Eyeliner of the Gods

by Katie MacAlister

  “I didn’t!”

  A tiny little smile curled the very edges of his lips. Just the sight of it made my stomach do a couple of somersaults. “I know that now.”

  “Well, good.” I tried to think of something brilliant to say to him now that he was back, but once again my brain let me down. I’m really going to have to look into getting a brain upgrade. At the very least I need to defrag it.

  “You had my jacket,” Seth said, looking down at it.

  “Uh…yeah. Chloe gave it to me.” My lips thinned as I tried very hard not to look like I cared that she’d had his coat for the last three days. The coat that he’d let me wear. The coat that smelled so much like him, just being around it made my knees go weak. “You went to see your grandmother?”

  One glossy black eyebrow rose. “Yes. She’s old and bossy, and my mother says that she’s going to outlive us all, but my father makes us go see her every couple of months.”

  “Oh. Why…” I chewed on my lower lip for a second, wanting to ask the question, but not wanting to hear the wrong answer. “Why didn’t you tell me where you had gone?”

  His eyebrows flattened out to a straight line. “You weren’t talking to me, if you remember.”

  “Oh. Yeah. That.” I bit my lip again, miserable despite the fact that I was happy he was back, happy he was standing there looking so yumalicious, happy he was talking to me.

  He tipped his head to the side, his ponytail swishing over to his shoulder. “I asked someone about the Tongue: The Musical.”

  “What? Oh.” I started to smile; then a horrible suspicion settled like a lead weight on my chest. “Who did you ask?”

  “Chloe.”

  “Ha! That figures,” I said to myself, but Seth heard me.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Nothing. What did the precious Miss Sparkly Lips tell you?”

  His brows pulled together for a few seconds as he shook his head. “Just when I think I have a good grip on English you say things like that. Chloe said it meant a kiss, so I presume that means you saw Chloe kissing me a few nights ago.”

  I put my hands on my hips, giving him a good, long glare. Just how stupid did he think I was? And what happened to all the grovelling I thought he was going to do? Crap. I bet the fact that he wasn’t telling me he was sorry he kissed Chloe meant that the flowers weren’t for me. They were probably for her. The witch. “Oh, right, she was kissing you! You were just like an innocent bystander whose lips just happened to be in the way as her mouth came charging through? You had nothing to do with the whole thing?”

  His frown darkened. “No, I had something to do with it, but it wasn’t what you think—”

  “Oh, no, it never is, is it? Well I have some news for you, buster.” I straightened my shoulders and marched passed him. “You don’t know what I’m thinking!”

  “That’s the first thing you’ve said that makes sense,” he said loudly as I walked past him, heading for the mess tent. “Where are you going?”

  “To get some lunch,” I yelled back at him without stopping. “There’s no reason for me to be fasting now, is there?”

  Much to my surprise, Seth showed up to work with me on the afternoon shift. I had figured he’d go off on another one of his sulks or whatever it was he did when he disappeared, but he didn’t. He was in the tomb working when I came in after lunch—a lunch I didn’t eat after all. I sat inside the empty hospital tent and cried for a while, then reminded myself that not only do journalists not cry, they don’t hide from guys who’ve broken their heart. Besides, I had my investigation to do. I couldn’t cry and do that at the same time.

  Seth didn’t say anything to me when I picked up my brush and cloth. He looked a dark, hot look at me once or twice when his arm brushed against mine, or when we both reached for the squeeze bottle of solvent, but neither of us said anything for the remaining four hours of the day. If it wasn’t for the radio Seth had left in there, I think I would have screamed.

  Although Seth and I weren’t talking, I watched him a lot. I watched when he was called over by Sayed to look at a problem crack on another wall, I watched him from the corner of my eye while he worked, and I watched the back of his head from where I sat in the last seat in the van as we rode out to the monastery.

  A ride that was the longest in the entire history of the world, by the way. I worried all the way there about what I would find. Oh, I had resigned myself to the obvious—Seth hadn’t brought the flowers for me, he didn’t really care about me, he was just a dawg, pure and simple—but a part of me, a stupid optimistic part of me kept hoping that maybe he had brought them for me.

