The Uncle Tal Stories (Patreon)

Interlude 4: The Sleeper Awakens

1955 AD

San Bernadino

California

The dark-haired girl strolled down the street in the early evening, worn satchel over her shoulder. Quietly pretty, in her late teens, she didn’t stand out in the crowd, save for an aristocratic profile and a slightly deeper tan than most girls of her age. A lit-up sign caught her eye as she turned the corner and she took in a new sight. Twin golden arches, pulsing neon and bright primary colors. Curious, she drifted closer, then pushed open the door and entered.

“Good evening, miss,” said the young man behind the counter. “Can I interest you in a meal?” He handed over a printed cardboard menu.

“Oh,” she said. “Thank you.”

“From out of town, are we?” he asked politely as he began to wipe down the counter.

“You might say that.” It never failed; she knew from long experience. No matter how well she knew the language, a faint accent crept in. “I left home a long time ago.” Tapping the menu, she said, “I would like the, uh, pure beef hamburger and a ‘thirst quenching’ Coke, please.”

The counter attendant rang up the purchase. “That will be twenty-five cents thank you, miss.”

“Certainly.” She shrugged the satchel from her shoulder and reached inside to retrieve her change purse. Selecting a quarter, she passed it over to him.

“Thank you very much.” He was about to drop it into the change drawer when something about the coin caught his eye. “Wait a minute. That’s not a quarter.” Turning it over in his hands, he peered more closely. “Where’s Washington? And the eagle’s off, too.” Coin still in his hand, he looked accusingly at her. “Are you trying to pass some kind of funny money, sister?”

The girl grimaced internally. I should’ve been more careful. Coin designs change more regularly now than they used to. “Check the date on it,” she said.

Suspiciously, he did so, then his eyes bugged out. “Holy moley!” he gasped. “This was minted in eighteen eighty-five! Do you have any idea how old that makes this?”

More than sixty-four years,she thought, but did not say. “Is that a problem? I assure you, it’s genuine. I … had a little windfall awhile ago. This was in a safe that was bequeathed to me.”

The attendant was barely listening to her. His eyes were unfocused as his lips moved silently. “It’s, uh, seventy years old! Older than you and me put together! Wow!”

“Yes, wow,” she said patiently. “Is that a problem? I believe I have other coins of a more recent vintage here somewhere.” Older than you, maybe.

“No, no, it’s okay.” He dived into his own pocket and came out with a shiny new quarter, which he dropped into the change drawer. “I know folks who, uh, collect coins. They’d love this one. It looks nearly brand new.”

“It was in a safe for over sixty years,” she said. “May I have my hamburger and Coke now, please?”

“Oh, uh, yeah, sure,” he babbled, sliding the older coin into his pocket. “Do you have any others like that?”

“No, no, everything else I have is new,” she lied smoothly. Collect coins, hmm? More like pay for antique ones. Perhaps I should look into that on my next time around.

He brought the hamburger to her on a plate. The Coke came in a cone-shaped cup that required her to hold it as she sat down to eat the hamburger. She dealt with that problem by finishing the fizzy soda before she started on the juicy burger. It was, admittedly, delicious. A good meal for her last evening before she lay down to sleep once more.

As she left the establishment, she saw the young attendant avidly studying the coin she’d given him. Well, I wish him all the luck with it. The next time I see him, if I ever do see him again, he won’t remember me. Or if he does, he won’t believe it’s me. People never did.

A car drove past, then slowed to a halt. “Hey, Kim!” called out a girl. “Where you going?”

“Hi, Lillian,” she called back, waving. “I’m heading out of town.”

“Aww, that’s a pity.” Lillian opened the door and got out. “It’s been a real blast since you got to town, and you’ve gotta move on already?”

“That’s my life,” Khemet replied. She hugged Lillian, smelling the perfume and powder. Not much different from her own youth, but personal hygiene was much better in the here and now. Running water was a great aid for that. “I’ll always remember you. Thanks for showing me around.”

“Hey, I’ll always remember you, too. Ooh, something to remember us by. Mom and Pop gave me this for my birthday, and Dan and me have been driving around, taking photographs of each other in front of buildings.” Lillian dived into the car once more, then emerged with a flat, rounded box.

