"The Shadow Around His Heart"
By: Arnold's Love
CHAPTER TWO:
In my hand I hold a piece of linen-ancient and dry, about to crumble into dust-a piece of linen that was most likely wrapped around the mummy of the royal wife whose profile lines the walls of this tomb. Strewn about the sandstone floor are many more bits of linen. I let out an elated exclamation of glee as I also spot bones spread about and mixed in with the linen pieces. A tingling fire of excitement races through my, starting where my fingers hold the linen, then up through my arm. I can hardly believe what I've found!
A dream of mine for as long as I can remember-not only to discover a tomb but to discover even pieces of a mummy is amazing! I can't control the broad smile that spreads across my face. This second wife to pharaoh may not be fully intact, her tomb and belongings scavenged at some point in the past, but here, scattered about this ancient tomb are the remains of her ancient mummy! A mummy in a catacomb of tombs that I discovered only by following unlikely clues that I found while finishing my degree and my specialties-Egyptology and ancient language translation. Amazing clues that no one else seemed to believe were connected, but I do, and here it is paying off.
Jumping up carefully I shine the light into the furthest corner of the room, displaying the remains of a red quartzite sarcophagus-covered in hieroglyphics and images. Tip-toeing around the mummy's ruins spread on the floor, I timidly step closer to the coffin. I'm trying to control the anticipatory adrenaline of excitement that is racing through my body again. It's a sarcophagus...that could be empty...the mummy already ripped to shreds by grave robbers, the treasures stolen long ago...or there could still be a few treasures left or even more of the mummy inside. It's all I can do to remain calm and not get my hopes up.
The lid has been moved aside so that it's almost completely pushed off-it's cracked and about a quarter of the lid has completely broken off and is in crumbled pieces on the ground. The part of the lid still intact has pictures and hieroglyphs etched into it. I immediately recognize the Wadjet, also known as The Eye of Horus. A common symbol in Ancient Egypt and regularly found on sarcophaguses as it was intended to protect the pharaoh or person in the afterlife.
Swallowing my nervous hopes, I close my eyes for a moment...afraid I'll be disappointed if I expect too much-if I expect the unlikely possibility that there's anything left in there. Taking a deep breath and holding the lantern up above my head I peer inside. Gasping in surprise, I spot more remains of the mummy, as well as some trinkets that the grave robbers left behind in their hurry to leave. But the surprising thing is that the mummy is actually in there-mostly whole. She's obviously badly damaged from the grave robbers-both arms are missing, having been ripped off by grave robbers (likely the bones and linen strewn about the room), many of her wrappings long gone, and her chest and part of her mouth smashed in-also by grave robbers, searching for whatever treasures may lie beneath her wrappings.
I think I may have let out a girlish squeal when I saw the mummy because Lindsey peers into the tomb now calling, "did you find something? Can we come in? Do you need us to get anything? What's going on? We're absolutely dying out here, Arnold!" her voice is rising with each question, the aching anticipation evident in her voice.
Finally finding words through my thrilled shock, I call back, my voice over-flowing with ecstasy, "yes! Bring the lights, and the camera and the brushes! But tread carefully; we've got ourselves the remains of a mummy!"
"Did you ever think you'd discover an actual mummy, Arnold?" Antoinette asks, taking a picture of each bone, writing down it's position on the tomb floor, and then carefully putting them in a bucket to carry up to Soren, our osteologist and chemist. His job is to label and record each bone and take a sample for carbon dating purposes.
"Not really," I say with a dismissive shrug from my place by the sarcophagus. "I mean sometimes it seems like all the mummies that are out there have already been found or destroyed." I pause for a moment. "It's kind of like one of those dreams you don't allow yourself to believe could come true because you don't want to get your hopes up too high, to only be hugely disappointed," I add thoughtfully, remembering. I had done that about my parents and their disappearance for years…always holding on the this ember of hope that they would return one day. They never had and when reality finally made it's way into my heart I was more devastated then ever. "You know what I mean?" I ask her, looking back down at the writing on the sarcophagus' lid, trying to refocus on the task at hand.
