Molly Moon's Hypnotic Time Travel Adventure (31 page)

“She’ll be doing us a favor,” said Adderstone, her fork scraping the plate as she skewered the gray eel with her fork and sliced it in half. “We’re lucky to be rid of them. Two sniveling, smelly brats, one white and sickly as a bog worm, the other black as the bog itself!” Molly looked through the wired-glass window in the kitchen door and spied the two mean spinsters sitting at either end of the kitchen table. Adderstone sat by a bottle of
sherry. A nasty sneer played on her tight lips as she sipped at a glass. Edna smoked a cigarette and tapped ashes onto a pink blancmange mousse—a pudding that was bound for the children of the orphanage that evening.

Molly barged in. Both women looked up, surprised.

“Excuse me,” said Molly, “but I’m lost. Is this the home of the haggy witch and her horrid, troll-faced assistant?”

Adderstone spluttered on her sherry while Edna uttered, “What the bloody ’ell!”

Immediately Molly sent out fierce hypnotic beams toward them both.

There they sat, still and quiet as stuffed turkeys, amid smoke and eel odor. They were at Molly’s mercy.

Of course, the impulse that roared inside Molly was one that implored her to punish these terrible women—to change them so that they would never be unkind to her or to Rocky, or to anyone else in the orphanage. She wanted to set them straight. She wanted to remold them. But the calm, logical side of her brain held her back. For Molly knew that, if she did change these women, then
her
past would surely change, too. If she hypnotized Adderstone and Edna to suddenly become angels, Molly’s life would most
definitely change and so would her
character.

So far, Molly’s personality had led her to where she was, which was a good place. So she really shouldn’t tamper with anything. If she changed things, she might never have found the hypnotism book. She might never have run away. She would lose her memories of what it had felt like to be on her own in New York City and then with Rocky in Los Angeles. Her adventures would be wiped out. And what about Petula? If Adderstone had been different, maybe she would have kept cats. She might never have bought a pug puppy. Molly couldn’t imagine loving any other animal as much as she loved Petula. All that love between her and Petula might disappear if she changed her past. Maybe the love between her and Mrs. Trinklebury wouldn’t be there, either. And what about Rocky? If Adderstone was a lovely person, maybe a nice friend of hers would have adopted him as a baby. Maybe the new life she created would be only a fraction as full of love as her life was now. She couldn’t guarantee that her life would have
more
love in it.

Molly thought of Forest and Ojas sitting in the truck. She liked them more than she could say. She was really excited about her future. And that was the important part, wasn’t it? The future. Molly felt great about that.

As she looked at the horrible women in front of
her, she knew that she couldn’t meddle with her past. Although she had drawn a very short straw, she had survived it. She was proud to be herself. In fact, she treasured her life.

And so, all that she said to the two hags was, “When I leave the room, you will forget that I was here. You will also forget that the baby Molly upstairs went missing. If anyone mentions it, you will say it never happened. And when Molly Moon goes missing in the future, when she’s three and six and ten, you will forget about that, too, and deny that it ever happened. When I go, you will come out of your trances and… and…” Molly couldn’t resist changing things just a little bit. “And you will go upstairs and apologize to Mrs. Trinklebury for all the times that you’ve ever been rude to her, and you will tell her that although you are probably going to be rude to her again, she must always remember that she is a far better, nicer, funnier person than you both are and that you are dried-up, rotten, bad-tempered pigs. Also”—the temptation was too great—“from now on, whenever you have guests to the orphanage, you will both find that you need to fart and burp a lot.” Then, touching Adderstone and Edna on the shoulder, Molly whisked them both up into a time hover. “And I lock these instructions in with the words ‘Eel Stew.’”

Molly returned the two women to their rightful
time, and then she left the room. At the front door she put her hand in her pocket for her red crystal and zoomed forward.

Back in the twenty-first century, Rocky, Forest, Ojas, and the hypnotized young Mollys sat together all squashed up in the front seat of the truck. The Petulas were asleep on Rocky’s lap.

“What about those hypnotized maharajas? What’s she gonna do about them?” Forest asked, drawing a picture on the misted windshield of a man cross-legged and in a turban.

“Oh, she’ll go and sort that all out later,” said Rocky. “She’ll have to go back to India and back in time to do it. Whether she does it this week or next year doesn’t really matter because whichever, it’s all in the past. She needs to work out the password.”

