-- The sun is rising over Egypt, casting away the gray shadows that still linger from the night. The torches that have not yet been extinguished are, and the streets, though busier then before, are still quiet.
Inside her small home, Alyssa stretches out on her reed mat that lays in the corner. It is old and weathered; she could do with a new one. But she has neither the time to do it herself or gather the reeds so that her mother might while she was away. She yawns as she opens her eyes. Noticing the light outside, she sits up quickly, hurrying to grab the jugs to make the river run, hoping that she would not be so late to her work.
As she was grabbing the first jug, she remembered that she had been told to take the day off today. Sighing with relief, she picked it up, as well as its twin, and walked to retrieve that days supply of the precious liquid.
Coming back later her parents are surprised to see her when they wake. It has been a while since she last took a day off. She smiles and gives them a hug and tells them to sit down so she can prepare the morning meal. They chat as she cooks over the hot flames, expertly making a delicious breakfast. She puts it on plates, again, made out of woven reeds and sits at the short, old table they had. They smile as they eat, her mother and father continuously asking her questions about her well being, what she has been doing, and why has she taken so long to relax for a day?
At this she tells them, no, she is only here because she has been told to take a day off. She does not tell them why, though they press her to. She merely says that she will be home for a while longer and then she must leave later on.
An hour passes by, and having seen that everything has been cleaned she sets out for the palace. It is still early, so the markets are buzzing with people. She goes to the homes of people whose clothes she has finished. "Hmm…" one woman says. "I could get my daughter to do stitching like this! It isn't worth the amount." "Then perhaps I may take it back and work on it once more. I wouldn't want you to pay for such shoddy work." She says to the lady, reaching out to take it. "No, no. I guess it is fine after all." The woman says. She goes inside her home and returns with a coin. "Here you are." She says. "I thought we had agreed on three?" Alyssa says. "Three? For this?" the woman says, gesturing at the dress she holds in a hand. "Be happy I give you one!"
At this she slams the door on her. Turning away, Alyssa thinks to herself "One coin doesn't even cover the cost of the fabric!" Once more she heads in the direction of the palace. "Shoddy stitching?" she thinks to herself. "Why I worked three days on that! And she knows what fine stitching it is!" Sighing, she says. "I wish that people didn't cheat me so often. If I do such poor work why do they ask me to fix their items or make new clothes again and again? It would be foolish to do so!" sighing again, she mutters "It's because they know I need the money…I end up reducing the price myself sometimes, just because we need it. If this keeps up though I'll run myself into debt from working!"
Reaching the palace stairs, she walks up to the first balcony. Here it was quiet, and deserted. She would have loved to stay home but knew she would never create a song fit to grace the pharaoh's ears if she had stayed. She set down her small basket and took out her shell. She turned it around in her hands, admiring its pearly sheen on the inside.
She remembered the dream, the woman in white, holding out the shell to her. How she had turned it over in her hands, looking at it as the woman had explained how to make it, where to find the shell needed for it, how to whittle away the inside and create the holes without damaging the lovely sound.
And then, how the next day she had gone to the spot in her dream by the river, and there, in the sand, was the most exquisite shell she had ever seen. Shells weren't common in this part of the river, at least, not shells like this.
She carefully brought her treasure home and cleaned it, the milky white inside gleaming even brighter then before, and the lovely shades of tan, orange, pinks and reds were brought out even more.
She carved away at it with her diligent young fingers, carefully smoothing out the edges of the holes and hollowing out certain parts of the inside. She had expected it to be hard work but she was able to cut through as if it were only a feather.
