Chapter Ten: Serenity

"You bought too many things," Sarah pointed out to Nicky, sipping on her own drink. The boy sat at a table inside one of the zoo's cafes, at least five items – two of which were different flavoured drinks – in front of them, consuming each by a bite and a sip at a time. "You'll get a sugar rush and then crash and Don will have to carry you to the car."

"I'm hungry," the boy reasoned with his mouth full of ice-cream.

Sarah smiled, shaking her head. Erica and Don were wondering the park on their own, leaving the two at the cafe and giving them enough money to buy lunch. Which meant that the young boy stood at the counter with a pen and a piece of paper and calculated exactly the number of items he could buy. She wanted to both laugh and applaud him. Sarah was so impressed she gave the woman behind the counter a proud smile while Nicky began to tap his fingers on the table, impatiently waiting the moment he gave the order.

She shivered and was about to pull the hood over her head when a man approached her, out of breath, his face red.

"Hi!" he greeted, letting out a heavy breath, a wide grin spread across his face.

Nicky enthusiastically returned the greeting while Sarah smiled. The young man brushed aside his curly hair and pointed to the name tag clipped to his bright blue jacket. "Simon. I work by the bird cages."

"It's nice to meet you," Nicky waved, a spoon sticking out of his mouth.

"Sorry," Simon grinned, wiping sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, words beginning to fire out of his mouth so fast, Sarah could barely keep up. "I saw you drawing, you're very good. This might be forward, but we used to have an artist doing sketches for visitors, sometimes face painting for the little ones. But she left on maternity leave and we no longer have anyone. If there's a chance you're looking for a job, I can speak to the manager, I even have the application form you can fill in."

Sarah blinked. "Now?"

"Oh, no, no, no," Simon shook his head quickly, waving his hands in front of him. "I just wanted you to think about it. You can send it to us by post, if you're interested."

"Uh, thanks," Sarah smiled, taking the three sheets of paper away from him, surprised. "I will certainly think about it."

"Great!" the guy beamed before rubbing the back of his neck. "Anyway, I really have to get back to work, but let me know if you're interested."

He disappeared as quickly as he arrived while Sarah and Nicky stared at his back, the girl dropping the form on the table to take a sip of her drink.

It was only once the guy walked away that she realised who he reminded her of: Marlo. He even smiled in a similar way.

The other day they had spent hours in the burger restaurant – she didn't think it was anything special but decided not to let Marlo know that – and he had spent hours talking about Egypt, telling her all that happened during his school trip and all that he had learned. She wasn't even sure what had started the conversation but when he began talking, he hardly stopped. He could have written a book.

But she didn't have long for her thoughts to linger on the subject, Nicky was waving his hands in her face with a big grin.

"Are you going to do it?"

Sarah shrugged, picking up the application form again and scanning it over. "Maybe."

"You should!" Nicky nearly leapt out of his seat. "You said you were looking for a job, and this place would be awesome!"

"You're only saying that because you want free tickets to come here again."

"They are your words, not mine!"

"Hey guys," Don called the moment he walked into the cafe, holding the door open for Erica.

Nicky stood up in his seat, waving them over. Sarah smiled at the man and sat up, putting the application form on her sketchbook.

"We went to see the aquarium," Don approached them and sat down next to Nicky, resting his hand on the back of his chair.

"What was it like?" Sarah asked, smiling as Erica took the seat next to her, tiredly dropping herself into the chair.

"Closed for renovations," the woman replied. Turning to the girl, she pulled out a suspiciously familiar bundle of papers. "Guess what I have. I saw them advertise for a position in the zoo."

"Would it be anything like this?" Sarah resisted the urge the smirk as she picked up the application Simon had handed her.

At first Erica mouth dropped in surprise, before her lips stretched into a grin and she winked, helping herself to a menu. "See, great minds think alike."

While Nicky spent the rest of his week with his mother – and Don – Sarah continued with the routine she found herself in. Most nights, although it was closely beginning to be almost every night, she visited the museum. The daylight hours were divided between drawing or sleeping – and far too many hours were spent silently attempting not to freak out over her puzzling daydreams, in addition to the increasingly gruesome and stressful nightmares.

She never thought she'd miss them as blurry mirages with vaguely humanoid shapes, their words muffled by the wind.

She hated it. She hated waking up and still feeling like her arms were burning where Ahkmenrah had been holding her. She hated seeing Larry's knowing glances thrown at her from across the room, even if he was too nice to ask about the nightmares he knew she was having.

But she couldn't bring herself to tell him. She doubted he would believe her even if she did, and she hated to worry him.