“She’ll get a bit scaly,” said Ojas, fiddling with the precious ankle bracelet stowed away in his pocket.

“I don’t know,” said Rocky, opening the glove compartment. “I think she spent a bit too long in that beginning-of-time light. I really think she looked
younger
when she came back. So maybe the scales won’t grow so quickly on her if she time travels again. Fancy a toffee?” Everyone took one and began to chew.

“Guys, did any of you, like, scale up?” asked Forest.
“Yes. Behind my knees a bit,” said Rocky. “The younger Mollys’ elbows are flaking.”

“My ankles are very dry,” said Ojas.

“I think it’s the primary time traveler who gets hit worst,” said Rocky. Ojas and Forest nodded. They all chewed some more.

“And you, Forest?” asked Ojas.

“And me what?” Forest took off his glasses to polish them.

“Did you get any dryness?”

“Er, well…” Forest fell silent.

“Did you get any flaky skin?” Ojas persisted.

Forest paused. Then quickly he said, “Er, well, the truth is, my… um… my butt has kinda scaled up.”

Neither Ojas nor Rocky knew quite what to say. Ojas chewed. Forest chewed. Rocky chewed. “I’m very sorry to hear that, Forest.”

“Thanks, Rocky.”

“‘M
ission baby’ accomplished!” Molly declared as she arrived back at the truck and opened the cab door. “This is so weird. You know,

Rocky, you were a sweet little baby.”

Rocky smiled and helped the hypnotized three-year-old Molly down.

Taking her younger self’s hand, Molly approached Happiness House.

“I’ll tell you all about it when I get back,” she called, waving at her friends. Then she disappeared.

Once again Molly was flying backward through the years, directing the green crystal in her hand, willing it to slot them into the place where the young Molly’s life was waiting to resume. They traveled back through the years to when Molly could feel her three-year-old self
at the orphanage. Molly sensed that she was passing trillions and zillions of moments that made up her life. Each moment was like a still picture from the many, many pictures that make up an animated film, except this wasn’t a cartoon; this was her own life reeling backward. Her life was made up of squillions and xillions of separate Molly moments, all joined together in a continuum of time.

And then Molly sensed that a time was approaching where she
wasn’t.
The time that this three-year-old Molly beside her belonged to. Molly slowed down and stopped.

It was a cold, gray morning and fog was floating over the grass. Molly picked up the small child and quietly opened the front door to Hardwick House. She made her way up the stairs and along the corridor. The occupants of all the dormitories were fast asleep. Molly could hear snoring. The smell of sleeping children filled the air. Outside the nursery door she heard a small child singing.

“Little cuckoo, little cuckoo, don’t push me out of my nest!”

Molly opened the door. The three-year-old Rocky sat up in his cot.

“Who’s dare? Who’s dat?” he asked.

“I’m just bringing your little friend back,” Molly
said. She stared into the hypnotized Molly’s eyes and, as she did, she thought of her red crystal and made them hover in time so that she could lock some instructions in to stay there forever.

“You, little Molly, will forget anything frightening that happened to you when the nasty giant took you away. You will forget about him, too. Do you understand?” The little girl nodded. Molly continued. “And this order to you is locked in with the words ‘Jumping Jellyfish.’” Molly snapped little Molly out of the trance she was in and landed them back in the world. As soon as the three-year-old saw Rocky, she shouted and started laughing.

“Rocky! What ya do in’?”

Molly put her down in the cot with him. The children gave each other a clumsy hug that resulted in them both falling over, and there the older Molly left them. She decided not to tamper with the little Molly’s other memories about India, as these would soon merge into her dreams and Mrs. Trinklebury would only say, “Yes, dear,” if ever she talked about riding on an elephant.

As Molly shot back to the future again she wondered whether Lucy Logan would have been happy if she’d been presented with the three-year-old Molly as her daughter. The little Molly was so sweet, she surely
would have loved her. With these thoughts in her head, Molly returned to the truck.

‘“Mission three-year-old’ accomplished,” she said, smiling. “Now for six-year-old Molly and little Petula.”

