I stared at Kasha. “B-but I was a date farmer in Greece! I couldn’t possibly have been—”
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“Yes, you were.”
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“Then how come I don’t remember any of it?”
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“That’s the question I’m asking, too. I don’t know.”
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“So who are you if I’m Tutankhamun?”
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“I was Ankhesenamun.” There was a hint of distaste in Kasha’s voice, but I was too fired up to care.
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“Who the hell is th—?”
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She sighed. “If you don’t stop asking questions, I might just throw you out of the car.”
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I shut up after that. I didn’t doubt that she would.
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It really was amazing the kinds of things Kasha could pull out of her sleeve. At the airport, she revealed that she already had reserved and paid for two seats from New York to Egypt, and had somehow magicked up fake passports. Her only response when I looked at her quizzically was: “I made preparations” and a vague shrug. I quickly learned that all I had to do was go along with it and try not to look like I had no idea what I was doing.
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Finally, when we were settled uncomfortably in economy class, I bombarded Kasha with demands for explanation. She just sat quietly through it all, pretending not to hear me. Or, at least, I hoped she was pretending. Maybe she had just died right next to me. She stayed so still, it was an easy mistake. I, on the other hand, finally got a nice four hours of sleep.
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Once we arrived in Egypt, however, she sprang into action. Somehow, sometime, she had already booked a suite in a hotel and had made reservations for the restaurants.
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“How did you do all this?” I asked in awe as we ate a delicious breakfast in a bustling restaurant.
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“It’s complicated,” she said. “Mostly a lot of research and hoping that things would go according to plan.”
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“You had a plan?”
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“Of course,” Kasha retorted, scowling at me over her omelet. “You’re the only person other than me that reincarnates. I didn’t want to lose you. Besides, if I hadn’t gone to you, where would you be? Nowhere good, I can promise you that.”
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I had plenty of time to think once the day was over and I was feigning sleep in a downy bed. Kasha had insisted on sightseeing for today, which I had disliked; it had always been boring and meticulous for me, even when I was 10 years old as a Greek farmer named Athan.
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That reminded me.
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Tutankhamun.
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The name sounded foreign to me, and so did the person who owned it. He was the pharaoh of Egypt four thousand years ago. Not exactly relatable. According to Kasha, however, I used to be him. And she was, who? Ankhesenamun? From what I knew, she was the half-sister and wife of Tutankhamun. If it was true, then I was a whole lot more familiar with her than I had known. As I stared up at the ceiling, I shivered. I knew I couldn’t sleep. My thoughts were too crowded and I was too awake for that to happen.
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With a sigh, I got up and padded over to Kasha’s room. It was empty, for some inexplicable reason. I suppose she had gone out to stare at a leaf and contemplate its secrets, but one could never tell. From what I knew, she was always changing, always taking her identity and molding it into the best form for her situation. It wasn’t adaptability. It was a series of costume after costume that she was excellent at wearing. I understood. Four thousand years could do anything to you.
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I looked at a rickety wooden table, where Kasha’s laptop sat innocently. I opened it up, feeling slightly apprehensive, but I breathed a sigh of relief when all I saw was a normal login screen. The only problem was getting in. I racked my brain, thinking up possible passwords. I wanted to think up as many as I could before trying to get in. Ankhesenamun. Tutankhamun. Reincarnate. Kasha didn’t seem like the type of person to make it fancy, so I didn’t have to go too far to come up with anything. I typed Ankhesenamun first. What I got was a message saying “Incorrect password. Please try again”. Next I tried my name, but the same thing happened. As with the rest of my password arsenal. I was about to give up when a voice from the door said, “It’s ‘the burren’. With a space.”
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I whirled around. Kasha stood with her arms crossed in the doorway. Her arms were crossed and her face was set in an amused smirk. She waved.
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“Go on. Type it in.”
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I did, looking slightly ridiculous as I stared straight at the screen, knees slightly bent. When I pressed enter, all I saw was...a tree. It looked like her background was a large, green tree, but there was nothing else on her screen. Turning around, I raised my eyebrows at her, and she strode over to to the table.
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“You should know how to work a computer,” she said, pressing a key and revealing a normal desktop with numerous files. “It’s an important skill. But the question is,”—Kasha swiveled her head to glare at me—”what the hell were you doing in here, anyway?”
