01 Meow!

Mummies in the Morning

1. Meow! “ It’s still here, ” said Jack. “ It looks empty, ” said Annie. Jack and his seven-year-old sister gazed up at a very tall oak tree. At the top of the tree was a tree house. Late-morning sunlight lit the woods. It was almost time for lunch. “ Shhh! ” said Jack. “ What was that noise?” “ What noise?”

“ I heard a noise, ” Jack said. He looked around. “ It sounded like someone coughing. ” “ I didn’t hear anything, ” said Annie. “ Come on. Let’s go up. ” She grabbed onto the rope ladder and started climbing. Jack tiptoed over to a clump of bushes. He pushed aside a small branch. “ Hello?” he said. “ Anybody there?” There was no answer. “ Come on! ” Annie called down. “ The tree house looks the same as it did yesterday. ” Jack still felt that someone was nearby. Could it be the person who’d put all the books in the tree house? “ Ja-ack! ” Jack gazed over the top of the bushes. Was the mysterious person watching him now? The person whose name began with M?Maybe M wanted the gold medallion back. The one Jack had found on their dinosaur adventure. Maybe M wanted the leather bookmark back. The one from the castle book.

There was an M on the medallion. And an M on the bookmark. But what did M stand for? “ Tomorrow I’ll bring everything back, ” Jack said loudly. A breeze swept through the woods. The leaves rattled. “ Come on! ” called Annie. Jack went back to the big oak tree. He grabbed onto the rope ladder and climbed up. At the top he crawled through a hole in the wooden floor. He tossed down his backpack and pushed his glasses into place. “ Hmmm. Which book is it going to be today?” said Annie. She was looking at the books scattered around the tree house. Annie picked up the book about castles.

“ Hey, this isn’t wet anymore, ” she said. “ Let me see. ” Jack took the book from her. He was amazed. It looked fine. Yesterday it had gotten soaked in a castle moat. The castle book had taken Jack and Annie back to the time of knights. Jack silently thanked the mysterious knight who had rescued them. “ Watch out! ” warned Annie. She waved a dinosaur book in Jack’s face. “ Put that away, ” said Jack. The day before yesterday the dinosaur book had taken them to the time of dinosaurs. Jack silently thanked the Pteranodon who had saved him from a Tyrannosaurus rex. Annie put the dinosaur book back with the other books. Then she gasped. “ Wow, ” she whispered. “ Look at this. ” She held up a book about ancient Egypt. Jack caught his breath. He took the book from her. A green silk bookmark stuck out of it.