A Mummy in Her Backpack / Una momia en su mochila (2 page)

“I can explain,” Rafa answered. “But, before I do, can I get out of this backpack and stretch a little?”

Flor turned and looked at Lupita. Lupita had her eyes covered.

“Okay,” Flor said. “But you better do it quickly, because someone might see you.”

Flor stared as a worn cowboy hat slowly emerged from her backpack. Under the hat came a thin head with dark yellow skin. Flor scowled. Remembering her manners, she tried to hide her fear. Finally, Rafael stood up. He wasn't very tall. He wore a torn shirt, black pants and black leather boots. Thin and stringy hair curled out from under his hat. Large brown eyes twinkled with a smile as he looked at Flor. She felt her heart pounding, but she managed to smile back at the mummy with the weird face and cowboy hat. Rafa turned his head to look at Lupita, who hid behind Flor.

“
Gracias
,” he said. “It feels good to stand up. I've been in that backpack for three days.”

“Ew!” Lupita said again. “Flor, you've been carrying a mummy in your backpack?”

“No,” Flor protested, then she turned to Rafa with a worried look, “Have I?”

Rafa nodded.

Flor asked, “How did you get in?”

“Well,” Rafa began. “It's like this.” The mummy folded his arms, put his head down and curled up into the backpack. “See?” he called from inside. “I fit perfectly. There's a lot of room in here.”

“That's not what I meant,” Flor said.

Rafa stood up again, “What did you . . . ?”

Suddenly, a boy ran out of a classroom. Lupita grabbed Flor's arm and said, “Flor, we better get back to class before someone sees us!”

“Oh, yeah,” Flor said. “Rafa, what are we going to do with you?”

“Basically, I can stay in your backpack. I won't cause any trouble. I promise,” Rafa reassured her.

“I don't know,” Flor said.

Lupita interrupted, “Yeah, Rafa. Get back. We have to get to class before Miss King sends someone out to get us.”

Rafa was folding himself back in Flor's backpack when she remembered her homework.

“Hey, Rafa, I need my homework!”

“
¡Ay, sí!
” Rafa said.

The girls heard the rustling of papers, and finally, they saw Rafa's dried hand holding out some wrinkled pages.

“Rafa, you messed up my homework!” Flor scolded.

“Phew! It smells funny, too!” Lupita said.

“Sorry, sweetie,” Rafa apologized, “but I probably sat on it. Besides, I checked the math, and it looks right. That's if you still multiply the way we did a hundred and twenty years ago.”

Flor zipped up her backpack, and the girls returned to class. Flor handed Miss King the papers shyly. The teacher looked at them and said, “Flor, what happened?”

“It's a long story, Miss King,” Flor answered. “And I don't know the ending,” she added, returning to her seat.

Before the teacher could say anything, Lorenzo yelled, “Ouch! Miss King, Sandra stabbed me with her pencil!” Miss King took Flor's paper and went across the room to handle the problem.

As Flor returned to her seat, she looked at each kid, hoping they wouldn't notice how her backpack hung very low on her seat.

When recess finally came, Flor and Lupita asked if they could stay inside the classroom. Miss King explained that she had yard duty, but added that if they behaved, they could stay in the room by themselves. Sandra asked to stay too.

“Last time I let you stay in, my desk was a mess,” the teacher said.

“That wasn't me!” Sandra protested.

“Just come outside with everyone else, please,” said Miss King. The rest of the class left the room quickly and as soon as the last kid walked out, Flor called, “Rafa! You can get out and stretch until the bell rings.”

“
Gracias
,” Rafa whispered back. This time he jumped out of the backpack. When he was out he looked around the room with wide, dry eyes. “
¡Caray!
” he yelled. “This is some place! It has more things than the museum.”

“Not so loud!” Flor scolded. “Someone's going to hear you. Besides, you never finished telling us why you hid in my backpack.”

“Well, basically,” Rafa said, “ever since I was a kid, I wanted to see
los Estados Unidos
. But I never got a chance. I've been in the museum for almost thirty years. From my glass case, I'd see people coming from Texas, Florida, New York and California. I learned English from listening to people talk. Hearing everybody made me want to come here even more than when I was alive. I almost got out a couple of times. I'd see people with big bags, and ladies with huge purses. They'd leave them in the museum, and I knew that I could fit in them. But a new group would walk through, or someone would come back for the bag, and I was stuck. I waited a long time. I knew that if I was patient, I'd get my chance. That's why when I saw you walking so slowly, hiding behind your mamá's legs with that big empty backpack, I knew that was my chance. It was perfect. You put your backpack down to pick up your brother and when you walked out of the room, I climbed in. Thank goodness you walk so slowly.”

Flor pouted and shook her head. Lupita giggled.

“So you live in the museum?” Flor asked.

“Well, basically, I don't really live there. They keep me in the room with the baby mummy and the shy mummy.” Rafa stood a little taller and said proudly, “I'm the oldest mummy there.”

“When were you born?” Flor asked.

“The fourth of October in 1884.” Rafa felt the carpet and stared at the lights. “
¡Vaya!
I always wondered what I'd see when I got here, but I never dreamed it would be like this!” Rafa moved slowly around the class, waddling in a funny way, as if he had just gotten off a horse. While he walked, he stared at the walls, the desks and the computers.

“I can't believe it!” he said. “In all my time in the museum, I've always wondered how you keep the lights burning. I don't see the flame.”

Flor didn't understand for a second. Suddenly, she ran to the light switch. “Look,” she told Rafa. Flor flicked the lights off and on. “It's electricity, not fire light.”

