It has been ten years since Rick and Evelyn O'Connell left the oasis in the desert and returned to what they hoped would be a normal or at least less mummified life in England. Returning to their home in London Evelyn decided that maybe a quiet life would help her and her men recuperate from their last adventure. She turned down the Bainbridge Scholars offer of a position at the British Museum and nestled in (with a number of good books) into being a homebody. Rick was at loss at first with what to do. He had never seen Evie like this. She was always the one wanting to go into the desert, but she was determined to have a little peace and quiet.
This lasted all of three weeks. It was almost summer vacation from school and Alex was finishing up his last weeks at school. Rick was doing some map hunting at museum for an oil company that Evie's Uncle Toby had interests in. Jonathan was out looking for an apartment in town. He was chomping at the bit to use some of the money from the sale of the diamond he had brought back. He and Izzie were going to split the proceeds as soon as the buyer and their lawyers came to a final price.
One afternoon when the house was still Evie was sitting alone in the big dark room that Rick called Evie's den. The room was comfortable with odds and ends that she had brought back with her from their many trips to Egypt. The walls were lined with hundreds of books that were a collection from three generations of her family's travels and scholarship
. As she sat in front of a small fire reading a new paper of colleague's on Seti I she began to hear a soft humming sound. She put the paper down and listened. It sounded like someone was humming the lullaby that her mother used to sing to her at bedtime. She looked up at the portrait of her parents that hung over the fireplace. It was if the picture were soft around the edges and suddenly her mother seemed to turn and look at her.
"Ah, my beautiful daughter," she said "you have been through so much these past months. I cannot tell you how proud both your father and I are of you. Of you, Rick and that son of yours. How Alex saved you and brought you back. When you crossed over to this side it opened up a small portal that I am using now to talk with you. For I must talk to you now. My child, I have come to tell you of something that is happening now on this side of life's curtain that neither your father nor I have the power to stop. You must guard that in the coming years a child will cause all that you hold dear to uproot and scatter. This child will bring a miserable soul back to the present to seek the power that it could not contain the last time it walked the earth. I cannot help you because this soul has already crossed over into a new being. We can only watch and be with you. Please, my beautiful girl, know that we are here and close and that we love you very much. Sleep now and when you wake you will remember what I said. "
Evie's eyes began to close and she dropped the papers from her hand and slept. As she dreamed her mother's voice came to her again, "I didn't want to tell you. I wanted it to surprise you, but your father has insisted. You are going to have a baby in about eight months. He wanted to tell you congratulations and to be careful. We love you."