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For Raucher: "THE MUMMY'S CURSE"
 Author: slimv June 20, 2001 at 17:09:03 
    No, its not finished! I've got to go to dinner. I think I'll call this story:

THE MUMMY'S CURSE

Kelly shook her head in disgust as her mother lit another cigarette. She should be used to it. After all she grew up in a thick cloud of second hand smoke. But this wasn’t her parent’s house. This was hers and Jeff’s house.
Her mom had come to live with them after her dad died from lung cancer. That had been three months ago. Before she moved in, Kelly told her that she couldn’t smoke in the house. That rule lasted all of five minutes.
Kelly grimaced as her mother coughed and thumped her chest. An ash fell from her cigarette onto the carpet. How could she keep smoking after seeing what it had done to her father?
How many times had she begged her mother to stop? What did her mother always tell her? Her mother told her that she didn’t understand. She told her that she was too addicted to quit. She knew her mother smoked a lot, but she was floored when her mother confessed to a four pack a day habit. Four packs a day! That’s 80 cigarettes! And to top it off, she started when she was 12! She was 58 now. Kelly doubted she’d reach 60.
Kelly heard the front door open. “Honey, is that you?” she asked.
Jeff appeared in the doorway, his tie loosened with brief case in hand. “Hey Kelly. Hey Doris. What’s for dinner?” he asked.

Doris waved to her cigarette at her son in-law and told him
that she didn’t know but she was getting hungry.

“I didn’t make any thing”, said Kelly. “I thought you were going to work late tonight.”
“I was” said Jeff. “But I decided to take it home with me. You have to see this Honey”, he said as put his brief case on the coffee table and opened it. “We got it today. I wanted to take it home before Hank saw it.”
Both women stared with polite curiosity as Jeff held what appeared to be a four inch gold cockroach. “Our boys found it in a Cairo dig last week.”
Neither woman was impressed. Jeff was always bringing home Egyptian artifacts from work. “What is it?” asked Kelly.
“It’s a scarab,” he said as he examined it closer. “It has some inscriptions, but I haven’t finished the translations yet. Its really like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I’ve seen some pictures of something similar, but this is much more ornate and detailed. If its what I think it is, then its really neat.”

Kelly pretended to look interested while her mother lit
another cigarette.

“If this is what I think it is,” continued Jeff, “it will change every thing about Egyptology. I mean every one knows Egyptians believed in life after death. That’s why we thought they into mummification, but if I’m right, then that’s only half of it. I think the pharos used this scarab to escape death. When their bodies were old or diseased, they used this scarab to trade bodies with some one younger and in better health. And if I’m right, the mummification was just an act of gratitude. After all, it was still their body, and I’m sure they must have been sentimental toward it.”
Doris was intrigued. She opened her mouth to speak but coughed instead. “Does it really work?” she asked.
“Mom,” said Kelly. “Don’t be a dope. Its just superstition.”
“I wouldn’t be so quick to pass it off,” said Jeff. “If the Pharos really believed in this bug, then they’d know if the body exchange actually happened. Other wise, it would be pretty stupid for them to keep up the charade. Either they were faking it or something was really happening, or maybe they were still working out the bugs- no pun intended”.

“Can I hold it?” asked Doris.

Jeff handed the scarab to his mother in-law and sat down
beside his wife and began telling her about his day.

Doris clutched the burning Winston between her lips so she could use both hands to examine the golden insect. Wouldn’t it be wonderful she thought? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be young again?

The old woman’s eyes rolled up in her head and she dropped
the scarab to the floor as she fainted.

“Oh my God!” screamed Jeff as he jumped from the couch. “Call 911 Kelly. I think you’re mom just had a heart attack.”
Jeff picked the burning cigarette off the carpet and put it in the ashtray. He cradled the old woman’s head. She was still breathing. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Kelly hadn’t moved from the couch. She was still sitting there with a dazed look on her face.
“Come on Kelly!” yelled Jeff. “Call 911!”
“I’m not Kelly,” said his wife. “I’m Doris.”
Jeff felt as if his heart stopped. “That’s not funny,” he said.
The old woman opened her eyes and looked at Jeff as Kelly gave the 911 dispatcher their address. “What happened Honey,” she asked.”
“You fainted Doris. How do you feel?” asked Jeff.
The old woman laughed, but when she did her chest hurt and she coughed. “You called me Doris. Maybe you’re the one who needs a doctor.”
“I always call you Doris. What do you want me to call you?”
Kelly hung up the phone and knelt by her daughter and Jeff. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I don’t know how this happened. I don’t know what I did.”
The old woman said nothing as she stared at her self. “Mom, is that you?”
“What’s gotten in to you two?” asked Jeff. This couldn’t be happening, but he more than any one knew that it was. He just didn’t want to believe.
“The scarab worked,” said Kelly who was really Doris. “I need a cigarette.”
Jeff stared at his mother in-law in his wife’s body as she lit a Winston. He had never seen his wife smoke. But this wasn’t his wife. “Kelly, what are you doing? You don’t smoke.”
The woman in his wife’s body coughed as the smoke introduced it self to her virgin lungs. “I told you I’m not Kelly. I’m Doris.”
“Mom!” shouted the old woman. “Put that cigarette out! That’s my body, and I want it back!”
“Sorry about that” said Doris as she stubbed out the cigarette with her daughter’s young fingers. “I forgot you don’t smoke.” And then she laughed.
“What’s so funny?” asked Kelly as she got to her feet. “I don’t see any thing funny about this? This is awful. Every thing about this is awful. I feel rotten. My God Mom, is this what you feel like every day?”
Doris smiled. “You haven’t had a cigarette for at least 15 minutes. I’ve never gone that long without getting sick.”
The paramedics let them selves in. In all the confusion, Jeff had forgotten they had been called.

