Laura's mother smells a rat. She comes to me and says, "We have a sofa for James to sleep on, I have a bed, you and Laura have a bed, we do not have a bed for Mr. Mummy. I say, send him back to Egypt!" Meanwhile, I suspect something is not quite right. Mr. Mummy speaks perfect English! Albeit with an early 1900's accent such as the archeologist Petrie probably had, still he is speaking English!

Our large trailer was on the edge of a lake. Laura appeared with a large boat. "Remember this boat we used to have, we had a lot of fun on that boat!" I say, "Yes." But something is troubling me. It occurs to me she might take Mr. Mummy on a boating trip and then do him like they say Set did Osiris and drown him. Oh nos! We cannot afford to fly him to Egypt, we cannot afford to fly anyone to Egypt. Meanwhile, where's the Egyptian embassy in the States? And how can I get Mr. Mummy there before Laura takes him on the boating trip?

I'm scrambling about, full of panic. Meanwhile, the rest of the mummy stack, will they also come to life?

What's it all mean? I had been looking through Ebay for "Egyptian bronze, not resin", to see what I might find. I did find one non resin statue, that of Osiris. As Osiris is god of the dead, the mummy likely represents him. Laura's mother spoke words similar to what I've heard recently. When Julia saw me searching the web, she said, "Oh, no, we have no more room for any more statuary!" I do have a place for him, however. And I don't have to take food from us to house him!

But what does the red apples, the red tomatoes mean? Red is a color associated with the god Set. Set can (in addition to sending Osiris off for his annual dispatch to the underworld), give life. I was giving the 'mummy' life. Meanwhile, Laura, she was the real active agent, moisturizing the mummy. Laura, having passed in 2002, has already gone to Osiris' realm.

Annual dispatch: In our month October or November, depending on the Lunar calendar, the ancients observed the 'Rites of Khoiak', in which they made Osirus shaped corn mummies and buried them. The god Osiris was associated with vegetation, especially with germinating grain. However, for the grain to germinate, it must be planted. The planting is a sort of death. Osiris must be buried so that he can rise again. It is the cycle of birth and rebirth both on mundane as well as mythological levels.