I could not speak, so overwhelmed was I with horror at the thought of deceiving the mother and father who trusted me. But Nefernefernefer half closed her eyes and murmured, “Take my head between your hands-touch my breast with your lips-for there is something about you that makes me weak, Sinuhe, so that I forget my own advantage where you are concerned. All day I will take my pleasure with you if you will make over your father’s property to me, however little it may be worth.”
I took her head between my hands, and it was smooth and small, filling me with fever unspeakable.
“So be it,” I said, and my voice grated on my own ears.
But when I would have approached her, she said, “You shall enter into the realm that is already yours-but first seek out a law scribe to prepare the appointed documents, for I do not trust men’s promises, and I must guard my reputation.”
I left her to send for a scribe, and each step away from her was torment. I urged him to hasten, and when all was done, I pressed my father’s seal on the paper and signed it with his name. But when I returned, the servants told me that Nefernefernefer was sleeping, and I had to wait until late evening for her to wake. At last she received me, took the scribe’s receipt, and slipped it carelessly into the black casket.
“You are obstinate, Sinuhe, but I am a woman of honor and always keep my promises. Take what you have come for.”
She lay upon the bed and opened her embrace, but took no pleasure in me. She turned her head aside to look at herself in the mirror, yawning behind her hands, so that the delight I sought was turned to ashes.
When I arose from her couch, she said, “You have had what you wanted, Sinuhe; now go, for you are very wearisome. Another day you may return, but you have no doubt had all you want.”
I was like the shell of a blown egg as I staggered home. I desired to be at peace in a dark room, to bury my head in my hands and give vent to my misery in weeping. But on the veranda sat a stranger wearing a braided wig and a Syrian robe of many colors. He greeted me haughtily and said he had come to consult me as a physician.
“I do not receive patients any more,” I told him, “for the house is no longer mine.”
“I have evil swellings on my feet,” he said, and he mixed Syrian words with his speech. “Your intelligent slave Kaptah recommended your skill in treating such swellings. Relieve me from my torment and you shall not regret it.”
So stubborn was he that at length I led him into, my room and called to Kaptah for hot water to wash my hands. There was no reply, but not until I examined the feet of the Syrian, did I recognize Kaptah’s own gnarled and spavined joints. My slave plucked off his wig and burst into roars of laughter.
“What mummery is this?” I exclaimed, and I thrashed him till his laughter turned to howls. When I had thrown the stick aside, he said, “Since I am no longer your slave but the slave of another, I may safely tell you that I think of making my escape and therefore wished to discover whether you would know me in this dress.”
I reminded him of the punishments that threaten runaway slaves and told him that he was certain to be recaptured sooner or later, for what had he to live on? But he replied, “Last night, having drunk much beer, I had a dream. You, lord, lay in a burning furnace, but I came to you with stern words and lifting you by the scruff of the neck plunged you into flowing water that carried you away. I have since been to the market to ask an interpreter of dreams what this means. He said that my master is in danger and has a long journey before him and that I for my boldness should come by many blows. This dream is true, for one need but see your face, lord, to know that you stand in great peril. The blows I have had already-therefore the end of the dream also must be true. For this reason I have disguised myself, for I am resolved to go with you upon your journey.”
“Your loyalty moves me, Kaptah,” I said and strove to sound mocking. “It may well be that a long journey lies before me, but if so it is to the House of Death, where you will scarcely follow me.”
“Tomorrow is hidden,” was Kaptah’s pert retort. “You are young and green as an unlicked calf, and I dare not let you set forth alone upon the troubled journey to the House of Death and the Western Land. Like enough I shall come with you to help you with my experience, for my heart is bound to you despite your foolishness. Though doubtless I have begotten many children in my time, yet I have never seen any of them and so have a whim to think of you as my son. By this I mean no offense; I seek merely to express my affection for you.”
This was carrying insolence too far, but I had not heart enough to thrash him, and he was no longer my slave. I shut myself into my room and covered my head and slept like the dead until morning, for there is no narcotic like shame and remorse if they be deep enough. Yet when at last I awoke, the first things I remembered were the eyes of Nefernefernefer and her body, and I seemed to hold her smooth head in my hands and feel her bosom against mine. I washed, dressed, and anointed my face to go to her.
2
Nefernefernefer received me in her garden beside the lotus pool. Her eyes were clear and gay and greener than the waters of the Nile.
When she saw me she cried, “O Sinuhe! So you have come back-then I am perhaps not yet so old and ugly. What do you want?”
I looked at her as a starveling looks at bread until she tilted her head in displeasure.
“Sinuhe, Sinuhe-again? I live alone, indeed, but I am no contemptible woman, and I must guard my reputation.”
“Yesterday I made over to you all my father’s property; and he is now a poor man, though formerly a respected physician. Being blind, he must beg bread in his old age while my mother must wash the linen of others.”
“Yesterday was yesterday, and today is today.” Her eyes narrowed. ‘“But I am not extortionate. You may sit beside me and hold my hand. I am happy today and would at least share my heart’s gladness with you, if no other pleasure.”
She laughed mischievously and stroked her belly with a light hand. “You do not ask why my heart is glad today, but I will tell you. You must know that a distinguished man from the Lower Kingdom has arrived in the city, and he brings with him a golden bowl of nearly a hundred deben weight, upon which are engraved many beautiful and diverting pictures. He is old, certainly, and so thin that his old shanks will chafe me, yet I believe that in the morning that bowl will adorn my house.”
She feigned a deep sigh when I made no answer and sat with her dreamy gaze on the lotuses and the other flowers in that garden. Then slowly slipping off her robe, she stepped down into the pool. Her head rose from the water beside a lotus flower, and she was more fair than all the lotuses. Floating before me with her hands behind her head, she said, “You are silent today, Sinuhe! Surely it is not I who have unwittingly wounded you? I would gladly make amends if I could.”
I answered in spite of myself, “You know well enough what it is I want, Nefernefernefer.”
“Your face is flushed, and I can see the blood pulsing at your temples. Would it not be well to lay aside your robe and step down into the pool here with me to cool yourself this hot day? None can see us here, so do not hesitate.”
I stripped and stepped down into the pool, and my side touched hers. But when I would have held her, she evaded me, laughing and splashing water into my face.
“I understand what you want, Sinuhe, though I am too bashful to look at you. But first you must give me a present, for you know that I am not a woman to be despised.”
I shouted in my wrath, “Are you mad? You know you have robbed me of everything! I am ashamed and dare never again look my parents in the face. But I am still a physician, and my name is written in the Book of Life. Perhaps I may yet earn enough to give you a present worthy of you. Have pity on me now, for even in the water I burn as in fire and bite my hand till the blood flows when I look at you.”