Georgia Byng: Molly Moon & the Morphing Mystery

With a pop , Miss Hunroe’s body disappeared.

Molly and Micky were prepared. Simultaneously they meegoed into themselves, and calmly watched Cappuccino. He was doing exactly what Molly had told him to. He pushed his shoulders up and down as he positively refused to let Miss Hunroe take over his body and mind.

“Did you hypnotize the monkey?” Micky guessed.

“Yes,” Molly replied, and grinned. “Hello, Micky.”

Bas and Lily ventured out from their hiding places.

“Look,” Molly said. “Miss Hunroe morphed into Cappuccino. He’s got her completely under his thumb.”

“How long can he keep her in check?” Bas asked, watching as Cappuccino nibbled at the core of his forest fruit.

“I told him to keep her quiet until he’s convinced that she’s turning good.”

“Really? Do you trust Cappuccino to do that?”

“Yes,” Molly replied. “You said he was a very good judge of character, so I decided to let him decide.”

“Wow.” Bas sighed, rubbing his head. “This is just all too amazing.”

The rain had stopped, and the sun was now out. Rays of light lit up Miss Hunroe’s gold coin, lying abandoned in the mud. Molly bent down, scooped it up, and put it in her pocket.

Lily put her arm around Molly.

“I’m so glad you’re all right,” Lily said. “I was worried about you.”

“I was worried about you, too.” Molly gave Lily a hug back, then picked up Petula. Micky picked up the four stones.

A termite on the ground caught Molly’s eye. It was carrying a piece of rotten bark. Molly watched it. It had no idea what drama had just unfolded.

“Hey!” Molly said to the termite. “Tellleee all your friendseees thank you!” But of course the termite had no idea what Molly had just said. It simply felt a wind from the giant moving thing above, and it moved on.

“I wish you were here,” Molly said. She was on the phone to Rocky, with fat headphones on her ears and a mike at her mouth, sitting in a moving helicopter hovering over the rain forest canopy. “And it’s so lucky that Hunroe’s hypnotism on you wore off…. It’s been a bit hairy here. Actually, that’s an understatement. But it’s over now, and everyone’s fine.” She paused as Rocky spoke. “Yup, we got the hypnotism book…. No, couldn’t find the crystals…. Maybe Miss Suzette has them. And I can tell you, if I ever find them, I’m not letting Lucy and Primo take them again. But I got Hunroe’s coin. It’s quite cool.” Molly took Miss Hunroe’s coin out of her pocket and fingered it before putting it away again. “A memento.”

Rocky asked something. “Oh, yes, the stones are all back on its front cover.” Molly patted the book. It was on her knee. “I know, isn’t it amazing…! Yeah, maggots…Malcolm said he’s going to stay here with Bas for a bit. Says he wants to forget about aliens and get into ecology. The cloud forest is so beautiful, you see…. Hey, why don’t you come out?” Molly paused. Below her, the jungle was vast and green and rolling away on every side, and ahead, in the western skies, the sun was setting in red and pink. A pink blush spread through the white cumulus clouds there so that they floated like magic puffs of rose-tinted smoke. Molly hugged Petula. Sometimes life felt too good to be true.

At Briersville Park, Todson was eating scrambled eggs at the kitchen table.

“Terrible, terrible,” he muttered to himself as he flipped through a newspaper full of horror stories about the recent floods and tornadoes all over the world. A rusty, old-fashioned bell on the wall above the stove rang. “Ah, front door. Wonder who that can be?”

Todson wiped his hands on a napkin and made his way upstairs, taking off his apron on the way. Walking toward the front door, he straightened his tie. Then he peered through the hall window.

“Goodness me,” he gasped. Outside was a grand, long black car with a little flag set on its roof above its front windshield. Checking his hands to see that they were clean, Todson opened the door and found himself looking into the eyes of someone dressed rather like himself.

“Good morning,” Smuthers, the queen’s butler, said. “Is Molly Moon in?”

Todson’s eyes opened wide as he saw the queen herself, dressed in a country coat, talking to a Rasta on the steps below.

“I’m a-a-afraid she’s not,” he stuttered. “But her best friend, Rocky, is upstairs. I could call him down. Could he help? Please come in.”

“Thank you very much,” Smuthers said. Then, in a whisper, he added, “You’ve got a bit of egg on your collar.”

“Ah, thank you.” Todson nodded with a wink. He removed the egg and stepped back to let the visitors in.

The queen smiled graciously as she passed. “Thank you so much.”

“Tank you,” said her Jamaican companion.

“I was lucky, Leonard,” Todson caught the queen saying to the man. “I had Smuthers to talk to. Poor you! You must have thought you were losing your marbles. You know, no one else believed me. Thank goodness for Smuthers.” She paused as she looked at her surroundings. “And thank goodness for the Moon children. I am so looking forward to meeting them.”

Leonard smiled. “Yeah. Feel like I’ve known them for years.”