NEFERTITI - PARIS 2000
Nefertiti wakes up sprawled in the grass in modern Paris, France, in a small, and lovely city park. Although scared, full of adrenaline , extremely confused, she understands that the stones moved her. She does not know why, she only had 2, and presumably needed 3, but nonetheless, she clearly was moved. Panic surges as she realizes Amentohep and her daughters are not with her, but then she also understands they are probably now safe from the Amentophis and his plans to get all the stones. She uses every ounce of discipline to stuff those feelings for now, and deal with what is needed next.
She has no idea when and where in time she has landed. Nefertiti can not understand what she is seeing. It is clearly not her Egypt. It is very noisy, there are boxy metallic chariots moving very fast on strange stone paths. Noisy thunderbirds in the sky. People riding on odd skinny chariots with two wheels, magically suspended. Strange clothes, and they speak language she does not understand. The air smells very different, it stings her nose. Although trembling, she remains collected enough to hide her state as people strolling by are looking at her, and at her clothes. In her hand are the stones. She stands, puts the stones in her purse and walks towards a part of the park with less people, more trees and a pond and a curious bench inviting sitting. It is made of a metal she does not recognize, and also a stone she does not recognize, a stone that looks poured, not chiseled. She sits down to figure out what to do next. Her heart aches for her family, but she knows not to think of this now. Now is the time to access her situation and plan her next move.
Of course human nature remains much the same, whether in ancient Egypt or modern Paris, and so a young man, not a nice young man, notices the pretty female who does not fit in. Her clothes look Egyptian, maybe she is an actress in a commercial or movie. He follows her and watches her carefully. He can see she has a purse of sorts, and perhaps there is something valuable in there. Judging his moment carefully he rushes in to grab her purse, but is surprised at her fierce response and her skillfully applied painful blows. They end up on the ground fighting for possession of the purse. Human nature remaining consistent, yet another man comes over, an older man with a cane, he quickly smacks the mugger on the head with his cane, and the mugger gives up and runs off.
A queen is not raised like commoners. Starting at a very early age Nefertiti has been taught by specialists how to access human nature, how to think under stress, how to make decisions quickly, how to plan, how to protect herself, how to negotiate, what questions to ask, what to do when in doubt. Above all, she was taught how to focus her mind. She is a very sophisticated person. And Nefertiti is no ordinary queen, Nefertiti along with Cleopatra are remembered to this day!
Nefertiti has been trained to stay in the present moment, to focus on her breathing, to feel her body’s connection to the earth, to not pay attention to her fear, to see the big picture. Her body is still trembling, but otherwise she is maintaining control. Nefertiti takes a mental inventory, she still has her purse, her only clothes are now dirty, her arm hurts, and now this old man is asking questions in his incomprehensible language. She presumes he asks if she is ok, so she makes signs, smiles, and invites him to sit on the bench, as she wishes to sit so she can calm her nervous system. The man visibly relaxes when she sits down first, and he does so too.
This man, Edward Ayers, is himself recovering from the adrenalin rush of getting in a fight. He has not been called to do something like this in a very long time. He is very pleased at his unhesitating leap into action. He has not really had time to look at her, and now he does, and he is amazed. Perhaps she is an actress or a model in some kind of theatrical production. Her clothes and hairdo are meant to be Egyptian, and they have done a splendid job of it, very authentic looking. Quite amazing. He looks at her, she looks vaguely familiar. She smells unusual too, her scent is like some kind of incense or oil, he can’t quite place it. Ah, that is it, he understands now, he knows exactly who she is impersonating, it’s Nefertiti, the Egyptian Queen. She looks just like that bust he saw in the museum last summer. He looks around to see if there is a camera crew set up in the park, perhaps he can help her back to them. He smiles at her, and says “Nefertiti” to her and sees her a series of expressions flicker across her face that amaze him, what an actress indeed! First, she seems overjoyed, ecstatic even, then he sees her face get very afraid and she closes down, then she looks at him with utter and total confusion. Then she smiles, a calm smile that says Yes in any language.
Edward is an egyptologist, living in Paris, he works in association with the Louvre Museum’s Egyptian antiquities. Edward is a specialist in Egypt’s 18th dynasty, and he is deeply impressed by this woman in front of him. Just amazing what these make up artists can do nowadays. He is very impressed by the attention to the finest detail, the utter realism.
