by Kendra Blake

Created on: October 25, 2009   Last Updated: October 27, 2009

We've been trying to get this assignment for the last two years. Vanetta Jackson thought out loud as she continued the monumental job of packing for five people taking a very long trip. If I had known just how bloodthirsty and backstabbing this business was I might have become a fashion model instead. she said to herself playfully. Right now she had to make a choice between which boots to take to the Egyptian dig site. Let me see, should I take the ones my father sent me for graduation or the new LL Beans her husband bought her when he was informed that they had been chosen. She decided to take both. That might be a tough dig and I want to be prepared.

I hope Jim will be home soon. I really need help packing. He still has to meet with the museum committee. I hope that won't be too long or strenuous. Speaking of help with the packing where are those three little crumb-snatching tax deductions who always seem to know when to vanish when there's work to be done. Vanetta wondered why her children were so quiet.

Just then her oldest daughter ten-year old Saqquara strolled in with a dripping fudge pop stuck in her mouth. Her mother gave her a hard look and said I know you did not just walk into this room with that dripping chocolate ready to mess up these clothes. Saqquara knew that meant that she had to get rid of it immediately.

No sooner had she spoken to Saqquara she heard Mommmmy! Mom-my! It was the voice of seven-year old Amarna. Apparently her twin brother, Cairo had victimized her yet again. Cairo threw my doll in the toilet! Amarna screamed. Cairo shot back, I thought your 'dolly' was some kind of female warrior action figure. Can't she find her way through the pee & pooh? he said in his sarcastic tone. Vanetta briefly thought about calling DHS to pick them up but then thought better of it. Jim might not like that. she thought to herself. The temptation quickly passed when she thought about the upcoming assignment. So I'm returning to Egypt.

Her memories went back to her childhood and a family vacation in the 1960's to visit a distant relative. Vanetta recalled how surprised she was at the time when she learned from her parents that she and her brother Ramses actually had relatives right here in Egypt. At first she thought that the family vacation would be nothing but camels and sand but to her surprise they both had the best time of their lives. She even discovered that they were descended from some high-priestess but she didn't learn much more than

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