Khemet was familiar with the notion of photographs, but she didn’t recognize the object Lillian was holding. “What is that?”

“It’s a Polaroid instant camera,” Dan said, getting out of his side of the car. “So you’re heading on, huh? Sorry to see you go. You’re just not the same as everyone else. It’s like you see everything as new and fresh and exciting. Gives me a good feeling about the world.”

Lillian fiddled with the box, pulling out one side and unfolding a wire frame. Khemet watched her curiously as she spoke to Dan. “I’m glad of that. We should all wake up every day looking for new things in the world.”

“Okay, ready.” Lillian pointed at the pool of light under a street-lamp. “We’ll stand there and Dan can take a photograph of us.” She handed over the complicated-looking object to her boyfriend.

“I’m gonna save up and get one of these for my own one of these days,” Dan said as he held the camera up to his face, looking through a little side-mounted viewfinder. “I want to be a world-famous photographer.”

“I’m sure you can be anything you want to be, Dan,” Khemet said with a smile as she stood beside Lillian. “That’s what America’s all about, after all.”

“Darn tootin’,” agreed Dan, sighting through the eyepiece. “Okay, girls, you’ve got too much top shadow. Take a step back … yeah, another one. Okay, that’s good.” He crouched slightly, aiming up at them.

“And the world-famous photographer lines up his subject for the Pulitzer Prize winning photograph …” murmured Lillian.

Khemet giggled, just as the camera clicked. “Why did you make me laugh?” she asked.

“Because you looked too solemn,” Lillian said firmly. “I wanted you to be happy before you went away.” She went and took the camera back from Dan. “Just a few minutes now,” she said as she folded parts away and pulled a tab from the back of the camera.

“For what?” asked Khemet. Time was pressing on, and she still had to get back to where she intended to sleep.

“The picture, silly.” Lillian pointed at the body of the camera. “It’s developing the photograph as we speak.”

“It can do that?” Khemet was startled. She knew photographs could be developed in hours in a dark-room, but for it to be developed on the spot in just minutes? That was new to her experience.

“I’m just as surprised as you are, every time it works,” Dan informed her. “I know, it shouldn’t, but it does anyway.”

“How much did this cost your parents?” Khemet asked, looking at Lillian.

“Oh, uh, nearly ninety bucks,” Lillian said. “I know, I know, that’s real expensive, but I’m taking good care of it.”

“For that kind of money, it should make us a cup of joe while we’re waiting,” Dan said, with a grin to show he was joking.

“Well, with ordinary cameras, you can make and drink several cups of coffee while you’re waiting for the picture to be developed, and that’s if you’re right there outside the darkroom,” Khemet pointed out. “I understand if you send the camera away, it can take weeks.”

“And now it takes just minutes.” Lillian giggled. “The modern world is going faster and faster all the time.”

“Oh, trust me, I understand that one,” Khemet said feelingly. “All I have to do is turn around and there’s something new on the next street corner.”

“All right, that should be enough time.” Lillian popped a catch and the back flipped open. Khemet watched as she expertly tore out a rectangle of paper, then turned it over to show …

“Oh, my,” she whispered. The camera had captured her and Lillian perfectly, as she broke into a giggle over Lillian’s joke. “I see it, and I still don’t believe it.”

“That’s Polaroid for you.” Lillian snapped the case closed, then ran the photograph over the edge of it. “I just need to coat it with a sealant now, so it doesn’t scratch.” Retrieving a small object from her purse, she ran it over the photograph several times, eliciting an acrid smell, then waved it around in the air. “That should do it.”

Wonderingly, Khemet accepted the finished photograph from her friend. “Thank you,” she said softly. “I will treasure it as long as I live.”

“Aww, that’s so sweet.” Lillian hugged her again, then kissed her on the cheek. “You’re a good friend, Kim.”

“Say, do you want a lift to the bus depot?” asked Dan. “We can go that way if you need.”

“No, I should be fine.” Khemet smiled at them both. “I’m enjoying the walk. One last look at the town before I move on. You two go on and have fun.”

“All right then.” Lillian gave Khemet’s hand one last squeeze, then she got into the car. “If you ever show up back in San Bernadino, you look us up, you hear me? I mean it.”

