Philip and the Mummy

by John Paulits

  Philip and the Mummy

  by

  John Paulits

  All rights reserved

  Copyright © February 26, 2018

  Cover Art Copyright © 2018, Charlotte Holley

  Gypsy Shadow Publishing, LLC.

  Lockhart, TX

  www.gypsyshadow.com

  Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or shared by any electronic or mechanical means, including but not limited to printing, file sharing, and email, without prior written permission from Gypsy Shadow Publishing, LLC.

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  ISBN: 978-1-61950-333-5

  Published in the United States of America

  First eBook Edition: March 26, 2018

  Dedication

  For: Becky Lee, Daughter Supreme

  Chapter One

  Warmer days had finally arrived, and Philip lay on the cool ground in the igloo-shaped empty space beneath Mrs. Discher’s bushes, his and Emery’s unofficial clubhouse, waiting for Emery. The bushes had turned green enough to hide him and Emery from view to anyone passing by on the sidewalk. Enough grass survived in the splotchy sunlight coming through the leaves to keep their pants from getting covered with dirt. Emery had been away with his family for a week visiting a sick relative who lived far away. No school, no fourth grade, for a week while everybody else slaved away. Talk about your good luck.

  The new, dark green leaves on the bushes rustled softly in the breeze. Philip smiled as he recalled Emery’s complaints about having to travel in the car with his cousin Leon. Leon the loser. Leon the unlucky. Leon the disaster magnet. With Leon in the picture, maybe Emery wasn’t so lucky after all.

  The bushes shook as Emery crawled through the small entry passage the boys had made by pulling off a few branches here and there.

  “Well,” Emery said, “I’m back.”

  “What kept you? You said one o’clock. I’ve been waiting. How was the trip?”

  “Ugh! I had to sleep in the same room with Leon every night.”

  “What about the sick person?”

  “Uncle Harvey?”

  “I don’t know. Was Uncle Harvey sick?”

  “Of course, he’s sick. That’s why we went to see him.”

  “So how was Uncle Harvey?”

  “Sick.”

  Philip glared at his friend. “Is he getting better?”

  “I suppose. Maybe not. I don’t know. Ha! Leon knocked over the table with Uncle Harvey’s medicine on it. You should’ve heard everybody scream. I thought Uncle Harvey was going to go pfft right there. People crawled around looking for spilled pills, and Aunt Marie had to mop up some green, syrupy medicine from the floor, then rush to the drug store to get some more. Leon stood flapping his arms blabbering, I didn’t know, I didn’t know. You know how he is.”

  “So why are you late?”

  “Not my fault. Leon. As soon as we got home I had to go to his house and help him bury his mummy.”

  “You what!”

  “I had to help him bury his mummy.”

  “In the ground? You had to help?”

  “Of course, in the ground.”

  “In the cemetery!”

  “The cemetery? Of course not. In the backyard.”

  “What! And you had to help?” Philip nearly shouted.

  “Shhh. Somebody’ll hear you.”

  “Never mind hearing me. What was wrong with his mommy?”

  Emery shrugged. “Nothing, I guess.”

  “You buried his mommy and you weren’t sure if there was something wrong? His mommy had to be sick, at least.”

  “No, his mummy was dead.”

  “Dead! Didn’t she just go on the trip with you?”

  “Who?”

  “Who! Leon’s mommy!”

  “His mother?”

  “Yes. His mother; his mommy”

  “Sure, she went on the trip.”

  “And when you got home you had to bury her?”

  “Bury who?”

  “His mother!”

  “Bury his mother?”

  “Yes, his mother!”

  “No, she made us lunch while we buried his mummy.”

  Philip got to his knees. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Emery shrugged and spread his arms.

  “Emery, start over. Who got buried?”

  “Nobody.”

  “What do you mean nobody? You said you buried Leon’s mommy.”

  “No, I didn’t. I didn’t say that. I said we buried his mummy, not his mommy. How could you think we buried his mother? Get your ears checked.”

  “Get your mouth checked.”

  “You really think we dug a gigantic hole in the backyard, put Leon’s mother into it, and then covered her up with dirt?”

  “That’s what you said.”

  “I did not! You’re crazy.”

  “So Leon’s mother is okay? I thought, like, she died on the trip.”

  “Sure, she’s okay. She made us lunch, didn’t she? We buried the mummy Leon made. His mother’s fine. She didn’t die on the trip. When I left Leon’s house, though, she was dying.”

  “Dying! You just said she made you lunch and she was okay. What’s wrong with her?”

  “Nothing.”

  “So why’s she dying?”

  “She wants her brown hair to be a lighter color.”

  Slowly, Philip said, “She’s dying her hair?”

  “Right.”

  Philip slumped back onto the dirt. “Can’t you ever make sense all the time?”

  “I do make sense all the time. Sometimes, you’re just…” Emery tapped one finger to his temple.

  The boys sat quietly for a moment. Philip had a question in his mind but was afraid to ask it. Finally, he couldn’t help himself. He had to know.

  “Why did Leon bury a mummy?”

