The Egypt Game: Chapters 9-13

Before long some other fathers got shamed or nagged into doing the same, thing, and by the day before Halloween nearly all the kids at Wilson were signed up to go around trick-or-treating with some large, chaperoned group.

Elizabeth had a tendency to worry about things like not having permission.

She might not understand that it was not at all like being downright disobedient.

April put her arms down stiffly along her sides and with her eyes closed she tilted her Egyptian face upward raptly.

“The summons from Set and Isis,” Melanie said.

It was a statement instead of a question; and with a last lingering dismay she realized that she was already using her high priestess voice.

The gods of Egypt struggled with the gods of conscience, and Egypt won.

She nudged Elizabeth with her elbow and whispered, “You say, ‘The mighty ones have summoned us to their temple.’”

He scanned the girls’ faces expectantly, but they chose to ignore him.

Outside the Casa Rosada a black cat, a mechanical man, a Little Red Riding Hood, two tramps and four ancient Egyptians joined the already unwieldy group.

Outside the Casa Rosada a black cat, a mechanical man, a Little Red Riding Hood, two tramps and four ancient Egyptians joined the already unwieldy group.

They had started off up Orchard Avenue in a sprawly column when Marshall suddenly stopped and tugged at Melanie’s arm.

Marshall had never blabbed about secrets before.“Shhh!”

Ken was sort of cute in a big blunt cocky way.

Ken was sort of cute in a big blunt cocky way.

He had a clean-cut all-American-Asian look about him, and he walked with a high-school swagger.

“Yeah, you little kids ought to keep up with the group better,” Toby said, as he started off up the sidewalk. “You’re liable to get hurt.”

Toby swiveled his TV head around and surveyed the damage.

By the time the Egyptians got over their convulsions of giggles, Ken and Toby had disappeared around the corner, and the lady whose walk they were on was calling to ask if they wanted some candy or not.

There they were, all alone on the dimly lit sidewalk, and it was suddenly very quiet.

Everybody repeated it in whispered unison as if they’d been rehearsed.

They scurried down two blocks without seeing a soul, turned the corner, and a moment later ducked into the alley that led to Egypt.

Great Ceremony of the Celebration of the Return to Egypt has begun!” she chanted, and all four Egyptians prostrated themselves before the egg crate and the birdbath.

“The gods demand that we make a horrible and bloody sacrifice.” April took up Melanie’s theme with relish.
“A horrible and bloody sacrifice,” Melanie agreed.

As soon as everyone was seated, Elizabeth raised her hand and shook it frantically.

April and Melanie exchanged surprised and appreciative glances, and Elizabeth beamed proudly.

April went into a quick trance with her fingers to her forehead. “The gods have changed their minds,” she announced in a moment.

“Come on back to the circle,” Melanie coaxed.

Following Elizabeth’s gaze, Melanie was horrified to see a huge misshapen figure teetering on the top of the high board fence.

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.

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.

April clenched her fists and took a step forward.

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

“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.

But seconds passed and nobody pounced.

Ken shrugged philosophically. “Okay,” he said. “So we’re Egyptians. It figures.”

But it would have taken more than a few pieces of cheap candy to console April and Melanie.

The next day at recess Toby Alvillar sidled up to Melanie and April.

“My dad got mad at me and restricted me for three days. So I couldn’t go before anyway.”

“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.”