Chapter Four

Evelyn pulled Constance into her office with an excited step, chattering the whole way.

"This is my office," she said, "Where I'm writing my paper on the Religious Practices of the Eighteenth Dynasty!"

Constance looked about the room.   It was more a tent than an office, crowded with boxes of books, a makeshift bookshelf in the corner, ceramics and old trinkets crowding tables and chairs.  Evelyn cleared a few rolled up maps off of a chair, offering the seat to Constance.

"Thank you," Constance said, still eyeing the paraphernalia in the room.

"How many years has it been?"

Constance glanced to Evelyn, smiling.  "Twelve, if I recall.  I last saw you before you left-"

"For Cairo," finished Evelyn, nodding.  "Right."  She met Constance's large brown eyes and sighed.  "That's far too long."

Constance smiled.  "I understand how you got distracted.  Rick and Alex are rather dynamic individuals."

"You have no idea!" sighed Evy, sinking into a chair and pulling a book into her lap. "You know, since I met Rick I've had barely a moment to breathe?  Always on the move, always finding a new dig-"

"I believe you rather enjoy it," grinned Constance, "I can see it in your eyes."

Evy grinned back at Constance.  "Yes.  Yes, I do love it.  Even after all this time, you know me too well."

"I don't know about that - looking at you I can barely recognise you!"

Evy glanced down at herself.  "Why do you say that?"

"Well look at yourself!  Dashing attire, tanned skin, dust on your hands.  I've never seen you look so alive."

A smile crept slowly on Evelyn's face, and she tilted her head at her friend.  "And look at you!"

Constance tutted.  "I was more impressive to look at back home in London, dear Evy.  The desert was most unkind to me."

The smile on Evelyn's face calmed, and she fingered the edge of her book thoughtfully.

"Tell me, Connie.  How've you been all these years?  What have you been doing?  I mean, I've known you told me things in all our letters but I want to know how you've been, you know - how you are."

"Hmmm.... What I've been doing..."  Constance licked her lips nervously, running her fingers along a heavy leather glove on the table.  "I've been writing articles for Cambridge Ladies' Journal."

"Yes, that's right! That's wonderful!" Evelyn sighed.  "What have you been documenting?"

Connie's eyes met Evelyn's.  "New developments in labour-saving appliances in the home."

The tiredness and unhappiness in Constance's voice was not lost on Evy, who edged her mouth open with some uncertainty.

"And I'm sensing you're not finding it the most fulfilling job you've ever had..."

"Oh Evy," Constance sighed, "I went to Cambridge University and studied cultural sciences and literature, and here I am stuck writing about damned cheese graters!"

Evy winced.  "Ouch."

Constance sighed, shaking her head and throwing down the glove.  "I'm sorry, Evy, I am.  Here I am, starting off our wonderful reunion with my bitter wailing-"

Evy's hand shot out over her desk, grasping Connie's and she met the unhappy woman's eyes.  "We're friends, Connie.  The best of friends.  If you can't bitterly wail to your best friend, who can you wail to?"

Connie gave a contrite smile, gripping Evy's hand.  "Thank you."

"No problem!" Evy said, patting Connie's hand before opening up the book in her lap.  "How are things going with that young man you'd written me about?  What was his name?"

"Gregory," Constance said, blinking and looking away.  "Not well I'm afraid."

"Oh?"

"I decided to leave him."

"When did you do that?" Evelyn asked, her face falling, looking up from a book she'd just been flicking through.

"Last year."

"Oh?  Why?"

Constance sighed, looking at a small statue on the table.  "He wanted me to quit my job once I married him.  I refused."

Evy frowned softly.  "Oh."

Constance nodded.  "Oh."

Evy placed her book on the table, looking away.

"I'm a twenty-eight year old woman, Evelyn, and I'm still unmarried.  I've put my job - little that it is - above a married life.  I am the only woman I know that has done this.  I forget how many times men have derisively muttered 'suffragette' at me like it's some insult.  I stand by this lifestyle that I have, a lifestyle of independence yet solitude, and I get nothing out of it.  What am I, Evelyn, what am I?"

