Egypt Game (9781439132029)

by Snyder, Zilpha Keatley; Raible, Alton (ILT)

  “NO!” Marshall shouted, jumping up and hugging Security to his chest. “NO! NO! NO!” With every shout he stamped his foot. All three girls were around him in a moment, shushing and begging him to keep still. He shushed, but he went over to the edge of the shed and stood with his back to them.

  “All right, Marshall. We won’t sacrifice Security. Will we, April?” Melanie said.

  April went into a quick trance with her fingers to her forehead. “The gods have changed their minds,” she announced in a moment. “They say they don’t want Security. But just don’t yell like that anymore. Somebody will hear us, and we’ll get caught.”

  “Somebody already heard us,” Marshall muttered darkly.

  “What do you mean, somebody already heard us?” Melanie gasped. But Marshall only shrugged and said nothing more.

  “Come on back to the circle,” Melanie coaxed. “We take it all back about Security. Besides, it’s your turn to say what the message was.”

  Marshall allowed himself to be led back to the circle, but his chin was still sticking out, and he was glaring at April. He put his hand to his forehead the way April had done and then jerked it away. “Let’s sacrifice April,” he suggested.

  That gave everybody the giggles, and finally Marshall broke down and smiled, too. Then it was Melanie’s turn. Melanie said that she had read about some people who cut off their fingers as sacrifices. At that point even April looked shocked, and Elizabeth almost fainted. But Melanie only laughed. “I didn’t mean we should do that,” she said. “It just gave me an idea. We could pull out some hairs—and maybe cut off some fingernails.”

  “No scissors,” Elizabeth reminded with just a touch of satisfaction.

  “We could bite them off,” April suggested. “I do it all the time.”

  A few minutes later a small fire of twisted paper was burning in the mixing bowl firepit, and the high priestesses (and junior high priest) of Egypt were parading in a circle before the altar. They were walking in the Egyptian manner—one shoulder forward, arms bent at the wrist—except from time to time when they had to chew off another fingernail. Now and then one or another would approach the altar, bow and drop a scrap of humanity on the flames: a hair or two or a shred of fingernail.

  It was just about the best ceremony they’d ever had, and it was a shame to end it; but Melanie was just thinking that perhaps it was time to leave when suddenly she heard Elizabeth give a gasp of pure terror. Following Elizabeth’s gaze, Melanie was horrified to see a huge misshapen figure teetering on the top of the high board fence. The figure teetered wildly in the dim light, and then sprang forward to land in a horrible threatening crouch, right in the middle of Egypt.

  Elizabethan Diplomacy

  WHEN THE SHAPELESS INHUMAN FIGURE SPRANG INTO the middle of the storage yard, the four Egyptians could only clutch each other in panic, too shocked for the moment to even scream. April had just managed to get her mouth open to yell for help, when suddenly Marshall pointed and said, “Look.” A second figure was appearing over the top of the fence.

  This second invader, who was having some difficulty climbing over the wire at the top of the fence, had a strangely angular look about him. Strangely angular—and strangely familiar. In all four Egyptians frozen fear boiled at once into a choking mixture of anger and relief. In April it overflowed in stuttering sputter. “You—you d-d-dirty f-f-finks!” she yelled.

  On top of the fence Toby finally managed to get his boxy legs free of the barbed wire. He jumped down, losing his TV head in the process. Then, as the four badly shaken Egyptians turned loose of each other and tried to regain their dignity, the monster and the box-man leaned on each other and choked with fiendish laughter.

  They laughed leaning on each other and standing up—bending over as if they were in pain—and finally collapsed, sitting flat on the ground. Then, while the four members of the Egypt gang stared at them in helpless fuming anger, they just sat there, leaning against each other’s backs, still shaking with gradually weakening seizures.

  “Man—oh—man!” Toby gasped finally. “I’ve got to quit laughing. My stomach’s killing me.”

  “Sheesh! Me too,” Ken said. “I’m dying.” Ken fell over backwards and just lay there, holding his stomach and saying “Sheesh” weakly from time to time. But Toby crossed his legs and leaned forward with his chin on one hand and stared at the angry Egyptians.

