Nefert

Nefert.
Ahmed Hany Hassanain.

-1-

Dr. Samy Morad the Egyptian archeologist was supervising the workers who had been digging for about two weeks to unearth what he thought a tomb in Sakara valley near Cairo. It was noon and the Cairo winter sun was warm enough that one could wear only a light T-shirt. A scream drew his attention to the far corner of the site.
‘A scorpion!’ a worker cried and continued screaming.
While other workers were running at their friend, Samy ran towards his tent where a jeep was barking behind it. He drove the jeep to meet the three workers carrying their friend. It took him about twenty minutes to reach the nearest hospital but it was too late. The man died.
‘What is very abnormal,’ the doctor said, ‘is that the scorpions in this area aren’t poisonous. This is the first time I see a man dies due to the stings of the scorpions.’

In the afternoon he was resting in his tent, depressed due to what had happened to the worker. He gave the workers a day off so they could attend the funeral service of the deceased man. Professor Zaher Al-Mor, the professor of the Egyptology in Cairo University and the head of the mission came to Samy’s tent.
‘It happens,’ Zaher tried to comfort Samy. ‘Usually some workers die. If it wasn’t the scorpion, it would be an accident or a fall.’
‘They die and the glory of the discovery is ours,’ Samy said.
‘Everyone does the job that suits him,’ Zaher said. ‘They should be as clever as you. If they don’t know how to dig properly they may destroy a valuable piece that worth’s a lot.’
‘Oh, yes, you’re right.’ Samy put a mug in front of the professor, ‘A tea?’
‘No, thank you.’ Zaher gave Samy a small tablet, ‘this’s a tranquilizer that’ll help you to have some sleep.’

He was not sure if he was asleep or just drowsy, when he saw Gamila, his lover, (Gamila in Arabic means beautiful in English) who was a writer and journalist. She was wearing a transparent white dress. The chain around her neck with the pharaohnic life key was the most apparent pharaohnic accessory with the earrings, bracelets and rings of the same style. Even the hair style with the crown gave her the appearance of a pharaohnic princess. She was standing about three steps away from him. Her hand was calling him, but when he tried to take a step towards her, she was retreating until her hand touched his. She dragged him to a tomb that was open and ready to receive him. Nefert was written in Hieroglyphic on the tomb’s wall, (Nefert in Hieroglyphic means also beautiful in English). Slowly she vanished after she had put him in a coffin. He woke up to find himself standing in the very same area where he had dreamed of her. Profuse sweaty he was and the thirst he felt was so sever that he drank a full bottle of water. Anxious and afraid he was that his heart rate ran as fast as a racing horse. He fled out of the tent to the professor’s one.
‘Well I think you need a rest,’ Zaher said after listening to his aid. ‘You may have a short holiday. Anyway, we won’t continue working before three days.’ He did not notice the sad look his professor had and the anxious face the old man could not hide.

-2-

Gamila finished her make up and was ready to go. She preferred to wait for Samy in the window so that she would go directly when he would come. He did not find a park for his small car so he stopped it as a second row and waved a hand to her to descend. He opened the car door for her. The black coat was hiding the white dress she wore, but her eye make up drew his attention more than anything. The long black lines starting from her inner eye angles, running on the upper eye lids and ended beyond the orbit bones was nothing but pure pharaohnic. He stared at her eyes silently.
‘Anything wrong?’ she asked.
‘No, nothing at all. Just I admire the perfect make up,’ he said. His teasing statement was not much successful to hide his anxious face.
‘Sure?’ she said it in a tone that carried the meaning of not just a question but a mockery of his anxiety.
As soon as she sat down opposite him in the night club where they would dine he saw the life key in the chain around her neck. Her white dress showed the bra underneath.
‘Are you okay?’ she asked about his anxiousness.
‘Yes,’ he said first, and then he added after a second, ‘no, in fact I saw a bad dream. It seemed to me like a vision more than a dream.’
‘About what?’ she asked.
‘You!’ he said.
‘Tell me about it,’ she was listening.
After he had finished his story, she showed indifference.
‘Well, I’ve another idea about death,’ she started.
‘What do you mean?’ he asked.
‘In your dream,’ she started, ‘that you most probably consider it a nightmare, you saw me dragging you to a tomb. I have an opinion about death, the only fact of our present life. The more eternal is the worthy for those who want to live together. Death sometimes is the solution for helpless lovers as Romeo and Juliet.’ She stared in his eyes and with a slow monotonous voice that made him shiver she added, ‘death calls faithful lovers who their souls only rest together in eternity.’
He did not comment.
On their way back to her home, his dream was still haunting him while she was relaxed beside him in the small car. He drove more carefully and when he parked his small car just in front of her house, she waited for him to get out of the car and open the door for her.
‘Thank you,’ she said while holding the life key. ‘I’ll never forget this night.’ She stared in his eyes and whispered, ‘and you will not forget it also.’

