Without warning, the children landed at the bottom of a tunnel with a loud thud.
“Ouch!” shouted Vinnie.
“Oomph!” cried Mandy.
They opened their eyes.
The bright light was gone.
The darkness of the tunnel was gone, too.
They both lay on the ground, not far from each other.
“Are you okay?” Vinnie called to his sister.
They had landed on the bank of a long river.
They could see ducks and geese flying by.
Men with nets and spears were fishing from boats and from land.
“Mandy?” Vinnie called to her again.
As he got up and moved closer to Mandy, Vinnie could see why she didn’t answer.
Standing in front of her was a boy about Vinnie’s age.
He was dark and slender.
“Are you the gods of the Nile?”
the boy asked, falling to his knees.
“The Nile?” Vinnie questioned.
Then he realized where they were.
“We’re in Egypt!” he shouted at Mandy.
“Please don’t hurt me,”
the strange boy cried, his voice shaking.
“No, we are not gods,” Vinnie said to the boy.
“I’m Vinnie and this is my sister, Mandy.”
The stranger wore only a short white skirt, tied with a sash around his waist.
Suddenly Vinnie looked down at himself.
That’s all he was wearing, too!
Vinnie’s face turned red.
Mandy was also dressed differently.
Her body was covered by a straight white dress.
Her feet were in sandals.
Her hair was in a long braid.
“But I saw you fall from the sky,”
said the boy, getting back up on his feet.
“We have . . . special powers,” she paused and looked at Vinnie.
He was still holding the photograph, which he stuck inside his sash.
The stranger gasped and fell to his knees again.
“Don’t worry. We’re not going to hurt you,” Mandy said kindly.
“We need your help.”
“I am Akhom,” the boy said, “and I promise to help you.”
“Thank you, Akhom,” said Mandy.
They heard voices coming toward them from the distance.
Vinnie and Mandy froze.
“Oh, those are my friends,” Akhom explained.
He held up an odd shaped ball in his hand.
“I left them to look for my ball.
Then I saw you.”
Vinnie and Mandy looked at each other.
“Please don’t tell them about us, Akhom,” they both said.
Akhom nodded. “Yes, it would be best for you to hide.
My friends are not accustomed to strangers.”
The loud shouts came nearer.
“Akhom! Are you looking for cobras again?” shouted one boy.
“Cobras?” whispered Vinnie.
Vinnie hated snakes even more than spiders.
“Cobras, hippos, crocodiles.
They’re all over the Nile,” Akhom whispered back.
“Crocodiles!” Vinnie mouthed, his eyes getting very big.
“Akhom! Where are you?” the voices shouted again .
Akhom threw the ball back to his friends.
Then he signaled to Vinnie and Mandy.
“Quickly follow me!”
Vinnie and Mandy ran after him.
Out of breath, they arrived at a small house with windows high up on the walls.
Its white surface had many cracks from the hot sun.
“Welcome to my home,” Akhom said warmly.