A Falcon's Light

Chapter 2

Jess and I stopped at a donut shop to get some brunch. I bought some apple fritters and a couple of jam-stuffed donuts to go along with my overpriced coffee. Jess grabbed a bagel and a fruit smoothie and seemed happy with her smaller meal. That is until I caught her sneaking a peek at my fritter like a sad puppy.

"No one gains weight in the matter of a few minutes, Jess." I grabbed one of my fritters and passed it to her. She giggled to herself before reaching over to hug me with a silent thank you. Within seconds that fritter was gone, and my friend wiped at the corner of her bottom lip. After she was done with her plain bagel she went back to the counter and returned with two more apple fritters. They were one of the best things about this store after all.

It took us about forty-five minutes to get to where Jessica's shoot was. The building was only a ten-minute walk from the museum, but the museum wouldn't be open for another few hours so I decided to walk in with Jess. It was an elegant building with chandeliers and a shiny black wooden front desk in the lobby. We walked over to the well-dressed man at the desk and waited until we were acknowledged. Finally, the man noticed us and smiled.

"Hello ladies, how may I help you today?" I kept quiet as Jessica told him that she was here for the photoshoot, and the man smiled again before escorting us to the photo room. A large white tarp was surrounded by stand lights and several camera tripods. In the room was an older lady wearing seriously expensive clothes. She smiled at Jess and ran to hug her as if she were an old friend.

"Welcome, Ms. Jessica! I'm glad you came. You look stunning, although we had another outfit for you, this one will do much better I think." The lady looked at me and gave me a hard, displeased look. "Who's your guest, your bag carrier?"

"No, this is a friend of mine, she needed a ride here, she's going to the museum later, but since it's not open yet, she can stay. Don't worry she's super quiet." She wrapped an arm around me. I grabbed the edges of my skirt and dipped a little to be respectful.

"Alice Conrad, Ma'am, nice to meet you. I promise I'll just watch from the back until the museum opens, then I'll get out of your hair." The woman shrugged and snapped her fingers, summoning a team who touched up Jess's makeup. I watched in awe as she was posed and ordered around as the click of a shutter clicked constantly.

Eventually, the time came when the museum opened, I caught Jessica's attention mouthing a 'Good luck' before heading out silently. I waved with a 'Have a nice day' to the man at the desk and headed out to the museum. Thankfully it had just opened so the line wasn't long at all. It was only 11 o'clock and my time slot for the Egyptian tour was around 3 so I had time to kill until then.

The exhibit was taking place in Houston's Space Center, which was cool. It was like the old world clashing with new space-age technology. So I spent the next few hours exploring the different exhibits seeing different rockets and learning more about the different planets. They had many fascinating things to see and learn about but my mind was filled with the Egyptian exhibit, so I kept an eye on my phone's clock, and when 2:45 came up I almost skipped the whole way to the line.

As expected the line for the exhibit was really long and the workers took their time checking tickets and keeping people in line. Some people were like me, bouncing on the balls of their feet and almost squealing with delight, others just didn't seem to really care. Time seemed so slow waiting in line, but finally, it was my turn, and I almost yelped when a worker asked for my ticket. I happily handed it to him and thanked him profusely after he returned it to me. 'Finally' I thought as I bounded to the room.

The room was actually a bit chilly, and the lights were dimmed, for dramatic purposes, I guessed. As I entered a large statue of a man with a sword hilt at his hip, greeted all who entered. It was a Ka Statue, a statue made for the 'Ka' or spirit to inhabit after death. Tut's was a beautiful example with black wood and gold pieces. This one was almost as beautiful with golden pieces inscribed into the pale stone. It stood as a life-sized version of the pharaoh's guard captain. It was interesting if you thought about it. It was life-size which was probably expensive, meaning that even though he was a guard, he must have been quite rich.