Then, setting away the fond memory of her childhood she set to work, and began to play…
Yawning, Yugi stretches out his arms as he wakes to the light of the sun. He can smell something cooking downstairs in the kitchen. Getting up he runs down the steps taking the stairs two at a time. He rounds the corner into the kitchen. "Hiya grandpa!" he begins to say. "Sleep…well?" Yugi gasps as he sees the mountain of food on the table. Pancakes, waffles, cut fruit, bacon, eggs, French toast, hash browns…every thing that you could imagine. He takes a seat and sees a newspaper. "Did you make all this?" Yugi asks astonished as he reaches over the grits to get a muffin. "No." Mr. Mutou says, putting down the paper. "I came down to make my normal cup of coffee and she was already in the kitchen making this fabulous meal! I asked her what she was doing and she reminded me she had taken on the role of 'household chef' I think she called it, and that since she wasn't sure what we liked for breakfast she said she was making everything. I would have stopped her but…she was in the middle of making 'everything'."
"Wow." Yugi says, his mouth half full of muffin. Sniffing the air, he says "I don't think she is done yet." He swallows his muffin. "I think I still smell something cooking in there."
A few minutes later Alyssa walks in, carrying a plate of hot cinnamon rolls. "I have a few here. The icing isn't done yet- I have that in the kitchen still. I'll put some on the few I have in the oven still. It's keeping them warm." She sets down the tray on the table. "Oh-hey Yugi!" she says smiling at him. "Is there anything I can get for you?" she asks. Scanning the table, she says "I think I got most of the things, but if I forgot something just let me know and I can make it for you." "No! This is great!" Yugi says, as he reaches for a cinnamon roll. "You know you don't have to do all this. It's okay, really." "Oh no, I don't mind." She says. "I have a few things left still, so if I may…" "Uh…o…kay…" Yugi says, as she turns and walks back into the kitchen.
"He turns back to the plate of pancakes, reaching for one, as he hears the pharaoh say "I can't believe it." "Ahh!" Yugi shouts, surprised. "Hmm? Is something the matter? Mr. Mutou says looking up from his paper as he reaches for his coffee. "No, I'm fine." Yugi reassures him. Under his breath he says "What? What's wrong?" The pharaoh looks at the door to the kitchen. "Last night she went back out to that ratty old tent. Then she sat down and read by a flashlight for a few hours, with a few books she took out of her bag. When she finally ran out of batteries, she went to bed."
"Well that doesn't sound all that bad." Yugi says. "I don't see what the problem is. So what if she likes to read?" "It's not that." Yami says. "She woke up early so that she could go to the store and buy all the stuff to make breakfast. She spent almost a hundred dollars!"
"A hundred dollars?" Yugi says. "But…she's always so careful to keep her money….so she can go to Egypt. She said so herself." "I know." Yami says, punching the wall with the side of his fist. "And she carried everything back herself from the store and set to making breakfast and cleaning. It's all she's been doing for the past two hours." "Two HOURS?" Yugi says. His fork dropping the pancake he had just tried to take off the serving plate. "Yes. And what's worse is the second something goes wrong she freaks out that she is ruining something."
"Like what?" Yugi inquires, tilting his head to the side a little. "Well, she spilled a little bit of water on an old and dusty cookbook she discovered hiding somewhere and she felt and was horrified that the page looked a little bleary. It dried up and was just fine, but she decided against risking making any more 'old family recipes'."
Yugi laughs a little. "I didn't even know we owned a cookbook." He says as he spears the pancake once more. "But family or not, I think these are the best pancakes I've ever tasted!" Yami laughs as Yugi hurriedly finishes the one he has and moves to grab another. Suddenly the door slams loudly. "Hey Yugi!" Joey says as he walks in the room, his mouth drooling. "So it was your house that had all these wonderful smells coming out of it. Whoa!" he exclaims as he sets his eyes on the arrangement on the table. "Yugi! How do you plan on eating all this stuff?" "I don't." Yugi says simply. "I just woke up and it was here." "Well, I hope Grandpa didn't burn anything." Joey says as he pulls out a chair and ties a napkin around his neck. "Oh, I didn't make any of this, Joseph." Mr. Mutou says, taking another sip of his coffee and biting into a scone. "Alyssa did." "Alyssa?" Joey says. "Alright!" And he then begins to heap mounds of everything onto his plate. Indeed, he looks excited as he stares at the mountain of food before him, holding his knife and fork in his hand.
