The Star of Sothis

Lucy knew that she was going to be grounded because Mum had shouted at her. Mum almost never shouted at anyone, least of all Lucy.

Lucy also knew that she never should have stolen Mum's brooch, even if it did look really good on her new scarf. She had known all along that her Mum loved the brooch, but she had been surprised by how upset Mum had been when she found it missing. She probably should not have hidden the brooch, but she really had meant to put it back later. Unfortunately, Mum had found it first.

Mum had come storming into the living room, waving the brooch and shouting. After about a minute she had gone really quiet and sent Lucy up to her room. That had been an hour ago.

There was a soft knock at the door.

"C-come in," Lucy called softly.

The door opened and Mum stuck her head in. "Hey, squirt!" she called. She sounded strange, as though she had done something wrong.

"Hey, mum."

Mum came in and sat on the bed beside Lucy. She was wearing the brooch on her jacket. Mum had told Lucy once that it was supposed to be a beetle, but it looked more like a big, bright butterfly, crawling up her front.

"I'm sorry I stole your brooch," Lucy said.

"I'm sorry I shouted at you."

Lucy looked at Mum in surprise. "Huh?"

"Were you scared?"

Lucy nodded.

"I didn't mean to scare you," Mum told her. "I was just upset." She unpinned the brooch and held it up. The gold flashed in the sunlight and the red jewel between the beetle-butterfly's pincers sparkled.

"My grandfather gave me this brooch when I was your age," Mum explained. "If I ever lost it, I could never replace it and it's the only thing I have left of his. That's why I was angry; because I thought I'd lost it. I wasn't really that angry with you for taking it, I just wanted to know where it was. I was angry at myself and I shouldn't have shouted at you."

Lucy was confused. She was not used to grown-ups telling her that they had been wrong.

"Where did granddad get it from?" Lucy asked.

"Not your granddad," Mum told her. "My granddad; only I called him grandpa, not granddad. He was in Egypt during the war and he brought it back from there."

"It's beautiful," Lucy said.

"It is," Mum agreed. "Is that why you took it?"

Lucy blushed, but she nodded.

"Will you promise not to take anything of mine without asking ever again?" Mum asked.

Lucy nodded again.

Mum smiled. "Well, if you promise, how about I try to make it up to you for shouting?"

Lucy risked a smile at that.

"If you get your shoes on, then, I'll take you to the museum." She waved the brooch. "You like Egyptian stuff and they've got a special Egyptian exhibit on this week. How does that sound?"

"Cool!" Lucy declared.

"Go on then. Get your shoes."

They took the bus into town. Mum still had the brooch on her jacket and Lucy kept on staring at it.

"What is the matter?" Mum asked.

"I'm trying to make the star come out," Lucy explained.

Mum laughed. "Oh, that's easy if you know how," she said. She took off the brooch and held it up to the late afternoon sunlight. "Ready?"

"Yes."

Mum turned the brooch until, suddenly, a brilliant white star appeared in the middle of the red stone. Lucy gasped in delight.

"You can see it when the light falls on it in a certain direction," Mum explained. "It's called a star sapphire."

"It's pretty."

"Like you then, squirt," Mum laughed and to Lucy's surprise, Mum pinned the brooch to Lucy's jacket.

"Well, one day I'll give it to you to keep," Mum explained, "so I guess it doesn't matter if I let you wear it a little now. Just as long as I know it's safe."

The little museum in town was rarely very interesting. All it usually had on display was a few stuffed rabbits and a model of the church made out of matchsticks. For this week, however, there was a special exhibit and a sign had been set up at the front door to advertise it:

The Treasures of Princess Anukhet
discovered by William Morrs.

"That's granddad's name!" Lucy exclaimed.

"That's right. And it was his father's name as well. When my grandpa was in Egypt he found a tomb and they brought everything in it back to the British Museum. Now they're going to send it back to Egypt, but they're showing it all one last time in grandpa's home town."

"Cool! Your grandpa's famous."

Mum laughed. "Come on, squirt. Let's go take a look."

Inside the door there was a big photograph of a man with a huge, bushy moustache. A very pretty woman was standing next to him in the photograph. There was something familiar about her long, black hair and large, dark eyes.

"She looks like you, Mum!" Lucy said. "Only she's got darker skin."

"Of course, she does," Mum laughed. "That's my granny. Grandpa brought her back from Egypt as well."

Now it was Lucy who laughed. "She's too young to be a granny."

"It's an old picture," Mum began to explain. "It was taken..." Before she could finish, however, Lucy had rushed away into the museum to look at a glass case holding four clay jars; instead of normal lids, the jars had model head. One looked like a man, another was a bird, and what looked like two dogs.

"Those are canopic jars," Mum told her. "When they buried the princess, they took all her insides out and put them in those jars."

"Eww!"