“
¡Caramba!
” Rafa yelled.

“Quiet!” Lupita said. She was looking out the window and she saw that Sandra was running to Miss King. Lupita saw her talking excitedly and pointing to the classroom.

“Flor!” Lupita yelled. “I think Sandra saw Rafa!”

“Oh, no!” Flor said. “What are we going to do?”

“Maybe I can hide somewhere else,” Rafa said. “I was in that glass case in the museum for so long that I can stay still anywhere.”

“Yeah, but we can't show you off,” Flor said. “We have to hide you.”

“Maybe in the cabinet,” Lupita said.

“No. Miss King gets stuff out during math,” Flor told her.

“How about in the cafeteria?” Lupita asked.

“Where in the cafeteria?” Flor answered. “Every kid in school walks through there. Besides, we can't just walk through the school without an adult asking us where we are going. Where can we go where no one else can go?”

Lupita said, “I don't know, but hurry! I have to go to the restroom.”

Flor smiled. “Lupita! You're so smart! Let's go!”

Lupita frowned at Flor and then smiled. “Hey! I am smart,” she said. “But wait! Rafa can't go in until I come out.”

“I know that,” Flor told her.

Just then Sandra opened the door. Miss King had given her the keys.

“Flor! Lupita!” she yelled. “Miss King wants you! I told her that you were talking to someone.”

Flor didn't answer.

“You're going to get it, Sandra!” Lupita said.

“Don't worry about her,” Flor said. She picked up her backpack and walked to the door.

The two girls walked out slowly. Flor glared at Sandra as she passed her. Lupita shoved Sandra against the door with her elbow.

“Ow!” Sandra said.

“Oh! Excuse me. Are you hurt?” Lupita pretended to apologize.

Sandra answered, “No.”

“Too bad. I'll try harder next time!” Lupita said, looking back at Sandra. Sandra reached for one of Lupita's braids to pull, but wasn't fast enough.

When the girls walked up to Miss King, she shook her head at them. “Girls, Sandra said there was someone else in the room. If I can't trust you, I won't allow you to stay in the classroom by yourselves anymore.”

Lupita answered, “Sandra's lying! She just wants to get us in trouble because she's jealous.”

Flor spoke more calmly. “Look in the room, Miss King. There's no one there.”

Miss King walked to the classroom with Flor, Lupita and Sandra behind her. She looked through the window and said, “I don't see anyone, Sandra. Who did you see?”

“Some little kid dressed like a cowboy,” explained Sandra.

Miss King laughed. “A cowboy? There's no student in this whole school dressed like a cowboy!”

Lupita exclaimed, “See! I told you that she lies!”

“I do not!” Sandra protested.

“Girls! Girls!” Miss King interrupted. She turned to Sandra. “There's no problem here, Sandra. Please don't make up stories anymore.”

Flor nudged Lupita softly and asked her teacher, “Miss King, can we go to the bathroom?”

“Sure,” she answered.

The girls ran to the restroom. Inside, a pack of sixth-grade girls were talking and laughing. Flor sighed. “We can't let Rafa out while they're in there.”

Flor and Lupita waited by the restroom door. When two boys ran by yelling and playing tag, Lupita got an idea. She ran into the restroom and announced, “Joey and Robert said they're going to beat up Sammy on the soccer field!”

Everyone knew Joey, Robert and Sammy, and the trouble they caused, so the sixth graders ran out to see the fight. Lupita entered the bathroom, disappearing from Flor's view for a while. Flor heard a flush, and then Lupita returned and gave her a “thumbs up.”

“Those girls will be mad when they realize that you lied,” Flor said.

Lupita shrugged, “I didn't say they were fighting. I said that they said they were going to fight. Too bad if they believe everything.”

It was Flor's turn to shrug. The girls went into a stall and closed the door. Flor opened her backpack and let Rafa out. “You wait here until after school. We'll come and get you then,” she told him
.

“
¡Vaya!
” Rafa said staring down. “Look at the well! Can I have a drink?”

“No!” Flor yelled, grabbing his bony arm. “It's not a well. It's a toilet.”

“A toilet? Toy let,” he repeated. “What toys do you put in it?”

Lupita laughed. “Explain it to him, Flor.”

Flor glared at her friend, and then turned to Rafa. “Come here,” she said, walking him across the restroom. “This is a sink. This is where water comes out.” She turned on the faucet.

“
¡Caray!
” Rafa said, shaking his head. “This is great. But what's that other thing for if you don't drink from it?”

Flor began, “It's for . . . for . . . It's for . . . ”

Rafa stared at Flor waiting for an answer. His yellow eyes and dried skin made her nervous, so she looked down. Then she smiled, “It's an outhouse inside!”

“Oh!” Rafa said. “How fancy! So, basically, I sit here until you get back.” Then he rubbed his chin. “But what do I do if somebody comes in?”

Flor looked at Lupita who shrugged her shoulders. Flor looked around the restroom and had an idea.

“Here,” she told Lupita. “Get all these paper towels and put them in the toilet.”

“Ewww! No!” Lupita said.

“Just do it,” Flor ordered. “Just drop them in the water. Remember when Hugo and Marco got sent to the office last year?”

Lupita smiled, “Oh, yeah!” She took the brown paper towels and carefully dropped them in the toilet. Flor worked faster, grabbing paper towels, rolling them into balls and dropping them into the toilet. As they worked, the bell rang for the end of recess. “Hurry, Flor!” Lupita said. “We're going to get in trouble. Besides, how are we going to . . . ?”