Aesop's Secret (13 page)

Felix shook his head slowly. “I have been in every room in this house, and can assure you that there isn’t a laboratory downstairs.” He looked at her as if trying to make sense out of what she was so frustrated about, then smiled knowingly. “You’ve been dreaming again, haven’t you? Because the only thing that has happened around here is that I had a really bad reaction to a bee sting. The professor gave me the Burungo to help me relax so that my body could fight the infection. He saved my life.”

Melinda shook her head. “That’s not true!” Felix didn’t respond, putting Melinda temporarily at a loss for words. Then she remembered her father’s eyes staring at her helplessly out of a mouse’s head. “What about Dad?” she challenged incredulously.

Felix slowly shook his head, smiling condescendingly. “Dad’s fine, he’s working.”

“That’s just it,” she said ominously. “Harmony checked it out and he hasn’t been working in any of the hospitals in the whole city.”

Felix’s eyes widened. “You have talked with Dr. Melpot?
”

Melinda shook her head. “No, but Joe told me; he’s her uncle.”

“Joe Whiltshire? He’s dead. Dr. Melpot told me herself.”

Melinda sighed. “I told you all about that—Joe was turned into a rabbit by Professor Stumpworthy, so everyone only thought that he was dead.”

“Mel, that’s crazy. People can’t force people to become animals.”

“But
he
can—he uses some kind of virus. I’ll bet it’s the same one he used to turn Dad into a mouse.”

Felix struggled to prop himself up on his elbows and looked into his sister’s eyes. “I’ve studied viruses, and I can assure you that they cannot turn people into animals. Not even Athenites,” he added in a whisper. “It’s scientifically impossible.” Melinda seemed on the verge of tears. “Melinda,” he said softly, “you have had another nightmare, that’s all it is. I know how upset you were when Aesop disappeared, so it’s not surprising that you brought him back in your dream. I told you all about Dr. Melpot’s uncle’s death and now your subconscious has put him in one of your dreams and has brought Aesop back to you. As far as you imagining that Dad was a mouse…” He pondered this for a few seconds. “That’s probably because you felt helpless when I was so ill and Dad couldn’t do anything to make it better. In all your dreams you or someone you know has transformed into something. It shouldn’t surprise you that you imagined Dad becoming a helpless creature, making it impossible for him to help me. It all makes perfect sense when you know anything about the subconscious mind,” he said proudly, squeezing her hand. “You’re awake now and everything is OK. Nothing has happened and there’s nothing to worry about.”

Melinda knew that she should feel a sense of relief or maybe even happiness, but she didn’t. She shuffled down the hallway, passed her room, and without consciously planning to do so, stopped in front of the bookcase. The vivid image of that bookcase swinging open to reveal a darkened passageway seemed so real; she couldn’t believe that it was only a dream. She looked both directions down the hallway, and when she was sure that no one was around, she grabbed hold of the right side of the shelves and pulled, but nothing happened. With more force, she tugged again―but it was no use, the shelves didn’t budge.

“Hello, Melinda,” Professor Stumpworthy called from down the hallway. “Wonderful news, isn’t it?”

Melinda jerked around to face him but didn’t reply.

“It was a difficult time for everyone, but Felix has made it through. He’s not only very clever, but physically strong as well.”

Melinda blinked in response.

He smiled as he stood next to her. “Now everything can get back to normal. In fact, I just returned from seeing that your father caught his flight on time—now that Felix is well on the road to recovery, he and your mother decided it best that he return to work. Felix will continue to recuperate here for a few days before getting back to his classes.”

Melinda remained silent even when the professor ruffled her hair and said that he would see her later. She watched in utter bewilderment as he disappeared down the hallway, finding it hard to believe that her nightmare was over.

Melinda was still standing in front of the bookshelves, staring down the hallway in the direction that the professor had disappeared, when her mother’s voice startled her from behind.

“Melinda,” she said in the kind of strong tone that she had always used before Felix’s illness, “I’m happy to see you out and about.”

With a frown neatly creasing her brow, Melinda spun around to face her mother.
You’re the one who has been sitting around collecting dust,
she thought, but managed only to say “What?” in a small, incredulous voice.

“You have been at Felix’s bedside for days. We’ve all been trying to get you to go outside and at least get some fresh air, but you didn’t want to leave―not even for a few minutes,” Elaine said with a warm smile.

Melinda opened her mouth to protest, to tell her mother about the times that she had gone outside, but simply whimpered “What?” again.

Elaine shook her head. “You didn’t want to leave his side; you have been a very loyal sister.”

“Then it was only a dream,” Melinda mumbled, looking down at her feet.

Elaine put her arm around Melinda’s shoulder. “Don’t tell me you’ve had another dream. I thought you were past all those nightmares you were having about Felix before we came here. You and your imagination,” she laughed warmly. “Tell you what,” she added enthusiastically. “Felix is fine now, he just needs a lot of
rest, so why don’t you and I go out for the afternoon—a little shopping, maybe lunch, and how about some of that fabulous French ice cream?”

