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Road Trip # 11,
"Put Your Mummy
Where Your Mouth Is"
OR
"That's What You Get
For Waking Up In Egypt"
As with all invitations, there is a risk. Sometimes you come away with a happy surprise. Others, you wish you had a brain before you accepted. Often, it's the skills of the "con" that tamper with the odds. In this case, a beautiful Middle Eastern woman.
While out running errands, I was wandering down the aisles of my local grocery store when she appeared before me. I didn't even notice her at first and expected to see a cloud of smoke around her as if she was a genie or some other magical entity. Long, wavy black hair down to the middle of her back with shapely bangs framing her stunning big brown eyes. A few dark freckles on her cheeks like a small constellation. And, a smile that might make any man fall down on his knees and pray she would not stray. She wore a khaki combo fit for desert or safari travel with knee-high black boots. I noticed the nice ethnic watch and bracelet on her one wrist which were uniquely Egyptian in style.
"Good day to you, sir," she began with a tip of her head and a pleasing foreign accent. "My name is Jannat. The name means 'paradise'. And, I have an invitation for you."
She withdrew a small bundle of papers from the neckline of her button-down shirt and handed them to me. Beneath the golden knot of string was a Delta Airlines ticket to Cairo, Egypt.
I gawked at the papers and then threw a curious look at the postal delivery woman.
"It is not a trick. Let me explain everything."
Jannat was on a quest to find an ancient treasure among the pyramids in Giza. She could not tell me the name of said treasure just yet because it had to remain secret til we arrived on course in the desert. She needed a few individuals who were interested in astrology and archeology to aid her in the search. How I became involved started with her noticing my face and guessing my Western astrological sun sign. [She also claimed to be a friend of Nadia's("Road Trip #7"). So, tricky dialogue came with the pretty package.] Everything she said told me I was in for trouble, and yet I was so full of fiery ambition that I couldn't refuse. [I felt like Indiana Jones leaving his class for adventure.]
A few days later, I was on a two-stop plane trip to Cairo. There I met my team of seven rugged, edgy and possibly cutthroat men. All but two looked Middle Eastern. I was one of them. The other was a tall, slim, pale-faced gent with round glasses and lemon-yellow hair greased into shape atop his head. He was dressed in white with a brown briefcase in his hands. His watch resembled the one Jannat was wearing when I met her. The other "dirtier" men made me afraid for my life. But, the clean-cut guy made me fear everything and anything else.
One man with a dark complexion, a bristled mustache under a pear-shape nose and sloppy black hair approached me as my eyes locked onto our host who was talking to an airport security guard. I felt his breath on my face as I turned and looked up into his fierce, dark eyes.
"She is MINE! And, mine alone. Yes?!"
I struggled to find words in the face of the raging bull and simply nodded with a shrug. I, in fact, had my own interest in the woman(even though I knew very little thus far). But, I would watch my words til I had a better opportunity to speak again with her. As the aggressor rejoined his fellow natives, the others muttered objections and the whole group butted elbows with each other.
I noticed Jannat and the guard pausing their chat to look over at us. She made eye contact with me, smiled and then looked away as she fingered a river of raven hair over her left ear.
A smaller and far less accommodating local plane carried me and the others(the nine of us men, including the man in white, and Jannat) to a nameless location in or near Giza with an array of tents swaying in the desert wind. From the moment I stepped off the plane, I could feel the desert heat and sand beating upon my face and hear camels moaning nearby. A number of men dressed like the shepherds or "wise men" of a Nativity set at Christmas gave us visitors stern looks as they tended their appointed duties. I noticed there were now twelve of us "guests" gathered beside the plane. Each wearing an identical golden cardboard wristband from the bundles of papers we were given. [You'd think we were on a paid tour instead of a treasure hunt.]
Jannat appeared(again, from out of nowhere) and began directing the natives to ready the camels.
"We'll be on our way in no time. Save the pleasantries for later. We make camp at dawn."
She sounded so forceful as if she was a military leader. I suddenly felt like a tiny, cowardly soldier in her army.
"Why couldn't we just take jeeps or hummers or something?" asked one grizzly man with narrow eyes, pork chop sideburns that looked like tusks on a warthog and either a Spanish or Italian quality to his voice.
Jannat marched over to him, looked down at his feet and then grabbed him by the collar of his wrinkled grey shirt.
"Because we did not BRING any. Besides...it is a cost factor. I was able to haggle for all this at a bargain price. You should be thanking me that I didn't make you walk."
[At the moment, you might not think this was a road trip. But, once we were riding high atop our camels and trekking across the desert, you could see the well-worn path in the sand. Definitely a road of sorts.]
