by Edward Marin
After Dan got out of bed the next morning Linda followed him into the guest room, where they found Tonemcadu gazing out the window at something in the still dark sky. He turned around and observed them with a puzzled expression.
“Think our buddy is planning his escape?” Dan said with a forced laugh.
“You make it sound like we’re holding him prisoner. He doesn’t look unhappy to me; I’m sure he realizes that we don’t wish him any harm.”
“Linda, we’re going to have to find a way to communicate with him. Gestures aren’t going to do it. I think it’s time for him to start school.”
With that, Dan banged the desk next to him with his fist, made eye contact with Tonemcadu, and said the word “Table!” in a loud voice.
Tonemcadu looked at him for a moment and responded with a word which sounded like “tel”.
Linda rushed to get her dictionary of hieroglyphs from the bookshelf in the living room. When she got back, Tonemcadu spoke again. This time he said “teble.”
“And I thought he was trying to tell us something in his language,” Linda laughed and laid the still unopened dictionary on the desk in front of her. “Obviously, he’s motivated to learn. And hey, ‘teble’ isn’t bad.”
They continued to teach him new words for the rest of the weekend. On Sunday evening they reviewed them with him and counted 108 memorized words. It was impressive, yet at that rate it would take a long time before he’d have the vocabulary needed to carry on a conversation, assuming he could learn rudimentary English grammar as easily as he learned words.
On Monday morning, after Dan left for work, Linda started her research. She was determined to find out as soon as possible how Tonemcadu’s reawakening had been possible and why it had happened.
She read everything she could find about the mummification process. How it had existed since antiquity in countries as diverse as Peru, Egypt, and the Canary Islands. How even within one society the procedure had varied depending on the time period, the mummy maker, or the wealth of the family. She reviewed her material about the accidental mummies that had shown up in places like the Alps, the Taklamakan desert of northwest China, and in Chihuahua Mexico, convinced that they could be proof that the internal organs didn’t have to be removed, as they usually were in ancient Egypt, for a mummy to be preserved. But she could find no mention of the one thing essential for Tonemcadu’s reawakening to have been possible: evidence that the procedure could be performed on someone who was still alive at the time it was done.
She decided to call on one of her respected colleagues for ideas about what to do next. University of Chicago professor Dr. Paul Chen’s research in the area of embalmment methods around the world could be helpful, although she’d have to be careful not to tip him off about why she needed his assistance. She found his number and started to dial it, but hung up halfway through, suddenly fearing that she’d have to tell him too much to get a serious answer--if he would even give her one. She envisioned herself becoming instead a laughingstock in her professional circle.
The fact was, she had no choice but to find the answer on her own. She’d need to investigate areas of research outside her area of expertise. She began reading about time travel and about the recent practice of freezing the dead bodies of wealthy people in the hope that future advances in medical care could eventually revive them. Nothing she learned bore any relation to the experience with Tonemcadu.
It was only at the end of the third day that she came across some pertinent information. She read a solid study showing that endocrine hormones, such as the human growth hormone and DHEA, could be used to retard biological aging by up to twenty years. Although the scientists didn’t go so far as to claim that the aging process could be slowed to the point where a person could live for a much longer period of time, she didn’t come across any information indicating that it was impossible. She found that encouraging. As in architecture, the ancient Egyptians might have had knowledge in this area that had since been lost. It was at least theoretically possible that they could have discovered a way to combine the science of mummification and the power of hormones to prolong life by thousands of years.
Next she researched the hibernation phenomenon as experienced in nature by certain animals. She learned that, prior to the process, beginning sometime in the fall, the animal gains as much weight as possible to be able to survive the winter on stored fat. During that period, the heart rate drops, the metabolism slows, and the animal loses a significant percentage of its weight. Could some sort of induced
hibernation process have been known to the ancient Egyptians?
She then read about the Buddhist monks in Tibet who are said to be able to transcend time through meditation and other spiritual practices. A few are believed by the locals to be several hundred years old. Could it be possible that Tonemcadu was an exceptional mystic who’d been able to extend his life to thousands of years by being preserved in optimum conditions in a mummified form?
CHAPTER 5
Who could have imagined that he would reawaken two months early, on the other side of the ocean? But there could be no doubt tonight that he was a world away from home and the pyramid. For the first time since being at his hosts’ home, he’d been able to map his position without any of the stars he needed to see, blocked by clouds. And then he had checked and doubled-checked all his calculations.
But where could the original inhabitants of this land be? Of all the modern people he had seen so far, whether in rolling boxes while on his way to his hosts’ home or in the black box with pictures and sound they watched every night, few bore any resemblance to the inhabitants of the land he’d encountered when he visited it with the pharaoh’s trade and cultural delegation. And yet there seemed to be people from many parts of the world.