Mum laughed. Do you want to see the mummy?"

"You're my mummy!"

"I mean the princess's mummy. Her body, all wrapped up in bandages."

"Eww," Lucy said again.

"Is that a no?"

"No!"

"Is it a yes, then?"

"Yes!" Lucy bounced up and down in excitement. She had never seen a dead body before.

The body was not what she had expected. It was not really icky and gross at all, just dry and dusty and wrapped in old, old cloth bandages. There was a mask over its face, painted with the face of a beautiful woman.

"Is that what she looked like?" Lucy asked.

"Mm-hmm," Mum agreed.

"She...doesn't look old." Lucy was not sure why, but she felt suddenly upset.

Mum shook her head. "They don't think she was much older than you are when she died."

Lucy recoiled from the glass case. "That's horrid!" she cried.

"It was a tough time, kiddo," Mum told her. She put a hand on Lucy's shoulder to comfort her, but removed it again when she realised that her hand was shaking. Mum hoped that Lucy would not notice what she had just noticed; that the face painted on the mask looked uncannily like Lucy.

Lucy regarded the mummy with horrified fascination. She wanted to leave the room and get away from the dried-up body, but she could not tear her eyes away from it. As she stared at it, a ray of sunlight came through the blinds and fell upon a pendant that Princess Anukhet wore around her neck. The pendant was shaped like a beetle with butterfly's wings and it held a blue jewel between its pincers. When the light struck the stone, a bright, white star appeared deep inside it.

"Oh!" Lucy gasped. "It's like your brooch."

"I told you the brooch was Egyptian," Mum reminded her. She looked at the card above the display case. "It says that that's the Star of Sothis, a gift from the princess's mother." She pretended to look at her watch. "I think they'll be closing soon," she said. "We should go."

"Okay," Lucy agreed. She sounded sad and Mum wondered if bringing her here had been such a good idea.

It was getting dark by the time they got back to the bus stop.

"You okay?" Mum asked.

Lucy nodded. "It was good," she said. "I just think it's a little sad."

Mum pulled her into a hug. She must have been upset, because she did not try to avoid it.

"When's the bus?"

"Should be here...five minutes ago," Mum laughed. "Typical."

Lucy turned and looked along the road. There was no sign of the bus, but someone else was shuffling along the pavement towards them. Lucy thought it was a girl, but she moved strangely, as though there might have been something wrong with one of her legs, but it was hard to see her clearly in the twilight.

Lucy felt a cold trickle of fear run up her spine. "I wish the bus would hurry," she said.

The street lights flickered on. Lucy turned to look at the other girl and she screamed. Standing in the pool of light beneath the nearest lamppost was the mummified body of Princess Anukhet.

"Lucy..." Mum began, but she broke off when she saw the mummy. Without looking away, she reached down for Lucy's hand. She backed away, tugging at Lucy's arm. For a moment, Lucy did not move, but Mum pulled harder and Lucy spun around.

They ran. They ran harder than they had ever run before, only stopping when they were three blocks away and could run no further.

"It's a joke," Mum gasped. "It must be someone playing a stupid joke."

Lucy shook her head. "It's her," she said miserably. "It's the mummy."

"But that's just...silly," Mum protested.

"Then why did you run?"

Mum had no answer for that, and before she could speak again they heard a padding of soft, cloth-wrapped feet and the mummy shuffled around the corner towards them. This close there was no possibility of mistake: it was the mummy; no costume could be that convincing and for a moment the white star glittered in the blue heart of the Star of Sothis.

"Run!" Mum grabbed Lucy's hand again and they fled, but they were still worn out and Lucy soon felt a stitch burning in her side.

"Wait!" she wailed.

"Come on, Lucy!"

"I can't!" Lucy turned around. "She's still there."

"That's why we have to run!" Mum told her.

"I can't run any more," Lucy protested. She pulled her hand away from Mum's and clutched it against her side. "We have to do something."

"But what?"

The light flashed from the Star of Sothis again. Lucy lifted her hand to the brooch on her jacket.

"Lucy, no!"

Slowly, Lucy walked back towards Princess Anukhet. Mum followed her at a distance. Lucy stopped an arm's reach from Anukhet and the mummy stopped too. Mum laid her hand on Lucy's shoulder for support.

The withered arm of the mummy lifted and her bony fingers closed on the brooch. She took the beetle-butterfly in one hand and the matching pendant in the other. She brought the two together and with a soft click they locked together, touching at the wingtips.

"Lucy," Mum whispered.

"It's alright, Mum," Lucy whispered back. "She's not angry with us. She just thought she'd lost her brooch, like you did."

The painted face seemed to smile as the princess looked at Lucy. She lifted the linked jewels from around her neck and passed the chain over Lucy's head. Then she turned and walked away.

Lucy lifted her hand to touch the pendant. "She just wanted to know it was safe," she said.