by Rivka Spicer
The following morning Jen was up with the dawn, leaving Mark still sleeping soundly behind her as she once more gazed out the window. Watching the light slowly spill across the rocky crags on the far banks of the Nile was really quite spectacular. She knew that Kim and the others were probably already in the valleys marking out the new dig and getting the machines up there but she felt no desire to join them. She had done her part and almost felt a faint sense of revulsion that they were digging up her daughter’s tomb. Maybe Mark’s idea of shopping wasn’t such a bad one after all. Deciding that shopping was indeed the best course of action, Jen got back into bed and snuggled into her giants arms to await the alarm.
At 10am Kim called to say they’d uncovered a section of the stone that covered the entrance to the tomb. There was no doubt that it was exactly what Jen had said it was, the hieroglyphs were fabulous and they wanted to know if Jen was going to go over and see.
“No thanks.” Jen was lying by the pool soaking up some sun and trying to relax while Mark swam lengths, sleek body cutting the water like a dolphin. “No offence Kim, but it’d be like digging up my grandma’s grave. Maybe you can show me pictures or something later. Right now it’s all a bit creepy.”
“I can understand that.” Kim still sounded excited. “I hope you don’t mind but I asked round here. Did you know your tomb had already been excavated?” Jen felt as though someone had poured cold water on her and nausea suddenly rose in her throat.
“No. I didn’t know that.” The thought of strangers examining her body made her skin crawl. “Was it…” She struggled to take a breath. “Was it intact?”
“I don’t know I’m afraid.” She sounded apologetic, but then the excitement returned. “I know what number it is though. You were buried in QV71. We could look it up on the valley map and go visit!”
“Go and visit my own tomb?” Jen was repulsed. “That’s even more creepy than watching you dig up my daughter!”
“True.” There was a silence. “Well if that’s too creepy then apparently there’s a statue of you standing at Karnak if you want to go see that.”
“Maybe. That’s a bit easier than the tombs.” She didn’t sound convinced.
“Well let me know what you decide and I’ll organise someone to take you up there. One other thing, did you know that your daughter was also called Bint’Anath and she married your brother Merneptah who succeeded your father as Pharaoh? She became a chief wife too! Obviously ran in the family.” Jen closed her eyes as nausea once more threatened.
“Obviously. I guess it was too much to hope she’d have escaped the incest.” Suddenly she felt very tired and Kim’s response was full of pity.
“It’s the way they were back then. At least you were not alone – Meryetamun, your half sister, also married your father so there were two of you that knew how it felt.”
“Maybe.” Jen sighed. “There’s nothing we can do about the past anyway except try and forget. You get back to your digging. I think Mark and I are going to go for a wander.”
“I really think you should go and see the Temple at Karnak while you’re here.” Kim said gently. “It’s a truly spectacular sight and it might make it easier to know that Rameses truly did love you. He placed your image in pride of place on a sandstone colossus there. Go and see it.”
Jen sighed. “Okay, we’ll go there before we go shopping but don’t worry about coming over. I know how exciting the new dig must be for you – we’ll make our own way.”
“Ok then. Well we’ll be over later with pictures so perhaps we could join you in the restaurant for dinner?” Jen forced a smile into her voice.
“That would be nice. We’ll probably eat around eight.”
“Ok, see you then.” Kim rang off just as Mark emerged from the pool and in an instant all of Jen’s tiredness and nausea vanished in a wave of love heavily tinged with lust.
“Let me guess, that was Kim?” His lilting kiwi accent made her smile.
“And first prize for the guessing of the obvious goes to Mark Aweyu!” She announced, giving him a cheeky smile. “She wanted me to go see the tomb. I told her I thought it was a bit creepy and I’d far rather take you to bed…”
“You never did?!” He was horrified and amused all at the same time.
“Ok, maybe not.” Jen admitted playfully. “Didn’t stop me thinking it, mind…”
“Oh well, if that’s the case…” Without warning he scooped her up off the sun lounger and carried her giggling into the hotel.
