only if for a night [ahkmenrah]

03 ▷ night people

"HEY GUYS," LARRY said, addressing the Neanderthals. They all turned to look at him. "Quest for fire?" He flicked open the lighter, the little flame sparking to life. "Over. Knock yourselves out." He threw the lighter into the exhibit and one of the Neanderthals caught it. They all started making excited noises and going crazy over the tiny fire, and Larry simply turned and carried on walking through the museum.

   Emily stared after him for a second, her brain still having trouble believing what her eyes were seeing. After a second or two, she scrambled to catch up with Larry. "Sorry, but what the fuck just happened?"

   Larry stopped to look at her. "If I'd told you first, then you wouldn't have believed me. All the exhibits come to life at night."

   Emily stared at him like he'd grown another head. "Does Dr. McPhee know about this?"

   "Of course not." Larry answered.

   Emily's wide eyes followed a pair of statues, one of which looked remarkably like George Washington, as they strolled past in the corridor. She pointed after them as she turned back to Larry. "How?"

   "In the Egyptian exhibit, there's this tablet, called the Tablet of Ahkmenrah and somehow, it has magic powers that bring everything to life at night."

   Her mouth opened, then closed, then opened again. "So you're telling me that all the things inside this museum just hop out of their exhibits and start skipping around at night because of some magic tablet of Arcturo or whatever?"

   "Ahkmenrah," Larry corrected.

   "Bless you. Are you sure this isn't someone's sick idea of a prank?" Emily asked, peering around cautiously like something was going to jump out at her at any moment.

   "It's not a prank. Come on." He headed onwards, and Emily had no choice but to follow him.

   They came to a stop beside the Easter Island head. "Morning, dum-dum," Larry said.

   "Me no dum-dum. You dum-dum!" It exclaimed. Emily almost fainted. "You bring me gum-gum?"

   "Yes, fathead, I did." Larry produced a large ball of chewing gum from the bag he was still lugging around. "Lots and lots of gum-gum."

   They moved on to the dioramas next, leaving the Easter Island head chewing that huge ball of gum. Emily followed Larry in a daze, still finding all of this hard to believe. This was by far the weirdest job she'd ever had.

   "Hey, what's going on here?" Larry demanded, catching her attention and pulling her from her reverie. Her eyebrows drew together in puzzlement as she watched a bunch of Centurions trying to pull down the wall in their exhibit.

   "We expand or we die," one of them informed Larry. "Heave!"

   In the next diorama, a tiny cowboy was yelling, "On the count of three, you blow this anthill to kingdom come! And a one, and a two—"

   "Hey, Jed, stop that," Larry intervened. "No, no. You blow a hole in your mountain, all you're gonna hit is a wall."

   "Step aside, Gigantor," the cowboy, apparently called Jed, called back. "We got us a railroad to build. We're blowing a hole in that thing."

   "Okay, first of all, enough with all the Gigantor stuff, okay? We're just trying to close up shop."

   That was when Jed finally noticed Emily standing beside Larry. "Hiya, Gigantress!" He called up to her. Stunned, Emily could only give a little wave back. Jed turned back to Larry. "We're gonna blow it anyway. And a three!"