نفرین آرامگاه مومیایی فصل 6

The Curse Of The Mummy’s Tomb - Chapter 6

I uttered a silent gasp.

I froze.

I felt a cold chill zigzag down my back.

The lid slowly pushed open another inch.

The eyes stared out at me. Cold eyes. Evil eyes.

Ancient eyes.

My mouth dropped open. And before I even realized it, I started to scream.

Scream at the top of my lungs.

As I screamed, unable to turn away, unable to run, unable to move, the lid slid open all the way.

Slowly, as if in a dream, a dark figure raised itself from the depths of the mummy case and climbed out.

“Sari!”

A broad smile widened across her face. Her eyes glowed gleefully.

“Sari—that wasn’t funny!” I managed to shout in a high-pitched voice that bounced off the stone walls.

But now she was laughing too hard to hear me.

Loud, scornful laughter.

I was so furious, I searched frantically for something to throw at her. But there wasn’t anything, not even a pebble on the floor.

Staring at her, my chest still heaving from my fright, I really hated her then. She had made a total fool of me. There I had been, screaming like a baby.

I knew she’d never let me live it down.

Never.

“The look on your face!” she exclaimed when she finally stopped laughing. “I wish I had a camera.” I was too angry to reply. I just growled at her.

I pulled the little mummy hand from my back pocket and began rolling it around in my hand. I always fiddled with that hand when I was upset. It usually helped to calm me.

But now I felt as if I’d never calm down.

“I told you I’d found an empty mummy case yesterday,” she said, brushing the hair back off her face. “Didn’t you remember?” I growled again.

I felt like a total dork.

First I’d fallen for her dad’s stupid mummy costume. And now this.

Silently to myself I vowed to pay her back. If it was the last thing I ever did.

She was still chuckling about her big-deal joke.

“The look on your face,” she said again, shaking her head. Rubbing it in.

“You wouldn’t like it if I scared you,” I muttered angrily.

“You couldn’t scare me,” she replied. “I don’t scare so easy.”

“Hah!”

That was the best comeback I could think of. Not very clever, I know. But I was too angry to be clever.

I was imagining myself picking Sari up and tossing her back into the mummy case, pulling down the lid, and locking it—when I heard footsteps approaching in the tunnel.

Glancing over at Sari, I saw her expression change. She heard them, too.

A few seconds later, Uncle Ben burst into the small room. I could see immediately, even in the dim light, that he was really angry.

“I thought I could trust you two,” he said, talking through gritted teeth.

“Dad—” Sari started.

But he cut her off sharply. “I trusted you not to wander off without telling me. Do you know how easy it is to get lost in this place? Lost forever?” “Dad,” Sari started again. “I was just showing Gabe this room I discovered yesterday. We were going to come right back. Really.” “There are hundreds of tunnels,” Uncle Ben said heatedly, ignoring Sari’s explanation. “Maybe thousands. Many of them have never been explored. No one has ever been in this section of the pyramid before. We have no idea what dangers there are. You two can’t just wander off by yourselves. Do you know how frantic I was when I turned around and you were gone?” “Sorry,” Sari and I both said in unison.

“Let’s go,” Uncle Ben said, gesturing to the door with his flashlight. “Your pyramid visit is over for today.” We followed him into the tunnel. I felt really bad. Not only had I fallen for Sari’s stupid joke, but I’d made my favorite uncle really angry.

Sari always gets me into trouble, I thought bitterly. Since we were little kids.

Now she was walking ahead of me, arm in arm with her dad, telling him something, her face close to his ear. Suddenly they both burst out laughing and turned back to look at me.

I could feel my face getting hot.

I knew what she’d told him.

She’d told him about hiding in the mummy case and making me scream like a scared baby. And now they were both chuckling about what a jerk I was.

“Merry Christmas to you, too!” I called bitterly.

And that made them laugh even harder.

We spent the night back in the hotel in Cairo. I beat Sari in two straight games of Scrabble, but it didn’t make me feel any better.

She kept complaining that she had only vowels, and so the games weren’t fair. Finally, I put my Scrabble set back in my room, and we sat and stared at the TV.