As it turned out, Jannat did bring a small jeep(for herself) and led the procession. I didn't think much of it til we had travelled what felt like a few miles. [In reality, it was almost a single mile.] Luckily, I had packed a breatheable white sunhat with a green cloth band. Avoiding eye contact with the accompanying natives wearing blue-and-white striped tarps over their heads, I took full advantage of the canteens strung to my camel but tried not to lose my sense of moderation for the sake of survival. Still, I was craving a hamburger around that time. But, such thoughts would have to wait.
Periodically along the route, Jannat's dusty brown and sage green jeep drove beside the caravan as if surveying her male "contestants". That is the feeling I began to have from proximity to the other men. They all seemed to take an interest in her. And, she seemed content being the ring master of the circus. The only thing she was missing was a whip.
At one point, she pulled beside my camel and told my guides something in their native tongue. They then halted the pack animal and offered me a hand to dismount. I noticed a few of the other men in my group looking back at me. [If I could see better, I am sure their faces would have expressed intense anger and/or jealousy from her attention to me.] Squinting as I peered through the reflective window before me, my eyes met with those of the man in white in the driver seat. He simply stared back as if I was a fly on his windshield. Then, as I looked past him, I saw Jannat waving to me.
"Get in," she said plainly.
Removing my sunhat to fan myself, I climbed in the backseat and watched the men in blue-and-white hoods guide my camel along the route. Then, both the blond man and Jannat turned to face me.
"I thought you might like a little break from the desert sun as you are not used to its fury."
"That was...rather kind of you," I replied with hesitation, still wondering why I had been granted such courtesy and when it might be taken back from me.
"Here. Have some of this," she added, handing me a canteen wrapped in a silky reddish fabric. [As she leaned over the headrest, I gawked for half a second at the plunging neckline of the red top hugging her ample, freckled bosom beneath the coarse crumpled fabric of her khaki button-down shirt. The way her wavy, raven hair danced over her seat made me sleepy and my heart flutter.] "It beats the local water."
As I gulped down what tasted like lemonade, she took the time to explain her mission. A fabled artifact of eternal youth once belonging to a famous princess now buried somewhere among the pyramids. It was tied to a legend laced with astrological metaphors. Thus, she picked me for assistance. [Was I to assume the other men were "hired" only for their muscle?] She proceeded to ask questions regarding astrology. Every answer made her smile and/or laugh with delight. I was pleased to learn that our signs were, in fact, rather compatible. I felt as if we were bonding in some unusual way. A fire was lit. But, the moment I made eye contact with the man behind the wheel, the flame was extinguished by an icy chill in the air. [Or, maybe, it was the jeep's air conditioning system.]
Surprisingly, once I had had my fill of liquid refreshment, I was not sent back outside. Instead, I continued to ride with Jannat til she ordered the clean-cut man in white to stop the car. The sun seemed to vanish from the sky as she darted outside and began talking to a thin, dark-skinned man missing a few teeth and wearing a white turban who kept pointing in different directions with his bony fingers. It took me a few minutes to realize we were less than fifty feet from the base of a pyramid. I pressed my face against the glass to my right and hurt my own eyes looking past the reflected light at the decaying stone peak.
"She's quite a woman. Isn't she?" asked the man in white with a British voice that gave me goosebumps.
I turned but did not look him in the eye.
"Uh...yeah. She sure is."
"You know...I feel like I've practically known her since she was a child. Jannat has been a pet project of mine. I know all about her from dislikes to hobbies to what she likes for breakfast every morning. You'd be wise to ask me anything while we have this chance to talk. Otherwise, you might not get such a chance ever again."
Those last few words made the entire jeep flood with darkness. I thought my skin would crawl off my body in terror. It took all of my inner strength not to say or do anything foolish. However, the sweat glands in my armpits were saying plenty.
"In fact, I have plans for her and I when this trip is over. You can have what's left when I'm done. That is...if the other men in this bunch don't tear you apart first."
[Wasn't it bad enough he had already made me sweat profusely? Did he have to make me want to cry for help, too?]
It was all too calculated. He was up to something. And, the moment I tried to tell Jannat she was in danger, he would likely deny the whole thing and put ME in danger. But, I had to warn her somehow if I cared for her in any way.
"If" being a key word. I truly was infatuated. But, a small part of me still didn't know what to make of her. She was just as sly and direct as her pale-faced companion. [But, why was I giving it any thought when I was simply on a quest to aid her in finding this treasure of hers? That and taking a "once-in-a-lifetime" chance to see Egypt. When it was over, I'd go back home and suck on the remaining traces of memories like a quickly dissolving hard candy wafer.]
As I pondered my situation with a throbbing brow, Jannat rejoined us.
