Author's Notes:
Hmmm...high time that we got down to the dirt right? ;-) I hope you like it! Please do keep your comments coming!
Chapter 8
Evy missed the shelving of books in the museum. It was strange to think that that task which she had hated during her time as a librarian now returned with a nostalgia to her. She felt like a carefree young woman again, with Jonathan as her only buffoon of a companion. Maybe it had to do with her son and brother back in England playing their special brand tomfoolery on each other. She missed them terribly, but it definitely seemed a better way to keep them both out of trouble and to keep trouble out of them.
The museum was relatively empty; Rick was on his way to get lunch for her and it suddenly seemed that lunch time was a good time to do a bit of fooling around herself, she thought.
Glancing around, making sure that no one was there, she crept up a ladder that leaned on one of the shelves, admiring the circle that they were arranged in - the loop of knowledge that so overwhelmed her then and still overwhelmed her now. How she would spend the entire morning reading the books that were meant to be shelved, while staying upright on the ladder until her long skirts were covered with dust and her booted feet protested. Until one morning she lost her balance and tipped all the shelves over. Dr. Bay was livid then; she remembered frantically trying to make excuses as to why he should keep her as a librarian in Cairo. Because I have the ability to ermread, and write ancient Egyptian-
And oh, the reshelving of the books and righting them all over again was then, the most horrendous task she had to accomplish. Jonathan had not helped a whit; he stood around her, fingering the ancient artefacts and pretended to examine them closely as she tried to right the shelves with a mighty effort.
Evy smiled in remembrance - was it really a decade ago and just how much has her life altered since then?
She had lost her job but had gained a husband, a son and a Medjai friend, a doctorate in return and finally, gained a job back in the very same place where she first started out. Perhaps the only major difference was that she was much older and clumsier.
Was she?
The only way to find out was to tempt fate.
But the time she got to the top of the ladder, she was heady with delight. She tilted her head sideways, ran her finger through the titles - The Reign of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, The Union of Upper and Lower Egypt, Cleopatra's Rule in Ptolemaic Egypt. Reaching sideways, she saw a book the looked interesting - Ancient Egypt and its foreign relations with the surrounding kingdoms of Assyria and Babylonia. She was about to thumb through it -
"Dr. O'Connell!"
Evy swung around in fright, book flying far out of her hands as the ladder buckled beneath her.
Dr. Alexandra Khalan was looking upwards at her with widened eyes, probably wondering if she made a mistake by standing below the ladder that now threatened to tip the wrong way and carry Dr. O'Connell with it.
"Oh, Dr. Khalan, you..Oh, I'm sorry, this is -"
Evy by this time could only straighten her spine to stand upright and perpendicular to the floor for a couple of seconds before she tipped forward and sailed towards the shelf in front of her - she closed her eyes, stretched out her hands and prepared herself for the ominous thundering of the shelves into one another -I am going to lose my job again! - and found that there was silence.
Dr. Khalan had a grimace plastered on her face, eyes squeezed shut and fingers in her ears, before she also realised the unusual lack of movement.
"Miss me anyone?" A voice said dryly.
"Rick! Oh thank heavens you are here!" Evy opened her eyes to find that her husband had stopped the catastrophe in time by catching her before she made the crash a reality.
"And what if I wasn't, Madam, hmm?" He asked her pointedly.
"Well! You are and that is what matters," Evy answered archly. "Dr. Khalan is here, Rick, let's show her the special Egyptian hospitality, shall we!"
Alexandra Khalan now wore an amused look on her face, a slight smile that hinted of merriment rather than offense.
"Dr. Khalan, please, do come into my office. Would you like a cup of coffee?"
Alexandra Khalan found herself once again in the small claustrophobic office that she was brought to in the morning. It was strangely pentagonal in shape, not the regular rectangular ones she expected, with small vents on the sides as windows. She wondered dimly how Evy O'Connell could tolerate such working conditions but not before -
"Dr. Khalan, let me apologise for the comedy of errors that you had to endure throughout today." Evy said sincerely, stretching out her hand to Alex once more.
Rick offered his hand to her, a genial smile on his face.
Alex took both their proffered hands and shook them easily. It was finally time to get down to some business that she was looking forward to. She took a seat next to a miniature of Bastet, frowning at it and gingerly cleared away papers that stuck out of every nook and cranny.
Evelyn saw how uncomfortable Alex was sitting and hastened to clear away more stuff.
"You see, I've only moved into this office a couple of days ago but it looks as if a snowstorm has exploded in here."
Alex looked at her curiously. In truth she did not quite know how to handle Dr. O'Connell and her penchant for speaking her mind.
"Dr. Khalan, that I myself am not too sure about your posting to Cairo. The Museum directors have not told me much; simply happily placed me in charge of your arrival and the expedition that you are going to undertake. As to what kind, method of expedition, I have no clue. Perhaps you can tell me more? Let me know how the museum, or I might help." Evy was quite pleased with herself. Despite the years spent with Rick and learning uncouth speech inflexions, she had retained the sense of diplomacy when needed.
Dr. Khalan gave a ghost of a smile -she did seem rather unused to the happier emotions, Evy thought.
"It is strange, Dr. Khalan," Evy remarked, "That Cairo Museum prepares so much for your arrival, only to thrust you completely in my hands. I hope I may redeem myself for botching your first impression of us then."
"Well, yes, the pageantry is really unnecessary, Dr. O' Connell." Dr. Khalan said somewhat awkwardly.
Rick and Evy now sat with faces full of anticipation. Alex Khalan thought to get straight to the point.
"The Bembridge Council has been obsessed for years, Dr. O'Connell, with matching a certain period of Egypt with Biblical history, more specifically, the great Exodus of the Israelites."
Now that was not welcome news.