The next morning, we had breakfast in the room. I ordered pancakes, but they didn’t taste like any pancakes I’d ever eaten. They were tough and grainy, as if they were made of cowhide or something.

“What are we doing today?” Sari asked Uncle Ben, who was still yawning and stretching after two cups of black coffee.

“I have an appointment at the Cairo Museum,” he told us, glancing at his wristwatch. “It’s just a couple of blocks away. I thought you two might like to wander around the museum while I have my meeting.” “Ooh, thrills and chills,” Sari said sarcastically. She slurped up another spoonful of Frosted Flakes.

The little Frosted Flakes box had Arabic writing all over it, and Tony the Tiger was saying something in Arabic. I wanted to save it and take it home to show my friends. But I knew Sari would make fun of me if I asked her for it, so I didn’t.

“The museum has an interesting mummy collection, Gabe,” Uncle Ben said to me. He tried to pour himself a third cup of coffee, but the pot was empty. “You’ll like it.” “Unless they climb out of their cases,” Sari said.

Lame. Really lame.

I stuck my tongue out at her. She tossed a wet Frosted Flake across the table at me.

“When are my mom and dad getting back?” I asked Uncle Ben. I suddenly realized I missed them.

He started to answer, but the phone rang. He walked into the bedroom and picked it up. It was an old-fashioned black telephone with a dial instead of buttons. As he talked, his face filled with concern.

“Change of plans,” he said a few seconds later, hanging up the receiver and coming back into the living room.

“What’s the matter, Daddy?” Sari asked, shoving her cereal bowl away.

“It’s very strange,” he replied, scratching the back of his head. “Two of my workers came down sick last night. Some kind of mysterious illness.” His expression became thoughtful, worried. “They took them to a hospital here in Cairo.” He started to gather up his wallet and some other belongings. “I think I’d better get over there right away,” he said.

“But what about Gabe and me?” Sari asked, glancing at me.

“I’ll only be gone an hour or so,” her dad replied. “Stay here in the room, okay?” “In the room?” Sari cried, making it sound like a punishment.

“Well, okay. You can go down to the lobby, if you want. But don’t leave the hotel.” A few minutes later, he pulled on his tan safari jacket, checked one last time to make sure he had his wallet and keys, and hurried out the door.

Sari and I stared at each other glumly. “What do you want to do?” I asked, poking the cold, uneaten pancakes on my plate with a fork.

Sari shrugged. “Is it hot in here?”

I nodded. “Yeah. It’s about a hundred and twenty.”

“We have to get out of here,” she said, standing up and stretching.

“You mean go down to the lobby?” I asked, still poking the pancakes, pulling them into pieces with the fork.

“No. I mean get out of here,” she replied. She walked over to the mirror in the entranceway and began brushing her straight, black hair.

“But Uncle Ben said—” I started.

“We won’t go far,” she said, and then quickly added, “if you’re afraid.” I made a face at her. I don’t think she saw me. She was busy admiring herself in the mirror.

“Okay,” I told her. “We could go to the museum. Your dad said it was just a block away.” I was determined not to be the wimp anymore. If she wanted to disobey her dad and go out, fine with me. From now on, I decided, I’ll be the macho guy. No repeats of yesterday—ever again.

“The museum?” She made a face. “Well… okay,” she said, turning to look at me. “We’re twelve, after all. It’s not like we’re babies. We can go out if we want.” “Yes, we can,” I said. “I’ll write Uncle Ben a note and tell him where we’re going, in case he gets back before we do.” I went over to the desk and picked up a pen and a small pad of paper.

“If you’re afraid, Gabey, we can just walk around the block,” she said in a teasing voice, staring at me, waiting to see how I’d react.

“No way,” I said. “We’re going to the museum. Unless you’re afraid.”

“No way,” she said, imitating me.

“And don’t call me Gabey,” I added.

“Gabey, Gabey, Gabey,” she muttered, just to be annoying.

I wrote the note to Uncle Ben. Then we took the elevator down to the lobby. We asked a young woman behind the desk where the Cairo Museum was. She said to turn right outside the hotel and walk two blocks.

Sari hesitated as we stepped out into the bright sunshine. “You sure you’re up for this?” “What could go wrong?” I replied.