I slept really well that night, but was woken up by the sounds of someone getting ready. I lifted myself up, eyes squinted and still sleepy as I looked around.
"Do I need to wakeup too?" I asked, still drunk with sleep.
Atem turned around, looking surprised that I was awake. "No," he said as he walked over to me. "You can go back to bed. I will send the maids to wake you up and get ready in a couple hours." He kissed my forehead when he reached me, making me smile.
"Kay," I simply said before collapsing onto the bed again.
Atem let out a short laugh before messing up my already messed up hair and walking off.
It took me a couple moments to fall back asleep, especially since I had no pillow now. Since that headrest looked totally uncomfortable, I had used Atem's chest as a pillow all night. Now I had nothing.
But nonetheless, I eventually fell back asleep, curled up in a ball on Atem's massive bed.
By the time a couple hours passed, I was completely knocked out. I didn't even hear the maids come into the room and I think they were shaking me for some time before my eyes actually opened.
"Wah–"
"Wake up, May!" Siti said as she continued to shake me.
"The Pharaoh gave us permission to shake you awake. He warned us that we might have difficulty waking you up," Kiki said, standing beside Siti. "We hope you don't mind."
I lifted myself up, shaking my head. "No, I don't–"
I cut myself off when Nauni started tugging on the blankets. I panicked, suddenly completely awake.
"Wait!"
Nauni hesitated. "What's wrong?"
I was naked.
And I know these girls had seen me naked before... but this was a different kind of naked. This was a kind of naked that meant the you know what happened the night before.
I felt my cheeks warm up, "how about I meet you girls outside?"
Aat laughed as the other girls looked at each other.
"We have no time for that!" Nauni said with a laugh as she tugged the covers completely off of me while I squealed in embarrassment.
Aat then handed me a robe. "Here!" she said. "There's no need to be embarrassed."
I bit my lip and held the robe in front of me before sighing and putting the robe on me.
They led me to the same bathroom that I was in the night before. I used the toilet, which was so weird. I'm pretty sure it'd be better to not share the details of that experience... though I had to admit to myself that I'd be using a very strange stone toilet like thing for a while now.
It felt odd not to actually properly brush my teeth. The maids gave me this strange mouthwash and that was about it. I mean, I felt fresh and all but something felt weird about not brushing my teeth in the morning with a toothbrush.
Immediately after that, I had expected to go straight to the relaxing bathtub.
But no.
They sat me down on a seat, still uncomfortably naked might I add, and began waxing away pretty much all my body hair.
I was not new to waxing but dear lord! They got me pretty much everywhere! Everywhere except my private areas... though I would have imagined that the private areas would have been the most important part.
When I asked them why they chose not to do that part, they simply said that little girls are the ones who don't have hair there. Hair down there is a symbol of my 'woman-hood.'
And that was interesting... seeing how that was not a perspective that was shared back at home.
Anyhow, after all the painful waxing, I took a bath... which gave me a lot of time to think about what was going on.
To be completely honest with myself... I still didn't really think I was actually getting married to Atem. No matter how much I tried to convince myself that it was real... at least in the sense that there was actually some sort of ceremony that was going to happen for Atem and I... I still couldn't believe it.
In some aspects, this all felt like a crazy dream. I felt like I was going to wake up in my bedroom very soon. In my bedroom, back at home, with Neferkiti probably beside me. But then again, Neferkiti spent most of her time with Atem so she probably wouldn't be there when I woke up.
But could you really blame me though?
This was all so weird.
I was in Ancient Egypt.
This was crazy.
While deep in thought, I sighed loudly, worrying my new maid friends. But despite their worry, they dressed me up in a really soft, but thin white dress and covered me in jewelry. I had on bracelets, anklets, armbands, necklaces, earrings and even this crazy, awesome looking headdress that was covered in beads.
After they put on that heavy headdress was when I decided to finally ask what a marriage in Egypt was like. What was the ceremony? What were the traditions? What was I supposed to do?
