Poppy Pym and the Pharaoh's Curse

by Laura Wood

  “YES!” shouted Kip, punching the air.

  “Please,” said Ingrid more quietly, but with excitement shouting out just as loudly from her eyes.

  After dinner we went to one of the common rooms, to sit down and try to mash out some of the details of “Circus School”, as Kip insisted on calling it. I suppose you could say that it was our first official meeting, and we talked for a long time, with Ingrid and Kip getting louder and louder and more and more excited.

  “How many things can you juggle at once?” asked Ingrid breathlessly.

  “Er … I don’t know,” I said honestly, “quite a few, I think. It’s harder with wobbly things. I can only manage three bowls of jelly.”

  “CAN YOU TEACH ME HOW TO WALK A TIGHTROPE? MAYBE WE COULD BUILD A TRAPEZE. OOH, OOH, HOW MANY BACKFLIPS DO YOU THINK I’LL BE ABLE TO DO IN A ROW?” Kip was shouting very loudly, and a girl curled up in a chair in the corner of the room, trying to read a book, was casting extremely dark glares in our direction.

  “Calm down, Kip,” I grumbled. “For a small boy, you’ve got a mouth as big as a lion’s yawn. Luigi will be wanting to stick his head in it.”

  Kip grinned, and the three of us all sat around plotting until it had started getting dark outside.

  We were interrupted by a loud crunching sound and two beaming headlights creeping towards us. We looked out of the window to see a big truck scrunching slowly up the gravel driveway.

  It was here.

  A shivery feeling ran up and down my back like a wriggly hamster. We all scrambled outside, just as Miss Baxter emerged from the main entrance and started talking to the two men who jumped down from the truck. Miss Baxter started pointing inside, and soon the men were carrying all sorts of well-wrapped bundles and big crates into the room. Last of all they carefully lowered one huge crate on to a trolley and wheeled it into the building.

  “Oh my gosh,” squeaked Ingrid, “is that … him?”

  “Who?” hissed Kip.

  “Ankhenamun, of course,” I hissed back, my stomach flipping and flopping inside me.

  We all jumped back as a sleek black car squealed to a stop right in front of us, spraying bits of gravel everywhere. A very tall and muscly man stepped out. He was wearing a dark suit, and dark glasses that hid his eyes, even though it was dark outside. In his hand was a shining black briefcase, and my breath caught in my throat as I realized the briefcase was handcuffed to his wrist.

  “COR!” said Kip, his big voice as subtle as ever. The man peered down at Kip over his glasses, his face a stony mask of displeasure. “I mean, s-s-sorry,” he stuttered. The man grunted and, seeing Miss Baxter emerge out of the building once more, headed over to shake her hand. They chatted for a few seconds and then went inside.

  “The ruby scarab,” muttered Ingrid, shaking her head.

  “I can’t believe it’s really here,” I whispered.

  And then, with a loud bang, all the lights went out.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I stood very still as the darkest darkness smothered itself around me like a thick woollen scarf. There was absolute silence – and then, from inside the school building, came the sounds of lots of people shouting at once. Somewhere, a high-pitched alarm was sounding.

  I felt a tug on my arm.

  “Poppy?” It was Ingrid, and her voice fluttered out into the night like the nervous wings of a moth.

  “Yes,” I whispered, “I’m here.”

  “Must be a power cut,” came Kip’s too-loud voice, cutting through the air with an edge of nervousness creeping in.

  There was a pause.

  “That’s weird, isn’t it,” squeaked Ingrid, trying to laugh in a carefree way and failing miserably, “that the power went out just … just as the ruby arrived.”

  The air was warm and soupy, but the three of us stood shivering, straining our eyes and ears for any further peculiar goings-on. In the darkness I began to wish I had taken Pym’s advice to eat my carrots a bit more seriously.

  There was a rustling noise behind us, and I swung round to find a bright light being shone in my face. I think all three of us screamed then, but it could have been just me, shouting loud enough for three.

  “Will you stop that racket?” I heard a cross voice say. It didn’t sound like an undead mummy come to eat our brains, but you never know.

  “It’s Miss Susan,” breathed Ingrid, sagging against me in relief.