"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" Tea says as she comes in. Joey, however, is busy digging away at the pile on his plate. "Hey Tea." He says, his mouth full. "You should really try some of this. It's great! Much better than any of that stuff you've ever made." "Why you!" She says, clenching her fist. "Oh! Hello, Tea. Hi Joey." Alyssa says as she comes back in, bearing the aforesaid cinnamon rolls with the icing on them. "I didn't know you would be coming over. Please, have a seat, so long as it is okay with Mr. Mutou and Yugi, that is." She adds, nodding in their direction.
"OF course it's fine for them to stay." Mr. Mutou says as Tea takes a seat. "There's no need to be so formal all the time, Alyssa." Mr. Mutou says. "You're not a maid, you're a guest! A guest with exceptional cooking talents, that is to say." He says, raising his mug to her. Taking it the wrong way, she says "Oh! I didn't know you were out of coffee. I'll be right back with some." "I didn't mean to…oh well." Mr. Mutou says, drinking the rest of his glass. "Very eager to be accommodating." He says. "That's because she believes she is a servant, not a guest." Yami says. "Yugi looks at him out of the corner of his eye, but can tell that the pharaoh really doesn't want to talk right then. "Hey Joey, you can eat the food, but don't eat the table cloth!" Yugi shouts, noticing Joey's wild antics as he shovels food into his mouth.
He looks at the pharaoh and follows his gaze to see Alyssa refilling grandpa's cup and explaining that if he added just a little bit of cinnamon and roasted the beans it would bring out a nice rich flavor. "Could it be the pharaoh is a little jealous?" Yugi thought to himself. "Perhaps he wishes that she knew he was here, considering she can't see him unless I'm the invisible one. Maybe it would be better if we switched for a while so he could get some attention."
"No, I'm not jealous, and no, we don't need to switch." Yami says, looking at Yugi. "Eheh." Yugi smiles nervously, having forgotten that the pharaoh could hear his very thoughts.
"I just wish she didn't act so much like a servant. We didn't bring her here so she would clean, and I don't like her thinking that that is the only reason she is here." "Oh, pharaoh, I'm sure she knows that isn't why we asked her to come." Yugi says to him. "She only feels like she's being useless. She wants to…how do you say it? 'Earn her keep'?"
"Yes, but still…" he says, as he returns his gaze to Alyssa as she surrenders a tray of muffins to Joey who has been trying to get at them for apparently quite a while. Sighing she smiles as she bends down and picks up the one or two that fell down, saying she'd be back with a cloth to clean up the mess in just a few minutes.
She heads back into the kitchen and the pharaoh stands up, taking control. "I'm gonna go see if she needs any help." He says in explanation to the others, who are far too busy trying to keep Joey from eating all the cinnamon rolls. Tea is yelling and holding away a tray proclaiming how rude it is and why doesn't he show some table manners? As Mr. Mutou sits their laughing jovially as he watches the crazy behavior of the two young people.
Entering the kitchen with the door swinging open, he bumps into Alyssa as she was just about to exit. She falls backward onto the floor. "My Lord…I'm…I'm so sorry. I didn't know that you were there." She says, as she hurriedly reaches for the rag that she had dropped as she fell. Yami picks it up and, thought she reaches out a hand for it, refuses to give it to her. "No. You aren't getting this until you get up." "But, my Lord, I-" "Nope! You have to get up first." He says. Sighing she hastens to her feet. "There. Now may I have that back please?" She says, holding out her arm for it once more as she looks away. "Nope!" Yami says, smiling. "But-" "We didn't bring you here so you would cook and clean all the time, and that's all you've done. You're not just a guest, you're a friend." "A friend that isn't paying." She says as she tries to grab the rag out of his hand. "We don't want you too." Yami says. "It's not like we need the money. We're perfectly happy to just have you stay. You don't need to prepare a banquet for every meal." He says, nodding his head in the direction of the table. "Oh, well I didn't know what everyone liked, so I tried to make a little of everything." She says, twisting her hands before trying to get the rag again. "You spent a hundred dollars on groceries for breakfast. That's not a little of everything, that's a lot of everything." "I didn't spend that much!" She says defiantly. "Oh really? Would you like me to get the receipt from where you hid it?" "I didn't hide it." She mumbles.