But to my surprise, just as I opened my mouth to ask, Atem's mother came into the room.
The maids, of course, bowed very low and left the room when his mother told them that she would handle the rest.
Whatever that meant.
Atem's mom then proceeded to silently adjust my makeup and silently fix everything up.
Obviously, I had grown to really like Atem's mother. She was really friendly and had a calm smile. But despite that, being in her presence made me feel nervous.
Finally, after a couple minutes, she stepped back and smiled. "You look lovely."
I smiled back at her, and seeing her looking so pleased made me feel relieved. "So how does it work here?" I asked. "What does a marriage look like?"
"My son wanted it to be very simple since we are leaving to Memphis this evening. So it will simply be a series of prayers and the acceptance of a marriage contract," she said. "Maybe once the war is over and settled, a much grander celebration can be arranged."
I laughed at that... but to be honest, I was glad that it was going to be so simple. Especially since I had yet to wrap my head around this entire situation.
"You do not..." she started, "you do not seem particularly excited, my dear."
Oops.
She caught me.
"Are you not interested in marrying my son?"
Obviously, she wasn't sounding mean or anything like that. And I think that even though she was asking the question, she already knew the answer.
I think she just wanted me to say it out loud.
So I did.
"I haven't completely started to believe that all of this is real yet," I said, honestly. "It's all so strange to me... and that's why I'm acting like this. It just doesn't seem real."
She nodded her head slowly, "Mmm."
"Of course, I love Atem. There's nothing wrong with him at all."
She smiled again. "Good... I am glad to hear that." She then took my hand, surprising me. "I have a present for you."
My eyebrows rose, "oh, I–"
"Akhenatem told me about that necklace he took from you. The one with the Ankh. The one that belonged to your aunty."
"Well, he didn't take it from me. I gave it to him."
She nodded. "And I understand that there is some magic associated with it? He mentioned that it stopped his nightmares when he was in your world."
I nodded.
"He also told me that you don't want to take it back... that you wanted him to keep it."
I nodded again. That was true... I felt that it would do more good to him than to me.
She then smiled, and before I realized it, she slipped a big ring onto the thumb my left hand. It was a simple, gold ring that looked like a band. There was nothing grand or extravagant about it, but still, I was surprised, and looked at her in shock.
"Like that necklace of yours, this is a memento of a loved one. My husband, to be exact."
My eyes widened, "I can't–"
She held her hand up, silencing me.
"I think my husband would have considered it an honor to meet you, young lady. You were the first person who was ever able to get to him, emotionally, since he passed away... he would have loved to meet you."
Awww... that was really sweet.
To be honest... I would have loved to meet him too. Everyone always says such good things about him.
"And that is why I want to give this ring to you," she continued. "My husband had this ring made when Akhenatem, his first son, was born. It was, in a sense, made to honor his birth and so I feel like giving it to you would be something that would have made my husband happy... since you saved our son."
I still thought it was crazy that everyone thought I saved Atem. But I was so touched by everything she said that I just smiled.
I really did wish now that I had gotten a chance to meet Atem's father. He was clearly a good person who died to early.
Just like Aunty Maya.
And at that very moment, I realized something.
For a long time, I always thought that Atem and I were such different people. Two whole different people who miraculously managed to fall in love.
But now I realized something.
We had both lost someone who was really important to us... someone who shaped who I was and someone who was supposed to shape who Atem was.
And realizing that made me appreciate all of this even more.
After accepting her gift, Atem's mother took me outside the palace and we were both carried to the temple in one of those litter things.
It was surprisingly much scarier than I imagined it to be.
When we got there, to the same temple where Lord Hepu cast a spell on me to understand Egyptian, I noticed that Atem was already there.
He didn't say anything to me aside from, "did you sleep well?" And immediately after that the ceremony began.
Like both Atem and his mother had said, it was very simple.