Constance's large harried eyes met Evelyn's, and Evy met them, a conviction in her own.

"You're a modern woman, that's what you are."

Bottom lip quivering, Constance looked down into her lap, her eyes growing red.  "It is so lonely being what I am, Evelyn."

Evelyn wove around her desk, kneeling beside her friend, wrapping her hands around Constance's.  "Listen to me Connie, please." Constance glanced at Evelyn reluctantly.  "There have been times whilst I've been in Egypt where I've needed to stand up for myself and my beliefs.  Those days back at secondary school with you and the way you always stood your ground - they've inspired me always.  They have."

"That's funny," Constance said, tilting her head and swallowing back tears.  "There have been times when I've said too much, acted out of haste and I've thought... Why couldn't I be a woman of poise?  Like my dear Evelyn?"

Evelyn stood, wrapping her arms around Constance and hugging her tightly.  "Things will work out for you, Connie.  They will.  I truly believe we all have a destiny."  Evelyn leant back, meeting her best friend's eyes.  "I have no doubt that yours will be not only unique, but memorable."

Constance brushed the back of her knuckles over Evy's cheek affectionately, sighing.  "You're too sweet, Evy.  You are."

"Come on," Evelyn said, patting her friend on the shoulder.  "We'll make some tea and spend some time with my lug of a husband."

"I'm sorry about all this Evy," Constance said, "I'm just - I've had a rough day."

Evelyn took Constance's hand, squeezing it.  "Don't apologize, Connie.  I understand.  And besides...  it's what I'm here for."

~~*~~

The table in the dining tent looked thoroughly out of place.  It was varnished and deeply brown, spread with a thin linen tablecloth that was slightly transparent and heavy with trays and dishes of food.  The food was prepared not to excess, but to precision in account of company and appetite.  Dinner was the largest meal of the day, and was catered to accordingly.  Food and drink were not things that the O'Connells, or their paid workers and colleagues, liked to waste.  Not in the deserts of Egypt, anyways.  Around the table sat two of the scholars that were helping Evelyn catalogue the findings and translate the documentations unearthed in Hamunaptra, Ardeth was beside her, picking almost with uncertainty at the western dish of potatoes and lamb with gravy in front of him.  On the other side of the Medjai sat Jonathan, wolfing down his meal and chasing it down with a glass of wine, and at the head of the table sat Rick.  Adjacent to him sat Evelyn.  Next to Evelyn was her son, Alex, who was quietly intrigued with the blonde woman taking up so much of his mother's attention.  He looked up at Constance across the crowded dinner table, fingering his fork idly.

"What did you study in university, Miss Adams?"

Constance eyed the boy over her plate of lamb and carrots.  "Cultural Sciences."

Rick shifted in his chair, clearing his throat audibly.  He looked to Ardeth, flashing a brief strained smile. "Uh... Ardeth?  Could you please pass me the potatoes?"

"Certainly."

"What kind of cultures did you study then?"

"All sorts," said Constance.

"Like?"

"Pick one, dear Alex, and I've probably studied it."

Alex poked at his potatoes, then looked up to Constance.  "Mesopotamian."

"Ancient Societies, first year."

The boy nodded, pressing his lips together thoughtfully.  He narrowed his eyes at the woman.  "Hungarian."

"Eastern Europe Studies, fourth year."

"Alex," Evy said, laying down her fork, "Let poor Connie eat, will you?"

Alex looked to his mother with a contrite nod of his head.  "Yes, Mum."

Connie looked to the boy eating, a warm sludgy feeling inside of her.  He looked disappointed.  There was a sharpness about the child Constance found frightening and intriguing at the same time.  He was different from other children she'd ever met, and he was alone. Tipping her head idly, Constance forked up some buttered potato, pursing her lips.  "Perhaps... you can ask me more questions tomorrow."

Glancing up from his plate, the boy smiled.   Constance didn't quite know what to do with that.  It was the first time she could remember a child ever smiling at her.

With some unease, she smiled back.