After they had cooled down in the shower Jen told Mark about Kim’s instructions to visit the temple over lunch and he seemed fascinated by coming up close and personal with an actual tangible piece of evidence from Jen’s previous life so he readily agreed to go with her. When they finished eating they booked a cab from the front desk at the hotel and agreed the price before they got in as they had been advised to do by the hotel staff, holding hands the entire journey as the crazy driving of the man in front threw them around in their seats.
Jen had thought she would feel a deep sense of foreboding as they headed out towards the temple but instead she felt anticipation. Clearly the temple was not something she associated with fear or distress, just a small nervous tingling in the pit of her stomach.
When they arrived Mark helped her out of the car and they shaded their eyes slightly against the glare of the sun, looking at the row of ram-sphinxes that led up to the entrance. Even from the outside it was an awesome sight to behold and they slowly walked towards the entrance examining artefacts left and right.
“Does any of this look familiar?” Mark asked as they walked and Jen frowned slightly.
“Vaguely but I think a lot of it is different.” She gestured behind her. “This lined walkway stretched off for what seemed like miles back then, I think joining to another temple but I can’t really remember. The buildings are different too.” She closed her eyes and tried to shut out the chattering of the tourists and the clicking of cameras all around her. “Some of the statues are different and a lot of these bits were built after the Pharaoh died. My brother constructed a lot of this.” Her eyes flew open. “We should go in, there’s something in there that will make even you feel like a midget.”
Everywhere she walked the temple of her past overlaid her vision of the ruins in front of her and although it made her sad she still marvelled at the sheer ingenuity of the construction. They walked through the entrance quickly, Jen rarely pausing, confident in knowing where she was going before she dragged Mark into the Great Hypostyle Hall and he gasped.
“Good god!” He breathed, stopping dead as he took in the vista before him and Jen grinned. It was a truly awesome sight - fifty thousand square feet of towering columns that looked like the pillars of the earth, stretching away into the sky and dwarfing everything around them. They moved slowly amongst the columns, stopping here and there to be overwhelmed all over again at how humblingly small it made them feel.
“Look up there.” Jen said softly at one stage, pointing her finger skywards and Mark shielded his eyes to do as commanded. “Some of that paint is more than three thousand years old and it’s still as bright now as it was back then.”
“That’s incredible!” He exclaimed, sounding breathless in his excitement. “All that time...that’s astonishing!”
They spent almost an hour walking amidst the columns tracing hieroglyphs, some of which Jen managed to translate for Mark, and generally being awestruck by the building before Jen finally felt ready to face the last bastion of her past.
“Come this way.” She told Mark softly, taking his hand and leading him further through the hall. “It’s time.” She led him through the columns until they finally came to stand before a massive sandstone colossus of Rameses the Great and there, at his feet in a place of great honour, her own ageless gaze stared back at her, carved in stone to watch over all the centuries between then and now.
“Is that you?” Mark reached out wonderingly and touched the face of the
stone statue. “It looks like you from my dreams.”
“Really?” Jen frowned. “I never thought it was a terribly good likeness.” She remembered clearly the day it was installed. It was after her mother had died and Bint’Anath had ascended to being “The Great Queen”, favoured of Rameses. She had attended at the statue’s dedication ritual with her daughter on her hip at the side of the Pharoah. She had looked at it and wondered if her cheeks were really that chubby and her hair that ugly. She had put on a grateful smile, handed her daughter to a nurse and prostrated herself at the feet of the Pharoah. She shuddered as she recalled how ‘grateful’ she had been forced to be that night.
Sensing her discomfort, Mark touched the statue lingeringly one last time and then took her hand, pulling her away from her graven image and turning his back on it.
“It’s getting hotter.” He murmured, gently steering her through the hypostyle hall and out through the front gates of the temple. “Let’s go and get something cool to drink at the hotel.”
“Okay.” Feeling suddenly tired Jen allowed herself to be led back towards the taxi.
