05 - The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb Read Free Page A

spoil the joke,” I replied, wondering if they could see how
terrified I really was.
    “You should’ve seen the look on your face!” Uncle Ben cried, and started
laughing all over again.
    “I told Daddy he shouldn’t do it,” Sari said, dropping down onto the couch.
“I’m amazed the hotel people let him come up dressed like that.”
    Uncle Ben bent down and picked up the mummy hand I had tossed at him. “You’re
used to me and my practical jokes, right, Gabe?”
    “Yeah,” I said, avoiding his eyes.
    Secretly, I scolded myself for falling for his stupid costume. I was always
falling for his dumb jokes. Always. And, now, there was Sari grinning at me from
the couch, knowing I was so scared that I’d practically had a cow.
    Uncle Ben pulled some of the bandages away from his face. He stepped over and
handed the little mummy hand back to me. “Where’d you get that?” he asked.
    “Garage sale,” I told him.
    I started to ask him if it was real, but he surrounded me in a big bear hug.
The gauze felt rough against my cheek. “Good to see you, Gabe,” he said softly.
“You’ve grown taller.”
    “Almost as tall as me,” Sari chimed in.
    Uncle Ben motioned to her. “Get up and help me pull this stuff off.”
    “I kind of like the way you look in it,” Sari said.
    “Get over here,” Uncle Ben insisted.
    Sari got up with a sigh, tossing her straight black hair behind her
shoulders. She walked over to her dad and started unraveling the bandages.
    “I got a little carried away with this mummy thing, Gabe,” Uncle Ben
admitted, resting his arm on my shoulder as Sari continued working. “But it’s
just because I’m so excited about what’s going on at the pyramid.”
    “What’s going on?” I asked eagerly.
    “Daddy’s discovered a whole new burial chamber,” Sari broke in before her dad
had a chance to tell me himself. “He’s exploring parts of the pyramid that have
been undiscovered for thousands of years.”
    “Really?” I cried. “That’s outstanding!”
    Uncle Ben chuckled. “Wait till you see it.”
    “See it?” I wasn’t sure what he meant. “You mean you’re going to take me into
the pyramid?”
    My voice was so high that only dogs could hear it. But I didn’t care. I
couldn’t believe my good luck. I was actually going inside the Great Pyramid,
into a section that hadn’t been discovered until now.
    “I have no choice,” Uncle Ben said dryly. “What else am I going to do with
you two?”
    “Are there mummies in there?” I asked. “Will we see actual mummies?”
    “Do you miss your mummy?” Sari said, her lame idea of a joke.
    I ignored her. “Is there treasure down there, Uncle Ben? Egyptian relics? Are
there wall paintings?”
    “Let’s talk about it at dinner,” he said, tugging off the last of the
bandages. He was wearing a plaid sportshirt and baggy chinos under all the
gauze. “Come on. I’m starving.”
    “Race you downstairs,” Sari said, and shoved me out of the way to give
herself a good head start out of the room.
     
    We ate downstairs in the hotel restaurant. There were palm trees painted on
the walls, and miniature palm trees planted in big pots all around the
restaurant. Large wooden ceiling fans whirled slowly overhead.
    The three of us sat in a large booth, Sari and I across from Uncle Ben. We studied the long menus. They were printed in Arabic
and English.
    “Listen to this, Gabe,” Sari said, a smug smile on her face. She began to
read the Arabic words aloud.
    What a show-off.
    The white-suited waiter brought a basket of flat pita bread and a bowl of
green stuff to dip the bread in. I ordered a club sandwich and French fries.
Sari ordered a hamburger.
    Later, as we ate our dinner, Uncle Ben explained a little more about what he
had discovered at the pyramid. “As you probably know,” he started, tearing off a
chunk of the flat bread, “the pyramid was built some time around 2500 B.C.,
during the reign of the Pharaoh