Р.Л. Стайн (R.L. Stine)R.L. Stine: The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (Goosebumps #5)
1
I saw the Great Pyramid and got thirsty.
Maybe it was all the sand. So dry and yellow, it seemed to stretch on forever. It even made the sky look dry.
I poked my mom in the side. "Mom, I'm really thirsty."
"Not now," she said. She had one hand up on her forehead, shielding her eyes from the bright sun as she stared up at the enormous pyramid.
Not now?
What does "not now" mean? I was thirsty. Now!
Someone bumped me from behind and apologized in a foreign language. I never dreamed when I saw the Great Pyramid there'd be so many other tourists. I guess half the people in the world decided to spend their Christmas vacation in Egypt this year.
"But, Mom — " I said. I didn't mean to whine. It was just that my throat was so dry. "I'm really thirsty."
"We won't get you a drink now," she answered, staring at the pyramid. "Stop acting like you're four. You're twelve, remember?"
"Twelve-year-olds get thirsty, too," I muttered. "All this sand in the air, it's making me gag."
"Look at the pyramid," she said, sounding a little irritated. "That's why we came here. We didn't come here to get a drink."
"But I'm choking!" I cried, gasping and holding my throat.
Okay, so I wasn't choking. I exaggerated a little, just trying to get her attention. But she pulled the brim of her straw hat down and continued to stare up at the pyramid, which shimmered in the heat.
I decided to try my dad. As usual, he was studying the handful of guidebooks he always carried everywhere. I don't think he'd even looked at the pyramid yet. He always misses everything because he always has his nose buried in a guidebook.
"Dad, I'm really thirsty," I said, whispering as if my throat were strained to get my message across.
"Wow. Do you know how wide the pyramid is?" he asked, staring at a picture of the pyramid in his book.
"I'm thirsty, Dad."
"It's thirteen acres wide, Gabe," he said, really excited. "Do you know what it's made of?"
I wanted to say Silly Putty.
He's always testing me. Whenever we go on a trip, he always asks me a million questions like that. I don't think I've ever answered one right.