"Yes, definitely," she replies nodding attentively. "Like you hope something will happen-like discovering a mummy-but you're so afraid of how disappointed you'll be if it never actually happens that you...you try to make yourself expect the worse case scenario and focus on that instead," she says in agreement. "Kind of like a self-preservation technique against disappointment. I get that," she replies, adding another bone to the bucket. "But now that it's actually happened aren't you just dying from excitement?"
I look back over at her thoughtfully. "You know, it's weird. I'm kind of in this sort of stunned haze, honestly," I smile at her. "Like maybe the reality of it all hasn't sunk in yet or something." Turning back to the mummy I add, "it's absolutely astounding though isn't it?"
"It's more then astounding!" she shoots back. "I certainly never expected this when I came to work for you," she grins teasingly. "I mean, don't get me wrong. I knew you were really intelligent and I always figured you'd do amazing things, but everyone said you were crazy, you know," she declares, frankly. "You were like this absent-minded-or probably just distracted-football-headed student at the university," she chuckled, amused. "All those years of our schooling you were always the same. So engrossed in your work; never dating, never going to parties, never just hanging out with friends. Instead you could always be found studying at the library and working some new paper or theory. Always talking obsessively about ancient languages and archeology. What a weirdo," she adds with a teasing wink.
"Was I really that bad?" I laugh, feeling slightly embarrassed by my apparently extremely anti-social behavior in college. "I went to a party…once."
She shook her head in amusement. "You went to one party, Arnold. I don't think that counts," she giggles in amusement.
"Maybe more then one. I don't remember. I wasn't that lame though." I frown though, trying to remember anything about my college days that didn't involve my research. "Was I?"
"Eh…I don't know. I wasn't much better," she shrugs. "Of course, everyone always did refer to you as that 'hieroglyphics weirdo.' And everyone knew immediately who they were talking about. I mean," she quickly continues, "everyone knew you were a genius, no one ever doubted that-especially after your thesis was published. But I don't think anyone believed you'd prove any of your crazy theories."
"Oh, you guys of little faith," I taunt with a smirk.
She chuckles at that. "Well, I always wanted to believe in your theory-in your work-in you. I'd worked with you in enough classes to know you were a force to be reckoned with in the archeology field and I wanted to be there firsthand to see it and maybe even be a part of it all"
I chuckle. If only everyone knew my more insane suspicion. Something so fanatical and extreme I have never actually said it out loud to anyone. Sometimes you have to know when to keep things to yourself and when to share. It's why my published thesis was only half of what I had discovered during all my research, not all of it. I had written it all out, but never published it all. I wanted more evidence first. More evidence before I publish that second part of my theories-if I find more clues that will hopefully shred more light onto my fantastical theory. I may find it in this tomb or it may take me the next 30 years to find clues, but I have very little doubt I will discover something someday that proves me right.
"Well, I'm glad you did," I tell Antoinette, focusing back on our conversation, "because you've made such a difference for this expedition and I really appreciate it. I'm glad you saw more then a hieroglyphics nerd in me," I laugh, winking at her.
"Yah, well, it's the least I could do," she jokes back. "I'll be honest though, I'm glad you weren't an insane, poor young man stuck in the desert following a mirage and instead you were totally legit. I'm not sure I could have handled being called crazy as gracefully as you have." Putting a few more bones in the bucket she turns to face me again. "I was literally and completely going on nothing but my faith in you when I wrote you wanting to join your expedition. It's amazing how far from the truth rumors can get."
"Yah, well, it didn't bother me back then, I was so focued. And as for the 'poor' part, I never wanted to correct that and announce that I had money. I didn't want the attention I knew that would bring or to have people constantly asking me to donate to this or that cause. I knew what I needed it for," I stated, thinking of how I was able to fund my own expedition because of it. "If it wasn't for the fact that it funds this expedition, I wouldn't enjoy having so much money. I kind of feel like I don't deserve it."
She shoots me a look of disbelief. "If anyone deserves it, it's you, Arnold. Was it an inheritance or something?"
"Yes, my grandpa's sister, my Great Aunt Mitzi, left it for me before she died," I say, a hint of sadness sneaking out into my tone.