“What seems to be the trouble?” asked one of them.

“Nothing,” said Jeff. “I mean, I thought my mother in-law fainted, but I was wrong. She was just sleeping.”
“Well, we better check things out while we’re here,” said one of them as held a stethoscope to Kelly’s chest. “Take some deep breaths for me” he said.
“Do you smoke a lot Maim?” he asked.
“No, of course not,” said Kelly. “I don’t smoke at all.”
“Its OK. You can be honest with me. I’m just trying to help and I can tell by the sound of your lungs and the smell that you smoke.”

“She smokes four packs a day”, said Doris.

The paramedic shook his head. “That’s an awful lot Maim. You know you really should quit?”

Kelly didn’t answer him and the paramedic performed a few
more simple tests and put away his gear.

“I don’t see any thing too serious,” said the paramedic, “But I’d have her regular doctor check her out tomorrow. You folks have a good day. And you young lady, try to cut down on that smoking.”

Kelly shook her head as Jeff showed them to the door.

“You want a cigarette?” asked Doris as she offered the pack
of Winstons to her daughter?”

“Oh Mom, what’s happened to me?” cried Kelly.

“You’re having nicotine withdrawals Honey. Smoke a cigarette. It will make you feel better. I promise.”
Jeff stood in the doorway and watched as his wife lit her mother’s cigarette. But that wasn’t what was happening. It was the other way around. Was this really happening?
Kelly felt her mother’s lungs rattle as they struggled to accept the smoke, but it really wasn’t a struggle was it? She looked at the cigarette between her mother’s yellowed fingers and began to cry. “Wish it back Mom! Wish it back!”
Three hours later, nothing had changed. Doris was still Kelly and Kelly was still Doris. Kelly was chain smoking in a vain attempt to satisfy her mother’s cravings for nicotine. Doris was sneaking out side for quick sneaky smokes in an attempt to satisfy her lingering mental addiction to the weed. Her daughter would kill her if she caught her smoking in her body. Why was she doing this to her self? Why was she doing this to her daughter? This body didn’t belong to her and she had no right to ruin it with tobacco. She had no right to addict her daughter’s body to these foul but so sweet cigarettes.
“What if we can’t change back?” asked Kelly. “What will we do?”
Jeff looked at the old woman beside him medicating her self with poisonous but terribly sexy cigarettes. What was he thinking? There was nothing sexy about a 58 year old woman smoking her self to death, or was there? The stiffness in his groin begged to differ as he found him self-lighting his wife’s cigarette.
“I’m tired,” said Kelly. “I want to go to bed. “Will you sleep with me?” she asked.
Jeff smiled at his wife and stood up, taking her by the hand. “This is really weird,” he said.
“Don’t forget to take an ashtray,” said Doris. “You’ll need one.”

“Thanks Mom,” said Kelly.”

Jeff sat on the bed and tried to make sense of what was
happening as Kelly took the make-up off her mother’s face.

“So what do you think?” asked Kelly.

“You look great Doris, I mean Kelly. Oh God, what am I saying. I’m sorry Honey. I didn’t mean that. Oh you know what I mean.
How many times had he wondered what Kelly’s mom would be like in bed? As he looked at his wife standing before him in her mother’s body, he knew the time for wondering was over.
Kelly climbed in to bed beside her husband and dutifully lit another Winston. “I’m sorry,” she said. “This must be as bad for you as it is for me. I can’t imagine what this must be like for you. And the smoking. How can you stand it? I wish I didn’t have to do this but I get so sick if I don’t smoke.”
“Its OK” said Jeff. “Really. We’ll get through this. It’s not forever. I still love you. I’ll always love you”.
When Jeff told her that he loved her, Kelly forgot where she was. She saw her husband’s young strong 25 year old body and she wanted him. She forgot she was holding a lit cigarette. She forgot that the tongue in her mouth was like so much smoked wet meat as she kissed her husband.
Jeff tried to convince him self that he wasn’t kissing Doris. He was kissing Kelly his wife, but the taste of her kiss sent him reeling. He had never kissed a smoker before and this was beyond his imagination. How would he describe this sensation to Kelly if she asked? Would he tell her that he liked it? He did, didn’t he? He kissed her deeply and tasted the four packs of burnt tobacco on Doris’s tongue. This was heaven, he thought.
Kelly felt her husband’s hands as they traveled across her mother’s sagging breasts. She was excited and fought to catch her breath. She wondered if what they were about to do was wrong. If it wasn’t wrong then was it wrong to be this excited? As horny as she was, she needed another cigarette.

“You must think I’m awful”, she said as grappled with the
lighter.

“Does it make you feel better?” he asked as he stroked his
mother in-law’s thigh.

(Got to eat dinner - I’ll write more later)
    
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