~~*~~

Her footsteps were light on the compact, trodden sand as she toed her way to the empty campfire, Ardeth sitting there alone on a crate and tending to the bird wrapped in the make-shift papoose against his chest.  She hadn't spoken to him for some time, and she didn't know why she felt a compunction to sit and talk with him now.  Curiosity, it was about her curiosity.  At Constance's steps he looked up, and upon seeing who it was, smiled a little.   She smiled back, sitting across from him at the fire, tentativeness in her movements.

"How's the bird?  Ra- Ra-"

"He is well," said Ardeth. "I usually just call him Ra."

"Oh," Constance nodded.  "Evelyn is just putting Alex to bed."

Ardeth gazed at her briefly before patting his bird again.  After a moment, "You are feeling better?"

"Much," Constance said. "After I finished exposing myself to half of Egypt, no less."

Ardeth smiled.  "You are among friends here.  I doubt they will think anything of it."

Constance gave a weary smile.  "No.  They'll just make embarrassing jokes until I pass out from blushing."

The desert warrior just smiled, slowly stroking the down of the bird against him.   She noticed his eyes, the way they gazed down at the young bird with such tenderness.  She was quietly intrigued by his care and nurturing, by the aura of peace that seemed to surround the man.  She cleared her throat.

"So... what exactly is a - um - a Medjai?"

Ardeth looked up slowly.  "A Medjai is a protector of the Pharaoh, a warrior of God."

Constance gave a curious frown.  "But there is no Pharaoh."

"Yes," Ardeth nodded, looking down to Ra. "There is what the Pharaoh left behind.  Their treasures, their curses.  We protect what is left of them in this life, so they may have peace and ease of mind in the next."

An amused smile spread across Constance's face tentatively.  "Well - you don't believe in those silly curses, do you?"

Ardeth's eyes met hers, and they burned through her playful jostling.  "I know you are a woman of the spirit, Miss Adams," he said. "And your question is one asked out of fear.  Fear not, for I have seen much, and will not berate you for believing in such things."

Constance's smile turned curious.  "How much *have* you seen?"

"Enough that I do not take anything for granted."

She couldn't help but give a wild, free smile.  "Sounds fascinating."

Ardeth's lips turned up in a similar smile, one that warmed Constance's heart.

"Bloody hell, putting that kid to bed should have been one of Heracles' Twelve Tasks!"

She felt herself snapped away from the moment, and she turned her head, watching Evelyn stride to the camp with two steaming mugs in her hands.   Glancing up from watching where she was going, Evy's mouth fell open.

"Oh..."

She looked from Ardeth (who glanced away to pat his bird like a child caught gazing out a window during class), to Constance (who smiled bashfully and fiddled with her fingers), and sighed.

"Oh... did I interrupt-"

"Of course not," laughed Constance lightly, "We were just talking about what Medjai do..." Ardeth gave a short smile.

"Save the world, that's what." Evelyn said, sitting carefully on a crate by the fire.  "Trust me, I wouldn't want Ardeth's job."

"Sometimes I don't want it either," Ardeth said.

"What's in the mugs?"

Evy looked into one of them.  "Hot chocolate.   I'm sorry Ardeth, if I knew you were out here I would have gotten one for you too."

Ardeth stood, cradling the papoose housing his pet with one hand.  "It is fine.  I should be retiring for the night."

"You don't have to," Constance found herself saying, and Ardeth smiled.

"It is late, and you and Evelyn have much to catch up on.  Good night, Miss Adams."

Constance felt herself looking away with a coy smile.  "Good night, Mr. Bay."

"Evelyn..."

Evelyn smiled and nodded to Ardeth. "Night, Ardeth."

The Medjai gave a final nod, and with a sweep of his robes strode from the camp.   Constance quite forgot there was anyone else at the camp until she heard a giggle.   She glared at Evelyn.

"What's so funny?"

Evelyn leant on an arm, cocking her shoulder, eyeing an invisible Ardeth with pouted lips.

"Good night," she breathed, "Mr. Baaay."

"Ooh!"  Constance smacked Evelyn in the arm, blushing bright red, Evelyn just giggling and supping at her cocoa. "You're an evil woman, Evy."