In her room Gamila looked at the full moon through the window. It was winter and she opened the window to feel the coldness. She took off all the cloths but she left the key-life and its chain around her neck. Naked she whispered some words that only she who knew their meanings. That followed by a whistle of a sad melody. The beautiful girl was transformed into a white pigeon and flew high taking the direction of the full moon.

In the middle of the night, Samy woke up on hearing fine knocking on his window. He found a white pigeon. When he opened the window to have a better look of the white bird, the small eyes of the tiny creature attracted his. Suddenly the bird forced its way into the room and attacked a small snake on the ground. It was abnormal that a pigeon could kill a snake, but what terrorized him more was that the snake was hidden in one of his shoes. The pigeon picked the snake between its tiny mouth peaks and flew. He fell unconscious. He woke up in the morning but could not answer whether what he had seen was a dream or a reality.

-3-

In the morning he dialed Gamila’s number several times. She was neither in home nor in office. Her cellular phone just rang but she did not receive the call. The smog and the gray sky added to his feeling of uneasiness. When his cellular phone rang he hurried to receive the call.
‘I’d like to see you right now,’ Dr. Zaher said.
‘Why?’ he asked anxiously.
‘I’ve discovered something serious. I’m in the faculty in my office. Please don’t be late and I’d like to meet you alone,’ Dr. Zaher’s voice was abnormally nervous and loud.
‘I’ll come at once,’ Samy said.

‘Professor Zaher died,’ one of the staff gatherings in front of the Professor’s office cried.
Samy stopped the fast steps he had walked from the parking to the building of the Archeology Faculty in Cairo University. His legs failed to bear his slim body. He sat down on the ground. Many faces were around him trying to comfort him. Too many faces he was seeing. Some were crying and some were smiling. Among the smiling faces he saw her. Her terrorizing eyes sent shivers to his body. He was resisting the arms that tried to give him a hand to stand up for fear of being too much near her face. Hands and arms lifted him and laid him on a sofa in one of the offices. His voice was just imprisoned in his throat. Even faint cries; he could not force them out of his mouth. He wanted to ask those who brought him and decided to leave him alone, not to do. Her smiling face did not leave with others when every body left the room and the last one closed the door after him. The face completed itself into a full feminine body. He recognized the face. Now he knew it was Gamila who was smiling at the death of the professor. The life key was hung in front of her naked breasts. She undressed him and came on top of him. The life key was hot and did a burning imprint sign, but the hotness lasted for a moment to be followed by coldness that calmed the burning pain. They made love then he saw her going towards the window. Suddenly she became a white bird and flew out of the room. He found himself dressed not naked as he expected he would be. He left the room and went to her home. It was morning but he had a feeling that she would be in the home in spite of her not receiving the several calls he had been dialing. His guess proved to be true.
‘Who’re you?’ he asked her when she opened the door for him.
‘Don’t you know?’ she said it as if she was expecting his question.
‘Why are you still wearing that?’ he pointed to the key life chain around her neck.
‘I like it,’ her smile scared him.
‘Dr. Zaher died,’ he said. His masked face was waiting for her response to the sad news.
‘I’m sorry for that,’ her masked face showed no response. ‘Come in and close the door.’
He entered into the reception of her small flat that she had hired three years after graduation. ‘Why don’t you live with your parents?’ he asked the question that he had been eager to know since he had met her six months ago.
‘They live in another far town you know’ she said.
‘Why didn’t you let me know them?’ he asked.
‘I’m too busy to have a holiday now but within few months I’ll spend sometime with them. I’ll ask you to spend few days with us to get know to them and to arrange for marriage,’ she said.
‘Are you a virgin?’ he asked the question that was too far to be asked by a lover and a husband-to-be in a conservative eastern country like Egypt.
‘What do you think?’ she was too calm.
‘I did love to you less than one hour ago,’ he said.
‘You were dreaming,’ her tone gave an impression of certainty.
He looked at the table to find two cups ready to be filled. He had a seat and picked one, ‘had you been preparing some tea before I came?’
‘I had a feeling that you would come,’ she poured hot tea into the two cups. He left without drinking his tea.
In his flat he stood in front of the mirror to look at his chest so he may find a sign of the key life that had come in contact with him, but there was no such a sign.