As soon as he was strong enough to walk for more than a couple of minutes without feeling as if he was about to pass out, he’d go outside and try to find someone who spoke a language derived from one of those he spoke. With a little luck, he may be able to find out the best way to get back to the Great Pyramid.
In the meantime, he needed to keep learning his hosts’ language while he recovered. Thankfully, they seemed eager to teach it to him, along with their customs. They didn’t even seem to mind that he spent much of his time looking around their house, inspecting and trying all the instruments, objects, and devices he came across.
Some of them indicated a high level of technological development. Yet, it seemed that a great deal of knowledge from the past, like how to make use of the force of anti-gravity, had been lost. Most of the modern tools seemed to have the primary objective of making his hosts’ life more comfortable. They had the ability to turn lights on and off by flicking a switch on the wall, could get cold or hot water by turning a handle, and could cook food in a few seconds by putting a frozen box in a special oven.
One evening while he was inspecting a pile of attached papyrus they called a book, he was shocked by what he saw on one of the pages. Right away he had an idea of how he might be able to communicate with his hosts.
CHAPTER 6
In the days since Tonemcadu’s arrival, Dan and Linda’s life had changed drastically. Linda’s time was split between caring for him and doing her research. In the afternoons, when Dan came home from work, she briefed him on what she’d discovered that day. Ironically, the more she learned, the less she felt she knew. Her research findings just made her more aware of the many possible ways in which the ancient Egyptians might have prolonged Tonemcadu’s life, yet she didn’t have firm evidence pointing in any one direction.
Since Tonemcadu had become Dan and Linda’s primary preoccupation, they’d stopped arguing about when they would marry and start a family. Caring for the mummy satisfied some of Linda’s nurturing instincts, and having him living with them fulfilled some of Dan’s yearning for adventure and practical archeology.
Yet, it was becoming apparent to Linda that they simply didn’t have the resources nec
essary to solve the puzzle that was Tonemcadu on their own. Despite her best efforts, she wasn’t any closer to knowing how the special mummification had been possible or why it had been performed. What she did know was how much more likely it would be for a group of experts in the various fields she had researched to solve the mystery.
If only Tonemcadu could tell them about his experience. If only their ability to communicate with him wasn’t so ineffective. His vocabulary was limited and the inadequacy of sign language would always become apparent when they tried to express a thought or ask him a question. As a result, they were often forced to study his facial expressions when they sensed that he had something important to say.
One evening while they were watching TV in the living room, Linda was feeling so discouraged that she switched off the set and said, “We might as well return him to the museum and explain everything to administration, Dan.”
“You’re ready to give up? Throw away the opportunity of a lifetime? Not to mention we’d probably both lose our jobs.”
“I feel we’re not getting anywhere. I haven’t been able to find out anything concrete, and I’m afraid I never will on my own. And just what do you think we’re going to do with him after my vacation is over? The longer we wait, the harder it will be to explain that we brought him home without authorization. It’s also not fair to him to keep him in this house indefinitely.”
“We also can’t give up now. It was our discovery, and we should be the ones to see it through. Think about the day when we publish our findings and present him to the world.”
“What findings, Dan? We--”
“Hold on a minute.” Dan was looking at Tonemcadu.
Linda followed his eyes and noticed that their guest was smiling brightly while looking at something in a book about the Valley of the Kings. Tonemcadu then grabbed a pen from the coffee table and started writing on a sheet of paper. Moments later, he got up and handed it to Dan.
Dan scrutinized the sheet for several seconds.
Linda moved closer to him to take a look. The paper was filled with hieroglyphic characters. She immediately realized what their guest was trying to do.
“That book he was reading?” she said. “It has several pages of hieroglyphs next to their English translation. He must have realized we’ve figured out how to read his language. I can’t believe we didn’t think of communicating in writing first.”
Dan got their dictionary of ancient Egyptian symbols from the bookshelf. They hurried to decipher what Tonemcadu had written. Moments later, Linda read out triumphantly, “Thank you for your hospitality.”
She gave both men a huge smile and took back the sheet of paper. “I want to tell him we’re happy to have him and he’s welcome to stay as long as he wants. We hope he--”
“We need to ask him why he reawakened,” Dan said.
“Okay, but I think we should be careful to ask him simple, open-ended questions so he can tell us as much or as little as he chooses. The last thing we want to do now is break off the lines of communication by not being tactful.”
“Let’s ask him, ‘Tell us why you reawakened,’” Dan said. So much for her cautionary remark.
He grabbed a sheet of paper from the table and duplicated some of the characters in the hieroglyphics dictionary.
When he finished, he placed the sheet in front of Tonemcadu, who looked at it without expression. Undaunted, Linda started helping Dan write a note to their guest. The process was tedious, because their experience with hieroglyphs was limited to reading them. Neither had ever tried to write a phrase. It was hard to find the right words and even harder to place them in an order that would make sense to a speaker of ancient Egyptian.