“I know you do,” Khemet said softly. She waved as the car started up and drove off, then looked at the photograph again. It was perfect, every line crisp and clear. I should have learned about these a month ago. I could have so many photographs by now. When I wake up next, I need to buy a Polaroid of my own.

Moving more cautiously now, despite the encroaching deadline, she took the backstreets until she found the almost-completed shopping mall that she was aiming for. A key, acquired illicitly, opened a security door, and she descended stairs to a section that wasn’t on the original plans. Another key opened a solid steel door. She locked it behind her and flicked a light switch. So much more convenient than candles or lamps.

Time was pressing now, and she had to move fast. Reaching into the satchel, she took out reams of paper bearing closely formed writing. A bastard amalgam of all the languages she knew, it detailed all the information she had learned about how the last sixty-four years of history had gone. Carefully, she placed the paper in a sealed cabinet, on top of a previous stack of paper which was brittle and yellowed, and bore the year 1827. Atop the paper, she placed the photograph. Then, changing her mind, she took it out again.

Opening another cabinet, of the many stacked around the central bier, she removed a simple shift and changed into it. She donned the jewelry of her station. Her clothes went into the cabinet in its stead.

Her heartbeat was slowing as she flicked off the switch and climbed onto the bier. As her last waking act, she took hold of the photograph and cradled it her hands as they crossed over her chest.

Her eyes closed, and she Slept.

Slower and slower her body systems moved, until they were at an almost perfect standstill. A shroud of time itself settled over her, preventing age from affecting her, forbidding any force from so much as scratching her skin.

Time rolled on.

Above her, the shopping mall was completed, and customers entered, left, entered, left. Shops came and went. Eventually, the tides of profit washed away from the area, and the mall fell into disarray. It was bought and sold by half a dozen developers looking for a quick profit. Finally, it entered the hands of one who was willing to put actual money into it.

The construction crews moved in. Over the years, the mall had been refurbished a dozen times, but it was still outdated. They knocked down the walls and dug up the foundations.

And there they found something amazing.

Los Angeles

California

2019 AD

Professor William Patrick O’Reilly was fairly humming with excitement. The San Bernadino Find was his! All his! Most other Egyptologists had taken one look at where the Princess had been found, and dismissed it as a hoax. But he’d looked at images taken from the site where the excavators had broken into the chamber and it was clearly obvious that this was something out of the ordinary.

The crates had been arrived and unloaded into his examination room. He was going to go over everything with a fine-toothed comb, and prove them all wrong. Every single doubting one of them.

The first thing to catch his eye was the Princess herself. It was the name he’d given her, on seeing the picture of her. She was lying on a stone bier, wearing jewelry suited to a minor noblewoman of one of the earlier Egyptian dynasties. Her hands were crossed over her chest, and there was something under them, but he didn’t know what it was.

In fact, he didn’t know what the Princess was even made of. It was as though someone had created the most perfect statue of a woman ever, down to the weave of the cloth and the unevenly-trimmed nails, then made her impervious to everything. A half-ton rock had fallen on her from the excavator, and the rock had broken. They’d had to jackhammer the bier from the floor of the chamber in order to transport it, and her, to the lab. Along with the bier came a series of antique cabinets. Cunningly made, their lids seemed to fit airtight. These did not fit the Egyptian theme, but he didn’t care. He was going to be famous anyway, once he’d figured out what the deal with the Princess was.

For the first two hours, he tried everything he knew. Metal detectors didn’t detect the gold that the jewelry was apparently made of. A portable ultrasound device returned a blank signal. He discovered that even her eyelashes were strong enough to cut metal when he tried to clip one off.

Eventually, he decided to leave the Princess alone, and come back to her once he’d figured out the rest of her secrets. Picking a cabinet at random, he carefully opened it. Within, in carefully sectioned partitions, was … money. Coins from all eras. Egyptian, Roman, Greek, English … what is this?

Closing that cabinet and leaving a note on it, he opened another. Scrolls and scrolls of papyrus. Wrapped and sealed so they did not deteriorate. Carefully, he slid one out, and unrolled it. It was written in colloquial Lower Kingdom Egyptian, and … seemed to be an account of history between two dates? What kings had reigned, who had married whom, what wars had taken place.

