Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Spooky Stories (Awesome Friendly Kid Book 3) Read online

  like balloons. Robbie's dad had to go to the

  emergency room to get a shot, which made

  it hard for Robbie to enjoy his ice cream.

  When Robbie got home he noticed a small

  chocolate stain on his crisp white shirt,

  and the whole thing started up again.

  137

  A long time ago in Ancient Egypt

  there lived a pharaoh named Mekh. And

  when Mekh died the royal priests and

  priestesses wrapped his body to prepare

  it for the afterlife.

  But a few thousand years later some

  archaeologists from another country

  discovered Mekh's pyramid and took his

  sarcophagus with them.

  138

  When Mekh woke up he was disappointed

  to find out that he was in a museum and

  not in the afterlife like he'd expected.

  On top of that they didn't even put his

  sarcophagus in a nice spot.

  So Mekh was ANGRY. And he used his

  mummy powers to make a big mess of

  things in the museum.

  139

  But even after Mekh destroyed the

  museum he wasn't satisfied. So he went

  outside and that's where he REALLY did

  some damage.

  That night Mekh was all over the news

  for wrecking the city.

  140

  Mekh was just getting started though.

  He went from country to country

  destroying everything in his path, and

  wherever he went he made headlines.

  141

  But after a while Mekh ran out of things

  to destroy and people started losing

  interest anyway.

  Eventually Mekh settled down a little and

  tried to get used to living in the modern

  world. And even though he would've

  rather been in the afterlife he had to

  admit that television was a pretty great

  invention.

  142

  One night Mekh was watching the news

  and there was a story about how some

  archaeologists made a new discovery in

  Egypt. They found the tomb of Khaba,

  a pharaoh who lived a few thousand

  years ago.

  Well at first Mekh started getting angry

  because this brought back memories of

  what happened to HIM. But after a few

  minutes of deep breathing he was able to

  calm down.

  People were excited about this new

  discovery because Khaba's tomb was

  really glitzy and full of treasures.

  143

  But everyone was nervous when they

  opened Khaba's sarcophagus because

  no one wanted a repeat of the Mekh

  situation.

  Things were different this time around

  though. First of all Khaba was MUCH

  better preserved than Mekh. And Mekh

  was kind of annoyed when the people on

  the news kept pointing that out.

  144

  When Khaba stepped out of his tomb he

  didn't just start randomly destroying

  things. In fact he seemed curious about

  the modern world and everything in it.

  145

  Khaba started appearing on morning talk

  shows and before long he was everyone's

  favorite mummy. And Mekh never would've

  admitted he was jealous but he was.

  In fact Khaba was so popular that people

  started making all sorts of mummy

  merchandise and used his image without

  asking permission.

  146

  So Khaba hired a slick lawyer and before

  long all that stuff was shut down. But

  then Khaba's lawyer took it a step

  further.

  His lawyer trademarked "The Mummy"

  which made it so that Khaba was the only

  one who could use the name. And then

  she made a big announcement about it in

  front of the TV cameras.

  Well this really ticked off Mekh, who

  didn't think it was right that Khaba could

  do that. Plus Mekh was annoyed that he

  didn't think of it FIRST.

  147

  After a while Khaba had his own

  fashion line and kids' cereal and even

  a major motion picture in the works.

  And everywhere Mekh went there was

  Khaba's face.

  148

  Mekh thought it was time for HIM to

  cash in on this mummy craze too. So

  he started calling himself "The Original

  Mummy" and he put a few ads out there.

  But a few weeks later Mekh got a letter

  from Khaba's lawyer threatening to sue

  him for everything he owned unless he

  took down the ads.

  149

  But this just made Mekh MAD. Maybe

  not as mad as when he used to go around

  destroying cities with his mummy powers

  but still pretty mad.

  So Mekh hired a lawyer of his OWN and

  sued Khaba to try and stop him from

  calling himself The Mummy since Mekh

  was famous first. And it was a huge trial

  and everyone watched it on TV.

  Well Mekh didn't have a lot of money so

  his lawyer wasn't as slick as Khaba's. And

  when the trial ended the judge ruled that

  Khaba was the winner.

  150

  Mekh had to agree that he'd never use

  the name The Original Mummy or The

  Classic Mummy or anything like that.

  In fact all he was allowed to do was call

  himself "a mummy" in lowercase letters.

  For a while Mekh tried to make some

  money by calling himself "a mummy" but

  you really can't make any money with a

  name like that.

  151

  Mekh started working at an amusement

  park for Fright Nights in October. But

  it wasn't that much fun because it was a

  lot harder to scare people these days.

  Mekh still wasn't giving up though. He

  started calling himself The Dead Pharaoh

  to get around the court agreement

  but it turns out there was already a

  professional wrestler with that name

  and Mekh just ended up back in court.