Nefertiti is completely unprepared for the man to say her name. How can this possibly happen? For a second it felt good to be recognized, then she realized perhaps this man was connected to Amentohep, and perhaps she had not escaped Amentohep’s evil after all. Is this why she was moved with only 2 stones? Is this a trap, is that why the thug had tried to steal her purse? How could that be? It made no sense. She decided that however the man knew her name must be due to something else, inexplicable for sure, but not a threat to her yet. Besides, she is an excellent judge of character, and she can sense no threat in this man. So she relaxes and smiles. After a few moments of reflecting what to do next, she reached inside her purse and pulled out a few dates left over from the feast a few hours earlier, and offered one to the man, and she started to nibble on the date while she tried to figure out what was going on. Through pantomime the man had made it known his name was pronounced Edward. They sat and ate the dates in silence, each absorbing what information they could from the other’s face. Edward could not see any camera crews about the park, and was at a loss at to what to do next. Feeling extremely awkward, he gets up to leave. She reaches out, puts her hand on his shoulder, and beckons him to sit again, a single tear rolls down her cheek. This rolling tear, it enchants him. How sweet it is. He sits down again. Then Edward’s eyes lit up, and he smiles. He stands up and gently takes Nefertiti’s hand and through various movements communicates about eating, and gently opens space for Nefertiti to join him in walking towards….well…towards what she did not know, but she had no better options.
Edward decided the actress or model must be from another country and she must be playing Nefertiti somewhere. He did not understand why she was alone, did not speak English or French, and why he was so affected by her. He decided that taking her to lunch might reveal more about her, so he made her understand he wanted to get food, and she understood. As they walked towards a cafe at the edge of the park, he was amazed by how intently Nefertiti paid attention to every detail. It occurred to him she might actually be high on a drug, something was odd about her, but he found her fascinating.
He took her to a cafe that was in an alley, it was clear she was afraid of the cars, and did not like their noise or fumes. She was clearly a foreigner, darker skin, perhaps she was out of Africa somewhere. She was quite arrestingly beautiful, perhaps that is why she ended up in the role. He helped get her seated, and then she noticed a water glass and was inspecting it quite carefully. Perhaps she was a bit touched, he could not be sure. He ordered a variety of fruits, cheeses and bread hoping something would appeal to her. Neferiti then reached into her purse and pulled out a comb, but no ordinary comb. He knew a 3,000 year old Egyptian comb when he saw it. Must be a movie prop. He asked for it, and she handed it to him. He read the inscription on the back of the comb out loud, and she just about fainted!
Nefertiti could not believe her ears when Edward spoke her language, it sounded stilted, and it did not flow, but still, she could hear he was speaking the court language! She immediately asked him how he knew these words. He looked at her with a blank face. Then she spoke very slowly, and asked him again. And then he almost fainted! Both of them looked at each other in total shock! That started a conversation that made Edward Ayers very happy for the rest of his life. She told him she was indeed Egyptian, indeed Nefertiti, and displaced in time. He looked closely at her linens, her purse, later, when at his home, the contents of her purse, and her items were genuine as far as he could tell, and he decided that this was indeed some kind of delusion, but is was fantastic, and he would play along with it until he woke up. Edward never did wake up, the dream never ended. Years went by. He mentored Nefertiti, who eventually called herself Roxanne. Edward taught her French and English. She was smart, and absorbed everything quickly. She learned that her own fame as Nefertit had lived on for 3,000 years, which perplexed her.
Edward never came up with an explanation of how a person from 3,000 years ago was here is the present, and being pragmatic, he worked with the assumption that she was indeed Nefertiti, and it was a mystery, like the existence of God, a mystery one accepts and sets aside and continues on with daily life. Nefertiti never, ever mentioned the stones or their power, and she hid them in separate spots on the first night in his apartment.
