"I'm good at public speaking and I know lots and lots of history and I'm good with books and people, and…" Serena faltered when she saw that the curator, Dr. Bey, did not look amused. "Please," she pleaded. "I just really need this job. I can't find one anywhere else. No one will hire me."
The aged man looked her up and down and pulled his mouth into a tight line. "Well, I suppose there's a chance you can—"
He was cut off as a huge and long crash came from the library part of the museum. The curator ran off into the room and gasped. Serena followed and saw that nearly every shelf in the library had tipped over and books and papers covered the entire floor. There was a woman standing in the middle of it all, looking like she wanted the earth to swallow her up.
"What?" Dr. Bey sputtered. "How c—? I… How…? Sons of the pharaohs!" He surveyed the massive amount of damage and walked up to the woman. "Give me frogs, flies, locusts, anything but you! Compared to you, the other plagues were a joy!"
Serena stood behind them, awkwardly watching the heated discussion.
"I am so very sorry. It was an accident!" the woman said quietly with a thick English accent.
"My dear, when Ramses destroyed Syria, that was an accident. You are a catastrophe!" Dr. Bey certainly wasn't going easy on her. From the way this conversation was going, Serena assumed that problems like this happened a lot. "Look at my library!" he moaned. "Why do I put up with you?"
Serena was pretty sure the curator wasn't looking for an answer, but the woman decided to give him one anyway. "Well, you put up with me because I can read and write ancient Egyptian and I can decipher hieroglyphics and Hieratic and well, Iam the only person within a 1000 miles who can properly code and catalogue this library, that's why!" she finished angrily.
"I put up with you because your mother and father were our finest patrons! That's why!"
Oh, that one had to hurt! The woman immediately silenced.
"Allah rest their souls," he added in a softer tone. "You!" he then yelled to Serena. "You said you wanted a job? You got one! Help Ms. Carnahan fix her mess!" Serena walked over to the poor woman. "I don't care what you do, I don't care how long it takes, straighten up this meshiver!"
He turned furiously and stormed out of the library. The woman let out a big, long sigh. "I'm terribly sorry you had to see that," the woman apologized. "My name is Evelyn Carnahan, but mostly everyone calls me Evy."
"I'm Serena Gardner. And no worries. To be honest, I think I just got a job here because of this."
Evy gave a small smile. Suddenly, there was a small clatter coming from the back room.
"What was that?" she asked.
The two girls slowly crept to the back room, determining not to show fear. Evy took hold of a torch hanging from the wall. "Hello?" she called out. "Abdul? Mohammad? Bob?"
Serena assumed those were the names of other people who worked in the museum. The girls went over to a coffin a thud had come from when suddenly, the decomposed mummy inside sprang up. The girls screamed and clutched onto each other when the sound of laughing could be heard. A man sat up from inside the coffin.
"Have you no respect for the dead?" Evy scolded.
"Of course, I do, but sometimes, I'd rather like to join them!" the man slurred. It was obvious to Serena that he was a tad on the tipsy side.
"Well I wish you'd do it sooner rather than later before you ruin my career the way you've ruined yours! Now get out!" she said as she helped him out of the coffin.
"My dear sweet baby sister!" the man laughed as he clumsily climbed out of the coffin. "I'll have you know that at this precise moment, my career is on a high note!"
"High note, HAH!" Evy replied. "Oh, Jonathon, please. I'm really not in the mood for you. I've just made a bit of a mess in the library and the Bembridge scholars have rejected my application form again. They say I don't have enough experience in the field."
Serena knew that Bembridge was a tough school and she didn't know Evy well enough to know if the scholars' decision was a good one or not.
"You'll always have me, old mum," Jonathon said as he pressed his forehead against hers. Even though it seemed that Jonathon was a hard brother to handle, Serena had to give it to him that they really cared about each other.
"Oh, Jonathon," Evy said. "This is Serena Gardner. She just got a job here a few minutes ago."
"Nice to meet you, love," Jonathon said, taking her hand.