  “Hey, February,” he said finally. “How do you say panic button in Egyptian?”

  April clenched her fists and took a step forward. Toby started to scramble to his feet—he’d seen April in action before. But Melanie and Elizabeth grabbed her and held her back.

  “Turn loose,” April said. “I’m going to punch him in the nose.”

  “There’s no use doing that,” Melanie whispered. “That won’t do any good. We can’t keep them from telling on us by punching them in the nose.”

  After a moment’s consideration April nodded. “Okay. Turn loose. I won’t punch them. At least not till we find out what they’re going to do.” She unclenched her fists and all three girls approached the enemy. Left behind, Marshall sat down on the edge of the temple floor in a good position to watch everything that might happen. Both the boys were standing now, watching the girls warily.

  “Well,” Melanie began. “Are you going to tell on us, or not?”

  “Tell on you?” Ken said. “What makes you think we’d do a thing like that?”

  “Of course not,” Toby said. “We don’t go around finking on people.” The girls glanced at each other in surprised relief. “However,” Toby continued, “this is not a matter of plain and simple finking. Letting you Egyptians get away with all this secret stuff just might be considered—like, unpatriotic, or something.”

  “Hey, you’re right,” Ken said. “Maybe we ought to tell the F.B.I.”

  “Maybe we should. Or maybe we could just make an official report on the whole scene—like, for current events tomorrow morning.” Toby stalked to the middle of the yard in what was obviously meant to be the Egyptian walk. Then he faced the group, cleared his throat, and in a phony voice he said, “ ‘What’s Happening in Egypt’—a very official report by Tobias Alvillar, Secret Agent.”

  Toby was pretty funny all right, but no one laughed but Ken. April was thinking a horrible thought. If they knew about the Egyptian walk, how much else did they know? Up until then she’d been thinking that the fence was too high to look over—and they couldn’t have seen very much while they were scrambling over it. She ran to the loose board and looked out into the alley. When she pulled her head back in, Melanie guessed the awful truth before she heard it.

  Taking Melanie aside, April whispered, “There are boxes piled up out there. They could have been watching forever! Shall I punch them now?”

  Melanie shrugged hopelessly. “Go ahead if you want to. But it won’t do any good. I think we might as well—leave the country, or something.”

  Elizabeth had followed Melanie and listened to April’s horrible news. Now all of a sudden she said, “I have an idea.”

  Both the bigger girls looked surprised. Elizabeth wasn’t the kind of person you expect to come up with ideas in an emergency. But the situation was desperate, so April and Melanie listened.

  When Elizabeth finished whispering, April shook her head gloomily. “It’ll never work,” she said.

  “Well, we may as well try it,” Melanie said. “It can’t make things any worse.”

  The enemy watched cautiously as the girls returned to face them. For a few seconds April and Melanie couldn’t think of a way to get started, and the five of them just stood there staring at each other. Melanie spoke first.

  “We don’t have permission to be here from the Professor, or our folks or anybody.”

  Toby grinned. “So what else is new?” he said.

  April’s fists clenched but she forced herself to open them. “We’ll be in terrible trouble if you tell on us,” she said in as pitiful a voice as she could
manage. To her amazement she noticed that the look the two boys exchanged was just the tiniest bit confused. And Kamata and Alvillar were two guys who weren’t easy to confuse. Warming to her theme, she went on, “We’ll probably get beaten and everything.”

  There was no doubt about it, the enemy had faltered for a few moments, but they managed to regroup.

  “We’re crying,” Ken said. “See the tears.”

  “Yeah. We’ll come to your funerals,” Toby said.

  Just then Elizabeth pushed her way between April and Melanie. Everyone looked at her in surprise—she’d probably never spoken to a sixth-grade boy before in her life, but now she looked as if she meant to. “Please,” she said, in a feathery little voice. “Please don’t tell on us, and we’ll let you play, too.”

