The Mummy with the Locket

Washington, District of Columbia, Wednesday, April 28th, 2022

“BREAKING NEWS...” loudly erupts from the flat screen television while Ayla and her fiancé, Dane, sit cuddled up on the couch watching the morning news.

“Babe turn that down please,” asks Ayla with her eyes glued to her phone.

“A most unusual and exciting discovery! A new tomb in Egypt has been discovered in tact....”

Long fascinated with Ancient Egypt, Ayla’s eyes and ears perk up as the news anchor spoke. Ayla’s excitement was short lived, but continued to watch the news break with partial interest since they failed to give much information or footage, but the news anchor reported that researchers and Egyptologists were still studying the find.

When the program was over, Ayla noticed she was caressing her locket, a small gold and silver heart-shaped locket with her initials in the center, which opened up to reveal a picture of her and Dane together after he proposed to her. She felt a sense of deja vu and foreboding fall upon her and started to mentally examine the feelings.

“Someone is at the door babe,” Dane said, interrupting her thoughts.

Dane stood up and went to answer the door, and Ayla took the opportunity to stretch and, out of habit, proceeded to check her phone, when she heard Dane call out “Babe, we have visitors.”

Ayla stood up and saw that there was a tall, thin man who seemed to be of mixed East Asian and Caucasian descent and looked to be in his mid-thirties, and a short, shapely Indian woman well into her forties walking into their living room from the foyer.

“Hello,” Ayla quickly greeted them with a slightly cautious tone, with the facial expression to match.

The pair said nothing, but stared at the small locket that sat on her chest with wide-eyes.

Dane walked over to Ayla and said “This is Jeremy and Dr. Ishanvi, and they’re from the FBI.”

The pair’s surprised expressions gone. The strangers now , Ishanvi introduced herself in a neutral voice, her tone spoke wisdom “Hello Ayla Broussard, I am Dr. Ishanvi Desai, a physicist, and this is Jeremy Cho, a researcher and archaeologist, and we are here on the behalf of the Federal Bureau of Investigations.”

“The FBI?” Ayla questioned, extreme surprise in her voice. “What happened? Did we do something?”

“No Ms. Broussard,” Jeremy interjected, “We are here because of a recent discovery that has led us to you.”

“The locket you are wearing was found on a mummy we found in Egypt last week,” Dr. Ishanvi said matter-of-factly.

“My lo-locket? I don’t understand, I am wearing it right now. How was my locket, that I am wearing, found on a mummy? In Egypt for that matter?!” Ayla asked flustered, all the while that same sense of deja vu and foreboding she felt moments ago came back and she strarted to feel a queasiness in her stomach.

“We understand this is sudden and hard to believe, but please take a seat and try to understand,” Dr. Ishanvi said as she gestured to the couch.

Ayla noticed that Jeremy and Dr. Ishanvi kept glancing at the locket she was wearingm, but she was so perplexed at how HER locket was found inside a tomb in Egypt. There simply was not an explanation that her already scrambled mind could come up with, except that the FBI had to be mistaken.

There was a short moment of silence, then Jeremy cleared his throat and began in a rushed, excited tone “When we found the tomb in Egypt, we initially believed the tomb had been discovered before by the finds of modern day items, such as your locket...” and handed a photo of the locket to Dane, which showed on the paper an exact replica of Ayla’s locket, albeit with tarnished silver and a few scratches on the surface.

“How are you sure that this locket is Ayla’s?” Dane asked.

“We traced the locket to you by the serial number on the inside behind this...” Jeremy answered and handed a picture to Ayla of the inside of the locket, showing an aged picture of Ayla and Dane smiling on the day he had proposed just last year.

Quietly, she rhetorically asked herself, “This doesn’t make any sense. How?”

“Ayla, the ‘how’ is answered in the tomb itself,” Jeremy answered. “We deciphered the hieroglyphs on the walls, but the Ancient Egyptian language could only give us a reimagining of what really happened. However, inside the coffin where we found the mummy with the locket, we also found, in English, a narrative from the mummy!” with Jeremy’s animated face radiating excitement.