  For a second I thought I’d rather it had been the mummy.

  “Yes, it’s Miss Susan, and why am I not surprised to find you three lurking about out here when you should be inside?” snapped the chemistry teacher without a trace of her usual frilly voice. She pointed her shining torch away from our faces and towards the ground.

  “We were not lurking,” I said indignantly, “we just came to see the exhibit arrive and then all the lights went off.”

  “What are you doing out here, miss?” interrupted Kip.

  “That,” said Miss Susan, shining her torch in Kip’s face, so that he had to scrunch up his eyes, “is absolutely none of your business. Now, let’s get you three back inside.” And with that she marched off in front, leaving the three of us no choice but to follow in the path carved out by the light from her torch. Was it just my imagination or did Miss Susan seem a bit flustered by Kip’s question? My detective senses were tingling, and I could tell a mystery was afoot. (I know I’ve said it before and so right now in the story you might be doubting my detective skills, but trust me, this time there was actual tingling. I mean, I suppose it could have been the breeze being outside at night, but I’m pretty sure it was detective senses. I’m at least … eighty per cent certain.)

  Just as we reached the main doors there was a big whooshing sound and all the lights pinged back on, leaving everyone blinking hard at their dazzling brightness.

  “Well, that’s that sorted anyway.” Miss Susan turned off her torch with a sharp click. “Now you lot should be off to your rooms.”

  “Thanks for looking after us,” I muttered.

  Miss Susan looked surprised for a second. “Well, that’s … fine. Now off to bed.”

  Shouting a quick goodnight to Kip on our way, Ingrid and I legged it back to the girls’ dorm and into our room. Letty was nowhere to be seen. I flopped down on to my bed.

  “Well, that was all a bit weird,” said Ingrid, standing in front of me. “I mean, the power cut and the ruby and everything. You don’t think…” She paused. “You don’t really think it’s the curse, do you?”

  “No,” I said slowly, “but didn’t you think Miss Susan was acting a bit funny as well?”

  “She’s always all stuffy and cross like that,” Ingrid answered, moving round to sit on her own bed.

  I sat up to face her, and as I did I heard something crunch underneath me. It was the article Pym had sent me inside the letter.

  “Oh, I forgot!” I exclaimed. “Pym sent me this. It’s that article she was telling me about, you know, the one about the curse.”

  Ingrid jumped up and came to sit next to me so that we could read the article together. I will stick a copy in right here so that you can see for yourself:

  Ingrid and I finished reading the article, my fingers trembling so hard by the end that the paper was shaking. We looked at each other, eyes as big as frisbees, and suddenly the door to the room swung open with a crash.

  There, standing in the doorway, was a small, bald man, and in his hand rested a human skull.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR­RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRG­GGGGGGGGG­GGGG­GGGGGGGGGG­GGGGGGGGGGGGGH­HHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” The scream ripped from me like a sticky plaster from a knee. At my side, Ingrid was whimpering in fright, as the figure in the doorway advanced into the room, the skull in his hand glinting wickedly in t
he light from my bedside table. I looked around wildly for a weapon and seized a hairbrush, which I pointed with a wobbly hand at the intruder. “Don’t come any closer,” I warbled, “or I’ll … I’ll … BRUSH you!”

  The figure in the doorway stopped and a curiously girlish voice rang out. “Poppy, what are you talking about?”

  I lowered my hairbrush, and as the terrifying man moved into the light, I caught my breath. It was Letty! She was wearing a red velvet jacket and she had a swimming cap on her head.

  “W-w-what are you wearing, Letty?” I managed. My voice sounded squeezed out of me like the last of the toothpaste.

  “It’s my costume, dummy. I’ve been at drama club.” Letty pulled the swimming cap off with one hand and her dark curly hair tumbled out around her face.

  “What about the skull?!” squeaked Ingrid, looking at the sinister object still resting in Letty’s other hand.

  “Plastic,” said Letty, knocking it against the wall lightly. “We were doing Hamlet. You know, ALAS, POOR YORICK.” Letty’s voice got quite loud and her face started making weird shapes (which is how you tell when someone’s acting). She held the skull out in front of her and stared at it moodily.