Yami goes towards one of the cupboards and her eyes follow him as he reaches up and pulls out a few of the spices and boxes. As he reaches into the back, she shouts "Okay! Okay. Fine. You've made your point." Yami chuckles as he begins to return the items to their proper place. "And, I hope you know, we will be reimbursing you for the expenses." "What? No!" she yells again. "I don't want your money!" "And I don't want yours." Yami says back. "It wasn't all that much." She says. As he begins to reach back into the cupboard she says "Okay! Maybe it was that much. You know what I meant. And how did you even know about that? I didn't see you, and Yugi was fast asleep in bed when I came back." "Oh, I have my ways." Yami says, smiling at the Yugi who had drifted into the kitchen after hearing some of the shouts. Of course, Alyssa doesn't see him.
"There's nothing wrong with wanting to do something nice for someone who is doing something nice for you." She mumbles again. 'But you are working too hard. You don't even stay inside the house." Yami says pointedly. "A peasant shouldn't stay" "Don't finish that sentence." The pharaoh warns her. "I want you to stop thinking of yourself as a peasant, and I want you to stop kneeling before me every time I walk in the room or you see me." He says. "But-" "No buts." Yami says. "Consider that an order from your pharaoh." She sighs. "You will be accepting the money we will be paying you for what you spent on breakfast, and you will not argue about it." Yami says as she opens her mouth to do that very thing. Slumping against the wall she says "But then-" "No buts." Yami reminds her, cutting her off. Walking over to her he reaches out a hand and, defeated, she takes it. Helping her up she looks away and mutters how it isn't fair and that can he at least give her the rag back so she can clean up the mess on the floor. Of course, our pharaoh refuses.
"But it's all sticky there now." She says. "I know that. I'm going to clean it up." He says. At this she protests, but he holds up a hand for silence and she immediately is. "It doesn't bother me. Besides, I should do a little bit of work every now and again. It helps keep me from getting lazy." He says with a grin as he walks back into the room, Alyssa following.
He is conscious as she watches him wipe up the small mess on the ground. Twice she begins to say something but stops herself before anything comes out. "I think I'll go and finish the rest of the dishes." She mumbles. She turns to go back into the kitchen to see a Joey sporting an icing moustache blocking her way. "You know, these are really good." He says. "Ever think of opening a store?" She smiles. "Thanks, but no. I'm sorry, excuse me." She says as she tries to slip past him. Again, he steps into her way. "Please…let me through." She says, trying to move around him unsuccessfully. Everywhere she steps he moves, until he finally just stands in front of the door.
"Look, I need to get in there. Those dishes aren't going to clean themselves. You don't want them to sit there, do you?" "Actually, yes, yes I do." He says, looking past her at Yugi. "We were planning on going out today. Why don't you come along?"
"Thanks, but no thanks. I've got to do the dishes and then I need to start on the living room. Maybe later." "Aw, but we are going to have so much fun!" Joey says. "Tristan'll be there, and Tea's there, and of course Yugi will be there." "Will the dirty dishes be there?" She asks him. "Well…uh, no." "Then no thanks" she says.
Yami comes up from behind her and puts his hands on her shoulders. Startled, she jumps. "You should really come," he says, his hands still on her shoulders despite how she had tried to pull away. "I'm fine." She mumbles. "No, you are all tense. You've been working too hard." Yami says. "But I'm not even done with the dishes" she says, as he begins to massage her shoulders. "The boys can take care of that." Mr. Mutou says. "You went to the trouble to make all of this, you shouldn't have to put it away. I didn't think we had enough in the fridge to make all this anyway."
