Ninette

More than three thousand years before the birth of Christ, Nenet, the beautiful girl, stood amidst crowds of people to witness the execution of her father, who was a temple guard. This came after the discovery of the disappearance of the king's necklace, which was made by the high priests of the temple as a gift to the gods for the king. Her father was accused of stealing and burning it. The sentence for his crime was being thrown to the crocodiles. The guards carried him and threw him while he looked at his daughter Nenet, who believed in his innocence. Nenet screamed loudly, proclaiming her father's innocence, but no one heard her. She objected to the king's judgment. As a result, Nenet was imprisoned. Her imprisonment did not sadden her as much as her sorrow for her young children and her helpless mother who couldn't work. That's the story Nenet told me. My name is Taha, 35 years old. I live in a humble house in one of the villages in Luxor Governorate, which I inherited from my grandparents. I live alone after the death of my parents in an accident while they were traveling to Cairo over ten years ago. I used to hear a girl screaming during my sleep. At first, I would wake up in panic, but many elders explained to me that this phenomenon was just nightmares. So, it became a normal thing that didn't bother me. I work as a tour guide and often visit the temples to welcome and guide tourists. Since a young age, I learned to drink alcohol and took advantage of tourists in many ways, such as exploiting them financially in contracts with hotels, boats, and restaurants. I would buy hashish and alcohol for them at inflated prices. There were also some deals involving selling fake statues, and some of them involved fraudulent practices, selling them for thousands of dollars. One day, after returning home, I found a beautiful foreign girl sitting on the doorstep of my house. She was one of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen in my life. Her name was Bryana, a British national who spoke English but couldn't speak Arabic fluently. I thought she was one of the groups I had met that day, but her beauty was striking. I don't remember seeing her before. When I approached the house, I found out that she wasn't waiting for me. I asked her why she was sitting like that and what she wanted. As I looked up, I saw a large white eagle standing on the rooftop of the house. She said she had seen this eagle and followed it until it stopped at this spot. Ninette, that girl, when she pleaded to the goddess for help in revealing her father's innocence. She knew the true thief was a priest from the temple. However, she kept her knowledge hidden because accusing the temple priests was considered a crime against the goddess, and their testimony was not taken into account. The priest stood behind the prison walls, listening to her plea to the goddess, and he sensed the danger she posed to him. When the prison door opened for her, a white eagle entered, carrying her and flying out of the prison. His image was depicted behind the goddess (Nekhbet), the eagle of power and protection. The priest didn't know where Ninette had gone. I opened the house to Berenice and let her in. I brought her a glass of juice, and she started talking to me, saying that she loves Egyptian artifacts and that she came to Egypt to visit the temples, as she does every year since she used to come with her parents when she was young. She claimed to have Egyptian roots that extended to her ancestors, as her father told her. We had a beautiful day, and I went out with her to visit the city at night. She called a taxi driver and we entered restaurants and bought many things. She profited from it that day, and at the end of the day, she confessed to me that she knew about the financial exploitation I had been doing to her. I felt embarrassed about myself and at the end of the day, she asked me to go with her to her house. After we arrived at the house late at night, Berenice noticed a small piece hanging around my neck with a string (a necklace). When she asked me about it, I told her that my father had given it to me, and it was handed down to him from my grandfather. He said it was a gift from one of the members of an expedition that came to Egypt to explore tombs and temples in the 1940s. I tried to sell it several times, but something strange always happened before completing the sale, and I believed it was a curse, as my father had guessed. The piece represented the goddess Nekhbet. We sat outside the house, and she took out her phone and said that she loves Umm Kulthum's songs and that she knows how to sing along with them. She started singing the song, and she looked at me. I found myself singing along with her. She told me that she had always wished since she was young to marry an Egyptian man and live with him in Egypt. I told her that I also wished since I was young to marry a foreign girl but hoped to live with her outside of Egypt. We carried on the conversation in a joking manner.