Molly Moon's Hypnotic Time Travel Adventure (32 page)

Molly took one last look at her ten-year-old self and wondered whether Lucy would have liked her. Probably not, Molly reckoned. Perhaps Lucy had a problem with bigger children. She sighed and tried to think about something different, but this was difficult, as Molly knew that today she would see Lucy again and the usual disappointment would be written plainly across her face.

“S
o, I see you changed a few things back there,” Rocky said as Molly appeared. “I got some new memories—like Miss Adderstone taking us to the cinema when she was drunk and throwing popcorn around.”

“Couldn’t resist it,” Molly said as she jumped back into the lorry. She gave Rocky a huge hug. “Yee hah, Rocky, I can’t believe it, but it’s done! MISSION COMPLETED!”

“Yee hah!” echoed Ojas.

“Groovy,” agreed Forest.

“Groovy, Forest?” said Molly, turning on him. “Is that all?”

“Okay, okay… it is a psychedelically fabulous and cosmically awesome relief.”

“Wooooooorahrf!” Petula agreed. And Amrit poked her trunk into the cabin of the truck, wondering whether there was a toffee or two that she could pinch while everyone was celebrating.

The lorry half slid down the icy lane back onto the Briersville Road. “Okay, time to see how the stale doughnuts are getting on.” Molly didn’t know quite why she called her mother and father that. Maybe it was because, deep down, she felt about as excited about meeting them again as she might feel about the prospect of eating two stale doughnuts. Rocky understood her.

“Don’t worry,” he said, patting her hand. “You don’t have to automatically be the perfect daughter, you know. In fact, you have every right to be just friends with them, if you like.”

“I’m not sure if I want to be friends with Lucy Logan,” Molly said as Forest put on the brakes to avoid hitting a pheasant. “She wasn’t exactly happy to discover I was her daughter. I was disappointing. But you know, Rocky, I can’t help it if I’m not automatically, obviously nice, like you.”

“Molly, you shouldn’t take it to heart. There’s probably a good reason she behaved like that.”

“Yes, she didn’t like me.”

Forest drove the lorry onto the main road that passed through Briersville town.

“It’s strange not having the little Mollys with us. I miss them. I hope they’re all right,” Molly said.

“Man, that is the craziest thing you have ever said.” Forest began laughing like a hyena. “Of course, they’re all right. They’re
in you,
Molly!”

“I guess they are.”

Ojas’s nose was still glued to the window. “So this is the future!” he gasped as they passed a farm with big corrugated barns in its yard.

“That’s just a farm,” said Rocky. “You wait till you play a computer game. That is going to blow your mind!”

“Blow my mind…” Ojas experimented with the new phrase.

Petula sat up and tried to see out. She could smell the llamas of Briersville Park. She began to twitch with excitement. She couldn’t wait to run around the lawns there. She wondered whether her special stones were still all safely buried in the places she’d left them.

She shivered and for a moment thought of the lovely heat in India. It had been quite a trip, she thought. That peacock pie had been delicious, and the beauticians at the palace had been very nice. Her claws were
still pink with nail polish. Still, she couldn’t wait to chase some rabbits.

“And what about your parents? What are they like?” said Ojas.

“They’re not really my parents,” said Molly.

“No?”

“No. I mean, their parents were my grandparents, but I’ve only just met them. They don’t know me, and I don’t know them.”

“Do you like them?”

Molly thought. “Well, they’re a bit weird. You’ll see. They’re both a bit muddled, I suppose. But they’re not scary or anything.”

The truck rumbled on along frosty country lanes and finally came to the black gates of Briersville Park. Soon they were driving up the long, winding driveway, past pastures of grazing llamas, with animal-shaped bushes in the fields.

“Oh, I’m sure they’ll like Amrit,” Ojas said. He pointed at an elephant-shaped bush.

“Well,” Molly explained, “those bushes were actually all put here by my uncle. His name is Cornelius. By the way, at the moment he thinks he’s a lamb. Look, there he is!” Forest slowed the lorry down.

Cornelius Logan, dressed in a ski outfit, was standing
in a meadow with a flock of sheep.

“I suppose,” said Rocky, “Cornelius was hypnotized by Waqt to behave the way he did.”

“Poor Cornelius,” agreed Molly. “Waqt got to him a long, longtime ago. I remember Cornelius said he was jealous of his twin sister Lucy
all his life.
Waqt must have hypnotized him when he was a small boy. Poor, poor Cornelius. I mean, to be hypnotized
all
your life, starting when you were three or something—that’s freaky. If I unlock Waqt’s hypnosis, Cornelius might go mad from the shock. He looks so happy there, nibbling that grass.”