Two days after he visited Professor Fawzy Awad-Alla, who had specialized in old Egyptian Mythology?
‘Well I think that Nefert tomb is one of the most strange tombs,’ Fawzy started. He kept silent for a while then he added, ‘they say that this princess had been killed by the temple men as she had been in love with a believer who had had faith in one God only. He had been an Aton follower. Temple men were Amon followers who worshiped several Gods. She had tried to flee with him but the religious men had discovered their secret and had sent someone who had killed her and her lover. Her body had been saved and they had sent it to the Pharaoh but her lover’s corps had been left to the wolves of the desert. They say that their souls meet in the moon so she may appear on moony nights in the desert. The full story may be known if you can unearth her tomb that may be miles away from others’ tombs as the temple men had refused to put her among Amon believers.’
‘What about other trials to discover the tomb?’ Samy asked.
‘All either failed as the sites were incorrect or the researchers had just stopped for a reason or another,’ the professor said.
‘Do you think that the death of both professor Zaher and the worker had any relation to the princess myth?’ Samy asked innocently.
‘Studying the mythology doesn’t mean believing in the superstitious ideas but mythology just gives you an idea about the society beliefs. Superstitions are present in every society and community since humans have been inhibiting the earth,’ the professor said.
‘What about my dream, specially that Gamila my fiancée is the protagonist in these dreams,’ Samy said.
‘That’s because Gamila in Arabic means Nefert in Hieroglyphic. Your subconscious and anxiety created a relation between what had happened,’ the professor said.



-4-

“The pharaohs’ curse” was the title of the book that Gamila gave to Samy as a birthday present. They were having lunch together and Samy booked two cinema tickets.
‘Why did you choose that book?’ Samy asked. He had uneasiness as she insisted on wearing the life key chain during the previous fifteen days for an unknown reason.
‘I thought it’ll be of interest to you,’ she said.
‘Who are you?’ he asked her.
‘I see you ask me this question frequently. You’ll know everything in time,’ she said decisively.
‘When and what shall I know?’ his voice was loud. He was nervous.
‘When we’ll marry,’ she said indifferently.
Samy felt nauseating and he did not finish his lunch.
‘Does this book tell about Nefert, the old Egyptian princess?’ he asked her.
‘I don’t know but I think it tells about the famous accidents the writers related them to the curse,’ she gave him a smile that was somewhat assuring.
In the cinema and while everybody was watching the romantic film, he saw the screen turning into a sky blue area then a spot of light in the center appeared. As if he was hypnotized he could not move or change his head away from the screen. Even his eye lids stopped blinking. His body weight became so light that air could bear him. He flew involuntarily towards the light in the screen center. He was sucked fast. A tunnel of light encircled him and he felt the warmth of the light. There out of the tunnel he saw Gamila sitting on a big chair. Two heavy weight muscular guards dressed in the traditional pharaohnic military dress were standing on her sides. She stood up and walked few steps until she reached the edge of the bank of the River Nile. A man who seemed to be one of the temple elite looked at her angrily and lifted his hand for a moment then he gave a sign after which an arrow pierced her back and appeared from her chest at the site of the heart. Her corps was taken in a boat that sailed to the north.
‘Gamila!’ Samy shouted.
‘What happened?’ Gamila looked at him astonishingly.
‘Where are you?’ he said in a near suffocated voice. He started to cry.
‘What happened? I’m here beside you all the time,’ she said.
He did his best to control himself in spite of the audiences whispering about him. When they left the cinema, he asked his fiancée, ‘do you think I’ve to see a psychiatrist?’
‘Why?’ She asked the question that he had no answer for it.

