 |
| Opening chapter |
Chapter 1
“Ready to play Tomb Traps and Treasures?”
my grandfather said.
Grumpy and I would often play our own museum games.
But games weren’t the real reason why I took him to the Egyptian galleries
of the museum almost every afternoon after school.
We were here to dig up memories.
You see, my grandfather’s memory was crumbling like the ruins of ancient
Egypt and we were here on an archaeological dig to recover the lost treasures
of his mind.
He had once been a famous Egyptologist but now he had forgotten more
about ancient Egypt than I would ever learn, although he still knew an amazing
amount of weird stuff.
Playing ‘Tomb Traps and Treasures’ was our version of hide-and-seek in
the Egyptian galleries. It could be scary and great fun, providing the museum
staff didn’t spot us.
I tiptoed up to a pair of seated stone pharaohs who guarded the entrance
to the main hall. They looked quite stony-faced about our game.
Regally composed in shiny black granite, their expression seemed to say:
‘tread carefully.’
I took the warning and slowed. Was I walking into a trap?
Normally the Egyptian galleries echoed like
a big cathedral at prayer time, but today things were quieter. Looking down the
hall, I could see just one clump of people near the back, inspecting a colossal
pharaoh’s head.
I held my breath, edged through the gap between the throned figures,
swung my head left and then right.
Empty spaces yawned at me. Relief.
I started to let out a sigh, but then from behind a red granite lion, a
third pharaoh shot out...
Exerpt - opening of 'Tomb Traps and Treasures'- Amazon Kindle adventure fiction for young and old.