  “He buried it so he can bring it back to life.”

  Philip glared at his friend a second time.

  Emery shrugged and said, “That’s his plan. He said it’s what mummies do. He’s studying Egypt in school. It’s all he talked about in the car for like a million hours, going to Uncle Harvey’s and coming back.”

  “Why isn’t our class studying about Egypt?”

  “I don’t know. I suppose we’ll get to it.”

  Philip considered. “I saw a movie. A mummy is a giant thing. How did…”

  “No, no. Leon made a mummy this big.” Emery held his hands about eight inches apart. “He used up all the bandages and Band-Aids and a whole box of tissues in Uncle Harvey’s house. Uncle Harvey went to blow his nose and ended up holding an empty tissue box. Then he sneezed and all this nose stuff…”

  “All right. All right. Skip the nose stuff part!”

  “Leon’s mother and his aunt thought Leon was nuts. They weren’t happy he used up all Uncle Harvey’s stuff.”

  “So Leon made a mummy and…?”

  “He made it. We rode home in the car with it. When we got home, we buried it in his backyard. It
’s what I already told you. I helped Leon bury his mummy.”

  “I thought you said he buried his mommy… never mind. And he’s going to bring the mummy back to life?”

  “He got books out of the library. He said there’s an Egypt show at the museum downtown. That’s why his teacher decided to study Egypt now—so they could go to the museum and see real Egypt stuff. Leon thinks he’s gonna study and learn enough to bring his mummy back to life.”

  “So we’ll have a midget mummy walking around the neighborhood soon?”

  “I don’t know about walking. It’s got real stubby legs and one leg is longer than the other one. Leon didn’t pack the tissues in right. And he didn’t give it any eyes.”

  “So we’ll have a limping mummy bumping into things?”

  “I guess.”

  Philip and Emery locked eyes and burst into laughter.

  “Probably get run over by a car,” Emery gasped.

  “Or fall down the sewer,” Philip responded. The boys broke into laughter again.

  “Let’s go see him,” Philip suggested when he got his breath back.

  “Leon? You sure?”

  Philip smiled and shrugged. Emery shrugged back, and both boys crawled out of the bushes, and off to Leon’s house they went.

  Chapter Two

  Philip argued with Emery as they proceeded up the walkway to Leon’s front door. “No way he can be as goofy about Egypt as you say.”

  “You’ll see. Go ahead,” Emery said. “Knock.”

  Philip knocked, and the boys waited. The door opened and there stood Leon, a towel draped across the top of his head, hanging over his ears and a short way down his back. A small portion of the towel covered his forehead like bangs. To the bangs, Leon had Scotch taped two pictures he’d cut out of some book, pictures of a bird and a snake.

  “I told you,” Emery whispered.

  “Told him what?” Leon asked.

  “What are you supposed to be?” Philip asked.

  Leon closed the door and faced his friends. He closed his mouth, rolled his eyes up, and tilted his head back. Philip and Emery exchanged a glance.

  “Are you okay, Leon?” Emery asked.

  Leon lowered his head and said, “I am Leonubis, sixth Pharaoh of Egypt.”

  “No, you’re not,” said Philip.

  Leon’s shoulders bounced as he laughed. “Yuk, yuk. I know I’m not. I’m pretending. It’s fun. Wanna play, too? Emery played Egypt all the way with me in the car on the trip.”

  “No, I didn’t,” Emery argued. “You talked the whole way. What’s on your towel? On the front.” He stepped neared and squinted. “A snake and a bird?”

  “They are the royal animals of my kingdom. A cobra and a vulture. All of us important Egyptians wear them.”

  “A vulture?” Philip asked. “The bird that eats dead things in the desert?”

  Emery added, “And don’t cobras bite?”

  Leon reached into his pocket and took out a tiny aspirin bottle. “In this bottle I have the poisonous venom from the deadly hooded cobra, but it is powerless against the Pharaoh. Watch.” He popped off the cap and drank what was inside.

  Philip and Emery shouted and grabbed at the bottle.

  “Yuk, yuk,” Leon laughed. “It’s only orange juice. Looks like snake poison, though, eh? Pretty icky.”

  “You’re pretty icky,” Philip grumbled.

  “Did Emery tell you about the mummy I made?”

  “He did.”

  “I couldn’t get a real dead person. I had to make up my own with tissues. Emery helped me bury the mummy, didn’t you, Emery?”

  “My mother made me,” Emery grumped.

  “I’m going to learn the secret words to bring the mummy back to life. You wanna play, too?”

  Emery slapped his forehead. “Leon, you can’t bring Band-Aids and tissues to life.”

  Philip added, “And you can’t bring them back to life if they were never alive in the first place. Anyway, mummies are giants and… and… I saw the movie. The mummy chases the person who brings it back to life and turns him into a mummy at the end.”

  “That’s why I made a small mummy,” Leon explained. “When it comes alive, I don’t want it to scare everybody. Come on,” he said, looking at Emery. “Let’s show Philip where we buried it.”

  Leon led the way outside.