Visits to the museum were always interesting. Sometimes she simply sat quietly and sketched, a few of the exhibits slowing down when they passed her to exchange a couple of words. Other times she joined in with whatever activity they decided to do that night.

She still stayed away from Rexy as far as she could however, never understanding how Larry could talk to him like he was nothing more than a very large puppy, she was convinced that he knew she was terrified of him and proceeded to almost step on her every time he passed.

She spent hours one night listening to Theodore's tales while Sacagawea happily kept company and Sarah sketched her in more detail, even though when she was in school she never had much interest in history class. He spoke strangely, like he didn't really do the courageous acts he spoke off – he was only made of wax after all – but one reassuring look from the woman by his side and he was back to beaming proudly at them, his cheeks pink. Sarah wasn't sure how the tablet's magic worked, but the man beside her who was a wax sculpture during the day, was nothing less of a great and wise leader in her books.

But each night, she seemed to gravitate back towards the Pharaoh. While at times she ran out of things to say, the silences between them were no longer awkward. He told her his own version of his first encounter with Larry and how he managed to prevent the tablet from being stolen – Sarah suddenly had a whole new level of respect for her uncle's bravery – and told her more about his life once he ran out of tales about the many humorous things that happened within the Museum's walls. What it was like to grow up as the heir to the throne of Egypt, the day he met Semet. The rocky relationship with his brother, from when he was a child to when he was old enough to realise how much resentment Kahmunrah held for him, to the short years he had ruled as the King of Egypt. At times he would repeat himself, telling her stories she had already heard, but she never corrected him, enjoying his company and growing fond of the sound of his voice. He always spoke enthusiastically, happy to share his memories of the years during which he was still alive.

Once Nicky was back – his things littering the apartment only a few hours after he stepped through the door – she had less time to think about the dreams, especially as her cousin found more and more inventive ways to wake her up and immediately occupy her whole attention. But every time she was left alone to her thoughts, the dreams would invade her head in sudden flashes, leaving her short of breath. She spent more time on the couch, 'sleeping', for longer than she had for years and yet she walked around like a zombie, nearly falling asleep on her feet.

She thought that perhaps if she downed her body weight in tea and coffee it might help, but she was yet to see if it actually worked.

"Why did you draw so many sketches of Sacagawea?" Nicky asked, riffling through Sarah's drawings, spreading them around him on the floor.

"I like drawing beautiful people," Sarah shrugged, talking through a mouthful of cereal as she sat on the couch and occasionally leaned to the side whenever Nicky got in the way of the TV. And she wasn't lying, the woman truly was one of the most stunning she had ever seen.

Nicky grinned mischievously, standing up and this time deliberately blocking her view of the screen. "Is that why you draw Ahkmenrah's face so often?"

"What is it that she does often?" Larry called, poking his head around the doorway of the kitchen.

"Nothing uncle Larry," Sarah answered, giving him a small smile. Nicky rocked on his heels, doing his best to appear innocent but when Larry disappeared into the kitchen again, not before narrowing his eyes in suspicion, the roguish smile was back on the boy's face in an instant.

Sarah pointed a finger at him, her eyes set in a glare. "You shut your trap," she warned. Nicky rolled his eyes and sat back down on the floor, crossing his legs. Sarah continued to glare at the back of his head as she continued. "Besides, for your information, I'm only drawing him because his face is interesting, that's all. It's not like you get a chance to do a drawing of an Egyptian Pharaoh every night from life."

"King," Nicky corrected her, flipping a page.

"Smartass," Sarah shot back.

"Whatever you say," Nicky shrugged, holding up one of her drawings. "They're as good as photographs at this point, I mean, what's the use?" When Sarah put her cereal bowl on a shelf and attempted to grab the drawing from his hands, he jumped up holding it out of her reach. "It reminds me of when this girl in my class got a crush on that awful boyband's singer and kept doodling his name in her notebook."

"Stuff it, shorty," Sarah growled, annoyed.

"Oh come on," Nicky laughed, turning to face her and holding the drawing behind his back. "It's funny. Sarah and Ahkmenrah, sitting in the tree—"

"Oi!" Sarah leapt up, managing to cut him off as he yelped and with a laugh bolted to the side to avoid being caught.

"Hey, are you two fighting again?" Larry demanded, walking into the room. He rolled his eyes when he saw Sarah chasing Nicky around the room while the boy laughed, jumping from furniture to furniture.

"You can't catch me!" Nicky sang. "I will tell everyone!"

"Get back here you little—"

"Guys, stop it!" Larry intercepted in Nicky's path, catching him before pushing him behind him, effectively getting between the two. "My apartment is far too small for these kind of shenanigans."

Both of them completely ignored him, Nicky dashing into the kitchen with Sarah hot on his heels.