  Izumi immediately headed off to our room once we got to the monastery. I was suddenly sick to my stomach as I slowly walked up the stairs after her. Seth stood in the courtyard below, his arms crossed, watching me for a second before turning and going to the far stairs.

  “Why can’t you just ask him?” I muttered to my Inner Jan, who was yammering like mad about me being wrong in thinking he was being a jerk. “Why can’t you just say, Seth, when you said you liked me, and you kissed me, and you let me hold your hand, did you really mean it, or were you just hoping I’d like, put out or something?”

  I groaned as the words left my lips. How could I ask him that when I knew what the answer would be? There was only so much a rejection a girl could take.

  I headed down the balcony toward the room Izumi and I shared, my stomach churning with each step.

  “Jan!” Izumi popped in the doorway, a huge smile on her face. “You’ll never guess what is here! Flowers!”

  I stopped, goose bumps rippling up and down my arms as hope swelled in my chest. The flowers were in my room! They were for me! Seth brought me flowers!

  Izumi dashed back into the room, returning with a bouquet of pink and rust-colored daisies in a cracked white vase. “Look, aren’t they wonderful? Oh, I wonder who left them? I haven’t had flowers in such a long time! Daisies! I love daisies!”

  My heart, which had been doing a happy dance in my chest, faltered, shrieked in pain, then wadded itself up into a ball and fell straight down to my stomach.

  The flowers weren’t for me. Seth had given the flowers to Izumi. Pretty, sweet, skinny Izumi. Izumi who never argued with anyone. Izumi who everyone liked.

  “Look, they were on my trunk. Aren’t they pretty? I’m going to give them fresh water,” she sang as she ran past me, skimming down the stairs, her precious flowers clutched in her hands. I staggered to my bed and collapsed on it, so crushed I couldn’t even bawl.

  “At least he didn’t give them to Chloe,” I said to no one in particular.

  The next half hour has thankfully been erased from my memory. My brain, taking protective measures to keep me from throwing the hissy fit to end all hissy fits, decided it was best if it just shut down and didn’t let me actually think anything. I know that Izumi must have come back into the room, because later, when my brain started working again, I noticed the flowers on the small table next to her bed. And since she chatted happily at me while I got cleaned up for dinner, I assume that I must have been polite and said all the right stuff, because she didn’t seem to notice at all that my heart was broken.

  Again.

  In the end, it was the eyeliner of the gods that changed my life.

  An hour after we dragged ourselves into the monastery, we were all sitting around the big dinner table set up in the middle of the courtyard. Kay was telling Dr. Ray, who had joined us for dinner, how far we’d come in the conservation. “And Jan and Seth almost have the lintel cleaned.”

  “The lintel?” He frowned for a moment; then his brow cleared. “Ah, yes. Nekhbet. Excellent painting. I’m delighted to hear it’s turning out well.”

  “It’s really pretty,” I said without looking at Seth, who sat across the table from me. I couldn’t stand to look at him. I couldn’t stand to think of what a stupid, idiotic fool I’d made of myself over him. “I like her eye makeup. I didn’t know Egy
ptians wore so much eyeliner.”

  Dr. Ray smiled. He was shorter than Seth and Cy, and he had a bigger nose, and darker skin, but his eyes were the same as Seth’s.

  The rat.

  “Oh, yes, the ancient Egyptians were very well versed in using cosmetics.”

  “Cleanliness and personal appearance were very highly regarded by them,” Dr. Paolo added. “Much of what we know about their habits comes from discoveries made in tombs. Unguent vases have been found containing such items as a cleansing cream made of oil and lime, a wrinkle cream made of gum, frankincense, oil, and cypress, and the equivalent of hairspray made of resin and beeswax.”

  “Ew,” I said. “Beeswax must have been awful to wash out.”

  “A lot of the Egyptians shaved their heads and wore wigs,” Kay said, giving her pageboy a quick pat.

  “They even had eye shadow,” Dr. Ray said with a wink at Izumi, who was looking as gorgeous as ever. She seemed to know just how to put makeup on so it didn’t look like she slapped it on with a trowel, unlike me.

  “They did?” she asked in surprise. “What was it made of? What colors did they have?”

