The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

I reminded him of the punishments that threaten runaway slaves and told him that he was certain to be recaptured sooner or later, for what had he to live on. But he said, “Last night, having drunk much beer, I had a dream. In the dream you, my lord, lay in a burning furnace, but I came to you with stern words and lifted you by the scruff of the neck and plunged you into flowing water that carried you away. I have since been to the market to ask an interpreter of dreams what this means, and he said that my lord is in danger and has a long journey before him and that I, for my boldness, should come by many blows from a stick. This dream is true, for one need but see your face, my lord, to know that you stand in great peril, and the blows I have had already, therefore the end of the dream also must be true. For this reason I have disguised myself, for I am resolved to go with you upon your journey.”

“Your loyalty moves me, Kaptah,” I said and strove to sound mocking. “It may well be that a long journey lies before me, but if so it is to the House of Death, where you will scarcely follow me.”

“Tomorrow is hidden,” Kaptah said impudently. “You are still young and green as an unlicked calf, my lord. I dare not let you set forth alone upon the troubled journey to the House of Death and the Western Land. Were that to pass, I’d probably follow you and help you with my experience, for my heart is bound to you despite your madness and I have never had a son, though doubtless I have begotten many children in my time. Yet I have never seen any of them and so I have a whim to think of you as my son. By this I mean no offence, but I seek merely to express my affection for you.”

This was carrying insolence too far, but I did not bother to hit him with a stick any more, as he was no longer my slave. I shut myself into my room and covered my head and slept like the dead until morning, for there is no narcotic like shame and remorse if they be deep enough. Yet when at last I awoke, the first things I remembered were the eyes of Nefernefernefer and her body, and I seemed to hold her smooth head in my hands and feel her bosom against mine. Why that was so, I cannot tell, for maybe she indeed had put a spell on me in an unknown way, although I don’t believe much in witchcraft. But what I can tell is that I washed and dressed and anointed my face to go to her.

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Nefernefernefer received me in her garden beside the lotus pool. Her eyes were clear and gay and greener than the waters of the Nile. When she saw me she cried, “Oh, Sinuhe! So you have come back to me. Then I am perhaps not yet so old and ugly, because you have not got tired of me. What do you want of me?”

I looked at her as a starveling looks at bread until she tilted her head in displeasure. “Sinuhe, Sinuhe, don’t tell me you want to rejoice with me again. I live alone, indeed, but I am no contemptible woman, and I must guard my reputation.”

“Yesterday I made over to you all my father’s property,” I said. “He is now a poor man, though formerly a respected physician. Being blind, he must beg bread in his old age while my mother must wash the linen of others.”

“Yesterday was yesterday, and today is today,” said Nefernefernefer, and she looked at me with her eyes narrowed. “But I am not extortionate. You may sit beside me and hold my hand, if you want. I am happy today and would at least share my heart’s gladness with you, even though I dare not share any other pleasure with you.” She laughed mischievously and stroked her belly with a light hand. “You do not ask why my heart is glad today, but I will tell you. You must know that a distinguished man from the Lower Kingdom has arrived in the city, and he brings with him a golden bowl of nearly a hundred deben weight, upon which are engraved many beautiful and diverting pictures. He is old, certainly, and so thin that his old shanks will chafe me, yet I believe that in the morning that bowl will adorn my house. For I am not a contemptible woman, and I must carefully guard my reputation.”

She feigned a deep sigh when I made no answer and sat with her dreamy gaze on the lotuses and the other flowers in the garden. Then slowly slipping off her robe, she stepped down into the pool. Her head rose from the water beside a lotus flower, and she was more fair than all the lotuses. Floating before me with her hands behind her head, she said, “You are so silent today, Sinuhe! Surely it is not I who have unwittingly wounded you? I would gladly make amends if I could.”

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