"Mads!"
Madison's older brother was calling her over. He had the big dumb grin that he always had when he wanted to show her some ugly bug or some other thing he knew would gross her out.
She walked over to the display where he was standing. She was enjoying her time in the museum. It was air-conditioned and much less crowded than the streets of Cairo. She was also drawn to the contents of the galleries. The details of Egyptian history didn't interest her much, but the beauty of the objects collected did. She was hoping she could get some versions of the jewelry at the gift store.
Madison rolled her eyes as she walked over to Carter. He was standing by a statue of a man and a woman in the same style as the hundreds of other pharaohs that they had already seen at the museum.
"Read this." He pointed, still grinning.
Madison found the English text: "Pharaoh Amenhotep II and his sister-wife Tiaa. It was common for the pharaoh to marry his eldest sister. They were the parents of Thutmose IV."
"Barf." She mimed vomiting. "They can't really have married their own brothers."
"Yep." He smirked. "If I was the Pharaoh you and I would have to get married."
"Ew. Don't even joke about it. That's disgusting."
She turned and walked away from him. Knowing that behind her Carter was smiling. His permanent mission in life was to find things that would annoy her, and he had once again succeeded.
.....
The museum was the second day of their family trip to Egypt. There were eight of them travelling together. Her brother, her mom, her stepfather Paul, her twin stepbrothers, and Paul's elderly parents. Paul was paying for the whole thing, a fact her mom never let her forget.
Seeing the pyramids had been great for impressing her friends back home with a selfie, but the process of visiting them was unpleasant. Madison hated Cairo. It was hot, it was crowded, the men openly leered at her. She wished Paul wasn't such a dork and would just take them to the beach instead of spending vacations learning history.
It was spring break, and both Carter and Madison were away from their colleges and their friends. At heart Madison would rather be in Florida drinking and getting laid, rather than touring a giant museum, but she did understand this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.
She was looking forward to the next part of the trip. They would spend five days on a boat down the Nile. They would escape the dusty city and she would instead get to spend her days by the pool.
That night alone in her hotel room Madison was texting with her friend Chloe back home. Telling her about her day. She couldn't help sharing the same gross fact that her brother had sent.
"Totally gross fact about ancient egypt: they all fucked their families."
"Eww what?"
"Yup. brothers and sisters. fathers and daughters. they all did it."
Madison had earlier done some Googling and found that everything she had learned in the museum was true.
"No way that is true. Gross."
"Yep, know cleopatra? brother fucker."
"Vomit."
"Even more gross. they all had kids together."
"They must have been twisted freaks."
"Probs. though they kept doing this for millions of years, so maybe not that bad?"
"Do they still do that there?"
"No just history."
"Still, yuck, you should get home before you go native and lay carter."
"Dont. even. joke."
"Haha. he is kinda hot." Chloe had hinted to Madison before that she was kind of into Carter.
"Not. he smells like old cheese."
.....
The next day was more sites around Cairo before that evening they arrived at the boat. It was smaller than Madison had expected. Not some giant cruise ship, but it seemed very nice and posh.
Her mom came over with the envelope of room keys.
"Here Madison. This is the key to you and Carter's room."
"Me and Carter! We can't be sharing a room." Madison exclaimed in anger.
"Yes, that was always the plan, Maddy. The rooms are very expensive here. You and Carter have to share."
"You never told me!"
"Of course we did. It was all in the email with the details. You just didn't read it." Her mother lectured.
"Ugh. we're too old to share a room!"
"There is no other option."
The room she was sharing with her brother was even smaller than she had expected. Two beds with a thin space between them. It was also at the bottom of the ship. The waters of the Nile were just below the window outside. She was still furious as she went to sleep.
.....
That morning they toured another temple. They were starting to all look the same. Their guide announced this was a temple to the queen Arsinoe, built by her beloved husband Ptolemy. A great monument to romance, the Egyptian Taj Mahal their guide sold it as.
It didn't take long for Carter to come up to her with his dumb smirk. He had been looking things up on his phone.
"Guess who Arisnoe and Ptolemy were?" He whispered to her in the crowd.
"My guess is this is going to be gross and I don't really want to know." Madison scowled at him.
"Yep, they were brother and sister as well as husband and wife." Just like those two at the museum.