A Prophecy Fulfilled

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It was the hour before sunrise when I trudged into the gloomy soothsayer's lair. "So, you have returned", whispered a voice which seeped from the darkness.

I sat next to the old woman who was barely visable through the layers of black shawls she wore to keep out the chilly air.

"And did my prophecy come true?", she continued.

"Yes it did," I quietly replied, "Egypt was incredible! During the flight home, I was reading the works of Herodotus, the world's first historian, whose thoughts about Egypt are as true today as when he wrote them over 2,500 years ago - 'nowhere are there so many marvellous things, nor in the whole world beside are there to be seen so many things of unspeakable greatness.'

"But," she broke in, "you have questions without answers."

"Yes," I continued, "how can a civilization that was a supreme power for over 3000 years just disappear so completely? How come modern Egyptian society cannot replicate the achievements of the ancients - were these achievements due to organisation, loyalty, discipline, faith? My feeble intellect cannot comprehend such considerable concepts. O wise one, do you possess such knowledge?"

She again whispered, "Yes, but of it I shall not speak, for in time you will also know the answer."

I responded in a quizzical tone, "Perhaps you can speak of where my next travels will take me?"

"Unfortunately," she dejectedly said, "I have no tea leaves to do further readings - you should return another time."

"Thank you." I replied, and with that I left the lair as the first light of a new day illuminated the sky...

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