"Okay. Once we get the others rounded up, we will start pitching tents and have something to eat. Bring a lantern from in back. This is it, gentlemen."
I stepped out beside her and bumped elbows before making eye contact. We both smiled. Hers was considerably more confident. I blushed and looked away before noticing she had further unbuttoned her shirt to reveal the red tank top underneath. Her hair blew across my face a few times before I stepped a few feet to her right. Again, my armpits squirted in fear as I looked over my shoulder. The man in white, who continued to remain nameless, appeared to MY right.
"I forgot to introduce myself!" he blared over the whistle of a desert wind. "'Call me Dwight! Dwight Rockafeller."
I didn't respond. I refused to give him my name. But, I suspected he already knew. I just bobbed my head and followed Jannat to a spot where two native men were setting up her tent. When it was ready, we sat together on wooden crates and took a moment to chat(at her request).
She slapped her right hand over my left thigh.
"You see that one over there with the slightly darker tip as if it has been burnt off by the sun?"
"Yea? So?"
"THAT is where we are headed. Your astrological clues were quite helpful. You should be pleased to be so close to all of this. Does it not make your blood boil with excitement?"
[At the time, the thought of blood boiling was not one I cared to entertain.]
Rather than prattle on about the details of the search, I insisted she talk to me about the others. Especially, Dwight Rockafeller. As we talked, a couple of the native assistants she had hired(not the men travelling with me by plane)
"What is it about him that troubles you?"
"Well, what do you really know about the guy? He seems...claims he knows all about you."
"I feel as if have known him since I was a chiiild," she said, tipping her head to one side as she looked in the blond man's direction. "But, I first met him just less than a year ago while on an excavation in Peru. He took me by surprise and told me that he knew what I was looking for. Ever since, we have remained in close contact."
At that moment, I realized that the man in white didn't appear much older than Jannat herself. [How could he possibly have known her since she was a child and yet look her age?] My appetite waned. I put down the hunk of pita bread and vegetable sandwich in my hand, wiped my face with the back of the wrist and then excused myself.
"Where are you going?!" gasped Jannat with an outstretched hand before slowly retracting it as if she had a lapse in thought.
Looking down at her sitting upon that crate, I saw the look of a child watching her father walk away in her eyes. Her silky black hair in little pigtails tied with red ribbons. I stood wavering for a moment and then sat beside her, once more. I didn't know what to expect nor what more we could say.
Then, the grizzly man who had previously confessed his "undying devotion" to Jannat appeared with a few of the other "guests" behind him. They all shared expressions of fury upon seeing us together. The lead "grunt" kept wiping the sweat from his face while huffing heated breaths and cursing at me in a foreign language.
Jannat stepped up and put the ogre in his place, speaking his language. I swore she was going to punch him in the face the way she reared her right hand into a tight fist. The man then silenced himself and looked deep into her eyes as if hypnotized. He threw one last cold look at me--gesturing the knife across the throat--and then mumbled to his cohorts as they retreated.
Her chest heaved with every heated breath. Her lips were wet with spit. Looking at the aggression in Jannat's face--her body language--I felt a strangely strong attraction to her. It was like a scent in the air driving me mad. She looked back at me with tiger's eyes. At any moment, the tension between us could have broken.
"Can I...get you something to drink?" I asked in a rare moment of forward courtesy.
"No!" she snapped, shaking her head as she came out of a trance. "But, thanks. Thanks for...offering."
Ever since the day we first met, I kept getting little vibes of her interest in me. But, something always seemed to pull her back into a box of secrets and privacy. It was not shyness. No. There was something she was not telling me. And, I wasn't sure I'd ever learn the answer to that riddle.
One of the men who had visited a short time ago--a local--reappeared and conveyed a message to her. This made her cackle with joy and kiss him on the cheek in gratitude.
"What is it?" I asked plainly(though I had a hunch).
"They found it! Your companions have served me well! Come! We go inside!"
It seemed our "long" journey was having a rather abrupt ending. Our first day "on the job", and already we had found that for which we came. [Was I wrong to be suspicious?]
I stayed at her side as everyone in the caravan made their way up the touristic scaffolding to a square entrance. There Jannat insisted I go ahead of her as she watched over the rest of the troop. She promised not to stay too far behind and catch up with me later. The initial tunnel grew dark fast. And, I couldn't see anything for a minute. Then, I saw the trail of lanterns glowing with a greenish yellow light and a handful of men edging through the narrow passageway running around the perimeter of the pyramid. I could hear voices echo along with footsteps.
"Don't worry," whispered Jannat from somewhere to my rear. "I'm right behind you."
