1Jack and Annie looked out the window.

2The tree house was perched on the top of a palm tree. The tree stood with other palm trees. A patch of green surrounded by a sandy desert.

3"Meow!"

4Jack and Annie looked down.

5The black cat was sitting at the base of the tree. His yellow eyes were staring up at Jack and Annie.

6"Hi!" Annie shouted.

7"Shhh," said Jack. "Someone might hear you."

8"In the middle of the desert?" said Annie.

9The black cat stood and began walking around the tree.

10"Come back!" Annie called. She leaned out the window to see where the cat was going.

11"Oh, wow!" she said. "Look, Jack."

12Jack leaned forward and looked down.

13The cat was running away from the palm trees. Toward a giant pyramid in the desert.

14A parade was going toward the pyramid. The same parade as in the Egypt book.

15"It's the picture from the book!" said Jack.

16"What are those people doing?" asked Annie.

17Jack looked down at the Egypt book. He read the words under the picture:

18When a royal person died, a grand funeral procession took place. Family, servants, and mourners followed the coffin. The coffin was called a sarcophagus. It was pulled on a sled by four oxen.

19"Its an Egyptian funeral," said Jack. "The box is called a sar... Sar... sar... oh, forget it."

20He looked out the window again.

21Oxen, sled, Egyptians, black cat. All were moving in a slow, dreamy way.

22"I'd better make some notes about this," said Jack.

23He reached into his backpack and pulled out his notebook. Jack always kept notes.

24"Wait," said Jack. And he wrote:

25"We'd better hurry," said Annie, "if we want to see the mummy."

26She started down the rope ladder.

27Jack looked up from his notebook.

28"Mummy?" he said.

29"There's probably a mummy in that gold box," Annie called up. "We're in ancient Egypt. Remember?"

30Jack loved mummies. He put down his pencil.

31"Good-bye, Jack!" called Annie.

32"Wait!" Jack called.

33"Mummies!" Annie shouted.

34"Oh, man," said Jack weakly. "Mummies!" She sure knew how to get to him.

35Jack shoved his notebook and the Egypt book into his pack. Then he

36started down the ladder.

37When he got to the ground, he and Annie took off across the sand.

38But as they ran a strange thing happened.

39The closer they got to the parade, the harder it was to see it.

40Then suddenly it was gone. The strange parade had disappeared. Vanished.

41But the great stone pyramid was still there. Towering above them.

42Panting, Jack looked around.

43What had happened? Where were the people? The oxen? The gold box? The cat?

44"They're gone," said Annie.

45"Where did they go?" said Jack.

46"Maybe they were ghosts," said Annie.

47"Don't be silly. There's no such thing as ghosts," said Jack. "It must have

48been a mirage. "

49"A what?"

50"Mirage. It happens in the desert all the time," said Jack. "It looks like

51something's there. But it just turns out to be the sunlight reflecting through heat. "

52"How could sunlight look like people, a mummy box, and a bunch of cows?" said Annie.

53Jack frowned.

54"Ghosts," she said.

55"No way," said Jack.

56"Look!" Annie pointed at the pyramid. Near the base was the sleek black cat.

57He was standing alone. He was staring at Jack and Annie.

58"He's no mirage," said Annie.

59The cat started to slink away. He walked along the base of the pyramid and slid around a corner.

60"Where's he going?" said Jack.

61"Let's find out," said Annie.

62They dashed around the corner - just in time to see the cat disappear through a hole in the pyramid.