"That's because we didn't." Yami says. "She took a shopping trip today." "How is it that you know that?" she whispers. "Oh really?" Mr. Mutou says. "Well, this is enough breakfast to have for a week! Please, let me help. How much did you spend?" "No, no, that's okay. I'm fine, really." She says, moving out of Yami's reach. "It was my pleasure too. Now if you'll excuse me, Mr. Mutou…Joey…Pharaoh." She says, nodding at each of them, bowing her head as she comes to Yami's name. She disappeared through the kitchen door and into the kitchen. Moments after you can hear water running and the clamor of pots and pans being shuffled about in the background.
"She's a little…" Joey begins. "Independent?" Yami supplies. "No, more like…" "Stubborn?" "Very much so, but I was thinking more like…" "Hard but overworking due to a sense of inferiority, dependency, etc. due to a debt she can not pay in monetary value, so instead trying to seek repayment through culinary skills and physical labor?" Joey blinks a few times, staring blankly at Yami. "Well, yeah. I…guess…" He still looks slightly confused as Yami laughs and walks through the door.
There, at the sink once more, stands Alyssa. Scrubbing the pots and pans he can see that in the short time she had been in the kitchen she had worked up quite a few bubbles. The finished pans were set on the dish rack for drying. Yami leaned up against the counter, recalling this same scene the night before.
"Do you like staying here, Alyssa?" he poses the question. Still scouring the cookware, she replies "Yes. Very much so." "Why?" Yami asks, looking at her. She pauses for amoment, and it is quiet other than the sound of the water running. "I don't know." She says, as she picks up with her task. "Everyone is just so nice here. It's different." She says, placing a frying pan on the rack, balancing it carefully against the other so that none fall down. "How so?" Yami asks. "I don't know." She tells him once more. "It just…is."
"Then why don't you ever want to be near anyone?" He asks. At this she laughs. "It isn't that I don't want to be near anyone." She explains. "It's just that…well, you said that I could do this to make up for not being able to pay rent, so that is what I am doing." "But you don't even stay inside the house." Yami says. "Why would you even be paying rent?" "I'm still in the backyard." She says. "I'm still using your kitchen. I'm still using your soap, your water….everything." "But none of that matters." Yami says. "It does to me." She says, slightly defensively.
"She reaches for the soap bottle again, but Yami reaches out and catches her hand as it encloses over it. "Come with us. Have some fun. You've been working since you got here." Sucking in a breath of air and looking away, she states "If I had been working since I got her, this place would be clean, and my job would be done." "We don't want you to clean." Yami says, exasperated. "Well I do!" She says. "How else am I going to pay for it? Even if I were to go with everyone today, even if we were to go to the store, even if we were to go somewhere, I wouldn't be able to do anything. There is this pesky little thing called money. Everyone seems to want it and I don't have very much of it." "Well, perhaps if you hadn't spent a hundred dollars on groceries-""Don't let Mr. Mutou hear you say that She says, making a motion with her arm to shush him and looking at the door. A loud, rousing laugh could be heard from the other room, and they knew they had not been overheard.
"I'm not comfortable with accepting money from other people." She grumbles. "Yet you are comfortable enough to spend a large portion of your savings on people you barely know." "OH? And you are comfortable letting someone you barely know stay in your home? What if I was secretly taking things out of the house and hiding them?" she asks. "If that were the case." He says. "Then there would be a lot more than a receipt for groceries hiding behind that box." Yami says.
Sighing she leans up against the sink. "What do I have to do to make you understand?" She mumbles to herself more than to Yami. "You can start by coming with us." He says, overhearing her comment. "But" "No buts!" Yami says. "I thought I told you that earlier." "That doesn't apply here." She says under her breath again. "Yeah, well, it does now." Yami says, walking out of the kitchen.