Dr. Ishanvi began “The papyrus is in surprisingly excellent condition and references you, Ayla, and also you, Dane, both by name.” Dane’s mouth dropped in disbelief at the statement and she waited just a moment before continuing. “We now know the tomb had never been opened before it’s discovery last week and have come to find that the mummy is female, but interesting enough is not wholly Egyptian. The DNA we extracted shows recent admixture of African and European, DNA.” Dr. Ishanvi paused and honed in on Ayla. “Ayla, after examining the DNA, we found that you are a partial match.”

“So... you’re telling me that I’m the mummy,” scoffed Ayla.

“We’re not saying that the mummy is you Ayla. We’re saying that the mummy is your granddaughter” Dr. Ishanvi added. “And you, Dane, are the grandfather.”

Both Ayla and Dane looked at her with disbelief.

Dane, coming to his senses sooner, stood up and gestured towards the door “I’m sorry, but that’s enough. We need you both to leave.”

“We would like you to read the contents of the papyrus that was found alongside your granddaughter,” Jeremy quickly added as he pulled out a paper and handed it to Ayla and Jeremy. The contents of the papyrus read:

“It is year 44 of the Reign of Usermaatre Setepenre, who history will know as Ramesses the Great. I am Nefertari Meritmut, Queen of the Two Lands of Kemet, Lands of the Fertile Nile, Daughter of Isis, and Great Royal Wife of Ramesses. I am intimately known as Ayla, named after my grandmother who was born in a different time. My grandfather, Dane Johannessen, and grandmother, Ayla Broussard, lived in a placed called America in the 21st Century when Apophis came and devoured the world, and returned the world to dust. For six years, the ‘Dust Wars’ ravaged the survivors, until there was a mass migration through time by many nations called ‘The Great Escape.’ My grandparents used a machine that the American government created to travel through time, but had no control over their destination. My mother told me that my grandmother was pregnant with her when they used the device and that they landed in Men-Nefer, what is known as Memphis to future peoples. They were brought before the Pharoah Horemheb, where my grandmother and a researcher, later worshipped as Thoth reborn, were able to communicate with ‘The People.’ An older woman from the East came with my family and helped the Pharaohs Seti and Ramesses, my husband, build glorious temples throughout the land and introduce new weapons and methods, and the people regarded her as Nefer-Imhotep. My grandfather died when enemies, in the name of Set, from their time came and waged a war from Canaan and Syria. My grandmother was pregnant with my uncle, Heru, the same year my mother married my father, a grandson of the Pharaoh Ay. I became known as a daughter of Isis and Osiris and became the High Priestess of Amun-Ra. I became queen to Ramesses in year 2 of his reign and have lived a life that I hope Maat deems worthy of eternal life. I have only seen glimpses of the world my family came from, but I have heard much. All I have left of a time both before and after mine is my grandmother’s locket and will bring it with me to the Duat. I leave my words for future people to heed. The beginning of the end is coming. It began the second month of Shemu in year 1 of the Reign of Kamal....”

“I don’t understand. Our granddaughter wrote this three thousand years ago?” Dane questioned when he finished reading. When Ayla finished reading, the queasiness she felt earlier was gone and replaced with a tinge of fear.

“You will understand... in time,” Jeremy cryptically answered. “Shemu is the harvesting season from March to May, with April being the second month. This is Kamala’s first year in office. Your granddaughter has foretold the future, our present.”

“Well April is almost over, I don’t see how...” Ayla stopped talking when she heard horns crescendo in the distance.

Ayla, Dane, Dr. Ishanvi, and Jeremy all turned their heads quickly to the window and then to the TV when they heard the news anchor start to talk, his voice shaky with fear, and saw big bold words come onto the screen.

“BREAKING NEWS...”

“Russia, China, and North Korea have released their nuclear arsenals and, in response, we, The United States of America, have released ours. Our world as we know it, is coming to an end.”