Pyramid Day!

A/N: I want to say, thank you all for reading. Please do not go under the assumption that I think slave labour is acceptable. I merely use it to write a more convincing story. Enjoy!

The hot sand scorched my face like snake bites and the wind blew it into flurries of gold.

"Bye Chione!" I giggled as my giraffe's enormous tongue licked my face. I stroked her nose, and proceeded to chase a small tuft of camel hair back towards the great city of Cairo. It was a sunny day, and the heat beat down relentlessly. Ra must have felt this was going to be a day to remember. Or rather, a week to remember. Summer usually came early in Egypt, but this year it swept in like a vulture, all too eager to join the festivities. The small tuft of camel hair blew away into one of the beautiful, fertile crop fields, where wheat grew, still green as the leaves on the Oasis’s palm tree. I giggled, and sprinted on.

As I drew closer to civilisation, more white-ish sandstone houses sprang up, the colourful linen the ladies had been washing strung from one window to another across the street. The spice market was nearby, and I remembered that papa had asked me to buy some spices for the family shrine. I walked up to the stall, and collected three pouches of palm leaves filled with saffron, ginger and cinnamon. I paid, and hurried on. Trees lined the sidewalk here, and desert travellers piled in, excited for tomorrow. I couldn’t wait. My soft leather sandals suddenly came unlaced, and I catapulted forth onto my face. I could never tie them up properly for long. Well, I could, but technically I shouldn’t have been running. I brushed the dust off my skirt, and padded down the streets for my afternoon lessons.

I walked in underneath the flapping linen sheet, grateful for the respite from the heat outside. The teacher and the students glared at me, still unaccustomed to the fact that I was a female. Yep, you heard me. I’m a girl who can read and write. I can do it very well, actually. My papa is very rich, so he paid for me to go to school. No one else was very pleased, but as his only child, I could hardly inherit anything without the necessary education.

“Rashida?” asked the teacher sternly, “you are fifteen minutes late to your lessons. Your father is paying me well to be your tutor, and he will not be pleased to hear that most of his money is wasted of empty time. Explain yourself.”

“Sorry sir. I was at the Oasis with Chione!”

“And who is Chione, if I may enquire?” he smirked at me.

I folded my arms. “Chione is my giraffe, sir. I was making sure that there weren’t any crocodiles so she could drink in peace.”

“Very well Rashida. Come up to the front and demonstrate how to arrange the planets and stars constellations, simply by looking at the night sky.”

I sighed, and prepared myself for a LONG afternoon.

***

I finally managed to get out of class. The teacher had been in a bad mood all afternoon, and I thought that he was secretly hoping that I wouldn’t show up at all. Oh well. Dreams don’t come true. Sucker. The streets were gradually emptying, and I was able to get a clear route home. Papa was waiting for me in the doorway.

“Did you get the spices for Isis’s shrine, may she live a shining life above?”

I nodded. “Yes papa. I’ll go lay them out now.” Respectfully, I walked too the family shrine with my head bowed low. Upon reaching the small stand, I carefully filled the small glass bowl with water. Next, I pulled out the saffron, ginger and cinnamon, placing them in other bowls after cautiously unwrapping the leaves. I said a quick prayer to Isis, may she bathe in eternal joy, and ran to the dining table to join papa and mama. They smiled at me, and I smiled back. A slave came in, and placed down a plate of olives and some weird flatbreads. I thanked him, but he looked horrified, and both papa and mama glared at me. I apologised to them, and, after a sharp reprimand during which water was poured, we began to eat. And talk, but there was only one subject of conversation. The Pyramids! I couldn’t believe they were ready tomorrow! After all this time! Mama rambled on about clothing, and the clothes we would have, and papa started talking excitedly to me about the maths behind construction. I paid him more attention, as I had a passion for maths, and I also utterly despised fashion. When mama realised she was talking to thin air, she sighed, and shook her head.

“All this talk of complicated aspects of what is essentially a party is doing my head in!” she warbled, and made her dramatic exit from our dining room, a slave at each elbow. Papa and I raised our eyebrows at each other.

“You should be getting to sleep, Rashida.”

I agreed, for tomorrow was to be a looooooonnnnnnngggggggg day. I had to be ready for it! Ready to put up with mama’s relentless fussing over my appearance. We would be seen next to the almighty Pharoah, may his name be praised, and I knew I would have to sit it out. Mama was very beautiful, and many people said we looked very alike. I guess that meant I was pretty too.

***

The day dawned bright and fresh, but the second I snapped open my green eyes, I heard mama yelling at me.

“RASHIDA! YOU NEED TO GET UP! WE HAVE TO GET READY!”

I groaned, and pulled my body up. I padded over to the door, my thin robes rumpled. I pushed back the curtain on the door frame, and I grinned broadly! Finally! Pyramid day! Mama grasped my biceps, and yanked me into the room with the tub. She pulled a papyrus screen in front of me, and instructed two slaves to undress and wash me. The water foamed as the lavender solution was scrubbed into my olive skin, and washed off. My hair was conditioned, and then I was dried. Whatever moisture remaining in my hair dried out very quickly. Today was going to be HOT. I pulled on a simple, semi-opaque robe, then another above it. A slave strapped on my sandals (more firmly than usual, I couldn’t afford to trip in front of the Pharoah!). A silk shawl was swathed over my shoulders, and A belt of gold and colourful beads held all the fabric in place. I sat at my make-up table, and my hair was brushed and fixed just right. Blue inks and colourful powders smeared over eyes, and fine necklaces draped around my neck.

***

I was standing on the outskirts of Cairo, and the Pyramids finished at long last. I bowed low to the young Pharoah, and he acknowledged me with a gracious nod. This was my cue to go and stand with my family. The scribes scribbled furiously on their papyrus tablets, trying to capture the moment in black inks. Perhaps it would be copied onto the interior of future Pyramids. I smiled, genuinely. This was the most exciting day EVER!