“Yes, but he’s in prison. He’s in a hypnotic prison,” Rocky said. “He has the right to know his real life.” The engine of the truck grumbled as it idled.

“One day you’ll discover Waqt’s password,” Forest reckoned, changing gear and driving on. “Then you can go back and free Cornelius and those maharajas.”

“I’m going to do it—well, probably next week,” said Molly. “But the password is going to be a problem. ‘Pock,’ ‘key,’ and ‘pea’ don’t work. There must be other words. It’s like some mad gobbledygook spell. All I know is that it ended or started in ‘pock’ or ‘key’ or ‘pea.’ It’ll be practically impossible to guess the rest.”

Forest pulled into the graveled forecourt of Briersville Park. As he did so, Ojas slipped into the back of the truck
to prepare Amrit for her arrival.

The tall, mahogany front doors opened wide. Primo Cell put the palm of his hand to his forehead and squinted in the cold sunlight, wondering why a huge truck was pulling up in front of Briersville Park.

“Molly, Rocky, Forest,” he shouted worriedly, “is that you?”

Petula jumped out of the cabin. She was extremely excited to be back. As she bowled up the steps, Molly, Rocky, and Forest stepped down from the truck.

“Um, we’re back!” said Molly, as calmly as if she’d just been out to the shops for a pint of milk.

“Lucy!” Primo shouted. “They’re back.
They’re all back.”
He ran down the steps and seized Molly and Rocky. “God, we thought we’d never see you again!” he said, hugging them both, one with each arm. “We thought you were… were…”

“Dead? No way, man. Death courted us but it didn’t date us,” quipped Forest.

“Oh, thank goodness.” Primo Cell buried his face in Molly’s and Rocky’s shoulders. Rocky winked at Molly as if to say, “I think he likes us.”

And then Lucy Logan came rushing out of the house. She faltered at the top of the steps and then came running down. She didn’t hug Molly and Rocky. Instead, she smiled and smiled and her forehead was a
mass of surprised horizontal lines. Molly avoided catching her eye.

Primo laughed. “So where have you been?”

“It’s a long story,” Molly began. Slightly embarrassed, she edged her eyes toward Lucy. Primo noticed.

“Lucy is much better now,” he said. “We’ve talked a lot and got to the bottom of why she was sad.”

Molly’s heart gave a jolt. Had they talked about all the reasons why Lucy found Molly so disappointing?

“Oh, Molly!” gasped Lucy, shocked to see nervousness written all over her daughter’s face. “You were probably dreading seeing me!” She clasped her hands together and implored her. “Don’t worry. I promise I won’t be the washed-up person I was again.” Then she exploded. “I’m
so
sorry, Molly. I was like a sad, wet biscuit! When we found each other I should have been really happy, but I couldn’t help turning over and over in my mind what I had lost. I just couldn’t accept my past. I kept wishing that it had been different. I kept wishing that you and… and… hadn’t been taken from me.” Molly was half listening. She was buzzing with a mixture of anger and fear of what Lucy was going to say next.

“Lucy,” said Primo, twisting his mouth awkwardly, “I think we should wait to tell Molly. She’ll be as shocked as I was. Here on the drive doesn’t seem—”

“Yes, sorry, it just slipped out. Later.”

“Later for what?” Molly asked, ignoring Petula, who was jumping up at her. She reran in her head what Lucy had just said. “You kept wishing that me and
what
hadn’t been taken from you?”

“I kept wishing that you and… and…”

“Cornelius?” Molly guessed. “We know that Waqt took him. That isn’t news. We know.”

“Waqt? Who’s he?”

“You don’t know Waqt?”

Lucy shook her head.

“He’s the man who had taken Petula,” said Molly.

“A man called Waqt
took
Cornelius? What do you mean? How?” Molly found herself in a sticky situation. She had decided not to tell Lucy about Waqt hypnotizing Cornelius as a little boy. She glanced at Forest and Rocky. Both were looking uncomfortable, staring at their feet. They’d all thought it best not to tell Lucy yet, because the news would be so distressing for her. But now half of it had slipped out. Which was what Lucy had just done—let something slip out.

Molly tried to change the subject. “You first. You tell me what else was taken from you,” she said, biding her time.

Lucy shook her head and looked at Primo for guidance.

