Egyptian Moon Book1: Return

Partial - Chapter 2

Maybe the color of the doors formed the crust of my edginess. Why red doors? Did it stand for Bloody Room, or Murdered by Zombies? To calm my emotions, I breathed in and kept a firm grip on Tyler’s hand, trying to think about anything other than Frankenstein and zombies. How did I ever let Dad talk me into this Plan ‘B’?

I forced myself to concentrate on every move Dr. Brogan made. Getting the door to open was a complicated process, involving keys and keypads. After he’d tapped out a tune on the keypad, he inserted a separate key for each door. When he’d unlocked them, he left them closed and turned to us. A smile of pride and accomplishment shadowed his face.

Something in my gut twisted in a painful bunch. Was it because I couldn’t understand how this man could seem so all right when faced with what Dad had confirmed to him this morning—his wife had an inoperable brain tumor and would probably not live past three months.

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Tyler and I clung to each other, looking back at that lump of freeze-dried beef jerky body, totally convinced that it could still hurt us. “Didn’t I tell you they torture slaves down here? That thing looks like a black man who’s been tortured to death. Man, I’m ready to get the hell outta here.”

I managed a low-keyed giggle at Tyler. “It’s an Egyptian mummy, Tyler, not your great-great-granddaddy,” I teased.

“Yeah, well, it just might be my great-great-granddaddy, after he’d been tortured to death.”

Dr. Brogan chose a table away from the mummy. “Okay, okay, I’ve moved Megan to a workstation further away from our new acquisition.” He laughed while Tyler glanced back at the mummy before helping me onto a stool that felt like soft leather. I leaned back and the chair formed to the contour of my back. “Tyler, you stay with her and when she feels steady enough, you guys can join us on the tour. Don’t touch these tablets, okay? We’re still working to authenticate and we don’t know how fragile they are.”

We both agreed not to touch.

I propped my elbow on the table and braced my forehead with my hand. I jumped when an unexpected touch from Mom’s soft hand combed through my hair. “Feeling better?”

“Yeah, Mom.” I prayed she wouldn’t start up again. No such luck. “Good, good, now tell me what happened back there?”

“Nothing. God, Ma, I just stumbled and said a few curse words and then I said a few other words so you wouldn’t know I had cursed,” I lied. I already told her the truth—that I didn’t know what she was talking about, which technically, I didn’t, because I had no idea what they saw me do, but I wasn’t about to tell Katie Smart that. With her new career, she’d attempt to hypnotize an answer out of me. I blinked twice.

“I don’t know if I believe—”

“Aw, come on, Katie Girl, let’s take a look at this fascinating junk Daniel has in here. Meg’s fine and Tyler’s staying with her.”

Putting on his peacemaker hat, Dad soothed the troubled waters, although Mom raised her brow at Tyler staying at the table with me. Under protest, Mom finally left me and Tyler e and went with the men.

Mom barely tolerated Tyler when we were supposed to be just friends. Since our relationship blossomed into much more than she ever hoped it would, Mom despised him.

Tyler was beating the odds for a black coming out of poverty. He’d left for MNU last year and would be a sophomore when I started my freshman year there in a couple of days.

Mom knew I’d planned to attend MNU, graduate with a bachelor’s degree, and then apply for their law school. Tyler and I had chosen MNU for two separate reasons. MNU offered him the best athletic scholarship program while offering me access to the greatest law school in the nation. Of course, Mom saw it differently—just a chance for us to do our thing with no supervision.