"That's nice of her. You must have been really close to her."
"I met her when I was nine, but she lived far away and her and my grandpa never got along extremely well. But she wrote me letters regularly, sent me a birthday gift every year, and visited occasionally. Her visits usually consisted of her and my grandpa arguing and bantering," I laughed at the memories. "When my grandparents started to get really old she started contacting me more and I went to visit her a few times, but that was the most we ever got together."
"I'm sorry about your loss, Arnold," Antoinette says quietly, noticing my sad tone of voice.
I can't help the tone when I talk about her or my grandparents. I'm the last Shortman left and it's caused a pretty sad, long enduring heartache in me. I was there with her...sat there with her during her last moments. I'm glad I was there, even though it was excruciatingly hard to say goodbye to her. But it would have been much worse if I hadn't been able to be with her then.
I felt the tears on my cheeks as I knelt by the bed of last of my Shortman relatives, Great Aunt Mitzi, who would soon pass away. I could hardly look at her-wanting to avoid that, that truth and the bitter loneliness that was already taking hold of my heart. I'd already done this twice with my grandparents and it only got harder each time. I had friends and the boarders still, but there's something different about having blood-relatives and Aunt Mitzi was my last.
"Arnold...listen," she whispered in her aged and weakened voice. Lately the sound of her failing voice scared and confused me. My Great Aunt Mitzi's voice was never weak, it was always strong with a commanding authority and grace I'd never seen, but in her-nothing like this weak, raspy voice that escaped her lips now.
"Yes, Aunt Mitzi?" I finally choked out, my heart aching and my eyes burning from the tears I was trying so desperately hard to hold back. I've never succeeded much in holding back my tears. Grandma used to say it was alright to cry, that the strongest of men weren't afraid to feel and express their feelings; but society didn't agree with her. So I'd always tried to hold them back, just never succeeded well. And I tried at that moment, even though I knew I'd lose the battle-that I'd already lost it.
Aunt Mitzi's withered hand reached out and gently took hold of mine. I didn't want to look up-still didn't want to face the truth-even more so the closer it got. I knew it would only make it harder. But finally I made myself look up and met her faded green eyes with my own.
"Arnold," she began softly and slowly, "I want you to know, I'm leaving you everything I have. Everything." I started shaking my head immediately, but she looked at me with meaning before continuing. "My house, my furniture, all my money. It's all for you," she stated. Smiling softly at me, she added, "I want you to pursue your dreams, Arnold."
"Oh, Aunt Mitzi, I can't accept that." I was shaking my head again. "I can't."
She put a finger to my lips to hush me. "Not another word," she demanded, her voice weak, but the commanding authority there again, if even for a moment. "Listen. It's what I want, Arnold. I'm the old lady in the bed and I want you to take it all. You WILL take it. Sell the house, the furniture, whatever you want. Take the money and finish your Archeology degree, and then use the rest to follow your heart and pursue your dreams, Arnold. I couldn't be prouder of who you are. And I'm so glad I've had the chance to get to know you and grow closer to you over the years," she finished in almost a whisper as she closed her eyes for a moment.
Panicking slightly at her fading voice, more tears spilled from my eyes. The thought of her leaving me...of her dying was too much for me. I loved my Aunt Mitzi so much. I didn't want to have to go on without her as well as without her as well as without my grandparents and parents.
"Arnold, I'm just so proud…of who you've become."
I looked up to see her looking at me again, her old weathered eyes searching mine. Her voice was getting weaker, but she pressed on with urgency in her voice. "Arnold…now this…is important," she forced her voice out in a breathy whisper now. "You are…destined…for great things. You're going to discover incredible things, Arnold. Miraculous things…that will lead you to find…all the desires of your heart. I promise you," she said, as if she herself was fate and could control everything. Her eyes were beginning to glaze over now and she was looking less and less focused, less coherent. But she continued to talk despite it. "It won't be easy…and it may be excruciatingly hard…and the end may not be what you expect…but you'll find everything you've always...longed for and more, Arnold. I know...this is true," she whispered, her eyes looking more wild and eccentric by the moment. After a pause, she continued once more, "please, Arnold, take my money-your money now-and pursue your love of ancient writings, of ancient peoples, it WILL serve you well," she finished, closing her eyes. "I love you, Arnold."