Rocky helped the younger Molly out of the truck cab, and Molly took the puppy. They traveled back in time. It was an autumn day, and the leaves were brown and orange on the trees. Molly led the hypnotized girl around to the side of Hardwick House. Inside she could see ugly Adderstone moving from room to room.

Quickly Molly spoke to the little girl.

“Now Molly, you and Petula are back. But I don’t want you talking to anyone about being in India. In fact, you will forget that you have been there, except that sometimes you can have dreams of the lovely things you saw there. You can keep the memories of laughing on the road. You won’t remember any of the scary things. And you certainly won’t remember the giant man. But one day, when you are eleven, and back in India, all your memories will return.” Now Molly took them into a time hover. “And I lock these instructions in with the words, ‘Hairy Hippie.’” Then she made the world move. The puppy Petula began sucking a stone. Molly supposed that young puppies don’t remember much, so she didn’t worry about Petula.

Adderstone came out of the back door of the orphanage with a distinctly sour expression.

“I’ll have you know this is private property,” she began. Spotting the six-year-old, she uttered a gasp of disgust. “Oh!
That
child. Are you from a family that wants to adopt her?” Then she added, “Girl, I’ve told you not to play with my puppy! And what ridiculous clothes you have on!” Molly realized that Adderstone had already forgotten that the six-year-old Molly had been missing, just as she’d been instructed to.

“No adoptions today, thank you,” Molly replied. She glanced down at the tender face of her younger self and a horrid homesick feeling rushed up through her. Molly couldn’t bear to leave the past as it had been. She had to do something—just something small—something to make life a little bit better for all the children there. She stared into the old woman’s beady eyes, and Adderstone was automatically under her spell.

“Miss Adderstone,” she said, “today you will treat this child kindly, and for the next few years, whenever you are really drunk, you will be kind to the children in your care. Is that clear?”

“Yes. I’m only a little drunk now,” the thin spinster replied.

Molly leaned over and whispered in the six-year-old’s ear, “And you, little Molly, will always remember that however horrid your life is in this place, one day
it will change for the better.”

Then Molly led her inside, to a room where she could hear Rocky’s voice.

“In a moment, Molly, you will go to see Rocky. When you see him, you will no longer be hypnotized. If he asks where you have been, you will say you can’t remember. You will forget about ever seeing me.” The child nodded, and Molly nudged her toward the sitting room.

Molly returned to Adderstone and clicked her fingers in front of her eyes, waking her from her trance.

“Where’s the child gone?” she asked, stretching her neck with jerky movements like a confused ostrich.

“She’s inside.”

“BAAARRPP!” Adderstone let out the most enormous burp. “Would you like to come in for a cup of tea?” As she put her hand to her mouth, a raspberry noise blasted through her tweed skirt and a revolting stench of old meat and cabbage that had been through her wrinkly old digestive system filled the air. Molly stepped back. The smell was disgusting. Nevertheless, she was impressed that the hypnotic instruction she’d left for Adderstone to fart and burp in company was still working.

“I’m going now.” With that, Molly disappeared. A BOOM filled the air. All that was left were footprints on the wet lawn.

Miss Adderstone looked dumbfoundedly about and, seeing the indentations on the grass, lowered herself to her knees.

“GHOSTS!” she cried, patting the ground. Then, to herself, she said, “No, Agnes, it’s the drink!”

Molly was spinning through time again. She had collected her ten-year-old self and was now taking her back where she belonged.

They landed on a cold night in November. The front door was locked. Molly pushed the sitting-room window open.

“In a minute you will creep upstairs and climb back into your bed. Tomorrow, when everyone asks you where you have been for a week and a half, you will say that you were ill and that you don’t want to talk about it. And you won’t talk about it. You will think that you’ve been at the hospital and that you slept most of the time. You will think that you read a long story all about India, but you won’t be able to remember the story very well, and you’ll think that this is because you were ill. One day when you’re eleven, and back in India, your memories will return, but not until then. And Molly, keep going to the library.” Molly bit her lip. She mustn’t give herself clues or she might actually stop her ten-year-old self from finding the book of
hypnotism. “You will now go to bed, and when you wake up, you won’t know how you got there. You will forget me and that I hypnotized you. All this is locked in“—Molly took her younger self into a time hover—”with the password ‘Wheel of Time.’” Molly landed them back in the correct time. “And remember, Molly—something special is going to happen to you very soon.”