Molly Moon & the Morphing Mystery

“Yes, ve got it off him,” Miss Oakkton explained. “But ve only had ze time to quickly scan ze pages on animal morphing. We missed the morphing to human part.”

“Would you teach us?” oozed Miss Hunroe. “You’re so lucky to have learned.” She added smoothly, with a toothy smile, “We’d be so terribly grateful.”

Micky glanced at Molly. “We can’t teach you, Miss Hunroe,” he lied. “We never learned. We only found out how to morph into animals.”

“We saw you,” hissed Miss Hunroe. “We saw you reading the book. We were looking through Black’s office window. Checking on you. Making sure you were safe.”

“As rats?”

“As cats!” Miss Hunroe retorted.

“So you had already learned to morph into animals. Get your story straight.”

There was silence. Both Molly and Micky knew that Miss Hunroe and Miss Oakkton were lying. The magnitude of their deceit was as obvious as the stink in the sewer, and both twins saw how they had been used. As the truth dawned on them, a steeliness, a shared quality in the siblings that was usually latent, now galvanized their replies.

“You’re liars,” said Micky through gritted teeth.

“Think because we’re children, we’re stupid?” Molly asked coolly.

Micky turned to Molly. “Speal,” he said. “She must have learned animal morphing from the book when she saw it as a child. And she taught them,” he spat at Miss Hunroe. “You, Miss Hunroe, have two faces.”

“My dears. What’s gotten into you?” wooed Miss Hunroe, her lip curling. “It’s only fair to let us know—we’re so close to finding out anyway.”

“You’re as bad as Black,” Molly declared, growling. “You tricked us so that we could get you the book for you to learn to morph into humans. Anyway, as Micky said, we don’t know how.”

Miss Hunroe continued, disregarding her. “I saw you both as people just now.” Her voice took on a sing-songy lilt. “A rich lady and a waiter. Very clever!” Then she snapped. “Tell us how!”

Miss Oakkton pushed her face up to Molly’s. She smiled, baring big yellow teeth. “Tell us, or you vill feel ze bite of my teess.” Molly thought hard and tried to keep her cool. The simple escape route, she realized, was for Micky and her to morph into these rats that were Miss Oakkton and Miss Hunroe. But this would be very risky, for the women were strong characters and too knowledgeable about morphing. Molly remembered what the book had said—that it was important to choose your subjects carefully, as a strong personality and one that is alert might fight to stop a successful morph. And then where would Molly be? Stuck at the bottom of Miss Oakkton’s or Miss Hunroe’s mind forever? Her mind raced, and then she had an idea.

Instead of attacking, Molly tried another approach.

“We will tell you how to morph into humans,” she bargained, “if you tell us how to morph back into our own bodies. But you have to tell us first. That’s the deal.”

Miss Hunroe and Miss Oakkton looked shocked. Then they began tittering.

“What’s so funny?” Molly asked.

“You are fools!” Miss Hunroe said, laughing. “So you don’t know how to meego? That is hilarious!” She saw Molly’s puzzled expression, and added, “Meegoing is the term for morphing back into one’s own body.” She gave a shriek of laughter. “Hah! You don’t know how!”

“Hmm. Well, as I said, that’s the deal.”

Miss Hunroe narrowed her eyes. “Us telling you the meegoing secret before you tell us what we want to know is impossible,” she parleyed. “If we told you our secret, you’d never tell us yours. You’d be off out of here like a shot. No, the only way round is that you tell us the secret of morphing into humans first. Then we will tell you how to meego.” She laughed again. “The amusing part of this is that you don’t really have a choice. After all, you can’t keep morphing from creature to human to creature forever. You will hardly be able to sleep. Fall asleep in a body for too long, and you’ve had it. In any case, you can’t be in another creature for more than a few hours, for the creature starts to get its strength back. So, of course, when you sleep for more than a few hours in another creature or another human, its true owner will rise to take control of itself as you sleep. It will squash you, the sleeping you, deep down under it, and you will never get out. You will both be lost. Lost forever, in a rat or a bat or a gnat. Hah! No. You need the meego secret far more than we need the morph-to-human secret.”

Molly gulped and glanced at her brother. She could guess from his eyes that he too had been frightened by what Miss Hunroe had said. And that he too was wondering what other nasty outcomes there were in the world of body borrowing. She started to wish she hadn’t morphed at all.

The rat that was Miss Hunroe turned to the large scruffy rat that was Miss Oakkton. “Until now, I didn’t realize what an advantage we had!” Then, impatient suddenly, she spat at Molly and Micky. “You’d better tell us now.”

“Time to comply,” said Miss Oakkton, muscling forward. “Tell us! If you don’t, zere will be bad, bad consequences. I have no qualms about biting off your ears!”

Molly and Micky dropped their bodies lower on the shiny, cold floor.

“What, tell you so that you can get whatever you want in the human world? We’d be crazy to tell you,” Molly snarled.

“You can beat us up all you like,” Micky squeaked. “We aren’t going to tell you.”

“Perhaps I can morph into you and get the secret that way,” said Miss Hunroe sinisterly.

“Please do,” bluffed Molly. “You wouldn’t dare. That would be the end of you, you old goat.” She stared with hatred into Miss Hunroe’s eyes, wishing that she could hypnotize her. Miss Hunroe stared back, her eyes mean and