  “Oh, right,” I gasped, feeling a bit silly. “I think we’re just on edge because of the power cut.”

  “Yeah! Wasn’t it brilliant!” exclaimed Letty. “We had to do a bit of the rehearsal by candlelight and it made it all feel really authentic. It was so creepy. Especially at the start when someone was moving around outside the window with a torch. For a minute we thought it might be a lurking spirit, desperate to return from the afterlife, but then it just went away.”

  “That must have been Miss Susan,” I said thoughtfully. “That’s weird. Where were you rehearsing?”

  “In the small hall. We were supposed to be next door in the big hall, but the exhibition stuff was turning up so they moved us. There are loads of serious security guards hanging around in black suits. I reckon they must all be spies or something. Anyway, I need to get cleaned up before bed. I’ve got photography club first thing…”

  We all got ready for bed, and as I snuggled under my duvet my mind was racing with thoughts of pharaohs and curses and the Van Bothings and a great big sparkling ruby. Eventually my brain wore itself out and I fell dead asleep. (Not dead dead, you understand. Otherwise this would be the end of the book and you’d be pretty ticked off because we’ve hardly even got going on the mystery yet, just you wait.)

  The next morning was Saturday and the start of my first weekend at Saint Smithen’s. Unfortunately it began with Ingrid and me getting a note to report to Miss Baxter’s office. When we arrived outside we found Kip already there, sitting in the waiting area. To one side was a creaking desk covered in paperwork, and sitting behind the desk was Gertrude. Her wrinkled face must have been quite pretty when she was younger, I thought. Under her fluffy grey hair it now looked a bit like an old crumpled apple. She had small pale-blue eyes and a beauty mark buried in the wrinkles of her left cheek. As she gave us a watery smile, she revealed a set of surprisingly white, shiny teeth that looked a bit too big for her mouth.

  “Ah, you’re all here,” she croaked. “I’ll go and tell Miss Baxter.” And then she hobbled v-e-e-e-e-ry slowly over to Miss Baxter’s door and disappeared inside.

  “What’s this all about?” hissed Kip out the side of his mouth. “What are you two doing here?”

  “Dunno,” I muttered as Ingrid and I took seats next to him.

  Gertrude came lumbering back out, and gave us another watery smile. “She won’t be a minute” she wheezed.

  “Thank you,” said Kip.

  “EH?” said Gertrude, cupping her hand around her ear. “What did you say there, young man?”

  “THANK YOU!” shouted Kip at the top of his lungs.

  Gertrude jumped back a little in shock. “All right, all right, sonny, there’s no need to shout.” She shuffled back behind her desk and, pulling a big white handkerchief out of her usual crumbly cardigan, she blew her nose noisily.

  Miss Baxter stuck her head out of her door. “Ahhh, Kip, Ingrid and Poppy, do come in.”

  The three of us trooped into Miss Baxter’s office and sat across from her on the three chairs she had drawn up in front of her desk. Miss Baxter’s big orange cat jumped into my lap and started purring loudly. The gold disc on his collar told me his name was Marmalade.

  “Now, I’m sure you know why you’re all here…” she began. We all shook our heads. “I had a note from Miss Susan, who says that the three of you were …” she consulted a piece of paper on her desk “… skulking around outside last night when you should have been up in your rooms.”

  “We weren’t skulking!” I shouted at the same time as Kip and Ingrid muddled in with their own noisy protests. Marmalade dug his claws into my leg, clearly disapproving of all these noisy children. With a sulky toss of his tail, he jumped down and retired to his usual chair, casting black looks in my direction.

  Miss Baxter held up a hand. “Poppy, why don’t you tell me what happened.”

  I looked at the others and they both nodded, Ingrid looking anxious, Kip’s mouth set in a hard, angry line.

  “We weren’t skulking,” I said. “We were in the common room when we saw the exhibition arrive. We got all excited and we rushed out to see it, and then all the lights went off so we couldn’t see anything and we were sort of stuck, you see?” Miss Baxter nodded, so I took a deep breath and continued, “Then Miss Susan appeared with a torch and took us back inside. We didn’t even know it was so late, or that we shouldn’t have been outside. We’re sorry.” I finished in a mutter, staring down at my toes.