  “Green minerals like jasper, serpentine, and malachite were primarily used,” he answered. “They were ground very fine, then mixed with water, and spread on the eyelids. It was thought to cool the eyes.”

  “And of course, both men and women wore kohl around their eyes,” Dr. Paolo said.

  “Kohl?” she asked.

  “Really black eyeliner,” I explained. “It’s very cool. My sisters use it.”

  “Kohl was more than eyeliner,” Dr. Ray said. “It was an eye paint made by combining malachite with galena—a grayish lead ore—and oil.”

  “I know that the men on the tomb walls have on eyeliner,” I said, interested despite the fact that my heart was broken and my life was over, “but did the guys really wear it?”

  “Oh, yes, most certainly. It was not only for magical and decorative purposes—it helped protect the eyes against the brightness of the sun, had antiseptic properties, and discouraged flies. Both the eyeliner and eye paint was considered to be a treatment or cures for eye diseases.”

  I grinned at Izumi. She grinned back at me as we both said, “We have to get some kohl!”

  “Do you know that the ancient people even had a form of chemical hair removal?” Kay asked.

  I looked at her to see if she was teasing. She looked perfectly serious. “They did?”

  “Oh, yes. They were very clever. They used boiled, crushed bird bones, mixed it with fly excrement, gum, cucumber, oil, and sycamore juice. The mixture was heated, then spread over the area where one wished to remove hair. Once it cooled, it was pulled off, taking with it the hair. Just like those fancy salon waxes!”

  Ew! Crushed bird bones? Fly poop? I don’t think so!

  “Ladies especially painted red ochre on their lips, although many men used it as a rouge, too,” Dr. Paolo added. “Henna was used to dye hair and fingernails.”

  “Wow,” I said, staring at my bowl of chilled cucumber-and-mint soup, an idea starting to form in the murky depths of my mind. I glanced over to Izumi as she asked what the Egyptians used on their hair. She always had makeup on, even during the day when we were working in the tomb. Her hair was always clean and shiny. She wore perfume every day, carrying around a little bottle of floral roll-on scent. I peeked out of the corner of my eye at Seth. He hadn’t said much at dinner—although he had given me a couple of really odd looks—but he was watching Izumi as she told about an experience she had with henna.

  Are you going to stand up and fight for what you want? Inner Jan asked as I dunked a bit of pita in my soup. Are you going to just roll over and let him kick you in the gut, or are you going to prove to him that you aren’t a loser?

  Why don’t you shut up! I told Inner Jan. I am not so desperate that I want a guy who doesn’t want me.

  Are you going to tell me you don’t have the world’s biggest crush on him? Inner Jan taunted in a particularly snide tone of voice.

  I snarled something rude to her and refused to answer the question.

  You’re a coward as well as a loser, Inner Jan whispered.

  Am not!

  A great big fat coward who is too afraid of being rejected to even try.

  “I am not!” I yelled, looking up in horror as everyone turned to look at me. I stared back at them, mortified.

  “Jan?” Kay asked, leaning forward to see me. “You have something to add to the discussion?”

  “No,” I said, my cheeks heating up a hundred or so degrees as I slumped down in my chair, wishing the earth would open up and suck me in. “I’m sorry. I was just having an argument with…” Oh, yes, Jan, brilliant. Just tell everyone you are arguing with yourself. They’ll take you away to the nearest insane asylum and pump you full of happy drugs.

  “You were having an argument with someone?” Kay asked, a slight puzzled frown wrinkling her brow.

  “Just…uh…me.”

  I dared a brief glance at Seth. His eyes were dark and unreadable, but for a moment I saw something in them that had my heart doing a couple of back flips. He smiled then, smiled right at me, and it wasn’t a mocking smile. It was a nice smile. A very nice smile. I’d been watching, and he hadn’t smiled at Izumi at all during dinner. Score one for Team Jan! I let my lips curl into a little tiny smile at him before looking back down at my soup, stirring it as I thought about those ancient Egyptians and their belief in makeup.

  What worked for Izumi could work for me, couldn’t it?

  I snagged Michael the second dinner was over. “Are you going into town tonight?”