That afternoon when the heat had dissipated slightly Mark and Jen left the hotel to head for the markets. Some of the other tourists also wanted to go shopping so the hotel had laid on a mini bus rather than trust the horse drawn taxis that were unreliable at best.
“I don’t think I want to get clothes.” Jen said uncomfortably as they disembarked into the heaving market quarter. “I don’t want to risk Bint’Anath coming forward again. I would like some of the veils though – the fabrics are amazing. Nkara will have a field day with them.”
“Whatever.” Mark gave her an easy good-natured smile and they moved off into the crowds, overwhelmed by the rich tapestry of smells and sounds. Everywhere people were hawking live pigeons and spices, pastries and honeys. Jen clung close to Mark, his bulk making it easy for him to pass through the milling groups of people everywhere.
After three hours they were both laden with bundles of fabric and they’d both improved their bartering skills immensely. Jen had bought little souvenirs for Hailey and a couple of the girls at work, beautiful papyri and glass perfume bottles. The bus was waiting exactly where it had dropped them off but they weren’t the last to arrive. The last few stragglers appeared as dusk began to fall and Jen was half-asleep in the back of the bus as it bumped along the roads back through town to the hotel. Mark cradled her under his arm to stop her bumping around, holding all the fabric onto the seat beside them so it didn’t fall off and get dirty, so by the time they arrived back at the hotel his spine was aching from being in an awkward position.
“Wake up Jen.” He whispered softly as the bus came to a stop, shifting so he could stretch out his aching muscles and Jen sleepily opened her eyes.
“Are we back?” She blinked out of the window and groaned.
“What’s wrong?” Mark stopped gathering fabric, concern clouding his eyes.
“Look at all the cameras.” Jen pointed at the entrance to the hotel and Mark followed her gaze. The steps were crowded with paparazzi.
“That’s weird. I wonder why they’re here.” Mark frowned. “Don’t recall seeing anyone else famous at the hotel.” Jen shrugged.
“I don’t care who they’re here to photograph. The point is that I can’t let Tom see us on holiday together. He’ll hit the roof. What if one of us is recognised and they take a few snaps?”
“But we’re not on holiday together.” Mark smiled at her. “We just both happened to be visiting Kim at the same time.”
“Uhuh, because he’s really going to believe that. What are we going to do?” The driver was glaring impatiently at them to get out of the bus.
“Why don’t you wear one of the veils?” Mark suggested, fishing out an opaque one that would hide her features. “That way even if they take a snap of me they won’t know who you are.” He carefully arranged it around her head and took a hair clip out of her hair to pin it in front of her face. Sitting back to study the effect he smiled. “There you are – easy fixed! Come on, we’d better move.”
Gathering up the bundles of fabric they climbed out of the bus and to Jen’s horror the whole crowd of photographers descended on them. Hiding behind the fabrics in her arms she tried to ignore as they all shouted at Mark.
“Mr Aweyu, what have you got to say about the rumours regarding your affair with Ms Anderson?”
“Mark, can you deny the rumours of your relationship…”
“Where is Ms Anderson…?”
“Are those fabrics a gift for your lover…?”
Without a spare arm to guide Jen up the stairs Mark just pushed through the photographers and hoped that she’d be able to follow in his wake. At least no-one had recognised her beneath the veil, a small mercy. They hurried through the doors into the cool lobby and sought refuge in the elevator, leaning against the walls with Jen pale beneath the veil.
“Oh. My. God.” Suddenly it felt as though the world was crashing down around her. “How did they find out??” Fearing that she was about to cry Mark waited until the lift stopped and herded her along the corridor to her room and let them both in before answering, dropping the veils straight on the floor to give her a hug.
“It doesn’t matter how they found out.” He pointed out gently. “What’s important is what you do now.”
“What the hell am I going to do?” Jen’s knees felt wobbly and it felt as though Mark was the only thing holding her up. “Can we deny it? What do they have on us? Tom is going to go nuts.” Mark went stiff and his tone was wary.