  April cringed. It was such a corny, baby thing to say. She had a crazy urge to grab Elizabeth and drag her out of wisecrack range, before she got hurt. But seconds passed and nobody pounced. April unsquinched her eyes. Strangely enough, the boys were looking confused again. More confused than ever. Elizabeth was looking shyly hopeful, like an un-spanked puppy.

  Then Ken blinked his eyes like someone coming to after a whack on the head. “Come on, Tobe, let’s get out of here,” he said. And then, to no one in particular, “Maybe we won’t fink on you guys. You never can tell. Maybe we just won’t be in the mood for finking. Huh, Tobe?” But Toby only nodded absently. Ken picked up Toby’s T.V. head and jammed it into his hands. “Come on, Tobe,” he said. “We’ve got to get back before my dad misses me.”

  But Toby appeared to be thinking. He nodded again slowly and then walked around the girls to the temple. He looked for a moment at each altar and then around the yard. When he came back his eyes had a faraway look.

  “Okay,” he said. “Okay. We don’t rat, and we get to join the game. Is it a deal?”

  “Join the game!” Ken said. “This game? Are you kidding? We could make a deal about using the yard—like for”—he paused and glanced around—“four-square or handball or something, but—” He caught a glimpse of Toby’s face, and his voice trailed off. Toby was lit up like a pinball machine. Ken shrugged philosophically. “Okay,” he said. “So we’re Egyptians. It figures.”

  From then on things happened fast. Toby made everybody take a solemn oath not to tell where they’d been, even if they’d been missed and people started asking questions. Then, there was a brief crisis over getting Toby out of the yard. He wouldn’t fit through the hole in the fence with his boxes on, and the big box the boys had used for climbing over was too big and heavy to throw into the yard. He couldn’t take his costume off because he didn’t think he could get back into it without his dad’s help, and it wouldn’t be wise to rejoin the trick-or-treat group in pieces. Finally he lay down on the ground and had everybody stomp on him, more or less gently (less, in the case of April, who was still mad) until the boxes were flattened enough to squeeze through the hole. Afterwards, they tried to square him back up, but he never did look quite the same.

  As soon as they’d carried off the boxes the boys had piled up to climb on, they started off after the trick-or-treat group. Fortunately Ken knew the line of march, and since they didn’t stop at any houses, it wasn’t too long until they caught up. They even had time to collect a few more treats before it was time to go home.

  But it would have taken more than a few pieces of cheap candy to console April and Melanie. After they got the two smaller kids uncostumed and sent home, they sat on April’s bed and stared at each other gloomily.

  “What are we going to do?” April said finally. “We just can’t play the Egypt Game with those—those—boys there.”

  “I don’t see how we can, either,” Melanie said. “But what else can we do? You know what will happen if we try to keep them out. We can try to play it, anyway. Then, if they’re just too awful, I guess we’ll have to give the whole thing up.”

  It was a terrible thought. For a few minutes the two girls contemplated the possibility in mournful silence. At last, in a more cheerful voice, Melanie said, “Well, at least we don’t have to give it up yet, thanks to Elizabeth. If she hadn’t had that idea, I’ll bet those jerks would have finked on us right away, just for the fun of it.”

  “Yeah,” April said wonderingly. “How about that Elizabeth! How’d a little kid like that know how to handle those two creeps? I’m pretty good at handling adults and people like that, but boys! Yick!”

  Melanie grinned. “You know? It’s sort of like what you do in ‘non-violence.’ My mom says it’s appealing to their better natures.”

  “Better natures, phooey!” April said, wrinkling up her nose.

  Moods and Maybes

  THE NEXT DAY AT RECESS TOBY ALVILLAR SIDLED UP to Melanie and April. Before he started talking, he looked around quickly to be sure no one who mattered was looking. Ken and Toby didn’t believe in talking to girls. Of course, it was all right to make comments at girls—particularly if they were insults—but real conversations were out, at least in public places.

  “When are you guys going ‘you know where’ again?” he asked, sort of out of the corner of his mouth.

  “I don’t know,” Melanie answered. “We’re not supposed to go there at all, yet. They’re still not letting us play outside because of the murder and everything. But my folks are weakening, I think.”

  “Caroline says I can start playing outside again as soon as Melanie can,” April said.