"No, I'm not, I'm made of sugar and spice and all things nice," she grinned.

"If you believe that you'll believe anything!"

Evelyn sipped from her mug once more, a touch of seriousness in her eyes.  "You could do worse than a Medjai, you know."

Constance double took.  "Evy!  He's a desert man and - I'm not even having this conversation."

"It was only a suggestion," Evelyn shrugged.  "I won't make it again if it offends you."

"It doesn't," Constance said, tipping her head, "I just - I don't want to think about that sort of thing right now."

Evelyn nodded.  After a moment, "He's very brave."

"Evy..."

"Okay, okay!  No mentioning Ardeth in a romantic context in front of you."

"Thank you."

Evelyn gave a contained smile, eying Constance sideways.  Constance just scowled.

~~*~~

The golden light of the well established camp-fire flickered and touched the women's faces, both of them smiling at each other, laughter in their eyes.   The sky was a deep blue, awash with clouds of stars, the moon nowhere to be seen.  The rest of the camp was quiet, everyone else long in their beds.  Constance sipped the mug of hot chocolate she had in her hands, a blanket around her body.

"Remember when we left those pair of knickers in the principle's coat?" she said, grinning at Evy.

"Yes!" gasped Evy, "And then during the lesson he dipped into his pocket to take out his chalk and got the panties instead!"

The women broke into laughter, Evy leaning on Connie's shoulder and giggling, Connie sipping her drink and sniggering.

"Those were good days," Evelyn said through a smile, nudging Constance's shoulder.

Constance looked into the fire, thinking of those days sharing a bunk at Oxford Ladies College, sharing jokes and clothes and shampoo, staying up all night and talking of dreams.   Evelyn always dreamed of Egypt, and Constance dreamed of...

"Remember that night back at college," Constance said, "When you asked me if I could do anything once I left college, what would it be?"

Evy's eyes softened.  "Yes."

"I said I wanted to see the world, and do something to make it a better place."  Constance looked away and sighed.  "All I've done since then is writing about toasting irons in a stupid bloody magazine."

Evelyn frowned.  "As I see it, you're in Egypt.  And now you're starting a great adventure - because you're away from England, you're in a new place, meeting new people, learning new things."  The frown disappeared and Evelyn smiled, "It's the beginning of something new, you see.   In Egypt, you can be anything."

A smile crept on Connie's face.  "Oh?  And what are you?"

Evelyn sat up, grinning naughtily.  "Adventurer!  Explorer!  Princess of the Nile!"

Constance broke into laughter, "My dear, you've gotten even madder since Oxford!"

"Yes!  But I'm happy," Evelyn said, calming down some.  "Tell me, in your heart of hearts - what do you want to do more than anything?"

Oh, that question.  Connie hated it.  She'd asked herself that so many times, and every time she got the response she wanted to die from embarrassment.   It was a stupid, silly dream.  She hated that it gave her so much joy to think about.  She could feel Evy's eyes on her, and she met them with her lips thin.

"It's stupid."

Evelyn shrugged, "I don't care."

"I can't believe I'm going to tell you this..."

"Just tell me Connie!"

Gulping in a lungful of air, Connie let it all out in one breath.  "I want to contact the other side!"

Her eyes were wide as silence dropped around the camp.  She couldn't believe she had said it - to Evelyn.  She didn't know why he'd been able to tell Jonathan... perhaps because he inadvertently provoked her so, but to tell Evelyn...  It was something she thought she'd never do.  Evelyn frowned.

"The other side of what?"

Constance winced, disappointment bursting inside of her. "The other side!  I knew you wouldn't understand!"

Evelyn's eyes bugged, "Ohh, THAT other side!  Is that what you mean?!"

Constance nodded, looking away. "I think about it night and day!  In all the research done in other cultures, their religions always intrigued me because they had certain things about them that were so similar!  I believe there truly MUST be something more than this, that we're all experiencing!"  She met Evelyn's large brown eyes again and sighed.  "You think I'm mad, don't you?"

