Molly Moon & the Morphing Mystery

you will go on your way and forget you were ever hypnotized by me, and you won’t remember what happened here. I lock these instructions in with the words ‘Snow White.’”

The man nodded, and Black climbed into the cab. With a kick of exhaust, it was away.

Miss Teriyaki and Miss Suzette immediately stepped out of the shadows. Eagerly they approached the next cab.

“TAXI!” Miss Suzette shouted in a voice surprisingly deep for her tiny, tubby form.

“Follow that cab!” Miss Teriyaki bossily ordered the driver as he wound down his window.

But then the businessman stepped in front of them.

The gutter stank of the smelliest loo Molly had ever encountered, yet in her rat body she rather liked the stench. Now it smelled more sugary than sewage-y. Eager to escape, she followed Micky the dark gray rat farther down into the sewer, to a ledge near a tunnel that flowed with smelly water. The ceiling above the ledge was tall, making the place feel like a hall. It was lit by streetlights that shined through the gutter cover above, and here there were other rats. One bared its teeth at Molly, and at once she felt a pang of fear. Why had she and Micky come down this far under the ground?

“Micky,” she hissed.

But the dark gray rat ahead turned and, in a gruff voice, squeaked back, “Big water come night.”

And in a flash, Molly saw that this rat wasn’t Micky at all. She turned frantically toward the ledge down which she had just been led, but there was no Micky there either. Instead a fat, bushy rat with a scarred cheek and a missing ear stood solid as a tree trunk, blocking the way.

“Ah ooh, darlin’. Like me?” he croaked. The rat’s eyes were beady and mean.

“Not likely!” Molly found herself squeaking back. “Go and jump in the sewer!” And she edged up against the wall. “Micky!” she shouted. “HELP!” The fat rat stepped toward her.

“No callin’. No one carin’,” he snarled. “You call again, I bite, missy.”

The businessman was doing a very good job preventing the two spinsters from catching a cab. Time after time they tried. At one point the two ladies split, hoping that this way at least one of them would catch a taxi. But even though Miss Suzette waddled as fast as she could and Miss Teriyaki did a fast crutch hobble for another taxi, they were too slow for the young man.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” he said. And then he started whistling “Whistle While You Work,” which made him even more annoying. After ten minutes of this game, he stopped and, picking up his briefcase and umbrella, sauntered away.

“You stupid woman!” Miss Teriyaki hissed. “You know I haven’t got my hearing aid in today. You should have heard Black hypnotizing that man. He obviously did it just before he got into the taxi. Miss Hunroe won’t be at all pleased with you when she finds out.”

“What are you talking about?” Miss Suzette spat. “No one would be able to hear him hypnotizing from de distance we were to him. It’s your fault. I haven’t got my spectacles on. You should have seen dat he was hypnotizing the man. You should have been able to guess from his body language, you fool. When I tell Miss Hunroe what really happened, she will be disgusted.”

In the sewer, another rat appeared behind the thuggish rat.

“Molly, what are you doing down there?”

“I thought that other rat was you,” Molly spluttered, choking on her fear as the smelly thug rat crept closer.

“Just try and push past it,” whiskered Micky. As he spoke, though, two more rats, both very big, came down the sloped underground path into the hall of the sewer. Nudging Micky the rat along, the new arrivals were soon behind Molly and Micky.

The heavy bull rat lifted his scarred nose to sniff at them. “Ah, oldies!” he salivated. “Nice! Like me?” He spoke with a threatening air, a twisted charm that was laced with aggression. But nasty as his tone was, the new rats weren’t bothered by it.

“Get on your way, you stinking piece of salt cod!” snapped the first. Her mouth twitched into a heart shape.

“You ’eard ze lady. Get lost,” barked the second, baring big, sharp teeth. With a swift move, she nipped the revolting male rat on his back.

The large rat gave a squeal. Then, with a flash of his tail, he fled.

Molly’s relief was short-lived. In a second it turned to utter confusion. For the light gray rat turned to the charcoal gray one and congratulated it. “Perfectly executed, Miss Oakkton!”

The two rats now turned their coal black glistening eyes on Molly and Micky.

“Molly and Micky?” asked the pale gray rat, her mouth pinching into a heart shape again.

“Miss Hunroe?” Molly said dumbly. “It’s you, isn’t it? And you—you can morph?”

The rats in front of the twins smiled and nodded.

“That’s Oakkton,” Micky whispered.

“Have you just learned?” Molly asked. “We really needed your help then. Thanks.”

But as Molly spoke, she felt that something was wrong, for she wasn’t feeling friendliness emanating from the rats that were Miss Hunroe and Miss Oakkton.

Miss Hunroe licked her paw. “You learned how to morph into animal forms and human forms,” she said. “Well done! Most impressive. Most remarkable.” She came closer.

“When did you all learn to morph, then?” Micky questioned. “You said you didn’t know how to when we spoke to you at the museum.”

Miss Hunroe batted her answer nonchalantly back. “Oh, just now.”

“How?”

“Ze book, ze book taught us, of course,” Miss Oakkton, the charcoal rat, interjected.

“So you’ve just seen the book?” Molly asked. “But I thought Black had it.”

“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!”