Rolling the scroll up, he replaced it in the cabinet and put the lid back on. Just as he was writing a note for that cabinet, there was a movement from behind him. The sound of cloth sliding on stone.

He froze. Every last movie he’d ever watched where the restless dead devoured the over-curious archaeologist came back to haunt him.

“What are you doing, looking through my belongings?” asked a feminine voice, a little impatiently.

Carefully, he straightened up and turned around. The Princess was standing beside the bier, looking around. Then she looked back at him. Now she didn’t look like an impervious statue. She looked like an ordinary person. An ordinary person who could pass for a member of the Lower Kingdom nobility with the greatest of ease.

“Uh … hi?” he said. “Why are you … uh …”

“Awake?” She stretched and yawned. “It was time to wake up.” She looked more closely at him. “Are you a grave robber or a … scientist?” The latter word seemed a little strange to her.

“Scientist, scientist,” he said hastily. “You aren’t going to try to eat my brains, are you?”

“Pfft, hardly,” she snorted. “Brains are not my favorite food. Now, hamburgers are nice. I had a good one, just before I lay down to sleep.”

“… hamburgers?” he asked. That was one hell of a non sequitur from an awakened Egyptian princess. “Where did you get a hamburger from?”

She blinked. “At a new shop. Called McDonalds, or something like that? A hamburger and a Coke cost me twenty-five cents. Do they still have that now?”

“Uhh … what?” He found a chair and sat down. “Yeah, McDonalds is still around, but a burger and Coke will cost a lot more than twenty-five cents. When … when was this?”

“Nineteen fifty-five,” she said absently, counting each of the cabinets. “Oh, good. They’re all here. Do you mind if I reclaim my property, or are you going to be problematic about it?”

“Do you know what the year is now?” he asked. Wow, she’s some kind of time traveler.

“Twenty nineteen, is my best guess.” She looked at his stunned expression. “What? It wasn’t that hard. I sleep for sixty-four years at a time. It’s how the curse works. Just a point of note. Never piss off a powerful mage by telling him that you wouldn’t marry him if he were the last man on earth. It never ends well.”

“Ah.” He shook his head. “While you’re asleep …”

“I’m slowed down.” She found the correct cabinet and opened it. A pair of blue jeans emerged, and she pulled them on under the shift she was wearing. “Ahh, much better. Pants; the sign of civilization.” She looked at him for a moment. “Slowed down. One night equals sixty-four years. I’ll leave you to do the calculations. The last time I tried it, it took me a full day.”

“And how long do you remain awake between sleeps?” he asked.

“A month.” She sighed. “Long enough to get attached to a place, not long enough to easily establish a place to sleep. I thought I’d lucked out. Shows how much I know.”

“So what do you do in that month?” He thought he knew, but confirmation was good.

“Oh, I try to find out what’s been going on while I was asleep, and write it all down. I don’t make many friends. It’s too hard to let go.” She picked up what looked like a black and white photo from the bier and looked sadly at it.

“Oh, yeah.” By the time she woke up again, anyone she knew would be sixty-four years older, and probably dead. “Sorry to hear that.”

“Hey, it’s my life now.” She looked over at him and frowned. “Would you be able to give me a hand getting my stuff out of your lab? I’d be willing to tell you about any of it, but I’m going to need to be pointed at a library or something so I can catch up on the last sixty-four years.”

And that was when he had the Idea.

“Nineteen fifty-five … you’ve never heard of the internet, have you?”

She looked around from examining a gouge on top of one of the cabinets and shook her head. “Is it for fishing?”

He chuckled warmly. “Oh, no. It’s for everything. I’ll make you a deal. I’ll help you get caught up on current history in one night, and you help me learn about what’s been going on in history for the last five or six thousand years. And even better: I’ll set up a permanent place in this museum for you to, you know, sleep.”

She stared at him. “Really?”

“Really.”

“Then I accept.” She said something else then, that he didn’t understand at all.

“What was that?” He tilted his head.

“Oh, my original language. I think you call it Ancient Egyptian?” She smiled. “We called it something else. I was just saying thank you. I can teach it to you, if you want.”

Oh, man. He didn’t know if he could learn an entire spoken language in one month, but he was willing to give it the old college try.

This is gonna rock.

Chapter 5