“Why should we deny it? Perhaps this is a good thing?”
“Are you crazy?” Jen gaped at him. “How can it be a good thing?? This is going to destroy my family!”
“It’s not about your family!!” Mark was getting frustrated. “Look me in the face and tell me you don’t love me!” Jen looked into his deep chocolate eyes and suddenly the tears came.
“I can’t!” She wept. “I love you both and it’s killing me.” Feeling a twinge of guilt Mark sat her down on the bed.
“At some point you’re going to have to choose between us.” He said gently, kneeling on the floor at her feet. “Whether it’s now or in the coming months. If Tom has seen this and believes you have had an affair perhaps he won’t take you back anyway.”
“I can’t just call him and ask if he’s seen the papers!” Jen sobbed. “I don’t even know what’s been printed.”
“Why don’t you call Nkara?” Mark felt her slipping away from him. He couldn’t help but see it as a good thing that they’d been discovered and now here she was trying to rescue her engagement to Tom and for reasons he couldn’t explain he found himself trying to help. “She’ll be able to tell you what’s been said.”
“Of course.” Jen grabbed her phone and called Nkara with shaking hands leaving Mark to woodenly fold away the materials they’d bought.
“Oh Jen! I’m so glad you called! Are you okay?” Nkara sounded frantic and Jen started crying again.
“I don’t know.” She admitted. “We just got back to the hotel and there are cameras everywhere. What happened?”
“You mean you don’t…? Oh. Of course not.” Jen could hear as Nkara swallowed. “A tourist caught a video clip of you two visiting the Valley of the Kings yesterday and sold it to the news when he realised what he’d seen. Mark was holding your hand.”
“So no kissing or anything? We could still deny it?” Jen sounded so full of hope, but Nkara’s reply was as guarded as Marks.
“Do you want to deny it?” She questioned carefully. “I thought you love Mark?”
“I do!” Now it was Jen’s turn to be frustrated. “I love them both Nkara. But imagine how terrible it would be for Tom to find out like this! The timing is all wrong. Whoever I choose deserves better than to have it splashed all across the media. I have always been honest with Mark but Tom…Tom doesn’t know anything!” Nkara sighed.
“Listen Jen, I don’t want to be t
he harsh one here but you are going to have to decide sooner rather than later. The longer you let this go on the worse it’s going to be. Perhaps this is the universe’s way of forcing you to a choice.”
“But I don’t know what to do!” Wailed Jen. “How do I choose?”
“I don’t know.” Nkara’s voice was full of pity. “Only you know what’s right and what, in the end, will make you happy.”
Jen hung up feeling no better than before and was about to switch her phone off again when she noticed a voicemail had arrived while she was talking. With trembling hands she dialled in the number, instinctively knowing who it would be. Tom’s voice was controlled but clipped with anger and he had left her just one sentence.
“I think you had better come home.”
Chapter fourteen
Despite Mark’s pleas and everyone’s disapproval, the following morning found Jen on a flight back to London. She still hadn’t spoken to Tom, justifying to herself the need to say what she had to say face to face. She had called his office knowing he’d be too busy to come to the phone to give them her flight times and his secretary had promised to arrange for someone to pick Jen up. Already she missed Egypt, the heat and the exotic sense of mystery, even the dust. Trying hard not to cry she leaned back in her chair and tried to sleep the 6 hours away until home but her thoughts were chasing round and around in her head. The hotel manager had been desperately apologetic and had ended up having a row with Jim who was trying to reason with her at the time, reminding her of the consequences of her previous husbands’ rage. Jen shuddered, refusing to accept that Tom would ever treat her violently in the bedroom, whatever his anger. Things were more civilised now. Then Kim had started shouting at Jim for scaring her and then they had ended up having a row. She had left them behind still in a mutinous fury, not necessarily with each other but at her and the situation she was in.
At the airport a car was waiting for her already and once her luggage was safely stored in the boot of the car, Jen climbed in to find an unfamiliar driver behind the wheel.