  152

  Things were great for Khaba for a

  few years but after a while the whole

  mummy act got stale and people

  stopped going to his movies.

  Eventually he got into comedy but he

  made a few stinkers and that was the

  end of his film career.

  153

  Then someone claimed they found a big

  toe in a box of Mummy Flakes and Khaba

  got sued for a million dollars.

  And even though it turned out the

  person who sued him made the whole

  thing up, nobody would buy any food

  products with the word "mummy" on

  them after that.

  Soon Khaba's money started to dry up

  and he couldn't afford the fancy lifestyle

  he was used to. After a while he had to sell

  his private jet and his three mansions at a

  discount.

  154

  Things got even worse when his wife left

  him and took half his money.

  Khaba finally hit rock bottom when he

  had to sell his own sarcophagus.<
br />
  But things started to turn around for

  Khaba when he ran into his old archenemy

  Mekh, who was working as a food bagger

  at the grocery store.

  155

  The two mummies got to talking and

  it turned out they had a lot more in

  common than they thought. Khaba and

  Mekh became friends and after a while

  Khaba moved into Mekh's apartment.

  And even though they didn't always get

  along as roommates, the one thing they

  agreed on was that television really was

  a pretty great invention.

  157

  There was once a boy named Victor, and

  Victor was not a happy child.

  This was a long time ago, before video

  games and TV and all that. So the only

  thing that Victor had to entertain himself

  with were books. And since his parents

  were both doctors, the only kinds of books

  they kept in the house were ones about

  science and medicine and stuff like that.

  The other thing that made Victor sad

  was that his parents wouldn't let him

  have a pet. They told Victor he wasn't

  responsible enough to take care of an

  animal and that they'd end up doing all

  the work.

  158

  And even when Victor promised he'd feed

  his pet and take it outside three times a

  day the answer was always "no."

  The only thing that really made Victor

  happy was school. He was a smart kid

  from reading his parents' books, and his

  science teacher said if he studied hard

  he'd be famous for his work one day.

  So when it was time for the middle school

  Science Fair, Victor was really excited.

  159

  He worked for a whole month on his

  project and he hoped it was good enough

  to win first place.

  But Lizzie Leggot won with a volcano

  project that Victor was sure her

  parents had helped her with.

  So Lizzie walked away with a first place

  ribbon and all Victor got was a lousy

  honorable mention certificate.

  160

  From that moment on all Victor could

  think about was NEXT year's Science

  Fair. He read his parents' books from

  front to back, trying to come up

  with an idea for a new project, but he

  couldn't think of anything that would

  really knock people's socks off.

  One day when Victor was looking out

  his back window at the cemetery behind

  his house he got an idea. To be honest it

  was kind of a TWISTED idea, but Victor

  knew if he could pull it off, his project

  would win first place in the Science Fair

  for SURE.

  161

  Victor did experiments in his attic every

  night to get ready for the Science Fair.

  His parents thought he was spending

  too much time by himself and wondered

  if maybe they should've let him have a

  pet after all.

  One year later it was finally time for

  the big Science Fair, and Victor brought

  his project with him to school.

  162

  And if you want to know where Victor

  got the materials for his science project,

  let's just say sometimes it's better not

  to ask too many questions.

  Even though Victor had been working

  on his project for a whole year he didn't

  know if it was gonna actually WORK. But

  he knew if it didn't he'd lose to Lizzie

  Leggot for the second year in a row.

  So when the judges gathered around his

  project, Victor crossed his fingers and

  threw the switch.

  163

  All of Victor's hard work paid off when

  his creation came to life. And this time

  Victor got the first place ribbon and

  Lizzie was the one who had to settle for

  honorable mention.

  164

  On the walk home, Victor was feeling

  pretty good about himself. But he kind

  of wished he'd thought about what was

  gonna happen after the Science Fair was

  OVER because now he didn't know what

  he was supposed to do with his project.

  Victor thought maybe he could ditch his

  creation at the cemetery but his science

  project wouldn't take the hint.

  165

  Victor picked a stick off the ground and

  chucked it over the cemetery gate. But

  his creation thought it was a GAME and

  brought the stick right back.

  Then Victor started having FUN with

  his science project, and the two of them

  played for hours outside. And Victor

  found out the thing his creation liked the

  most was to have his belly rubbed.

  166

  Victor told his parents about his first

  place ribbon at the Science Fair and they

  were very proud of their son. And even

  though they were a little concerned about

  where Victor got the materials for his

  project, they knew that sometimes it's

  better not to ask too many questions.

  Victor asked if he could keep his science

  project as a pet, and after he promised

  to feed it and take it out three times a

  day they finally gave in and said "yes."

  From that day on Victor and his new pet

  were the best of friends and they never