"The pleasure's all mine."
"I've got just the thing to cheer you up, Evy!" He began to rummage through the coffin, looking for whatever it was he needed.
"Oh, no, Jonathon!" Evy exclaimed. "Not another worthless trinket! If I have to take one more piece of junk to the curator to try and—" Evy immediately stopped talking as Jonathon held a little box in front of her face. "…sell for you. Where did you get this?"
"On a dig down in Thebes," he answered. "My whole life I've never found anything. Evy, please tell me I've found something."
Evy pushed a button on the small box and it popped open to form a star-like shape. There was a tiny piece of paper hidden within it. "Jonathon," she gasped as Serena tenderly took the paper from the box. "I think you've found something."
Evy took the box from her and carefully opened it. "Oh, my gosh. It's—It's a map." She looked at it more closely. "Is that…? It can't be…"
"What is it?" Serena asked.
"I need to take this to the Dr. Bey!" She hopped up and walked briskly to the curator's office, not bothering to knock on the door. "Sir! You need to see what we've found!" She placed the map on his desk and began explaining. "You see that cartouche there? It's the official royal seal of Seti the first, I'm sure of it!"
"Perhaps," he said skeptically.
"Okay, two questions," Jonathon said. "Who was Seti I and was he rich?"
"He was the second pharaoh in the 19th dynasty, said to be the wealthiest pharaoh of them all," Serena told him.
"Good, that's good! I like this fellow! I like him very much!"
Serena rolled her eyes. She hadn't known Jonathon for very long, but she could already tell he loved two things more than anything else: drinks and money, and lots of it.
"I've already dated the map," Evy continued. "It's almost 3000 years old and if you look at the Hieratic just there, well, it's Hamunaptra."
Serena froze. That was impossible! Hamunaptra was just a myth. Wasn't it? Even so, it would be so wonderful to actually find that city!
"Don't be ridiculous," Dr. Bey scolded. "We're scholars, not treasure hunters! Hamunaptra is a myth, told by ancient Arab storytellers to amuse Greek and Roman tourists!"
"Yes, I know all the silly blather about the city being protected by the curse of a mummy nonsense, but my research has led me to believe that city itself may have actually existed."
"You can't be serious," Serena remarked.
"Are we talking about THE Hamunaptra?" Jonathon asked.
"Yes," Evy said with a glimmer in her eye. "The city of the dead where the earliest pharaohs were said to have hidden the wealth of Egypt."
"Yes, in a big underground treasure chamber, everyone knows the story!"
"Sorry, I'm afraid I don't know that story. I'm new in town," Serena said.
"I thought you said you knew lots of history," Dr. Bey said, eyeing her.
"Forgive me, sir, but I learned about facts in history, not myths." She threw Evy a small wink when he wasn't looking.
"The entire necropolis was rigged to sink into the sand at Pharaoh's command at the flick of a switch and the whole place would disappear beneath the sand dunes, taking the treasure with it," Jonathon explained.
"Wow. And let me guess. You want to get your hands on that treasure more than anything."
Evy gave a small smile as Jonathon looked at her with fake offense in his eyes.
"As the Americans would say, it's all fairytales and hokum. Oh my goodness! Look at that!"
Serena looked at the piece of paper that was going up in flames and dissolving more by the second! The three went about using their hands to try and put out the fire before the paper was completely gone and unreadable. Once the fire was out, they surveyed the damage.
"You've burnt it! You've burnt off the part of the lost city!" Jonathon said in dejection.
"It's for the best, I'm sure," Dr. Bey said without sympathy.
"You did that on purpose," Serena spat.
He looked at her. "Many men have wasted their lives in the foolish pursuit of Hamunaptra. No one has ever found it. Most have never returned."
"I'm sorry," Evy said. "Did you say most?"
"Yes, and that is all I'm going to say. Now you three need to drop this treasure search and face the world of today. And today, I'm telling you to fix up the mess in the library!"
"Where is this man?" Serena asked.
"In prison. So don't think you're going to get him to help you."