Read Online Mummy by Caroline B. Cooney - Free Book Online Page A

and a grocery bag was bulging with treats, two kinds of chips sticking out the top. Nobody had much to say.
    Jack drove to the museum, coming up the side street that faced the mansion. The other big, old houses once built in this neighborhood had been torn down a half century ago, and apartment buildings six or eight stories high had taken their place. There was not nearly enough parking for the residents. Street parking was difficult to find. Early in the afternoon, Donovan, who after much pleading and fibbing had managed to borrow his father’s car for a short time, had circled the block over and over till a space opened up.
    When Jack and the girls arrived in the van, Donovan pulled out, and Jack slid neatly into the space Donovan had been holding for them.
    Emlyn could not parallel park She could not imagine parallel parking a van as huge as this, where you could use only side mirrors. “Good work,” she said to Jack.
    “The work is all yours, Em. Good luck.” He had food, drinks, his car phone, and some homework. He would be lying down on the carpeted floor of the van, invisible to the world, waiting for Emlyn and a mummy.
    Donovan would take his dad’s car back and hope it passed inspection. Any new-looking scratch or ding would be charged to Donovan. Then Donovan would catch a bus and come back to join Jack.
    Lovell, Maris, and Emlyn climbed out of the van. Maris wore a corduroy jumper and looked thin and romantic, the high, squishy collar of her shirt showing off her slender throat. Lovell wore bright pink tights and a very pink, very large, very long sweater. Nobody could miss Lovell.
    The three girls walked toward the impressive front entrance. A guard stood on the top of a retaining wall, his boots touching the flowers in their last bloom. He watched traffic, the two museum parking lots, and every person who came and went. There was no expression on his face. He paid no more attention to the girls than he did to the pigeons.
    Emlyn used her Friends’ card while Lovell and Maris paid to get in.
    “We’re here to see the film,” said Lovell to the woman at the desk. Sunday afternoons the museum showed foreign films.
    “That won’t start for half an hour,” the woman said pleasantly. “You’ve time for a quick browse in the museum. Have you seen the current exhibit? On loan from Chicago? Early American oil portraits! It’s quite wonderful. Here’s a brochure.”
    “Oh, thank you!” said Lovell. “Early American oils! Wow.”
    The girls laughed and fell against each other and went on into Dinosaurs.
    “They still don’t have a tyrannosaurus rex,” said Maris sadly. “There’s only so much joy you can get out of a brontosaurus.”
    The guard had been leaning against the wall, but now he stood tall and walked toward them. “Hi,” said Lovell, looking very pink. “We’re here for the film. Are we headed the right way?”
    He nodded and pointed.
    He didn’t look familiar to Emlyn, but it wouldn’t have mattered much; he didn’t really see her. Lovell and Maris were taking up all the space and interest. The guard had not come over because they looked suspicious. He came because they looked adorable.
    Emlyn felt safe in her dull, middle-aged gray. And then, unexpectedly, a tremor shot from ankle to jaw, and her body quivered and ached. A little cry came out of her, and Lovell turned to look, while Maris talked more loudly to the guard.
    Emlyn imagined him holding her against the wall, calling real police officers, being searched, handcuffed, placed in the backseat of a squad car, the way they showed on television, the officer’s palm pushing her head down and in. She imagined the police showing up at the restaurant where her parents and their friends were lingering over coffee.
    A twitch took over her kneecap, as if parts of her body wanted out. My bones are panicking, she thought. I have to stop considering right thing, wrong thing, and think meaningless . Just bones. I’m here for a bag of