Essays

The Railway Terrors

Well, my life stories aren't all that great, but I do have one that was alright. So anyway, it starts out in Egypt. I was with my cousins, my brother, my dad, and my uncle. We were going to the pyramids. I had been there before, after all I lived there for eight years. But this time we were going inside the pyramid, which we had never bothered with before. Don't ask me why, I don't know, we just didn't.

Anyway, it starts out with us walking to the front gate. The sun was beating down and I felt like the heat was going to kill me. We were going through a pretty bad heat wave at the time, and in Egypt, that's saying something. It was somewhere over 115 degrees out, though I can't remember exactly anymore. Jadon was complaining about the heat and I just grabbed the hat off of my cousins head. That was an ongoing war I had with my cousin Martino. Whenever one of us was wearing a hat we would steal them off each other. It was a never ending game.

We went through the gates and started on our way to the pyramid we would be going inside. Within the first five minutes we were all sweating like dogs. In hindsight, we probably should had gone closer to night time. Live and learn, right?

I looked up and saw this giant golden pyramid looming over me. It was so big, it was blocking out half the sun, which of course, I was thankful for. "How do we get in," I asked. My uncle chuckled slightly and pointed to a hole about twenty feet above the base of the pyramid. I had never noticed it before, but now that I saw it, how could I not notice it? "How are we supposed to get up there," Jadon's eyebrows furrowed like they wanted to slide down his nose.

My uncle pointed out that there were steps already built into the pyramid. Of course, the boys didn't want to take the safe way, the perfectly fine steps. No, instead the climbed up using the bricks of the pyramid. Not the most conventional way, but it got the job done. I took the stairs with my aunt and was starting to form a lump in my throat. My head told me to turn back, but I pushed the thought to the back of my head and kept going. I had no need to be afraid to go in.

Since we took the stairs we got to the hole first. I say hole, but it's more of a cave. Well, I say cave. I think most of all it felt like a secret passageway. Inside was much cooler than outside. Partially due to the shade, but I think it was always that cold in there. I watched my brother climb up the last few feet and when he got inside we all waited a moment to take in the cool air, and drink some water. When we had brought the water it was practically ice, but it was already warming up. Not quite warm water yet, but it felt like it was from the fridge, when in all reality it was from the freezer.

I turned around and saw two different ways to go. One of them was sealed off and the other, well the other looked sort of like a ramp, but the ceiling was only about three feet off from the ground in there. "So uh, what now?" I looked up the railway and I couldn't see the end of it. All I saw was the hole getting smaller and smaller and smaller. Oh! There was also the loss of lights. The farther up the railway went, the less light there was. Whatever light there was, was very little. A not-so-bright light every seven feet or so.

I stared at the railway and there was so much to see and so little, at the same time. My stomach wrenched and my heart leapt into my throat. Looking up the railway I realized why my head had told me to turn back when heading towards the pyramid. I have two BIG fears, that I hadn't even known about until that day: a fear of heights, and a fear of small spaces. In other words, acrophobia, and claustrophobia. Combining the two was scaring the (pardon my bad language) heck out of me!

"We're just gonna go up here." My uncle said it like it was nothing, but I was on the verge of a panic attack. My cousins went up first, and my brother followed shortly behind.

"Um... I think I'll just stay down here and wait for you guys," I tried, but my dad wouldn't be having any of that. He expected me to face my fears. He was nice about it though. He has always been able to make me think that I'm stronger than I am, so in no time flat he got me to go into the three foot tall railway.

"Don't worry Talia, I'm right behind you, so if you fall I'll catch you." Despite my dad's reassuring words I was really scared, and the uncomfortableness of being bent into a 90 degree angle just to walk up was not helping. Despite the fact that this was the coldest I had been since we left the house, I was sweating up a storm. I tried looking to the top of the hole, thinking if I saw the exit it might make me feel better, but even if my brother wasn't in the way, it was to far to see the exit. I started to get really scared, and all of a sudden burst out in tears.

My dad placed his hand on my back and I took a second to take a few deep breathes, but it wasn't helping. I was going into so much of a panic attack I couldn't breathe at all. I knew I had to get out of there quickly and so did my dad. He told the boys to hurry up and we went as fast as we could, trying to get to the top. My crying didn't stop, despite my lack of air. Jadon reached his hand out behind him and I held onto it like a child holding on to their mother when they are scared.

When we got out of the prison-like tunnel my uncle told the boys to head on first, and I sat down on the floor, still crying, but now also taking in a lot of deep breathes. We were only halfway through the way to the top. On the bright side, the second half of the way was not a tiny space at all. In fact, it was huge! It took up the majority of the pyramid. There was, however, a down side as well. The second half was much steeper, even if you didn't have a fear of heights, you would have to admit, it was at least kind of scary.

My dad went first, with me right behind, and my uncle went after me. I guess he decided to try to cheer me up with a joke because as we started up the second half he said, "And don't worry Talia, I'm right behind you, so if you fall, I'll move out of the way for you." I have to admit, that was pretty funny. He's not usually funny like that. Once we made it to the top of the second railway there was a small little area where I had to crawl to get through. Thankfully it wasn't going up, nor did it take very long to get through it. It was just about eight feet long and two feet high.

After I went through those, hating whoever decided to make them oh so small, I finally entered the top of the pyramid. The main, and best, part of it. (In my opinion, the only good part of it.) It was empty, except for a few marks on the wall, and a giant marble, well, box, in the middle of the room.

Allow me to elaborate on this whole, marble box thing. So basically, when a Pharaoh died his coffin was placed inside that marble box (I'm not actually certain it was made of marble... Maybe I'll do some research on that). Anyway, there wasn't a top to the box, because the coffin itself had it's own top, so basically, it was just four short marble walls with a marble base.

I shakily walked over to it and climbed inside. I curled up in the corner of it trying to soak in all the cool air in the room. I wiped away the tears and took a few deep breathes. We spent a few minutes there, with much ado about nothing and took some group pictures and whatnot. Eventually I had to get out of the box, but by then it was just about time to go. Let me tell you, climbing down was no easier than climbing up!

After reaching the bottom of the pyramid, I made a vow, then and there, that I would NEVER do that again. I plan to keep that vow till the day I die (knock on wood).

- 7 October, 2014