All I did was stand there and listen to prayers said by Lord Hepu. After that, he recited what I believed was the contract that Atem's mother had mentioned. It consisted of the typical things you would imagine came with marriage, like watch over one another and never betray each other and so on and so forth.
After those reasonable terms were recited, both Atem and I accepted them.
And that was it.
That was the wedding.
The only people who came were all the court members and a couple rich looking people that I never met.
But the small number of people who came had gifts that they gave to Atem and I. They were almost all jewelry, and every single one of them apologized for such a simple gift, saying that it was because this was all last minute.
I stayed quiet for the most part, but Atem told everyone it was fine.
And literally, maybe twenty minutes later, everyone left... promising for grander gifts when we have the amazing celebration after everything has returned to normal.
Immediately after that, Atem took my hand and led me out of the temple. He continued not to speak to me, probably deep in thought about something.
I noticed though, that we were being followed by the rest of the court, as well as Atem's mother.
"Where are we going now?" I asked.
Just then, Atem let go of my hand as a guard brought him a horse. "To the boat."
"The boat?"
He didn't continue to elaborate though. Instead, he grabbed me by the waist and made me gasp as he lifted me onto the horse, seating me sideways.
Never in my life had I ever sat on a horse before, so as soon as Atem got on behind me, I was clinging onto him for my dear life. "What–"
The horse stepped forward.
I gasped and closed my eyes for just a moment, but eventually, I opened them again, realizing it wasn't that bad. We weren't going that fast. So it was all fine.
Very soon after, we reached the Nile River. When we got off the horse, I gasped and rushed towards the river.
It was beautiful... and huge.
And though it was still day out, the sun was moving closer to the horizon to set and the reflection in the river was absolutely beautiful.
Oh god, did I wish I had my phone. This would have been a beautiful photo.
When Atem walked over to me, he patted my head. "It's more beautiful than anything you've ever seen, isn't it?"
I couldn't lie about that. "Yeah. There's definitely nothing like this in Oakville."
He smiled. "We're going to Memphis," Atem suddenly clarified for me.
"Me too?"
He nodded. "I will leave you in the palace at Memphis before we march out to the Delta. If the People of the Sea are coming, then that is where they will come."
I frowned. "I see... How long will it take to get there?"
"Normally it would take about two weeks. But we've decided to take multiple small boats instead of one large one since that will make them move faster. And we've also increased the crew numbers along with both the sails and the oars so that we can get there in a week."
"A week... on a boat."
"We're going a far distance, May."
I nodded. "Well, at least you're not leaving me behind."
"I considered that... but I felt that I would be more comfortable with the thought of you being under the protection of my brother rather than here alone."
"Oh! I'm going to meet your brother?"
He nodded.
Now I was excited.
I get to meet another one of Atem's family members.
"We're leaving tonight, right?" I asked, looking over at the multiple, medium sized boats.
"Yes."
"Wow... this is so crazy."
He smiled. "Another thing... after all of this is over, you will have to be coroneted–"
"Oh my god."
He laughed.
"How does it feel to be my husband?" I asked, looking at him with a smirk.
He shrugged. "There's nothing different about it. How does it feel to being my wife?"
I grimaced when he said the word 'wife," which made him roll his eyes. But then I laughed. "It's weird. But I can deal with it."
He rolled his eyes again, but then put an arm around my shoulder. He shook me a little as he spoke, "you look beautiful, by the way."
I looked up at him and grinned, "thanks. The maids waxed my entire body."
Atem chuckled, "did they?"
I nodded. "It hurt. A lot."
"Well, you're an Egyptian woman now, so you have to deal with it. Egyptian women wax their entire bodies all the time."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Though I had to admit, it felt nice to be called an Egyptian woman. Like I'd joined a club or something.
He then leaned over and kissed the side of my head. "Let's get going."
I nodded before he guided me towards the boats.
First a marriage.
Now a trip.
I guess it was time for an adventure.
This was all definitely something I was never going to forget. Ever.
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