  He looked surprised at my question. Although Kay had said Izumi and I could go into Luxor if we had one of the guys from the dig with us, neither of us had the time to do it. Evenings after dinner were spent taking baths, washing our hair, washing clothes, and listening to the lectures Dr. Paolo gave on ancient Egypt. “Yes, I am. Do you want to ride along?”

  “Yeah, if you can take me to a drugstore or department store.”

  “Drugstore?” He looked horrified, as though I had asked him to do something illegal.

  “Yeah, you know, the kind of place that has makeup and stuff.”

  His shoulders slumped in relief. “Cosmetics!”

  “Yup. Is there somewhere I can get some in Luxor?”

  He chuckled and waved me toward the front door. “You were listening to Dr. Ray’s talk, eh? Good for you. No drugstores, but cosmetics in the market, yes. Come.”

  “Just a sec, let me get my money.” I raced back to my room and dug out my neck pouch that held my passport and spending money, tucking it beneath my shirt before running down the stairs again.

  “Jan. I want to talk to you” Seth said as he came out of the sitting room.

  “Sorry, can’t talk now. Later, OK?”

  He frowned. (What else?). “No, it’s not OK. Don’t you have anything to say to me?”

  Like what? Thank you for destroying me? ‘Hope you and Izumi live happily ever after? May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your crotch?’ “Not now. Tomorrow. Gotta run. Later, tater!”

  I ran off before he could say anything else. If he wanted to talk to me now, just wait until he got a load of the new Jan!

  MUMMY’S ANCIENT COSMETIC SECRETS UNCOVERED!

  “Jan? Are you coming? The first van has already left, and we’re waiting—Oh. Goodness. Don’t you look…pretty.”

  I grabbed my backpack as I dashed past Kay. “I’m ready.”

  “Er…very well.” Kay shook her head as she followed me to the van which held Dr. Paolo, Michael, and Gemal. I climbed into the back with Gemal, pleased with the response I was getting so far. Even Dr. Paolo was staring at me as if he hadn’t seen me before.

  Those ancient Egyptians really knew what they were doing.

  “I’ve forgotten just what it’s like to be sixteen,” Kay murmured as Dr. Paolo continued to stare at me. I waited until he faced front bef
ore digging out my mirror and taking a quick check to make sure the kohl I’d applied hadn’t smeared. Two grey eyes ringed with black peered out of the mirror at me. I picked apart one of the clumps of eyelashes that had formed from the cheap mascara I’d bought at the market in addition to kohl and green eye paint, and admired my eyes for another few seconds before tucking the mirror away.

  It hadn’t been easy hiding from Seth the night before, but I hadn’t wanted him to see me before I could dazzle him with my…well, I suppose great beauty would be stretching it, but clever use of kohl wouldn’t be. After the first application of kohl, my eyes were dramatic, dark, and mysterious—everything I hoped would make Seth think twice about Izumi.

  I dropped off my pack and almost ran into Chloe as I left the tent. She was in the middle of putting on yet another coat of sparkly lip gloss, which was probably the reason her mouth hung open as she stared at me.

  “Are you going to a party?” she asked, finally managing to close her mouth.

  I frowned, but had to stop because my eyelashes were sticking to the skin above my eyes (I think the heat did something to the mascara, because it seemed awfully sticky and tended to make my eyelashes form spiky clumps). “No, I’m not.”

  “Oh. I wondered if you were going to a costume party as a raccoon.”

  “A raccoon?”

  “Yeah.” She drew imaginary circles around her eyes. “Raccoon.”

  “Haven’t you ever seen kohl?” I asked, shooting a disdainful glance at her sparkly, wet-looking lips. “It’s very cool. Guys like it much more than slobber-lips.”

  “Slobberlips!” she gasped, and I could tell she was going to say something really mean, but I didn’t wait to hear it. I pushed past and walked toward the path leading into the wadi, mentally going over what I was going to say when I saw Seth. Although I had decided the night before that I was not going to stand by and let Izumi nab him when by rights he should be mine (I kissed him first! At least, I think I was the first…), I wasn’t going to chase after him, either. I’d seen girls do that—Chloe flirting like mad with Seth was a perfect example—and I wouldn’t lower myself to that level. Izumi seemed to have a technique that worked, so my plan was to be the Jan version of her. Janzumi, Temptress of the Middle East, that was me!