  There was a slight pause before Miss Baxter’s smiling voice filled the room up like a warm cup of tea with two sugars. “Well, it seems to me it’s all been a bit of a misunderstanding. You must just be more careful in the future. We don’t like the students to be outside the front of the school after eight o’clock, but it’s for your own safety and so that we know where you are.” She looked at our downcast faces and laughed. “Come on, don’t be so glum, worse things happen at sea!”

  “We didn’t mean to,” blurted Ingrid.

  “It was just really cool,” said Kip

  “We’re sorry,” I finished

  Miss Baxter stood up. “Well, let’s say no more about it. I know that you’re all excited about the exhibition, but I hope you know that’s no excuse to break the rules.” We nodded. “Actually, there’s a way you can help me to make up for it.” She must have noticed my grumpy face because she laughed and said, “Don’t worry, I don’t think you’ll be too disappointed. I need you to help me take these boxes of brochures down to the main hall. It would take me a few trips, but we should be able to manage between us, and just maybe you’ll get a peek at some of the exhibits if they’ve unpacked things.”

  With that, any remaining sulks just disappeared and the three of us jumped to our feet.

  We followed Miss Baxter down to the doors of the main hall. Two big men in black suits were standing outside, but they waved us through when they saw we were with Miss Baxter. “Just put the boxes down there,” she said, and we dropped the boxes by the door.

  The room was a mess of crates and packing material. In one corner, a group of people in white coats were huddled around one of the crates having a heated discussion.

  “… and I’m telling YOU, Clarice, that Eye of Horus is clearly seventeenth dynasty!” I heard one red-faced man shout.

  “Oh dear,” muttered Miss Baxter, “looks like the curators are at it again…” She rushed off towards the group, a peacekeeping smile plastered on her face. “Just wait here a moment, you three.”

  She needn’t have said anything because the three of us couldn’t have been more glued to the spot if someone had put superglue on the soles of our shoes. In front of us was a small glass cabinet on wood
en legs, and inside the cabinet was a green velvet cushion, and on top of that cushion was a brilliant, sparkling ruby beetle.

  It was even more beautiful than I had imagined, and as I stood statue still, staring at it with all my might, I felt like I finally understood why Ankhenamun had risked it all – it was glorious. It glittered and dazzled so hard that it almost hurt your eyes to look at it. I looked at Ingrid and Kip’s mesmerized faces and I felt mixed-up feelings of fear and excitement spread through my body like a frozen milkshake. The ruby beetle was finally here, and I was more certain than ever that it meant trouble.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The rest of the weekend stretched out before us, and of course it was Ingrid who came up with the perfect plan for our Saturday afternoon. Don’t ask me how she managed it, but after a short trip to the kitchen, she appeared with an enormous picnic basket in her hand.

  “What’s in there?” asked Kip, eyeing it hungrily.

  “Just some stuff for lunch,” Ingrid said. “It says in the handbook that on Saturdays students are allowed to request a packed lunch to eat in the grounds. I thought that as the weather is so nice, we could have a picnic and maybe have the first official meeting of Poppy Pym’s Fantabulous Circus School.”

  “YES!” Kip pumped his fist in the air. “A bucketload of food and some circus tricks. What could be better?”

  They both looked at me expectantly. I was a bit nervous about trying to teach someone else my circus tricks because I had never really had to teach anyone anything before. Plus, I still wasn’t sure if I should be showing off my circusy-ness. What if Kip and Ingrid thought it was weird, or that I wasn’t normal?

  “Pleeeease, Poppy?” said Kip in a wheedling voice.

  “OK,” I said slowly, pushing that worried voice down somewhere deep inside. “Let’s do it. It sounds fun.”

  We took our picnic round to the soft grass at the side of the pond that was marked on the school map. I hadn’t been there yet, but it was very beautiful – a big pool of water with a fringe of shady bullrushes lining the edges. A group of fluffy ducklings tumbled along the surface after their bossy mother and it was very quiet apart from the sleepy drone of the dragonflies that flashed blue and brilliant across the water.