"Hey Tristan!" he says, noticing the youth talking to grandpa and Joey, Tea with them as well. "Hey yugi!" he says. "So when are we going to get going?" he asks. "As soon as Alyssa is ready." He says. "Ahh, I knew you could convince her, you old dog." Joey says, pulling Yugi into a headlock in the crook of his arm and giving him noogies. Yami laughed as he watched Yugi struggle to get out of Joey's playful hold before Joey released him, while Yugi gave him a look for pulling that switch without warning. "Good going pharaoh." Yugi says, with a smiling, playfully angry look on his face. "Reeeaaal Mature."
-- A servant closes the door behind her as Alyssa once more steps into the bed chambers of Pharaoh Atemu Yami Yugi, her shell in her hands, clutched at her chest. "Have you had a good day?" the pharaoh inquires politely. "Yes…thank you." She says, bowing in front of him. "It was very nice." She says, straightening up. "I've been wondering and waiting all day for this." He says. She registers that it is almost the same thing as before, and can't make out if he is just trying to be polite, is sincere, or possibly something else. "I hope that you will be pleased then, my Lord." She says nervously. He smiles at her, though she does not see because her eyes are once more averted to the floor. "Shall I start then, my Lord she asks after a moment." "Please do." He says, gesturing to her that she can begin. And once more she raises the magical shell to her lips…
And lo! The gods had seen fit to grace her fingers once more with the gift of song. If the last one had been tales of flight and of sunrise, of caverns and sunset, then this one was most surely the journey of a grain of sand throughout the never ending echoes of time, swirling in the wind, shrouded by the mists of eternity and yet lighted by the ideas of mortality. And just at the crest of activity, the song stopped, and slowed, until finally coming to rest under the shady leaves of a palm.
Clapping the Pharaoh remarked "You always have such merry and yet thoughtful tunes. How is it that you do it?" "I do not know, my Lord." She says. "I can only assume that it is the one gift that the gods have seen fit to give me, and may they all be blessed for that, for they have much blessed me." "Fine words." The Pharaoh says. "And a fine song as well!" At this she blushes and mutters what she hopes to be a gracious thank you.
"Have you another?" He asks her. "Well…no." She says sheepishly. "It took me all day to think up this one. And…the only other one I know is the song you heard last night." "That song never grows old." The pharaoh says. "If you wouldn't mind, it would be my honor to hear you perform it once more." "Oh no, my Lord." She says to him. "The honor is all mine." And she set her instrument in position and let the soothing spirit of the song glide out from underneath her fingertips, once more painting the morning sky with the fire of the rising sun, as the waterfalls continuously fell until the bluest sky faded into evening, the sun beginning its journey through the perils of darkness once more. And again, the room was silent when she finished. And again, she nervously awaited some form of commentary, good or bad. Receiving none, she began to repeat her excuse from the other day. She vaguely recalled thinking up one or two earlier that day, but she could not seem to recall them now. "I forgot-" "Would you-" They said at the same time. "You first." He says. "No, you." She says, smiling slightly.
"I was going to ask if you would come here tomorrow night as well. If, you weren't planning on anything else, that is." "That would be fine…though…" "You are out of songs again?" Feeling her cheeks getting warm again, she merely nods her head. "Hmm." Yami thinks. "How long does it take you to come up with a song?" He asks. "Well…I don't know. I only write them in my spare time." Hesitating, she glances around the room quickly. "I guess…that…if my Pharaoh wished to hear me play…that I might be able to…to use another day to practice." At this the Pharaoh lights up. "That would be splendid! I look forward to seeing you." "Then until tomorrow, my Lord." She says, bowing and turning to leave. "Wait." He calls out to her. Once more, the nervous fear that he might ask her not to return haunts her. "Earlier, you were about to say something." "Oh." She says. "Uh…I forgot…I forgot what it was I was going to say." She says. "Oh. Well, should you ever remember, I'll be here." The Pharaoh says. "Thank you, my Lord." She says. Once more she bows to the Pharaoh as he sits upon his bed, and leaves the room.