Eventually, I found the hole the men had made in a wall covered with hieroglyphics which was just big enough for a larger person to slide down to the lower floor. I hesitated in squatting til one man I couldn't see nudged me with a grunt.
[I expected him to say "Enjoy the ride!" or something of that nature.]
After plummetting on my back for a few seconds, I slipped out onto a hard stone floor and twisted my left knee. Luckily, I didn't hit the ground too hard. But, now it hurt to get up and walk. I decided to remain strong and carry on along the marked path. There were only two men ahead of me, now. And, the turns seemed to be getting shorter.
Just when I was beginning to relax, I heard a peep behind me.
"Hi!" rasped Jannat with a silly grin.
My bones nearly jumped out of their skin. I thought we might have a moment alone with each other til we heard a loud cry from somewhere in the "maze" ahead. And then, another. With just a little push from the lovely Middle Eastern explorer, I started shuffling a little faster along the marked route til I noticed just one man ahead of me with fear in his eyes. It was the one who had become fiercely angry with me over Jannat. He looked as if he had seen all his friends die in person.
"You!" he huffed, turning his fear into fury, yet again.
But, before he could lash out at me, we both heard another man cry out. The feverish ogre before me turned and bellowed, "I've got to get out of here! This place is cursed!"
He started to run towards me and then spun back toward the other direction. A minute after he vanished around the next turn, I heard his voice trail off sharply, as well. Looking back, I didn't see Jannat. I retraced my steps a short distance before realizing she had vanished. Now, I was alone and terrified. I felt short of breath. But, I had to make a decision. I had to choose a path and, obviously, avoid the pitfall/s the others had found.
Believing reverse was my only option, I continued along the path back the way I came. But, the path had changed. I knew it. Or, I had forgotten how it went. Now, I was simply walking in the dark with a single lantern in hand, finding my own way around with few if any alternatives. It seemed a futile cause. And, just when fear had dug its cold, breath-taking fingers into the pit of my heart, I stumbled upon a loose stone. Sweat beaded upon my face as it made that all too familiar scraping sound(from various movies with similar scenarios). I felt the floor slide out from under me. [I tried not to scream like the others.]
Plummetting down a dark vertical tunnel while foolishly trying to brace myself with both hands, I saw a bright yellow light before being tossed waist-deep into a large chamber flooded with golden sand. There beside me were most of the men who had agreed to undertake this adventure. They were too busy arguing with each other and venting grievances to "give me the time of day".
Something beneath the surface kept me from sinking. I soon realized it was a body. Fighting the urge to shout in terror, I attempted to get a good look at the room. It was tapered down toward the center like a funnel and had various symbols etched in the square stone border just above the slanted walls. Between those which resembled Western astrological signs were dark shafts lined with traces of sand. Everything was some shade of yellow though there wasn't any gold in the room that I could see. By the light streaming in from above, I presumed we were directly under the hole in the peak.
"Are we all comfy down there?" echoed a British man's voice from above. [It was him, Dwight Rockafeller, staring down at us from a doorway to my right and some distance above the funnel.]
I looked up but could not see his face clearly.
"Very well, then. I assume that's all of you. Now, there's nothing to stand in my way. You've all been very helpful yet a waste of my time and resources. So, before I say too much, let me just con--"
I think the jaws of all us men in the pit dropped when Dwight froze abruptly and fell in head first with something jabbed into his back. Standing in his place was none other than Jannat, wearing a dress befitting the famous women of Egyptian lore and a golden headdress shaped like a bird with its wings draped down over her hair.
"I was getting tired of him, anyway. So good of you all to come. All twelve of you, including Mr. Rockafeller. Little did he know he would play a part in this, as well. Unfortunately, this does not have a very happy ending. Well, except for me, of course. I shall inherit a heavenly prize for your sacrifice."
Then, breaking from her glorified speech, she looked at me. I still could not see clearly but sensed she was torn for the moment. Meanwhile, those who were still standing started shouting at her as if their cursing would save them.
"It does not please me to kill. But, the reward is too good to pass up. And, so it is with but a simple kiss that I bid you all farewell."
As promised, she blew us all a kiss and then left the doorway. A stone panel dropped in its place, and then raging rivers of sand began to pour in from the shafts above. Within minutes, we were buried up to our armpits. Within an hour's time, we would be in up to our necks or cheekbones. I looked up at the moonlight streaming in from the hole in the tapered ceiling. It was, perhaps the last somewhat beautiful thing I would see before my eminent death.
Was this the end? Would this be the last Road Trip ever? Stay tuned for another installment of...
Road Trips with Brainstormer!
And, remember. Drive with others as you would have them drive with you.
 -->Feel free to submit your own ending/s to this story. Would I die or live? And, I live, how do I survive/escape? And, what would happen afterward?
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