She hadn't died long after those last words. She'd left me in a world of heartbreak and all alone. I'd sat in her parlor for a long time crying and missing her desperately already. And I had also cried over the loss of her, and again over the loss of my grandparents and my own parents-whom I had only known as a baby and would never know again. That ache still hurt. Like a constant whole in my heart that had always been there…like the shadow of what once was and would never be again. The death of Grandma and Grandpa had only added to that deep ache. And then with Aunt Mitzi gone it felt like an endless painful twinge-a wrenching pain that never went away no matter how much I tried to ignore it or how distracted I got with life. Even now staring down at an actually mummy that I had discovered, that pain hadn't gone away.
Aunt Mitzi had sounded so certain in her final words that day-as if she truly was fate in human form and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that what she told me was true. As if somehow she had known what awaits me-what still might be in my future. But she was also very old, a little senile for certain, and on her deathbed. Her eyes had been hazy and unclear and for all I know her last words were nothing more then a delirium as her life came to an end. So I always try not to dwell on it too much even when "finding all the desires of my heart" sounds so nice and wonderful and hopeful.
But it's a hopeful wish I don't want to focus on or think much about. I don't handle disappointment or heartache well-I feel things so deeply sometimes it can make me feel broken for a long time. So I don't think about Aunt Mitzi's words or her promise for me to find "all the desires of my heart". Especially when I know finding all the desires of my heart is completely impossible-because the biggest desire of my heart is to have my parents back again. Something that can never happen. They're long gone.
But I had done as Aunt Mitzi asked and taken the money and put it into my schooling and my research. When I graduated with my archeology degree, I put more of the money into following the clues I had found for finding this royal burial tomb. I'd hired a team and we'd headed out to Egypt and worked hard to uncover what we hoped lay beneath the sand. And we had-a miraculous discovery that still seemed like an unreal dream.
"So what do you see? Have you started translating anything yet or what?" Lindsey asks coming to stand next to me, having just returned to the tomb to see how our progress was going.
I laugh. Sometimes my crew expected a little too much of me when it came to speed of translation and they definitely didn't understand the pre-translation process and how long that could take. "Not yet. I have noticed something kind of curious though-"
My daydreams have such odd timing. Suddenly I find myself imagining another tomb-like structure-but dark, dank, and humid. Jungle plants grow out of the cracks, strange beetles run across the ground and I imagined myself walking through this old, abandoned building-a tomb-like building so very different from the one I'm currently investigating in Egypt. Glancing briefly at the walls, I recognize symbols-especially the symbol of the green eyes-a symbol I've known since I was nine and found my father's journal-my father who had helped the green-eyed people of San Lorenzo with my mother. They were the ancient civilization my parents had learned a bit about and saved once. The same group of people they left and went to save when I was only a baby. I find myself often imagining what their old temples were like...the green-eyed temples ones my parents walked through...the ones my dad translated their written symbols in…the one I was born in during a volcanic eruption-a story so fantastical I was sure my grandpa had made it up until I read it in my father's own words in his journal.
"Arnold...hey, Arnold!" Lindsey is saying, waving a hand in front of my face. "Earth to Arnold."
"S-sorry," I stutter, realizing that both she and Antoinette are staring at me strangely.
"Dude, Arnold, you were totally spacing out again," Lindsey comments, rolling her eyes. "No wonder you haven't accomplished anything yet," she teases with a wink. "You eyes like glazed over like you were hypnotized or something. Mummy got your brain?"
"Arnold, are feeling alright?" Antoinette asks her brows furrowed in worry. "You've been doing that an awful lot lately. Do you want to go rest for a while? Are you getting enough sleep?"
"Oh, come on, Antoinette," Lindsey groans. "Arnold never sleeps. He daydreams so much, he doesn't need to sleep like the rest of us," she scoffs in a teasing tone. "Maybe he's a mummy!" she exclaims her eyes widening dramatically and she stretches out her arms mummy-style.