“Tell her,” said Primo.

There was a long silence as Lucy plucked up the courage to tell Molly why she had been so very sad. Molly began to see that this other thing was something fairly big. And now she really began to wonder what it was.

“You know, Molly,” Lucy began, tears welling up in her blue eyes, “that Cornelius is my twin.”

“Yes,” said Molly, frowning as she tried to guess what Lucy was trying to say.

“Yes, well, as you know, I was a twin—and twins run in families—and… and… and so…” Lucy put her hands over her face.

“And so were you, is what she’s trying to say,” said Primo. “So were you.”

“So was I what?”

“A twin.”

“What? I have a twin?” Molly said dumbly. “A twin? But where is she?”

“He.”

“He? He? Where is he?”

“We don’t know, Molly,” said Primo. Lucy beside him was wiping her eyes with a yellow hankie.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I thought I’d finished crying about this, but it’s difficult to… to accept without being overwhelmed with…” She stifled a sob. “… with tea-aa-ars!”

Molly stared at her. “A brother?” was all she could say.

Suddenly images of a boy a bit taller than her, standing there with her, filled her head. She looked at Rocky. “Did you ever see him?” Molly asked Lucy.

“Yes, before… before someone came and took him.”

“Cornelius really doesn’t know what happened to the child,” Primo said. “It’s been a terrible blow to us both not knowing where he went, or whether he is alive or not. We just don’t know what happened to him.” Primo looked more serious than Molly had ever seen him before. His lower lip quivered. “Oh dear, this was really the wrong time and place to tell you this,” he said, running his foot along the step.

“No, it wasn’t!” said Molly. At once, all her paranoia about not being good enough lifted. A new confidence filled her. To Molly, the bad news felt good, because it made her see that Lucy hadn’t been disappointed that Molly was her daughter. She’d been sad for a completely different reason. A reason that Molly had no power over. But now Molly could help. Once again, she found herself in the position of being calm while her wobbly parents were riding roller-coasters of emotion. She tried to reassure them. “You mustn’t worry. I know things now that mean I can find out what happened to him. I really can! Not today,” she added hastily, “because I’m really, really tired, and I’d quite
like to spend at least one day in my right here-and-now before I whiz off again to another one.”

“What do you mean?” asked Primo.

“She’s a time traveler, man,” explained Forest. “Molly here can zing about in time. She’ll find your son.”

“Yes, I will,” said Molly. She walked up to Lucy and squeezed her hand. “So stop being sad, Lucy. There
is
some hope.” Molly wondered where her brother could be. Was he in another country, in another time? Or was he in the next town, in another orphanage? “I’ll track him down. And I’ll do my best to bring him back.”

“Can you really do that, Molly?” Lucy pinched her cheek. “Oh my, am I dreaming?”

At this point, Ojas, clad in three blankets, stepped out from behind the lorry.

“You are not dreaming, memsahib,” he said, shivering. “Mollee here is a wonderful time traveler.”

“This is Ojas,” said Molly. Lucy smiled bewil-deredly and shook his hand. Ojas then shook Primo’s hand.

“I am very delighted to meet you,” he said. “And it is a privilege for me to be in your century!”

Primo and Lucy looked at Ojas. Primo asked, “So, er, what time are you from?”

“Oh, 1870. I come from Delhi, India, 1870. It never gets this cold in Delhi! Amrit is from there, too. She must have a
coat
made if she is to live here!”

“Amrit?”

Rocky was already unbolting the back of the lorry. He swung the tailgate down. Amrit didn’t need enticing. She was keen to investigate her new surroundings and began edging her huge gray body backward down the metal gangplank. Then she approached Primo and Lucy, sniffing the air with her long trunk.

“My goodness!” exclaimed Lucy. “I’ve always loved elephants. Oh, how fantastic—she can live in the pavilion by the swimming pool.”

“She will like that,” said Ojas, patting Amrit’s trunk. “She is very keen on swimming.”

“Would you like to ride her?” asked Molly.

“Ride her? I’d love that!” said Lucy. And at last Molly heard something that she’d long been wanting to hear. She heard Lucy laugh.

So Ojas bid Amrit kneel down, and soon Lucy was up. But before they set off, Ojas did something else. He put an object into Amrit’s trunk and gave a little whistle. Amrit’s trunk obediently followed his order.

“What’s this?” Lucy asked as the end of Amrit’s trunk passed her a package. She undid the paper wrapping to discover a large, gem-encrusted bracelet.