It took several minutes to put it all on paper. Linda did most of the writing while Dan searched for the words in the dictionary. She had to substitute several terms he couldn’t find with replacements she hoped didn’t alter too much the meaning of what they were trying to say. After several false starts, they assembled enough characters to form a sentence they hoped read:
“You are welcome to stay as long as you want. Can you tell us how you reawakened?”
Again Dan placed the sheet in front of Tonemcadu, who this time took it in his hands and looked at it with obvious interest. He then put it down, picked up the pen, and drew a few characters of his own, with the confidence of someone who excelled in the skill of writing. They translated it as:
“I received a special mummification to awaken at this time in history and complete a mission. I thought I would be in the Great Pyramid when I awoke. Why was my sarcophagus moved to your country?”
“How do we tell him?” Linda said. How could they begin to explain the historical factors that had resulted in so much of the legacy from his culture having been removed from his land and taken into other countries? She well knew the importance of a burial location to ancient Egyptians. After another discussion they wrote:
“It was a mistake made many generations ago.”
Tonemcadu started writing again.
“How can I get back to the Great Pyramid so I can complete my mission?”
Linda was happy to be able to give him some good news after the previous exchange.
“The trip can be made in less than one day by going through the air. If you want, we can go with you. We will not interfere with your mission.”
“When can we leave?” he wrote.
“Can you believe it?” Dan said. “He doesn’t seem impressed that we can fly. Maybe those ancient Egyptian carvings that look like two jet airplanes and an Apache attack helicopter in the ancient Temple of Seti I in Abydos were real flying machines.”
Dan and Linda talked about the time necessary to make all the arrangements and obtain a leave of absence from the museum administration.
“If we leave in thirty days, will you have enough time to complete your mission?” they wrote.
“That is good. The fact that my sarcophagus was moved caused me to awaken earlier than had been planned. So I have 72 days left.” He finished writing and smiled at them with eyes full of gratitude.
“He looks so happy,” Linda said.
“A perfect time to ask him some questions. We need to find out more about his mission.”
“Can we try to get to that by making it more of a conversation? That way it won’t feel like we’re interrogating him.”
“I think we should get to the point as fast as possible,” Dan said.
Against her better judgment Linda agreed to go along with Dan. They worked hard to come up with:
“Can you tell us about your mission so we may help you in achieving your goal?”
Upon reading their offer, Tonemcadu’s face became very serious. He wrote back right away:
“That is not allowed. This is a pharaoh mission I cannot discuss with anyone.”
Linda sighed. “Maybe if we’d put it differently…”
“Let’s change the subject. Let’s ask him about the mummification process,” Dan said.
Their next message read:
“What can you tell us about your special mummification?”
Tonemcadu wrote back:
“The scientists invented a new procedure to allow for a mummified person to reawaken after a certain time.”
“How was the mummification done?”
“Only the pharaoh and the scientists knew.”
“What if we ask him something a little more general,” Linda said. “He might be more comfortable answering a less pointed question.”
Their next message read:
“Why were you selected?”
“I trained with several other candidates, but in the end I was selected because I was initiated, strong, and younger than twenty-five years old.”
“Younger than twenty five!” Dan stared at the middle-aged man in front of him. “I guess being in a sarcophagus doesn’t do you any good.”
“Come on, Dan. What should we ask him next?”
After another di
scussion they started writing again.
“What did you do for a living?”
“I was a translator of Nubian texts for the pharaoh.”
“One day he’ll help us be the first to decipher the Nubian characters,” Dan said. “He can be to us what the Rosetta stone was to Champollion.” The Rosetta stone had allowed the Frenchman Jean Francois Champollion to interpret the Egyptian hieroglyphics in 1822 by comparing three translations of the same text. The Nubian characters, on the other hand, were still a mystery, with the result that Nubian culture received little recognition by the modern world even though Nubia had rivaled Egypt in power and had three times as many pyramids. The study of that civilization has been made even more difficult since the 1960’s, when much of the land of historic Nubia became submerged under the reservoir created by the construction of the Aswan Dam.
“How did you prepare for the mummification?” was their next message.
“For two years I had to cleanse my body by eating only vegetarian food. And I became stronger by running and swimming for hours every day.”
”How did you feel about accepting your mission?”
“It was a great honor, but I didn’t want to do it because I had to abandon my family. But, when the pharaoh himself asked me, I accepted.”
“Can you tell us about your family?”
“I had a wife and a two-year-old son when I was mummified. I come from a large family from Aswan in southern Egypt, near the border with Nubia.”
Linda thought she saw a deep sadness in his eyes.
“I think we should stop for today,” she said. “It’s obvious that our last question touched a nerve and that he misses his world.”
Dan and Linda, who had stayed up most of the night having this laborious “conversation” with Tonemcadu, were pleased that they’d at last started to piece together his story. Despite the difficulty of having to communicate in this fashion, they couldn’t wait to learn more.