  “Well, look. Ken and I won’t go there until Friday,” Toby said. “Try to get your folks to spring you by then. Okay?”

  April and Melanie exchanged surprised glances. “Oh, we’re not just being boy-scouty,” Toby said. “My dad got mad at me and restricted me for three days. So I couldn’t go before anyway.”

  April and Melanie tried not to giggle. “Yeah,” Toby said. “It’s all you guys’ fault, too. My dad got mad at the way you guys mashed up my costume. Parents!” Toby rolled up his eyes in an exasperated expression. “All I ask him for is an idea for a Halloween costume. At first he says he’s too busy to think about it. He’s an artist, and he can’t even think up a little old costume idea. Then, all of a sudden he gets this brainstorm and he spends a whole day making the costume, plus a couple of hours putting me into it, and then he’s so hung up on the whole thing that he gets mad when I squash it a little.”

  April and Melanie broke down and giggled and, sure enough, Toby was encouraged. “Yeah,” he said, “I just walk in the door, see, and my dad gives me this cold look and says, ‘How many were killed?’ I start saying what’s he talking about, and he says in this icy voice, ‘Well, obviously you’ve been hit by a truck and I was just wondering about the other casualties.’ After that he got louder and not so funny—and it ends up I’m restricted for three days.”

  Toby mugged an exaggeratedly exasperated look again and strolled off, leaving the girls absolutely devastated with giggles. It was all very well having a rule about not laughing at Toby, but it wasn’t always easy to stick to it.

  That night at home Melanie brought up the subject of playing outdoors and got her parents started on an argument about it. Her father’s opinion was that “we can’t keep them cooped up forever,” and fortunately he won—on the condition that Marshall and Melanie promise not to play alone. So it all had to wait until the Rosses could get around to talking with Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Chung and get everything all decided—and by then it was already Thursday.

  On Thursday afternoon the three girls picked up Marshall at his nursery school and hurried to Egypt. They had just one day to spend there in peace and quiet before the coming of the “outsiders.” It was a nice sunny afternoon and everything was right where they’d left it, but somehow it was hard to keep their minds on the Game. They were all worrying about the next day. They were wondering if the boys really wanted to play, or if they just wanted to tease and make trouble. April said it wouldn’t surprise her a bit if they showed up with half the boys in the sixth grade and just smashed everyt
hing to pieces. In fact, April said she thought they might just as well give the whole thing up and go away and never come back.

  Later Elizabeth, with worried wrinkles in her forehead, asked Melanie if April really meant it. Were they really going to give up the Egypt Game? But Melanie told her not to worry. “She doesn’t mean it,” Melanie said. “She’s just in a bad mood about something. Can’t you tell?”

  And April was in a bad mood. She had been in a bad mood since the day before, when she’d gotten a letter from Hollywood. The letter was from Dorothea, and it was very cheery and chatty—and it said that Dorothea and Nick had gotten married. Dorothea chatted about how happy she and Nick were, and how she’d moved into Nick’s apartment and there really wasn’t much room. “Of course,” the letter said, “we’re both looking forward just awfully to the time when we can get more settled and have a bigger place and have you come to live with us. But in the meantime, darling, I’m sending the rest of your things on up to Caroline’s as the storage situation here is just terrible.”

  There was a lot more about the big part that Dorothea was about to get—not the same one as she’d written about last time, which hadn’t really been her type of thing, anyway. But this new part—

  April hadn’t finished the letter. She had torn it up into little tiny pieces and flushed it down the toilet, so she couldn’t change her mind and paste it back together. Then she sat on the windowsill and stared off up Orchard Avenue. She had still been sitting there when Caroline came in, but April hadn’t turned around.

  “I got a letter from your mother today, too, dear,” Caroline had said. She put one hand very gently on April’s shoulder.

  Hot tears had drowned April’s eyes and painful gulps climbed up her throat. She had hated the hand on her shoulder and she had hated Caroline because it was all her fault. She’d been all right until Caroline came in—just angry. Mad—mad—mad, but all right. And then Caroline had to come in and make her cry.