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“Are you sure?” I asked. “I mean, is it safe to carry you?”
“I’m stronger,” Tauseret said, “and I would like to be in your arms again.”
Her words brought a disconcerting pang of desire to my gut, but that died at the sight of her gray, tattered rags and clawlike hands. I bent and gingerly slid my hands under her, on either side of her torso. Something crumbled under my fingers and I froze.
“Fear not,” said Tauseret as if she had read my thoughts. “The cloth erodes, but not the woman beneath.”
I swallowed hard and hoisted her to my chest. I expected her to be stiff, but she gave in my arms and tumbled against me like a loose sack of laundry. For a moment a cloud of dust enveloped me. When I’d finished sneezing, I noticed she had a smile of satisfaction on her face—a face that now had the bloom of health on high, tawny cheeks, and full provocative lips.
“What you staring at, Abel?” asked
Apollo, still waving away the dust. “Hey, the ugly lady isn’t ugly.”
I carried Tauseret into the next tent. The children clustered around me, except for Willie, who ran ahead. Her body grew warmer as we walked, and took on a voluptuous weight. I was dismayed to find respect and my baser nature at odds in my drawers. I prayed that all eyes were on Tauseret and not on me. I felt ashamed, puzzled, and nauseated by my reaction.
“Hey, Earle,” cried Willie.
Earle put down his ever present newspaper and peered down at us from his cart with little eyes buried in his doughy face like currants in a bun.
“The mummy lady is a real lady,” said Apollo.
“She was under a spell,” said Minnie.
“I was cursed,” corrected Tauseret.
“Don’t ask me to explain,” I said to Earle. “There’s more mystery to the universe than we ever thought.”
“I knew it!” exclaimed Earle. “I knew it. Goldang! A live mummy. Don’t that cap the climax.” He chuckled with glee. “And don’t she like you, Abel?”
I realized that Tauseret had her head on my shoulder in a most affectionate pose.
Earle lowered his voice a mite. “You’re gonna rescue her, right?”
“Yes, and the children will help, won’t you, children? You’ll keep her a secret, and we’ll all escape together.”
They nodded eagerly and their eyes gleamed.
“We will be pursued,” said Tauseret. “It is likely we will be caught.”
“It is,” I answered. I wished she hadn’t said that in front of the children.
“Then, we will need reinforcements. The soldier from your home.”
“How would the colonel know where to find us,” I said to her, “even if I could send him a wire? I don’t even know where we are or where we’ll be tomorrow.”
“Minnie, my flower,” Tauseret said. “Close your eyes.”
The little girl complied without hesitation.
“Think of us fleeing from the bone man. We are bouncing in a carriage. We are traveling down the road. We are leaving him behind. Make pictures in your head, pictures of all of us here.”
Minnie nodded.
“Follow our journey into the future. Hold on to the bright thread of our lives. Where does the cold and dark try to swallow them, Minnie? What do you see of the place of our greatest peril?”
Minnie stood motionless, a frown on her face, and the absurdity of it all made me want to scream. How would this little child be able to tell us anything useful? She would burst into tears soon, and we would be none the wiser. Meanwhile the mummy girl grew heavy in my arms.
Just when I was ready to call a halt to the proceedings, Minnie opened her eyes. “Big train,” she said. “Lots of men. A little red house.”