"No!"  Evelyn shook her head.  "No Connie, I don't.  If you knew what I've been through here in Egypt... the experiences I've had.... Well... Contacting the departed doesn't seem so strange to me at all." 

Sighing, Connie nodded, some relief falling through her. 

"I'm just surprised you never told me about your interest."

"Oh!"  Connie waved an arm.  "I only got interested in it the past few years.  When I read about it - I felt more alive than I ever had.  I had this burning need to know.  Why?  Why did these things happen the way they did?  Was there more than what conventional science can accept?  It was so intriguing to me."  Constance pressed her lips together, a sparkle in her eyes dancing with glee.  "And then I read that there are people that actually research these things for a living.  They call themselves parapsychologists!"

"So I've heard," Evelyn nodded. "Why don't you give up your position at Cambridge and join a society?"

Constance shrugged.  "I want to, I do.  Recently, I've been meditating three times a day, and using my crystal ball, to practice contacting my spirit guides!"

Evelyn blinked.  "You actually have a crystal ball?"

"Yes."

A smile broke across her friend's face.  "Oh Connie - I think you should dive into a life of spirituality without any reservations!"

Constance blinked, "Really?!"

Evelyn nodded.  "Yes!  But after you get home to England."

The joy in Constance's eyes broke and she looked at her friend with loss.  "Evelyn?"

Evelyn sighed, taking her friends hands in hers.  "Trust me, Connie.  You can be anything in Egypt, except you can't contact the dead."

"Why not?"

"I'll tell you sometime," Evelyn said, looking away.  "Needless to say, it can be a very dangerous past-time here.  When they say these places we visit are cursed - they're not joking."

The jovial mood left the pair, and Constance had sadness about her.

"Please, Constance.  I just worry about you playing with such things here in Egypt."

Constance glanced at Evelyn, offense in her eyes.  "I'm not 'playing', Evy.  I've been practicing for five years!  I want it to be my profession!"

"Yes, you've practiced, but in England!" Evelyn said.  "Egypt-"

"Is full of cursed places, I heard you."  Constance stood up, dusting herself off.  "You know, it took a lot for me to tell you about my dream and - and I don't think you take it seriously."

Evelyn stood up after her, stepping forward.  "No, Connie.  I take it very seriously!"  She swallowed, gazing at Constance.  "If I didn't, I wouldn't be so scared for you trying it here."

With a final sigh, Constance shrugged.  "I can look after myself, Evy."

Evelyn wrapped her arms about herself, worry in her eyes.  "I know, Connie.  But what's in those tombs, and what we can't see in this place... it's more than any one person can deal with."

Pulling her eyes away from her best friend, Constance turned, striding from the camp, shoulder length blonde hair billowing behind her.

~~*~~

Time: 9.30 pm
Date: November 14th, 1934

Supplemental.

Evelyn must be my best friend.  We had a bit of a disagreement tonight, and I feel awful.  Just like old times.   Not that we've ever had problems getting along, just we both have such strong opinions, that when they're oppositional, it can cause problems.

I'm not angry at Evelyn.  In fact I understand her, very much.  I'm disappointed, I suppose.  Something about Egypt has always made me feel in touch with the beyond.  I was greatly anticipating some intriguing séances here.  I have a feeling things will blow over.

The nerve of the girl, however, to poke fun at me regarding Mr. Bay!  Really!   We're from two completely different cultures!  As handsome as the man is, he is not suitable for me in any way, and I don't know why I'm even THINKING about him like that.

My ideal man is suave, wears a suit, has short hair, no beard and finds everything I do completely thrilling.  I guess this is why I'm still single at 28.

I did enjoy talking with Ardeth, though.   He has such a peace about him... I've never seen it in a man before.  It's as if he has a deep understanding about everything about him.   The desert isn't death to him, and in the way he lives, he seems so... well... for a lack of a better word - alive!

Tomorrow Evelyn will take me to Karnak via airship so I may see the ruins there.  I look forward to it, and look forward to speaking further to Evelyn and solving our disagreement.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hello From Sunny Hamunaptra – Chapter 5