Memoirs of the Pharaohs

Jenny lost her words. Several times she opened her mouth but nothing came out. She wasn’t sure how to ask the question that was burning on her mind. “Why are you trying to follow in his footsteps?”

Sally turned to Jenny and almost screamed at her. "I'm not trying! I have no choice!" A look of shock crossed her face and she turned away ashamed. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shout at you. I know you're trying to help." Tear were falling down her face again.

“No need to be sorry.” A small smile appeared on her face, not in a mocking  way but because for once she could remember a memory, just after she ran into her dad and Dirk and she shouted at mark. Surprisingly her dad ran away. “You can scream and shout until you are hoarse if it helps you. I’m not going anywhere.” She pulled Sally into her arms. “Why do you think you have no choice but be like your father?”

"I... I don't want to scream at you," said Sally. She rested her head on Jenny's shoulder, holding her tight as if she was a rock in a stormy sea.

"Because... my only way out was stolen from me. School was awful, the other kids tormented me, especially this group of boys. But I stuck with it. I knew, if I did well enough, use my smarts, I could go to some university where they didn;t know me, and move on up from there."

"But when it came to my last final exam, so close to escape, one of those boys accused me of cheated. It wasn't just a random shout, they'd gone as far as to plant evidence. The teachers didn't believe my innocence. Daughter of a supervillain, possibly a post-human, I was the scum of the earth to them. And they assumed that I must have cheated on my other exams too. All my work, all my effort, torn up in front of me in moments. No matter how much I appealed, they wouldn't accept I hadn't cheated."

"I.. used to be shy, quiet, tried not to be noticed, or run away when the bullies came. But this time I confronted them. I asked them why they had done it. And they told me 'because they thought it would be funny'. They ruined my life for a joke."

“ You don’t have to scream but I just meant if it helps it won’t scare me. I don’t think that means you have to be like your father but that you got hurt badly and it is normal to be angry about that. Even to do things that aren’t right or noble. I’ll do anything to clear your name and… I want to give you a family and we have a little girl together. You want to get back at those guys, I’m right there next to you. You want to forget about it, fine I will forget it. But I learned that you can’t dwell on the past, put it in a pocket and carry it with you learn from it, and become stronger from it but don’t let it weigh you down. I won’t force you to meet my dad, I ask you not to deny Sekhmet her grandfather, and to give him a chance one day. Yes dad will worry that you have further motives to be with me but in the end he listens to his little girl and do whatever I ask him to do.” Jenny was worried she was saying the wrong thing. “Where is your mom now?”

"But what else could I do?" asked Sally. "I had no education and no one trusted me. All I could get were crappy jobs working on broken down cars and racing bikes. As for those boys..." a twisted smiles crossed her face. "I already got back at them. They ruined my life, I ruined theirs."

She glanced towards the gazebo curtains. "But... it is... different now... maybe. I have you, and Sekhmet. Maybe things could get better." She looked down. "I have no idea where Mother is. I don;t care."

“I don’t know yet… we will think about it. Odd that you were working on racing bikes while I was racing them. Wouldn’t it be funny if we had met before?”

Jenny followed Sally’s gaze. “It is different you have two girls that adore you! We make sure it will get better. Okay… your mom not in the picture. Got that.”

Jenny kissed Sally on the cheek. “Are we good? Anything else you need to talk about?”

Sally managed to smile. "I really doubt that ever happened. It's still a big world." She squeezed Jenny's hand. "Thanks for listening. I've never told anyone before. I... I think that's all." She was blushing a little after the kiss.

Jenny nodded. "If you change your mind I'm here. And you know at least you have the memeories of before your father got taken. I am trying to find mine, but I get nothing than splitting headaches and my powers are not healing those."

Jenny looked outside the gazeboo wondering how their daughter that didn't seem to be the most patient girl suddenly was so quiet and waited for her moms to talk about stuff. "Is it just me or does the world out there seem a bit quiet?"

"Maybe... I could do something to help," suggested Sally. "And yeah, it has gone quiet... very quiet.." she sounded worried.

