The Magic Pyramid

By Yusang Shim

CHAPTER 1

My name is Theo. I’m eleven years old from New York with black hair and brown eyes. There are two things I like the most, playing soccer with my friends and traveling around the world with my family.

My dad and I have just arrived in Egypt. We are waiting for a taxi from Cairo airport to our hotel. We are here because my mom won two free tickets to Egypt from her work. There was a lottery ticket drawing for its employees, and she picked the winning number! The bad thing was that there were only two tickets and there were three of us: me, dad and mom. Also, my mom was very busy with her work so she couldn’t take any break to join the trip anyway. So it was just me and my dad who came to Egypt.

I was really excited that I get to travel overseas because I didn’t get to go anywhere outside of the U.S. for years. Also, I have studied a lot about the pyramid from ancient Egypt in my social studies class, so I would love to see a real one!

CHAPTER 2

When Dad and I arrived at our hotel, we unpacked our bags and then took a shower and slept because it was late at night and I was really tired from over 10 hours of flight.

The next morning, my dad woke me up at eight o’clock and we ate an Egyptian breakfast named Ful Medammes, a traditional stew of beans which was really delicious.

After breakfast, my dad said, “Let’s buy a gift for Mom”. I spotted a souvenir shop near our hotel. We went inside and saw lots of antiques such as lamps, pots, figures of pyramids and Sphinxes, a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head of a human. Then I found a small figure of the Golden pyramid and it looked amazing so l I asked my dad if we could buy it for Mom. He agreed and we bought the Golden pyramid. The shopkeeper said the pyramid was made 2000 years ago. I said to myself “Wow it is so cool! Mom will love it!” but it was quite expensive, (poor Dad…)

CHAPTER 3

After the shopping, Dad and I joined a group tour to the Great Pyramid of Giza. The Pyramid was so huge that it was one of the seven Wonders of the World. We rode a big bus to the Pyramid which took us about an hour to get there. It wasn’t too far away from Cairo. When we entered the Pyramid, we could see many holes on the wall. The tour guide said, “There used to be specks of silver, gold, and diamonds all over the wall, but now many of them were stolen or moved to museums.”

While following the crowd, someone bumped into me and I dropped my shopping bag from the souvenir shop. “Ouch!” I said. The old man who bumped into me was very tall and had a bushy long beard, just like the wizard, Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings. He said “Sorry young man” and he helped me pick up my shopping bag for me. Just then he looked very surprised after seeing the figure of the Golden Pyramid that fell out of the bag. He seemed amazed to see my gift to Mom, and asked, “Where did you find this?”

“I bought it from a souvenir shop this morning for my Mom” I told him.

“Really? I have been looking for this all my life and finally, I found it!” he said excitedly.

Then the man kept asking me to sell it to him, but I became scared of the look on his face. He looked so shocked to see my pyramid, so I ran to my dad for help. “Dad, the old man keeps asking me to sell this to him. He talks very strangely.”

Then my dad said, “Theo, who are you talking about? Where is the old man?” I looked around but I could not see him anymore.

CHAPTER 4

Dad and I went to bed early at 9 pm. We were very tired from the long tour inside the Great Pyramid of Giza. When I got up around 1 am to go to the bathroom, I could hear the sound of something moving inside of my shopping bag. I opened up the bag and found my Golden Pyramid shaking and glowing! It was shining so bright that it almost made me blind. I was really scared and I grabbed my dad out of his bed.

Dad and I looked at the Pyramid glowing in the bag but did not know what to do. Dad said “Theo, stay away from the Pyramid. Come behind me.” He carefully picked up the bag and put his hand inside to take the Pyramid out. As soon as he touched it, it became so bright with the lights beaming out of the Pyramid. Dad and I could not see anything and we fell down to the floor, then we fainted.

I was not sure how many hours had passed but when I opened my eyes, I could see my dad lying on a stone-cold floor, not on the carpet in our hotel room. When I looked around, there were specks of silver, gold, and diamond on the wall.