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“I couldn’t sleep,” I said defensively.
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“All right.” Without another word, she spun on her heel and strode out the door, leaving me relieved but slightly confused.
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I shrugged and turned to the laptop, opening up a new window. The Google screen popped up. I drummed my hands on the keyboard, not knowing where to start. Finally, after two minutes, I entered “Tutankhamun” into the rectangle and pressed enter. Hundreds of thousands of results popped up. The mind-boggling thing was that they were all about me, or at least about a part of my past. Shaking my head, I clicked on a random one. It had information I knew already from a lecture in one of my college classes (I usually took History even though I had experienced much of it in person), so I clicked on another one. It held the same facts.
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Throughout the night, I found many articles, but none had any real merit. With a sigh, I closed the laptop and shuffled back to my room. Plopping onto my bed, I felt the beginnings of exhaustion. It was the result of pulling an all-nighter on four hours of sleep, which, if you think about it, is not the best idea.
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I sank into the bed, letting my eyes close. It was going to be a long day.
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“So what exactly are we doing?”
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Kasha looked at me sideways, jerking her head toward the cab driver and widening her eyes. I got the message: wherever our destination was, she couldn’t explain in front of him. Though it’s not like he would know what we were talking about. At best, we would just look like two confused, bizarre people who thought we were one of the ancient kings of Egypt. Which we were. But they didn’t know that.
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The driver drove roughly, swerving to avoid pedestrians and other cars. Luckily for me, it was milder than Kasha’s driving, so we didn’t have any police arrest us. We got to see the bet areas of town (in which the driver slowed down a little) and the worst (not so much here). I suspected he wanted to give us his idea of a tour, and it was nice, but I was impatient to find out what Kaylee was going. What should’ve taken ten minutes took an hour. During this time, Kasha looked out the window, staring stonily at the passing view. I knew from past experience not to bother her.
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Finally, we came to a stop just outside a dingy apartment building.I got out of the car, stretching my legs. It was made out of what looked like sandstone, which would probably explain its state. There were graffiti marks all over the building, more than anything I had ever seen before. Interesting. All of the buildings around it were more or less clean, which made me slightly confused. Did everyone in this area have a personal vendetta against only the inhabitants of this particular home? I looked across at Kasha, who was standing next to me with a determined look on her face. She turned to (most likely) thank the driver by politely barking out two short syllables. He nodded, then got back into his car and drove away.
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“So what exactly are we doing?” I repeated.
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“I’ll tell you when we get inside,” Kasha said, surveying the land with an odd expression. “Who knows who might be watching?”
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“We’re going in there?”
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“Of course. Why else would we go here?”
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I smirked. “I don’t know, maybe you wanted to sightsee more? Or—”
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All of a sudden, she put her hand up, silencing me. She crept quietly over to the side of the building, then motioned impatiently for me to do the same. So I did, with a measure of bewilderment. No matter how much I looked around, I could not see anybody or anything that could possibly harm us. After a few seconds, I tried a new method of neck-craning. Still nothing. I was about to mention this when both of us were suddenly blown roughly across the street by an invisible explosion. For a second, my world was turned upside down, and then I was flying through the air with the ground rising up to meet me. Shouting, I tumbled head over heels until I came to a stop on the opposite sidewalk. Scratches and bruises dotted my arms and legs, making them throb with pain. I groaned miserably. What was that?
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I stared straight up in a stupor. The clouds hovered above me, making my head spin. I wanted to sleep, just for a little bit, before Kasha found me and—
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I sat up with a start. Kasha. Where was she?
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“Kasha!” I yelled, starting to panic. “Kasha! Where are you?” I staggered to a standing position and lurched around, panting heavily. My head ached from crashing violently into the dirt. When I tried to take a step, my feet went out from underneath me and I tripped very delicately into a pile of camel feces. I scrambled up, breathing hard. After I had regained my balance, I set off in random direction while shouting Kasha’s name. The wind blew sand into my eyes, but I didn’t care. My brain was too much in shock, and I only focused on finding Kasha.
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Ten minutes later, I collapsed to the ground in defeat. She was nowhere to be seen.
