The Lost Treasure of Cairo
by Samuel Jahangir

The story begins April 25^th, 1960. Today is young Sean Tyker’s birthday, as a matter of fact, his 8^th birthday. As promised, his parents took Sean to Cairo for his interest in Egypt. They planned this trip two years ago. Sean’s wits saved him from his adventure in Chicago. Sean’s skin is the color of mocha chocolate, his hair is as black as a raven. Sean may have been short, but had a heart and soul of gold. The trip was interesting, but what happened before Sean took the plane home is the real treat. 

Sean Tyker pleaded, “Can I travel alone, pleas-s-s-s-s-se?”

 His parents replied, “Okay, but if you do not make it back tonight, we will call the police. Here is some money, for your food and if you want to buy something.” Sean bids farewell to his parents and sets off.  He then thinks if there is any adventure in this neck of the woods. It so happens that Sean Tyker, at the age of seven, foiled a crime boss on his trip in Chicago.  As Sean walks the burning streets of Cairo, he walks past dehydrated food, vegetables on fire, and bottles of evaporated water.  

As Sean walks through Cairo, he sees a little interesting shop. As curious as he is, he checks it out. All he finds is little trinkets, bottle of sand, and illegal drugs, wait, illegal drugs ! Sean knew it was drugs, opium, of a matter of fact, but last time he saw the drug was in Chicago with the crime boss, Aaron. As Sean looked for the owner and the crabmeat, which was thrown out to hide the drugs, he finds the crabmeat stuffed and crunched into the garbage can. Sean looks around and did not see the owner anywhere. 

            Sean quickly examines the place for more clues upon this mystery. Suddenly, he hears a crash nearby. His heart started to beat quickly, he started to twitch as a mouse,  then sweat a flood. He later finds out a cat knocked down the garbage can with crabmeat. 

            Sean replies, “ Silly cat, he must have been frightened of me and …… hold on a minute. There is a door under here.” Sean was right, indeed, but his curiosity is going to change this adventure. Lets just hope it will change it for the better.

            Sean then goes inside the trapdoor, only to hear the ringleader tell his men, “ If anyone finds us out, throw them into the desert with the snakes.”

“Snakes,” gulped Sean as he stared at the portly, familiar looking ringleader. As Sean sneaks out of the hideout, a dark figure came out of the darkness and caught Sean and yelled, “ Hey Aaron, I have found a kid snooping around.” Aaron, Sean thought, can it be, but he was arrested in Chicago.

When Sean saw the boss, he knew it was Aaron from Chicago because of scar under his right eye. Which was given to Aaron from Sean’s adventure in Chicago. Aaron also knew that it was Sean and happily stated, “ Well, well, well. Why, is that Tyker, Sean Tyker, the one who ruined my opium business Chicago. Now I have you, and you cannot ruin my business. Take him away men.” Sean tells himself, “In two hours, I will be thrown in the desert, with snakes.”

When the time comes for Sean to be thrown into the desert, Aaron walks into Sean’s prison and bids him farewell. Then a dark figure puts a blindfold on Sean’s eyes. Suddenly, he is hurled into the back of Aaron’s jeep. The driver muttering, “I hope we find the treasure of the richest pharaoh, but where can it be. We thought we found it, but it was a diversion. All this thinking is making me tired. I might as well turn on the radio.”

 The driver turns the radio on to hear, “Urgent, County Zoo was having a swap with a zoo in Chicago, wolf escaped, if found please call 1-800-ANIZOO, this is a recording, created April 25, 1960.” The driver turns the radio off as he nears his destination. Then the driver tosses Sean out of the vehicle, bids farewell, and zooms off to Cairo.

            Sean quickly takes off the blindfold and sets off to find Cairo. Sean walks towards the direction the car zoomed, or at least where he thought was.  Thinking he is close to the place, Sean sprints as fast he could. When passing the tall, sandy plateau, all Sean saw was sand filling the landscape. As he slides down the plateau, he hears a hiss nearby.

Sean searches everywhere, but does not see anything, but sand. He then turns around and sights a snake. He runs away from the snake, but it hunted him down. He then fell when trying to climb the plateau. Now what is Sean going to do ?

