The Egypt kids, who had left a question for Oracle of
Thoth to answer the day before, gather at the alley and enter Egypt together. April
takes charge, directing the children to put on their costumes and sit around the Oracle.
She then begins the ceremony.
April, as the "high
priestess," introduces Ken, who is playing the "famous general" Horemheb, to the Oracle.
It is Ken who is to have left the question, and he has supposedly been "fasting in a
holy cell" while he has been waiting for an answer. April then burns some "twisted paper
logs" in the "sacred fire-bowl," and leads a procession around the grotto, but then
approaches the altar alone where Thoth sits with the slip of paper containing the
question Ken has asked in its beak. Everyone chants while April takes the paper from
Thoth's beak and reads it. As she reads it she frowns, then turns to the others and
demands, "Who's the wise guy?" On the paper, Ken had asked if he will be "a big league
star someday," and to April's surprise, there is an answer on the back of the paper,
written in an unfamiliar hand. As the children do not really believe that the Oracle is
real, April naturally suspects that one of them must have written the response, but
everyone denies doing it. Melanie suggests that they try the whole thing again, and
watch each other very carefully to determine which of them is the culprit, and everyone
agrees. April is chosen to leave the next question with Thoth, and she writes her query
on a piece of paper and has Toby place it in Thoth's
beak.
As the ceremony concludes, there is the sound of
thunder, and the Egypt kids run outside. It begins to rain (Chapter
17).
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