Lights on the Nile by Donna Jo Napoli

Author:Donna Jo Napoli
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

Chapter 21

The River

Kepi didn’t know which day it happened, but one day she realized the paddle felt like an extension of her hands. Her neck and shoulders didn’t hurt anymore. Her knees had grown thick calluses. She felt strong and healthy. They traveled all day, every day, and she could do it without a problem.

With health and strength, she could look around in delight again, for they passed so many wonderful things. Lots of different kinds of wading birds. Lazy crocs. And pods of hippos. None of them attacked, which Menes said was because they didn’t mind the intrusion of the smaller boats. But just to be sure, they banged their paddles on the wooden part of the boat often so any hippos around would pop their eyes up above the water to see what was happening; that way Kepi and Menes knew where they were and could steer around them.

As they moved northward, the shores gradually grew greener, till they were thick with plants Kepi had never seen before. Still, the trees were familiar: mostly date palms and figs and sycamore figs. But they grew in clusters of many together, unlike in the south.

At night they slept in towns or in villages built into the hillsides. Kepi and Menes would carry their little boat to some house on the very edge of town, where the owner had agreed to let them lean it against a side wall. Usually they caught fish to cook in the homeowner’s outdoor fireplace and share with his family. Both of them would do chores in exchange for bread and greens and sweet, thick, porridge-like beer. Then they’d sleep outdoors under their boat, with Kepi on the outside edge, so she could peek out at the lights in the sky and say a thank-you prayer to her goddess Hathor. In the morning, Kepi and Menes would go to separate spots in the river and strip, and she washed her dress and his shenti in the river, rubbing the worst spots with stones. Then they put them on wet and let them dry on their bodies as they paddled. The sun bleached them a nice white every day. It was chilly at first—but it was worth it to be clean again.

When it was too far between towns, they slept onshore in the open. The shoreline was more and more clogged with papyrus reeds, so they had to search for open spots where they could drag the boat out onto the mud. Then Menes would pick a spot to camp, far enough from the water that the crocodiles wouldn’t bother them, but close enough that they could dash for the boat if they needed to escape a predator on land. They made huts out of palm fronds—something Kepi had been doing for years with Father, so she was adept at that. And they took turns keeping watch.

On their first night out in the open together, Kepi found a little egg attached to the underside of a milkweed leaf.

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