"Connie Willis - Death on the Nile" - читать интересную книгу автора (Willis Connie)

and Cooke’s Touring Guide to Egypt’s Antiquities, and there are half a dozen others in her luggage. Not
to mention Frommer’s Greece on $35 a Day and the Savvy Traveler’s Guide to Austria and the three or
four hundred other guidebooks she’s already read out loud to us on this trip. I toy briefly with the idea
that it’s their combined weight that’s causing the plane to yaw and careen and will shortly send us
plummeting to our deaths.

“ ‘Food, furniture, and weapons were placed in the tomb,’ ” Zoe reads, “ ‘as provi—’ ” The plane
pitches sideways. “ ‘—sions for the journey.’”

The plane lurches again, so violently Zoe nearly drops the book, but she doesn’t miss a beat. “ ‘When
King Tutankhamun’s tomb was opened,’ ” she reads, “ ‘it contained trunks full of clothing, jars of wine,
a golden boat, and a pair of sandals for walking in the sands of the afterworld.’”

My husband Neil leans over me to look out the window, but there is nothing to see. The sky is clear and
cloudless, and below us there aren’t even any waves on the water.

“ ‘In the afterworld the deceased was judged by Anubis, a god with the head of a jackal,’ ” Zoe reads, “
‘and his soul was weighed on a pair of golden scales.’ ”

I am the only one listening to her. Lissa, on the aisle, is whispering to Neil, her hand almost touching his
on the armrest. Across the aisle, next to Zoe and Egypt Made Easy, Zoe’s husband is asleep and Lissa’s
husband is staring out the other window and trying to keep his drink from spilling.

“Are you doing all right?” Neil asks Lissa solicitously.

“It’ll be exciting going with two other couples,” Neil said when he came up with the idea of our all
going to Europe together. “Lissa and her husband are lots of fun, and Zoe knows everything. It’ll be like
having our own tour guide.”

It is. Zoe herds us from country to country, reciting historical facts and exchange rates. In the Louvre, a
French tourist asked her where the Mona Lisa was. She was thrilled. “He thought we were a tour
group!” she said. “Imagine that!” Imagine that.

“ ‘Before being judged, the deceased recited his confession,’ ” Zoe reads, “ ‘a list of sins he had not
committed, such as, I have not snared the birds of the gods, I have not told lies, I have not committed
adultery.’”

Neil pats Lissa’s hand and leans over to me. “Can you trade places with Lissa?” Neil whispers to me.

I already have, I think. “We’re not supposed to,” I say, pointing at the lights above the seats. “The seat-

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 Death on the Nile

belt sign is on.” He looks at her anxiously. “She’s feeling nauseated.” So am I, I want to say, but I am
afraid that’s what this trip is all about, to get me to say something. “Okay,” I say, and unbuckle my seat
belt and change places with her. While she is crawling over Neil, the plane pitches again, and she half-
falls into his arms. He steadies her. Their eyes lock.

“ I have not taken another’s belongings,‘ ” Zoe reads. “ T have not murdered another.’”