"Anything that got too close to the time period of Seti I and Ramses II is anything far from good, repeat after me, Evy. Anything that got too close." Rick had instructed her that when they were high above Ahm Shere in the dirigible.
She was beginning to wholeheartedly agree with him.
Evy felt a prickling on the back of her neck she did not feel since she was on Izzy's dirigible. The Exodus. Ramses II. She glanced at Rick, whose face was suddenly more guarded than usual, but motioned her with a staying hand.
Alex continued blithely, unaware of the growing trepidation of the other occupants of the room.
"It's thought that the Exodus happened during the time of Ramses II, or Seti I's son. Well, when and how Ramses ascended the throne - I'm sure you know that already..." She trailed off, noticing the slow change in the demeanour of her host.
Evelyn was truly starting to get worried, but she could not deny that all the talk of the ancients were more than compelling to her. She sat up straighter and leaned forward, engrossed in what Dr. Khalan was saying.
"The evidence we have today about Egypt during this time is at best sketchy. Many of my readings are from outside sources like ancient Assyrian verse, or from Biblical evidence. There are numerous accounts during ca. 1270 B.C of Ramses' defeat of the Hittites at Qadesh for example, and even the design-specifics of his temples in Luxor, Karnak and Abu Simbel can be found, but very little of his actual administration itself; the political leadership of his reign, or how the Egyptian economy performed during that time is written. Makes one wonder why, considering that the sarcophagus that you have right in that room is that of a man who is believed to have lived way into his nineties."
"But most of Egyptian history, or rather most of history is written by winners, Dr. Khalan," Evy ssaid firmly. "Just the same way Akhenaten's new religion of sun-worship traumatised the people so much that they sought to erase all that they had found in El-Amarna, leaving mere ruins for poor us to reconstruct and piece together. But erasing the history...oh my god..." She exhaled sharply. "It did not occur to me before that -"
Rick also nodded slowly in understanding.
"Are we realising the same thing?" He asked his stunned wife.
"I think so, Rick. Please, do continue Dr. Khalan."
"There is absolutely no mention of the Exodus in Egyptian records, despite all that I've pored through during the reign of Seti I, Ramses II and Ramses III - which leads to the conclusion that I think you all have just discovered for yourselves- that history was simply erased. Or not allowed to be written, by goodness knows what means possible."
"Leave the good, clean the bad away, eh?" Rick clucked his tongue in new appreciation for the Pharoahs.
Alex was getting excited.
"Bembridge thinks that scrolls of papyrus had to be written of course, the only catch is that, they are all hidden somewhere. Because my doctorate was in hieroglyphic studies and other ancient languages, I was hired to work on this lifelong obsession of theirs - to search for the scrolls of the Exodus, written by the Egyptians themselves, which are hopefully not destroyed."
"Whoa, do you mean that you are going on a carnage for ancient tombs?" Rick held up a hand disbelievingly.
"I'm no explorer, Mr. O'Connell," Alex pointed out.
"Rick. Just Rick please."
"On a first name basis are we then? Call me Alex, Alexandra, whatever pleases you."
"Just Evy."
"No, no carnage nor dramatic tomb openings nor silly Mummy curses, Rick," She emphasised his name then, making him smile. He was starting to see a considerable similarity she had to Evy. To make matters worse, they were both doctors of the intellect. The Mummy's curse part, however, he was not too sure about.
"A Babylonian source - this traveller called Ar'siuqqa who was in Egypt during Ramses' administration wrote about a systematic massacre of scribes of some sort some months after the Exodus, presumably so that nothing detrimental to Egypt's glorious legacy will be recorded. It goes something like this", Alex tiled her head sideways and tried to wring the memory forth.
She was trying to picture the Akkadian cuneiform text that he wrote, Evelyn realised. This woman knew the babylonian pictograms?
"Sûmalûu ersatîm sïmatïïm ne..." The long-forgotten words felt strange on her tongue.
Evy and Rick stared at her, mystified, waiting anxiously for her translation.
"Generally, he saw, over a few weeks, the purging of a people who were of a certain rank in Egypt; he did not quite mention what, but just referred to them as men who were marked, branded with words on their flesh." She shrugged. "There is actually another additional source, that you might like to hear about."
"Alex," Rick started out hesitatingly, "I think it might be best if you actually -"
"Well, I certainly do not think it's a fantasy or that it is made up, if that is what you are implying."
"No, Alex, you did misinterpret Rick. We are...how do I put this...um..very firm believers in accounts possibly far more than you ever thought we would be. At this time however, I insist that you stop. We will need you to repeat yourself once again this evening, in the privacy of our own home this time."
"But I...this is merely a job, Dr. O'Connell. Why, I didn't think you were -" This was getting kind of confusing.
"I will explain more later. Are you staying in a Cairo hotel? Well then, please, no protests from you, we would like you to stay in our presently very empty, quiet and lonely house for as long as you wish, until you find suitable lodgings."
The hour hand of the clock pointed to six o' clock.
An old memory came back to Evy. She was clinging to the wall; everywhere was gold, the other woman also had a mask on her face and she was filled with adrenalin as she back flipped to counter attack Anck-su-namun's parries and thrusts.
Your skills are improving, Nefertiri. I'd better watch my back.
Yes, she had panted, and I'll watch mine.
She shook it off as one would shake off snow on a coat, where the snowflakes would eventually melt in someplace obscure.
"But -" Dr. Khalan objected.
"No buts," Evy said then, sounding very much like a mother, "I am afraid you'll have to trust us on this account. Oh dear, I need to watch myself; how often is it that we accost a new co-worker into our grand scheme of things?"
She glanced apologetically at Alex.
"We will explain a lot more, Doc. Just hang on until dinner time."
"Yes," Evy supplied. "This time, the surprise will be on your side."