Jenny sighed. "Be my guest, poke around in my head but don't get angry if I don't get my hopes up. I had a few times now but each time I crashed badly and it is getting harder to get up again."

Jenny sat up straighter. "Sekhmet? Where are you, kiddo?"

Sally shook her head. "Only if you want me to. I.. don;t want to hurt you."

"I'm right here Mama!" came Sekhmet's voice. "Why can;t I come in?"

Jenny looked at Sally. “I know you don’t hurt me on purpose if you poke my brain, but honestly if you have an idea of how I can remember just one memory from before I’d take any splitting headache.”

Jenny chuckled. “You weren’t able to come in because your Mommy and I made sweet love, nothing for little girls to see. Are you ready for our adventure?”

"I'll... have a think.  I want to be sure it won't cause any problems," said Sally.

Sekhmet looked a little confused.  "I thought you fell in love.  How do you make love?"

Sally gave Jenny a light slap on the back of the head.  "Stop corrupting our daughter!"

“What?! I thought it sounded very nice and flowery. I definitely can’t say what I do have in my mind of what we did.” Jenny grinned cheeky and took her daughters hand. She looked at Sekhmet and tried to figure out how she could feel the girl’s pyro powers. “Hey Sekhmet -we got to find you a nickname I don’t even know how to spell your name- can you feel my fire?”

"Not flowering enough for the little one," said Sally.

"It's easy to spell! S-E-K-H-M-E-T!" grinned Sekhmet. "And, I can if i con... concen... conc-y... think really hard!"

“So we grown up cuddled, that better?”

“Yeah we find you a nickname, my spelling is pretty bad. Don’t think too hard I don’t want you to set fire to anything accidently…” Jenny was thinking about her times she learned to use her powers. What she found out her memories were false, sort of turned upside down anything positive went negative of human feelings but the way her powers developed was sort of right. “Is it easier if I think about you, how much I love you?”

"I guess that works," said Sally.

"I haven't done that in AGES Mama!" Sekhmet insisted. "And... I dunno! But I know you love me Mommy!"

"We have to try and feel the fire of each other more clearly."

They reached the hall where the Great Kahn was waiting and their things for the journey were neatly piled up. It was a large pile of things.

"So Kahn here we are." Jenny said in her funny fake pharaoh voice.

"Okay Mama!" smiled Sekhmet as she skipped along beside Jenny.

"So I see," said the Khan, looking curiously at the large pile of luggage, which was currently being loaded into a chariot with no wheels or horses.

"This is a lot of stuff... How long did we say we are gone?" Jenny starred at the chariot. "We won't get far in those."  She mumbled she didn't let go of Sekhmet's hand. Yes she thought after this battle their time could be over and to take Sekhmet with them back home she had to be there when they left but that meant the little girl also had to be there during a raiders attack.

"Sekhmet? The fire you create how strong is it? I mean can you use it to defend yourself?"

"I... don't recall," said Sally, heading to the chariot. "There must be more to it..." she murmured looking over it.

"I think so! You got me to practice a lot!" grinned Sekhmet. "I wanna help you beat the badguys!"

Jenny chuckled she had a girlfriend that was dying to know how a chariot worked and a daughter that had a huge sense of justice, or a slight tendency to enjoy the adrenaline rush of danger.

"Good. But I want you to stay close to either your Mommy or me. Now I start to understand why dad constantly makes me wear those shield belts. Sally can you pull yourself away from the inventions so that we can go?" Jenny smiled, she loved watching Sally figure out how something worked. "Let's go shall we?"

"I'll do that Mama. What are shield belts?" asked Sekhmet.

"I think this invention is HOW we go," said Sally. She pushed a button and the chariot started raising in the air.

“I hope with time I can show you what they are.” Jenny jumped back when the chariot rose. “Pretty sure this is weird. But sure that’s how we go.”

Jenny smiled and pulled Sally into the chariot. “Question is do I let you drive, the one that never drove before or… shall I see how quick this thing can go? Maybe we find a babysitter for an hour and we get to fulfil your fantasy?”