  “What’s that noise?” Philip asked as they approached the mummy’s grave. “Sounds like a dog.”

  “It’s Mrs. White’s dog Skippy. He’s always barking. There he is,” Leon pointed.

  The front half of a medium-sized brown dog appeared in a gap in the bushes which separated Leon’s house from Mrs. White’s house next door. The dog carried a stick in its mouth and shook his head back and forth as if he were fighting with the stick.

  “Go away,” Leon said, shooing the dog with both hands. He ran toward the dog, and the dog disappeared into its own yard. “My mother doesn’t let me play with Skippy. She thinks he’ll bite me.”

  “A cobra and a vulture are your friends, but a dog scares you?” Philip asked.

  “They’re only pictures. And I’m not scared of the dog. I’m just not allowed.” Leon pointed straight down at a bare spot in the grass. “The mummy’s right down there. When I learn the magic words perfectly, the gods of Egypt will make the mummy rise from its grave…” Leon wiggled his fingers and raised his arms into the air.

  “Yeah?” Philip said. “Rise from his grave and do what?”

  “Yuk, yuk. I don’t know. You guys wanna come with me tomorrow? My dad’s taking me to the museum to see the Egypt stuff.”

  “You told me your teacher took you there already,” Emery said.

  “Yeah, the class went. It’s a neat place. If I go with my dad, though, I don’t have to walk in line and keep up and move along and be quiet. You know. School stuff. Come with me; you’ll like it. It’s got gold masks and snakes—not real snakes—but they’re neat looking. Sarcof… sarco… Coffins. You know. The long boxes where the pharaohs end up.”

  “You’re the sixth pharaoh of Egypt. You’re going to end up in a box full of snakes?” Emery asked.

  “He’s going to end up in the Egypt crazy house,” Philip muttered.

  “No, no, yuk yuk. No snakes in the box. Come and see. It’ll be fun. After, maybe you can help me learn the magic words.”

  Neither Philip nor Emery thought much of going to the museum on a Sunday. It sounded too much like an extra day of school. But Leon had infected them with the Egypt bug enough, and Leon’s father promised them ice cream afterward, so they finally agreed to accompany Leon to the museum next day.

  Chapter Three

  “I was afraid he was going to wear the towel on his head again,” Philip whispered to Emery after they left the car and were walking toward the museum, Leon and his father in the lead.

  “Don’t worry,” Emery whispered back. “Leon will do something weird, and we’ll wish we had towels to put over our heads so no one recognizes us.”

  “Yuk yuk,” Leon cackled. “These steps are so neat.”

  The museum front doors were at the top of a long and wide flight of steps. Each step did not go up the same distance as normal steps. Each step went up only a little bit at a time so walking up them felt strange—like taking baby steps all the way to the top. Leon started doing a dance, going up three steps and jumping back one.

  “Stop it, Leon. People are looking,” Emery scolded.

  “That’s not the way a real Egyptian would walk up stairs,” Philip said.

  Leon froze. “You think?” he asked, considering Philip’s argument.

  “Definitely not,” Philip answered.

  “Absolutely, definitely not,” Emery confirmed.

  “They’d walk regular,” Philip advised.

  “Oh, I know what you mean. You mean like this?” Leon bent his left arm and poked out his hand in front, then bent his right arm and poked out his hand in back. He bent his knees and started up the stairs, movin
g his arms in and out.

  Philip and Emery shouted, “Stop. Stop it.”

  Philip said, “You look even stupider than before. Walk like a regular person, can you?”

  “Egyptians never had much fun, I guess,” Leon grumbled, taking the same baby steps as everyone else who climbed the stairs.

  Leon’s father paid the entrance fees for himself and the boys and promised to meet them in front of the ticket counter in two hours to take them out for ice cream. He went his own way to visit some famous paintings he’d tried but failed to interest the boys in.

  The museum was crowded on a Sunday. Dozens of people mingled in the gigantic lobby of the museum.

  “Lots of people and not much noise,” Philip said softly to Emery. “Kind of spooky.”

  “I know where the Egypt stuff is,” Leon called, and he ran toward another flight of stairs. He didn’t get far before a man in a blue uniform stopped him.

  “We don’t run in the museum,” the uniformed man said. “And we don’t call out to our friends as if we’re in the schoolyard.”

  “We don’t?” Leon asked.

  “No, we don’t.”

  “Never?”

  “No, never. Please talk in a soft voice… and walk!”

  Leon tiptoed his way to the stairs, the guard’s eyes following him. He paused on the first step and waved his friends ahead. “Don’t run,” he told them in a loud whisper, bobbing his head toward the guard.

  “We didn’t run. You did,” Emery said.

  Leon led the way to the top of the stairs, where he pointed at a huge poster showing a golden Egyptian head complete with the cobra and vulture headdress.

  “The Egypt stuff’s around the corner,” Leon said.

  Just like the downstairs lobby, the large exhibition room was filled with people being very quiet.

  “This museum has dinosaur bones somewhere, doesn’t it?” Philip asked.