Roxanne and Edward lived in a small apartment on the Isle St. Louis, within a rocks throw of the Notre Dame Cathedral for many, many happy years. Roxanne took on western dress and hair styles, and over time adjusted to “modern” life. Through illegal means, Edward bought her fake identification papers, and eventually managed to legally adopt Roxanne. She often visited the Egyptian exhibits with Edward. She occasionally went of digs with him as well, she was of great assistance as she was able to explain the minutia of Egyptian life to his hungry mind. Tragically Edward died in an airplane accident in the year 1999. Roxanne inherited the life insurance from the plane accident and mourned the loss of her benefactor. He was the only person who knew her real story, and the only person who spoke her language. It was a real loss, and
While living in Paris, Roxanne studied magic and the occult, trying to discern what about the stones and what dangers might still exist. She knew the other stones were still out there, somewhere and it was still important to keep the stones separated. She remembered the old man, Sayuud, the storyteller. He had said the stones want to be together, they can affect events to make their coming together happen. They have a willpower of some sorts. Roxanne worried about what the stones themselves might do to her life. She studies magic, and goes with Edward to museums and digs to pick up clues as to what happened to the remaining 2 stones not in her possession, and remembereing there is a fifth stone somewhere if Sayuuds story was correct. When she left Egypt the evil bastard Amentohep only had 2 stones. This meant in theory she was safe from him, but, she was transported with just two stones, what if Amenophis showed up to get the other two stones from her? She did not know how to protect herself. She kept the stones hidden, dry, and separated from eachother.
She spent a lot of time revisiting Sayud’s story, and re-hearing it as her daughters listened, there were clearly 5 stones, but when she and her daughters found the box with the stones, there were only 4 stones in it. Where was the fifth stone? Roxanne occupied herself with these questions, traveling the world’s museums, reading the latest archaelogical publications, always focused on trying to locate the missing stones. And of course trying to find out how the stones magic worked in the first place.
Over the years she started developing some kind of psychic powers which confused her. While laying in bed at night she could hear the stones asking her for help. They explained that they had helped her, and expected to be helped in return. Nefertiti was not sure what she could do, and even if she could do something, was it a wise or safe thing to do? Another curious thing was she became aware of the presence of a man, and artist in her dreams. As far as she could determine he lived in the woods by a coast, and she felt it was California. She could almost see his face when she remembered the dreams the next morning. Who was he? Why was he in her dreams? She detected no threat, she even felt like he was a friend in her dreams, but still, what was this about?
One year, Edward tell Roxanne that he will soon be working on an exhibit that will feature the mummy of her husband, Akhenaten. He asks her if she would like to be involved in setting up the displays with him. Edward knows she could add so much authenticity to how the show is interpreted. When the day finally arrives, Edward and Roxanne go to museum to start the work. Roxanne wants to bring as much of herself, her past, her real self as she can to this visit with her husband. Much on impulse, she puts the two stones in her purse, just in case she wants to see something in the past while she is there. The exhibit set up, is an informal atmosphere where although everyone wears white gloves, the artifacts are open to the air, the objects being carefully arranged before being sealed in the hermetic glass cases. Edward points out where Akhenated is, and she asks for a moment alone with him. She makes her way over to the mummy of her very own husband, Akhenaten. She tries to keep it together, and be cool and collected, but a tear escapes her eye, rolls down her cheek and plops onto the mummy wrappings. Unknown to her, her tear damply seeps through the layers of linen wraps and touches the 5th stone her husband found and kept safely for the rest of his life fastened securely around his neck. Immediately Roxanne feels a swirling feeling and starts to faint. But, this is where her training kicks in, because, Roxanne recognizes the feeling, she knows she is about to be transported in time again, and she flings away her purse which has the 2 stones in it. Tragically, Roxanne wakes up somewhere and somewhen else…but her purse with the 2 magic stones lay on the floor in Paris 2000…
Edward who has been talking to a friend, notices Roxanne is not by Akhenaten’s mummy and goes to looks for Roxanne, fearing she might be upset. He does not know where she is, and only finds her purse on the floor. He picks it up, and contnues looking for her. A museum is a large place, and after a while he gives up, and tries calling her. Her purse buzzes, and he realizes her cell is in the purse. He also notices two curious black stones. He looks at them, and sees they have curius glyphs carved in them, the carvings are not Egyptian though. He goes around the museum and asks everyone if they have seen Roxanne, but no one saw her leave. Edward is mystified. He goes to Roxanne's apartment on the Isle St.Louis and Roxanne is not there either. He leaves food for her cats. Two days later he puts in a missing person’s report with the police. Two weeks later he takes the cats home with him. Two months later he puts her plants out on the balcony so the rain will water them. He has kept the purse, with the two rocks at his home for loves sake. The phone line went dead as the phone company would not accept his payments for it.