In the midnight the ringing of the phone waked him up. It was Dr. Fawzy who asked him to come at his house at once.
In the study room Dr. Fawzy showed him some old photographs of a professor called Hussein Ghanem. He had died suddenly due to a cardiac attack twenty five years ago. He had been the professor of Dr. Fawzy. What was most important was that his wife had just disappeared few hours after his death. The police had never known about her whereabouts. Even it had been discovered that her family had had no existence. What was most important for Samy was that the photo of Hussein's wife was much like the shape of Gamila.
Samy took the photo and rushed to the publishing house where Gamila was working in one of its newspapers. He rushed into her office and without a word he showed her the photo.
'What's this?' she asked.
'I think you owe me an explanation,' he said.
'What type of explanation do you need for a black photo?' she wondered.
'When Dr. Fawzy gave it to me it was not black at all,' he was trembling.
'Then you have to ask him not me,' she said.
His cellular phone rang. He did not talk to the person who was on the other end of the wireless connection. 'Dr. Fawzy died,' he said to Gamila and ran out of the office.
In his apartment he fell asleep for many hours. He got up tired and sweaty. He found Gamila beside him.
'Are you real or am I dreaming?' he asked sincerely.
'I think you're too much disturbed. What's the problem with you?' she asked.
'I think you know what I mean,' he said.
'Believe me I don't know what you mean at all,' she said.
'Are you a ghost?' he forced the words out of his mouth and he feared the answer.
She stared in his eyes so that terror filled him. She approached her lips to his and kissed him. She undressed and started to unbutton his pajama.
'What are doing?' he asked stupidly.
'What is a woman up to when she takes off her cloths and starts to kiss her lover?' she asked sarcastically. 'There's only one answer which is making love. Ghosts don't make love.'
'Then after we finish you'll disappear!' he said. He turned his face and continued, 'like what had happened before.'
'I see you don't have the desire. But don't forget that the most humiliating thing is to reject a woman's offer,' she put on her cloths. 'I'll cook you something to eat.'
‘I don’t mean it. I’m scared Gamila. I feel I can’t continue the digging. I’ll leave the work in this project,’ he said.
‘No you don’t. It’s been your dream to discover Nefert’s tomb,’ she said.
‘I can’t go to the site. I’m scared,’ he cried.
‘When do you plan to continue your job?’ she asked.
‘It’s supposed to be tomorrow,’ he said.
‘I’ll stay here all the night and tomorrow I’ll go with you,’ she said assuring him.
‘No,’ he shouted. ‘You’re the only person who shouldn’t be there.’
‘Why?’ she wondered. ‘I don’t understand you.’ She left.

Next morning he woke up and dressed himself without much thinking. He was like a hypnotized man who was programmed to do several steps. He went to the site. The workers were ready and he asked them to continue what had been stopped for the last few days. A Bedouin woman approached him while he was looking at the site map. She sat on the ground and took three snails out of her pocket.
‘I’ll see your fortune,’ she said it as if he had no choice.
‘I don’t believe in fortune tellers,’ he said.
She dropped the three snails on the sand. ‘Nobody can change his fate,’ she started. She took some sand in her grip and let it be fallen slowly and continued, ‘with the opening of what had been long hidden the gate to the eternity opens once again. Souls always meet and cross time and space barriers.’
A worker came to him smiling. ‘The grave is opened.’
‘Always lovers do it,’ the fortune teller said.
Gamila appeared dressed in her pharaoh style.
‘Gamila!’ he said.
‘Or Nefert,’ the fortuneteller said.
Gamila took his hand and grabbed him toward the tomb. The workers tried to save him before she took him inside the grave. His arms were sliding in their hands and he was sucked into the grave. A coffin was ready to receive him. She put him into the stone coffin and closed it.

Samy woke up to find himself on his chair.
‘You fell asleep,’ Dr. Zaher said. ‘I was about to wake you up as Dr. Fawzy will come now to see the unearthing himself. Gamila your fiancée will come with him to finish her reportage for the journal about Nefert’s grave.’
‘I dreamed a very strange dream of Gamila, you, Dr. Fawzy and me,’ Samy said.
‘Dreams may be just visions,’ Gamila said. She was standing behind them with Dr. Fawzy.
‘When did you come?’ Dr. Zaher asked.
‘You both did not notice us. Samy was telling about his dream,’ Dr. Fawzy said.
‘You seem to me as if you’ve just appeared not have come,’ Samy said.
‘Dr. Samy a scorpion. A worker suffers a scorpion’s sting,’
Samy looked at Gamila to find the life key hung in a chain around her neck. Her masked face sent shivers to his body.