“Where am I? This place looks so similar to the Great Pyramid of Giza earlier today.” I woke up my dad and he was also amazed by the surroundings. We realized we were inside a REAL pyramid. Just then I saw a man who was wearing a funny looking crown on his head, sitting on a diamond chair across the hall. He shouted something really loud that my dad I could not understand at first, but we could tell he was angry at us. A second time he shouted at us, we still couldn’t understand what he was saying, but again it seemed he was not happy to see us.

We went closer to him. The furious man said “Intruders! You shall die for entering my tomb!” He pointed his finger at us then there were thousands of monstrous mummies and skeleton soldiers marching toward us. I didn’t know where they were coming from but I knew my dad and I had to run away quickly. One of the skeletons ran toward me and it almost stabbed me with its long sword. I almost got killed.

We ran away as fast as we could but all the mummies and skeletons were chasing us like hunting dogs. After running away for ten minutes, dad and I became so exhausted. When we ran around the corner, we realized we reached the dead-end. There was nowhere to escape. “Dad, what should we do? They are going to kill us!” I said. My dad said nothing as he was so shocked and did not know what to do. Then suddenly, I could hear a loud voice from a distance. “Leave the boy alone!” and all the monsters stopped and looked where the mysterious voice came from.

CHAPTER 5

I saw the old man who bumped into me earlier at the Pyramid of Giza. He was holding a golden stick so he looked even more like Gandalf the Wizard now. He was carrying a huge bag full of something inside. “Please help us!” I asked him. Then he looked at me with a smile. Monsters were not happy to see the old man disturbing their hunting. The mad monsters raised their swords and spears, then dashed toward the old man. But he looked calm and seemed he was ready for this battle.

He pulled out a snowball from his bag and threw it to mummies and skeletons. I wondered how he could keep a snowball in his bag in Egypt where it never snows. When the snowball hit the monsters, it created a huge explosion of ice instead of fire. Then it froze all of the monsters inside the ice, and they became no threat to us. The old man approached and said “I am David the Prophet. You may remember me from the Pyramid of Giza in 2020, when I bumped into you. Now it’s 2000 years back in the same Pyramid, with the help of your magical Golden pyramid in your bag.”

I didn’t understand what David was talking about but it didn’t seem like he was lying to us. I asked him “I have no idea why this happened but please tell us. How can we go back to our hotel in 2020?”

David said “It is because of the magical pyramid. The evil Pharaoh Felix who tried to kill you with monsters can only be stopped by your magical pyramid so I need it from you to defeat him. In return, I will give you the key to the door back to where you came from.”

I didn’t have any other choice so I made a deal with him. I gave him my golden pyramid and he gave me the key. The key was made out of dark wood. David said “Thank you for the pyramid. The door to your hotel is on the second floor.” Then David turned around and walked away. He suddenly stopped and he came toward us as he forgot to give something to us. He gave us a bag and said ”There are two water balloons in this bag. Remember to throw the red water balloon to mummies and the blue one to the skeletons.” After saying this, David disappeared.

CHAPTER 6

My dad and I were desperate to go back to our hotel.

When we arrived on the second floor I said to myself “Oh no, not again!”. There were thousands of mummies on the left side and as many skeletons on the right side, waiting for us. Then I remembered the two water balloons David gave me so I opened up the bag and pulled out the balloons. First I threw the red balloon to the mummies. The balloon exploded and I could see mummies burning which was amazing. Then I threw the blue balloon to the skeletons then there was a big flood that wiped out all the skeletons.

When I reached the door I got my key out of my bag and unlocked the door but nothing happened, so I repeated locking and unlocking but still nothing happened. Suddenly the door was shining so bright and I could not see anything, and I fainted. When I opened my eyes, my dad and I were back in our hotel. My dad said “Wake up Theo, you need to pack your bag.”

“Dad, what are you talking about? How did we get back to our hotel from the ancient Pyramid?” I asked my dad. Dad did not understand what I was asking. He didn’t seem to remember the adventure we just had and David the Prophet. He said it is already our last day in Egypt and we need to go to the airport. I guessed it was just a wild dream after all. When I put my hand in my pocket, there was the wooden key that David gave me. This was not a dream! Even though I had the scariest adventure in my life, it was my best holiday trip. I thanked my mom when I got back to my home in New York for the adventure.