Hieroglyphs of Ages

4: On the Plane 𓋖

On the plane, we sat in large, office lounge chairs as the plan took off. I sat on the chair farthest from the entrance of the plane. The chairs were arranged as three sides of a square with small palm trees at each of the corners and the "missing" side towards the front of the plane.

"Welcome, Professor Banshee. Did you have a nice visit here in America?" A nice lady servant asked Banshee. He replied, "It was excellent today!" He told her all the things he saw and did during his visit. The play, an exhibition at the art gallery, my adoption, then he introduced me to her. I didn't think he talked as much as he did. I guess he is a walking mystery. Out of curiosity, I asked Banshee about his career in Egyptology.

"Inquisitive, young son, are ya!" As he spoke in his usual accent, he told how, when he was young, he was fascinating with the Egyptians, their gods, their culture, their hieroglyphs, everything Egyptian fascinated him. He always wanted to study the ancient artifacts and scrolls listing large amounts of symbols, each with its own sound and meaning. The beauty of the script is, in Banshee's opinion, unparalleled. He worked hard to become one of the world's premier Egyptologists, rivaling even Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon.

Even though, at the time, I knew little more about Egypt than they enslaved the Jews and liked cats. Being on the streets, you don't get the chance to study things like that and work on dream careers because you're just trying to live another day. With that being said, Egypt does not necessarily bore me. In fact, it sounds kinda neat. I always wanted to travel the world. Obviously, I couldn't afford it, but still, I kinda always had an urge to go out there. I might be able to now.

Professor Banshee, with his accent ever British, opened his favorite newspaper and read out loud the news articles:

Ghandi in jail! Public outrage in India!

"O' that Ghandi, what an amazing guy!" Yeah! He also did commentary, ugh.

Einstein works on another legendary experiment!

"Really!" Said Banshee as he read.

Tutankhamen's tomb: A window to our Egyptian past!

Clearly, this excited him. I mean, he is an Egyptologist, after all. This is what he lives for. As he read, he saw the name Howard Carter, and he remarks a time when they were children. Yes, he was friends with the legendary Howard Carter, the very one that discovered the most intact tomb in all of Egypt. And Banshee was friends with him!

The news apparently was so good for him that, after reading the article, he jumped outta his chair and skipped like a school girl. It was funny.

"This is cause for celebration!" The proud professor remarked. He rang a bell, and a male chef came to him and asked, "How may I help you, This fine afternoon?" The chef said in a thick fruity French accent. The chef was quite short, much like Napoleon Bonaparte, wearing chef garb. He used to cook for the military during the World War (1), so he had a peg leg where a real one should be. I thought he should have an eye patch and bandana. Maybe he could be a pirate chef. And to my surprise, he told me he had ancestors that were once pirates. Cool.

A grand feast was made in honor of the occasion. Steak, chicken, beef stroganoff, apple, and cherry pie, fruit tarts with extra lemon, mashed potatoes, Cesar salad with garlic on rye, wine, a hundred years old or older perhaps and much more delicious foods were set on an exquisitely carved dining table made of old leaf and mahogany. Only the finest, I thought, for such a great man.

But all of a sudden, the plane shuddered with a thunk! "What's causing this turbulence?" Shouted the professor as food and things flung across the wake. "Something appears to be on the hull!" An attendant shouted back. Now, the whole of the plane is shaking twice as hard. "Is it a gremlin or something?" I said half-heartedly as a joke. "No," Banshee said in a stern voice, "it's a snake!"