ELTHAM HIGH SCHOOL ANTHOLOGY   

The morning is quiet and peaceful. Sand scattered across the uneven bricks in my little room. The sun is low in the sky and is putting a soft golden glow across my rippled brown covers. The usual bell rang just as it did every morning, warning me to get up.

 

I hate working for the pharaoh. His mean commands and bossy personality lead me to pain and confusion. Work is hard but is nothing to what I must face today.

 

Just as I opened my door at six o clock this morning I was confronted by my slave ally, Nehi."Are you ready to die" he said. Sighing I had said yes but now I realised I was wrong. I carried on to the pharaoh's dead body far away, hidden deep inside the pyramids of Egypt. Dark thoughts reeled around my head as I prepared myself for my fate. My wife had died long ago and I guess I'm glad that she wasn’t the one to live alone in misery. She lived a calm life. We lived a clam life out on the farm before I was dragged away to sit and scrub the pharaohs feet. Nehi said it's an honour to be killed alongside the pharaoh but I am afraid. I guess I have reached the great age of 19 so I have lived a long life. Imagine if one day in the future, we could live to 100. Na, that would never happen.

 

I must think of the positives even though I am sure that being slaughtered with an axe is not a positive, at least not for me. Mabey the pharaoh won't be taken to the gods and I will. I might meet my wife. Doubt it though.

 

I had nearly reached the pyramid by lunch, were there pharaoh lay in eternal sleep. The sun is beating down. My feet are in agony. The hot, yellow sand burned me so I had to move quickly. Something was biting me so I stopped and bent down. The next 2seconds after that were incredibly painful. The guard grabbed his batten and smashed it into my ribs. Coughing I got up and continued walking.

 

As I reached the pyramid alongside Nehi I was given a slight bit of grace. I turned around soaking up the last photo my home. The vast sand hills. The golden ball in the sky. The rows of huts splatted along the sky line. The pyramids that were hand crafted over long days of work and finally the flowing Nile, a sign that the pharaoh had made it to the afterlife. I took a breath and stepped inside.

 

I felt hot and clammy as the names of the slaves were called to be killed. My heart pumped loudly inside of my chest as they called my name. "Mhira nyams" I stepped up onto the platform and sat down remembering the hard work, long hours and painful days I once had to face. I am still here writing the final chapter in my life. I'm scared. I'm cold. I'm ready to die.

"Goodbye Nahi" see you soon.