I elbow her in the ribs and roll my eyes as she laughs boisterously.
"What were you going to tell us before you went all mummified on us," Lindsey jokes with a big cheesy smile.
Ignoring her, I continue with my observation, "Well, remember I told you guys about The Eye of Horus or the Wadjet I noticed on the sarcophagus?"
They both nod.
"I wasn't surprised by this initial Wadjet here on the top of the coffin-they were commonly used on sarcophaguses to protect the dead and ward off evil in the afterlife," I explain pointing at it and tracing it lightly with my finger. "Actually originally it was the representation of the earliest Egyptian goddesses, Wadjet, who was the tutelary deity of Lower Egypt until it unified with Upper Egypt, and then she became the patron of all Egypt. She's usually depicted in some fashion with a cobra…either with the head of the cobra or the body of a cobra and head of a woman…something like that."
"Okay, Arnold, you're nerding out on us…is any of this relative to what you were going to tell us?" Lindsey prompts with a huff.
"Well, probably not."
The girls laugh. "Well, get to it then!" Lindsey exclaims.
"Anyway, after I noticed that big one there, I realized there seem to be a lot more of them all over it," I state. "And all over the walls," I pointed out. When the girls don't respond I added, "Which is highly unusual because one-especially one this large-was usually judged to be plenty of protection for the dead."
"Maybe the lady liked them or something," Lindsey comments with a shrug.
"Maybe," I grin mysteriously with half-lidded eyes. "Or maybe there's a whole lot more to it then that."
Lindsey raises an eyebrow as she shakes her head at me.
"Another one of your crazy theories?" Antoinette teases, in acknowledgment of our earlier conversation.
"Could be," I reply nonchalantly, not willing to tell her anything else at the moment.
"Well, anyway, Mister Mysterious," Lindsey says, sarcastically, "Soren wanted me to come get you. He has a sample ready to take to the lab in Luxor."
Nodding I follow them up out of the tomb. Soren is already in the jeep looking bored and impatient. "You guys are taking forever! You know these results take days to get back right? If we never get going we'll have to wait two extra days because of the weekend. Let's go," he demands, impatiently tapping on the dashboard.
"Hush," Antoinette chides.
"My wife may not be here right now, Antoinette, but I don't you replacing her nagging," he jokes, raising an eyebrow at her.
"I'm sure Sandy would love to hear you say that. Besides with her coming back soon I figured you needed to practice being civil," Antoinette shoots back innocently.
"What are you talking about? I'm the most civil person here," Soren responds, as Lindsey hops into the back of the jeep.
"Riiiiight," Lindsey mocks, leaning her head forward so it's right next to him. "And I'm Mother Teresa."
Soren, ignoring her, calls back down to me, "Are you coming or what? I'd like to be back before the sun sets."
"You guys head on out, I'll keep working on collecting," Antoinette says to me as I pass her to get into the jeep.
"Ok, we'll be back later," I reply with a smile.
Soren looks over at me for a second, almost like he's analyzing me. The guy analyzes everything. Finally he gets a big smirk on his face. "What are you smiling like that for?" he asks as he starts the car, and I realize I have a huge, dopey grin on my face still.
"Nothing," I respond, casually, as we head out into the desert towards the city.
But that's anything but true. I'm starting to think that everyone's wrong and I'm not crazy at all. And I'm starting to think that I might, in fact, be 100% right and about to make the biggest historical breakthrough...ever.
A/N:
Hey guys!
Just a heads up that I will update as fast as I can, but I'm having to brush up on my Ancient Egypt knowledge because I'm a little rusty so I spend a lot of time having to research and double check facts before I post. So be patient with me but my goal is an update every 1-2 weeks :-) Which sounds long but really isn't haha!
So tell me your thoughts about the new chapter! I want to know if you liked it and what you think it is that Arnold has a theory about! Tell me tell me!
Your reviews on the last chapter were wonderful! Keep them coming...I'm able to write faster the more reviews I get because they help to keep me pumped and inspired!
Until the next chapter!
Love,
Arnold's Love
