Molly sighed as she looked through the glass door leading into the class-room. Professor Tom Clarke, who was in charge of the anatomy-classes had asked her to fill in for him while he was busy at a conference and here she was. This was a really bad idea. She was nervous with people at the best of days and now she was about to face a room full of students who were used to Tom's brilliant lectures.
Well, what had she read in that book a few days ago? 'If you are about to bed an ugly maid waiting won't make her any prettier!' Yes that was about it, and she could see the truth in that line. So she opened the door and set up her laptop with the presentation.
Today's topic was ancient grave sites, so she started showing the students some pictures of excavations, explaining how methods applied there differed from the procedures on a modern crime scene. It was a subject Molly had always been interested in, but all the faces looking at her made her want to vanish on the spot. She felt her hands getting sweaty and she noticed that more and more students lost interest in what she was saying, or rather trying to say.
Roughly an hour later, Molly was about finished with the overview on palaeopathology and wanted to show one of the Egyptian mummies found at one of the minor pyramids for an example. When she looked up from her notes, she noticed that most of the students were at the verge of falling asleep or chatting idly with their neighbours. This was even worse than she had feared, and it made her nervous. She gulped and tried to make her way through the introduction on the case of the priest Tjati's mummy, now she was stammering slightly.
Just as she was about to consider bursting into tears, she noticed a model of the human skeleton in the corner and pulled it over.
"Well imagine this is Tjati. They bound his hands," she began and pulled the skeleton's hands behind the back holding them in place.
"And then they probably hung him from the rope around his wrist..." and with that she yanked the hands abprubtly upwards.
"That would explain the marks on the bones. He was a priest when the rebellion took place so it is probable that he was interrogated. Seeing has he was presented with a well furnished grave when the Pharaoh won, he didn't talk."
After she had ended, Molly turned back towards her students and was greeted by stunned silence. They could not have stared at her with more astonishment if she had grown a second head. Well apparently everyone was awake now! Just as she was about to let go of the bone-man she noticed John and Sherlock standing in the door, the latter clearing his throat.
"Very instructive, you know next time, you should demonstrate this on a living subject, Molly!"
Turning beet red, Molly let go of the plastic bones as if she had been burned and turned back to the still staring students. "Y-you can go now... but uhm read the chapter about mummies..."