt like a total dork.

First I’d fallen for her dad’s stupid mummy costume. And now this.

Silently to myself I vowed to pay her back. If it was the last thing I ever
did.

She was still chuckling about her big-deal joke.

“The look on your face,” she said again, shaking her head. Rubbing it in.

“You wouldn’t like it if I scared you,” I muttered angrily.

“You
couldn’t
scare me,” she replied. “I don’t scare so easy.”

“Hah!”

That was the best comeback I could think of. Not very clever, I know. But I
was too angry to be clever.

I was imagining myself picking Sari up and tossing her back into the mummy
case, pulling down the lid, and locking it—when I heard footsteps approaching
in the tunnel.

Glancing over at Sari, I saw her expression change. She heard them, too.

A few seconds later, Uncle Ben burst into the small room. I could see
immediately, even in the dim light, that he was really angry.

“I thought I could trust you two,” he said, talking through gritted teeth.

“Dad—” Sari started.

But he cut her off sharply. “I trusted you not to wander off without telling
me. Do you know how easy it is to get lost in this place? Lost forever?”

“Dad,” Sari started again. “I was just showing Gabe this room I discovered
yesterday. We were going to come right back. Really.”

“There are
hundreds
of tunnels,” Uncle Ben said heatedly, ignoring Sari’s explanation. “Maybe thousands. Many of them
have never been explored. No one has ever been in this section of the pyramid
before. We have no idea what dangers there are. You two can’t just wander off by
yourselves. Do you know how frantic I was when I turned around and you were
gone?”

“Sorry,” Sari and I both said in unison.

“Let’s go,” Uncle Ben said, gesturing to the door with his flashlight. “Your
pyramid visit is over for today.”

We followed him into the tunnel. I felt really bad. Not only had I fallen for
Sari’s stupid joke, but I’d made my favorite uncle really angry.

Sari always gets me into trouble, I thought bitterly. Since we were little
kids.

Now she was walking ahead of me, arm in arm with her dad, telling him
something, her face close to his ear. Suddenly they both burst out laughing and
turned back to look at me.

I could feel my face getting hot.

I knew what she’d told him.

She’d told him about hiding in the mummy case and making me scream like a
scared baby. And now they were both chuckling about what a jerk I was.

“Merry Christmas to you, too!” I called bitterly.

And that made them laugh even harder.

* * *

We spent the night back in the hotel in Cairo. I beat Sari in two straight
games of Scrabble, but it didn’t make me feel any better.

She kept complaining that she had only vowels, and so the games weren’t fair.
Finally, I put my Scrabble set back in my room, and we sat and stared at the TV.

The next morning, we had breakfast in the room. I ordered pancakes, but they
didn’t taste like any pancakes I’d ever eaten. They were tough and grainy, as if
they were made of cowhide or something.

“What are we doing today?” Sari asked Uncle Ben, who was still yawning and
stretching after two cups of black coffee.

“I have an appointment at the Cairo Museum,” he told us, glancing at his
wristwatch. “It’s just a couple of blocks away. I thought you two might like to
wander around the museum while I have my meeting.”

“Ooh, thrills and chills,” Sari said sarcastically. She slurped up another
spoonful of Frosted Flakes.

The little Frosted Flakes box had Arabic writing all over it, and Tony the
Tiger was saying something in Arabic. I wanted to save it and take it home to
show my friends. But I knew Sari would make fun of me if I asked her for it, so
I didn’t.

“The museum has an interesting mummy collection, Gabe,” Uncle Ben said to me. He tried to pour himself a third cup of
coffee, but the pot was empty. “You’ll like it.”

“Unless they climb out of their cases,” Sari said.

Lame. Really lame.

I stuck my tongue out at her. She tossed a wet Frosted Flake across the table
at me.

“When are my mom and dad getting back?” I asked Uncle Ben. I suddenly
realized I missed them.

He started to answer, but the phone rang. He walked into the bedroom and
picked it up. It was an old-fashioned black telephone with a dial instead of
buttons. As he talked, his face filled with concern.