           Sean exclaimed, “Yikes!” Sean was face to face with a full grown, poisonous desert serpent. Sean stared at the snake, which he thought was his demise. All Sean wanted was to survive this encounter. He looked around, but had nowhere to turn. He could not even find a way to stop the snake. Is this the end of Sean Tyker, our young hero, or will he make it through this?

             Suddenly, out from the sand dunes, came a silver wolf. As if a silver bullet, the wolf pounced onto the snake, making a fight for Sean’s life. Then, as if it was magic, the wolf kills the snake with a single slash. Sean praised the wolf, which he named Rover. As they started to trot through the desert, a shady rider appeared from the darkness.

            Sean asked the rider, “Where is Cairo?”

The rider replied, “I also am lost in the desert, but travel alone.” Sean bids the strange man farewell and leaves the rider away. The rider telling himself, “Is the prophecy true, and if it is, I better get Aaron.” Sean believing the worst has past, but how wrong he was cannot be put on paper.

As Sean sights a cave he happily blurts out, “At least we can spend time in a cave.”

“Or can you,” said a figure in the darkness. As the figure walked out of the shadow, Sean knew it is the rider of the desert. The rider then tells Sean, “Aaron will be here soon, so you might as well give…………....” Before the rider could finish, Rover attacks the rider. After a while, Sean and Rover triumphantly set off to Cairo. While thinking of the victory in the cave, Sean wonders how the wolf listens and commands to humans so well.

             Suddenly, a wall appears out of the sand. On the wall is a strange story. On the first box showed a boy with a wolf. The next box shows that the boy and wolf shared a bond. Then the wolf went on the boy shoulders and touched the eyes of the snake above the story. That was the entire story.

            Sean then asked Rover, “Lets go touch that eye Rover.” As if it was magic, Rover jumps onto Sean’s shoulders and touches the eye of the snake. Rover then jumps off Sean to the ground. Suddenly, Sean and Rover were hearing a crack.

            All of the sudden, the wall slid upwards and inside was treasure beyond belief. Then Sean knew that the treasure was the treasure the driver was talking about. Before Sean could say anything, Aaron ambushed them.

Aaron then said, “Thank you, and take them away.” Suddenly, another door opened and Sean ran with Rover as fast as he can. After some time, Sean and Rover made it into another one of Aaron’s base. As Sean ran for the door, Aaron caught him and said, “No where to go”

 “That is where you are wrong,” replied Sean. All of a sudden, Rover jumps onto Aaron and bites him. Then Sean sprints for the door, but to find out that they are in the middle of the desert.

              As Sean and Rover walk through the desert, Sean says, “I never had a pet, too bad. I love animals in every aspect, except cleaning.” Suddenly, a group of jeeps appear. Inside the jeeps were Aaron’s men and the treasure. Then out of nowhere Sean is put unconscious.

              When Sean woke up, he found himself with Aaron. Meanwhile, the radio said, “Sean Tyker is declared missing, supposed to be with the crime boss, who goes by the alias of ‘Aaron’ and has also escaped jail in Chicago. In other news, the missing wolf has a tracking beacon, and the police are now in pursuit of the animal.”

 Suddenly, the radio turned off as the jeep increased speed. Sean turned around to see the police in pursuit the jeep. Sean turns toward Aaron, just to see Aaron jump out of the jeep and into a door buried in sand. Suddenly, the jeeps were surrounded and Aaron’s men gave up. The police tried opening the door Aaron went through, but the door was sealed. Sean showed where the bases were. Sean knew that some of Aaron’s men escaped, but at least he stopped Aaron’s operation in two places.

Sean was glad that he saw his parents again. The entire city gave a party in his honor. Sean found out that the wolf belonged to the zoo, but the zoo let him keep the animal, with his parents’ permission. When he asked his parents, they could not refuse such an offer. The treasure was later put into Cairo’s museum. When time came for Sean to leave, he felt uneasy that Aaron was still out of jail.

             As Sean went on the plane to go back, everyone cheered and bid Sean farewell. Sean, his parents, and Cairo thought Aaron will be gone for a while. Sean went straight to sleep with Rover on his lap, grinning the entire time. Meanwhile in Cairo, a shadowy figure says, “This is just the beginning, Sean Tyker.”

Samuel Jahangir, age 11 +, March, 2004, Illinois, USA