The incantation to get us back home was much shorter than the one that got us to Sumer. We didn't even have to look at it again to remember the words. I guess we had all mentally memorized it just in case something happened to the book. We stood in front of King Gilgamesh and recited it.

The history we sought to live

Has reach its full conclusion

Return us to our time and place

Without so much confusion

I kept my eyes on the king wanting to see him for as long as possible. I was expecting to go through the same falling, sliding, screaming routine that got us here, but all that happened is that my eyes got really heavy and I felt like I needed to sleep. As soon as my head touched the table, I jolted it back up. My first thought was that I had fallen asleep in class and was going to get in trouble with the teacher. It took a few seconds to realize that I was in the library with Tommy and Nicky.

"What just…" Nicky started to ask when Tommy pulled the book from his pocket. He looked at the last page and we all saw where I had torn a section out for our placemarker.

"It was real," Tommy said turning the book over in his hands.

I looked from Tommy to Nicky then back. I wanted to say something, but I wasn't sure what.

"There you are," Nicky's dad said walking up to the table. "Did you guys find everything you need for your report?"

"What?" Nicky said looking at his dad with a stunned look on his face.

"Gilgamesh, your report, did you find everything you need?" he repeated.

"Yes," I said softly, "I think we got everything."

"Do you need to check out any of these books?" his dad continued.

"I think we've got it Dad," Nicky told him then stood. "We should put these books back."

"I'll take care of that," the librarian that showed Nicky the special book says, as he reaches for the books. "Did you want to copy anything from that book, Sir?"

"What?" Nicky asked still a little confused.

"The book in your hand, did you want to copy anything?"

Nicky looked at me then at Tommy. It was Tommy that nodded his head and grinned.

"Yes please," Nicky then told the librarian who led him over to the copier.

Tommy and I stood in complete silence, which was totally unlike us.

"You two are being awfully quiet. Have you guys been up to no good?" Nicky's dad asked us.

"We've been good," Tommy assured him, as Nicky returns to the table sticking the folded copies he made into his pocket.

"We should get home and start writing before we forget what happened," Nicky suggested.

"Yeah, we have a lot of writing to do," I agreed.

"Let's go," Nicky's dad said then led us out to the car.

We stayed quiet the whole way home. Mostly because we didn't want to say anything in front of Nicky's father. As we climbed from the car at home, Nicky told his dad he'd be with me writing the paper now.

"Don't make her do all the work," his dad called after us.

"Won't promise," he called back then we were running up the stairs. Once we got to my bedroom, Nicky said, "So we all agree we were really there?"

"I've got sand," Tommy said pulling his pocket out and letting it dust off onto my deck.

"We need to keep that," I told them getting a sheet of paper to catch it all in. We started helping each other, so we would get as much as possible. Afterward we sat down and started talking. I typed as we went. Normally I wouldn't have let Tommy pester me while I was doing homework, but this was a special case. Tommy was so involved in the research that I thought he deserved to help write the paper. It all came rushing out of us so fast, that I had to get them to slow down a couple of times to give me a chance to catch up on the typing. By the time Mom got home from shopping a couple of hours later, we had over six pages of detail.

"Hi guys," Mom said when she came to my door. "How'd the research go?"

I couldn't get past the fact that somehow we came back to the exact time we left even though we were in Sumer for days. It dawned on me that without so much confusion eliminated our having to explain where we had been all that time, because unless we told them, no one would even know we were gone.

"It was good," Tommy told her.

"Really you helped?" she asked with a chuckle.

"Like you wouldn't believe," I told her with a smile.

"Well dinner will be in an hour," she said then left us to continue our work.

"Are you going to put my name on the paper when you turn it in?" Tommy asked after she was gone.

"Yes," Nicky answered for us. I was glad he did. I wanted to give Tommy the credit he deserved even if he wouldn't get a grade for it. By the time dinner was ready, we thought we had everything down on paper. We agreed to look it over after dinner to see if we forgot anything then tomorrow we would work it into our report.

Nicky's dad came upstairs and we all had dinner together. We were trying to act casual like it was a normal day, but I noticed that Nicky's dad kept looking at him like he was trying to figure something out. When he finally said something I thought I was going to die.

"Son, how did you get sun burnt in the library?"

"What?" Nicky asked and I could tell he was thinking; how do I get out of this.

"We sat outside on the patio and read," Tommy said quickly covering for him.

"That must explain why you look more tan than normal," my mom told me.

"Must," I agreed and shot Tommy a thank you look.

After dinner, we excused ourselves to return to our writing. As soon as we got to my room, Nicky said, "Oh man, I didn't know how answer that. Thanks Tommy."

"No prob," Tommy said.

"We all agree that we can't tell them the truth right? I mean they wouldn't believe us for one, and if on some off chance that they did, they would never let us do it again," I said.

"I agree," Tommy said. He's never agreed with me on anything that quickly.

"Me too," Nicky said, "Dad would freak if he thought we really did that."

We decided to read through what we wrote earlier. Nicky volunteered to read it out loud while we made little tweaks. Once we finished, I printed a copy for each of us, then we called it a day. I for one really wanted a hot shower and clean underwear.