Melinda stared at her mother and realized that she was acting normally for the first time in days. In fact, everything was beginning to feel absolutely normal. She shivered at the memory of the extraordinary events that she had been convinced  she had experienced―impossible situations that could really only exist in a dream. She smiled wearily. “Can we have chocolate éclairs too?”

At the end of the day, full of ice cream and pastries and dressed in the newest of French jean fashion, Melinda flopped onto the pink chair by the window in her room. The chair was warm, having been bathed in the late afternoon sunshine that beamed in through the tall windows.

Melinda looked out at the quiet garden, letting her gaze drift across the grass to the hedge of white-flowering shrubs at the border. She had a strange sense of a more intimate knowledge about the garden: the sponginess of the lawn, where the roses were planted, and of what lay beyond the hedge.

“I must have dreamt that too,” she sighed as she recalled a pathway that led through a fern forest and ended at another lawn, where there was a tropical swimming pool and a bell-shaped tree. “That’s where I saw Joe,” she said sadly, remembering her excitement at being reunited with Aesop.

It wasn’t long before the shadows lengthened and colour faded with the arrival of dusk. Melinda stood up, gave the garden one last glance, and then left her room. She walked quickly and quietly through the house, darting into empty rooms whenever she thought someone was coming. No one saw her as she scurried into the conservatory, then out through the glass door that led onto the terrace. No one noticed the small dark figure dashing across the lawn, disappearing through the opening in the hedge.

She stumbled along a dark pathway that took her through a forest of leafy-green ferns, plants that looked almost black in the faded light of the early evening. The pathway ended at another lawn; in the distance was a tropical pool and to the left was a bell-shaped tree.

“If I never left Felix’s side, then how did I know about this place?” she whispered angrily. “I didn’t dream it, I couldn’t have,” she insisted as she marched over to the tree.

“Good evening,” Joe said from behind her. “I thought I’d come back one more time to see if you might be here. What happened to you today?”

Melinda spun around and met his eyes; Aesop was staring back. She didn’t waste any time telling him everything, from finding her father as a mouse in a laboratory to Felix insisting that there was no laboratory, to her mother convincing her that she had only been dreaming.

“You are not dreaming,” he answered calmly. “Although I know how you feel. I spent the better part of the day thinking that perhaps I was dreaming.” Joe told her about his day and how, after she failed to show up for their meeting, he called Harmony, who hung up on him no less than fifteen times threatening to call the police unless he stopped bothering her. “She told me that her uncle was dead and that I must be a pretty sick person to play such a cruel prank on her.”

Melinda shook her head. “Why would she do that?”

Joe shook his head with a bewildered expression that distorted his handsome features. “Perhaps for the same reason that your brother and mother are trying to convince you that you have been dreaming—maybe they believe what they’re saying. Horace has done something to them, but I don’t know what, how, or even why.”

“He wants everyone to do what he tells them to do—that’s what he was telling Felix. He said that as soon as the Burungo wore off that Felix would be just like me and Mum.”

“Burungo! So that’s what he was using.” Joe nodded angrily. “But that’s just a sedative, it doesn’t affect the way a person thinks. He’s doing something else to influence their behaviour; it’s like he’s brainwashing everyone. But that’s impossible―brainwashing takes a long time. It doesn’t happen overnight.” He looked at the ground, then into Melinda’s eyes. “What about you—why aren’t you following his orders?”

“I must be immune to his charms,” Melinda snorted, “and I try never to talk to him because he gives me the creeps. Like this morning when he was telling me about how he helped Dad catch a plane.” She paused and the colour drained from her face. “If I’m not dreaming, then Dad
is
a mouse.”

Melinda’s bedside clock read 1:58 a.m. She had watched impatiently while the dial flipped, minute by long slow minute. At 1:59 a.m. she kicked off the covers, her feet landed on the floor and she ran over to the window, unlatched the lock and pulled the panes open. By the time the clock read 2:00 a.m. a small spotted owl had swooped silently into the room.

Quickly she pushed the window closed, then grabbed a pair of her father’s trousers, a shirt, underwear and socks that had been stacked on the pink chair and threw them to within a few inches of the owl. Then she froze her movements and disappeared into her pajamas.

At the same time, Joe emerged from the form of the owl, dressed quickly, then lifted Melinda’s clothing in search of her small body. He smiled when he saw his young friend. Her transformation into a mouse was almost perfect. She was the right size and the right colour, even her feet were perfect. Most of her head was mousey too, including her ears and nose―and if it hadn’t been for her big blue eyes and plump, freckle-covered cheeks, she could have passed for the real thing.

Without a word, and with Melinda safely stowed in his shirt pocket, Joe stole into the hallway, hurried past the bookshelves and silently ran down the main staircase that led to the foyer. He walked slowly past the imposing statue of the Minotaur, standing sentry at the base of the stairs, and then paused briefly to look at the hideous expression on Bes in the centre of the entrance hall before making his way into the hall that led to the library.