Pick your poison

Nina

Nina had been working at the museum for a little over a month when Billy, a young man who worked in the mail room unloading the containers of incoming pieces, came into the lab pushing a large flatbed trolley.

“Good morning all,” he said to the room in general then turned toward Nina with a wide smile. “You are looking lovely as usual Miss McNeill.”

“Thank you Billy, what have you got for us today?” she asked. She knew he fancied her but he was only 19 and this was his summer job to help pay for college. There was no way she was going to encourage him any further than he already was.

“I have a little something for everyone today. A pot for Mr Cooper,” he said as he lifted a wooden box the size of a case of wine onto a table in the centre of the room.

“A book for Mrs Fitzpatrick, we think it’s a cook book, but we have been known to be wrong,” he said placing a package wrapped in brown paper beside the first.

“All the time,” Mrs Fitzpatrick answered as she stood from her desk to go and inspect her book.

“A wedding dress for Miss Wallace,” he said with a wink to the woman who looked like she had stepped out of the pages of a WWII history book. The woman in question blushed at the young man as she smiled, but stayed seated near the back of the room.

“And lastly a stone vase that looks Egyptian but is covered in carvings from a number of different time periods. Quite a paradox,” he said as he lifted the last wooden box onto the table.

“Paradox’s like that often turn out to be fakes made by fools who have no clue,” Nina said as she stood and moved toward the box. The top of the box had already been removed and the artefact lay nestled in wood shavings that were used to keep it from being damaged during transit.

“Well let’s hope it is at least and interesting fake then,” Billy said as he watched her.

“Indeed, thank you Billy, we can take it from here,” Mr Cooper told the young man briskly.

“Right you are Mr Cooper, enjoy your goodies,” Billy said as he turned the trolley and heading back out of the door letting it swing closed behind him.

Nina was sure a piece that was a mix of different civilisations and time periods couldn’t possibly be genuine, but the pull to inspect the piece was strong. She glanced back at the computer screen she had left, contemplating the work she had yet to finish on a medieval wooden and iron cross, then turned back to the box.

“Just a quick look,” she whispered to herself as she reached in to pick the piece up. As her fingers brushed it she felt something, almost an energy. Her heart seemed to stutter in her chest then began to pound. She took hold of the piece and picked it up. It looked very similar to the urns Egyptians used to hold the organs of mummified bodies, but the shape was more like a stone Goddess from the bronze period. There were symbols carved into the stone that looked too precise to be from that period, they looked to be a mix of Egyptian and Aztec, but some looked almost satanic. As she turned the piece over the head of the figure came off in her hands and she was lucky not to drop it.

“Can’t have been sealed,” she said quietly to herself as she tilted it to see if there was anything inside. Needing better light she walked over to a lamp that incorporated a large magnifying glass with the light around it. Holding the piece under it she saw there were more carving on the inside of it. The piece felt warm in her hands, almost like it was alive.

“Fascinating.”