Melinda nodded through huge sobs. “But he was my friend. Why would he run away?”
Jake wrapped his arm around her shoulder and hugged her gently. “He’s an animal first, your friend second. He didn’t run away, he simple wanted to find a nice lady rabbit and have a family,” he said with a sad smile. He was glad that she couldn’t read his mind, as he was sure that the poor bunny had become dinner for a local fox or coyote.
Melinda smiled sadly. “He was my only friend.”
Felix laid the phone back onto Professor Stumpworthy’s desk in the library. He was feeling uncharacteristically sorry for Melinda. Most of her troubles were self-inflicted and he usually had no sympathy for her no matter what she had gotten herself into. But losing her only pet was harsh.
Professor Stumpworthy looked concerned. “Felix, is something wrong?”
Felix smiled and shrugged. “Something good is happening and something bad has happened. My mum’s publisher thinks that her latest book could become a best seller. She told her that it should knock the historical world on its bum,” he said with a chuckle. His smile melted as he continued, “The bad thing is that Melinda’s rabbit, Aesop, is gone.” Felix looked over at Professor Mulligan, who was snoring in front of the fire. “He’ll be happy about my mum’s news, but I wonder if he’ll be upset about Aesop.”
Professor Stumpworthy flashed a strange smile and shook his head. “I shouldn’t think so. James has never been much of an animal lover; that’s why he gave Melinda the rabbit in the first place.”
Felix turned to face Stumpworthy. “Why did you give it to him?”
Stumpworthy looked a little embarrassed. “To be honest, I thought he might use it as a laboratory animal. I don’t really know why he didn’t, but it worked out all right. Your sister had a nice pet for a while.” He stood up and walked over to stand in front of the crackling fire, staring into the flames for a few seconds. “Tell me, Felix, you don’t think the little creature will come to any harm, do you? There aren’t any predators in Seattle, are there?”
“We live in the country, so there are a lot of coyotes and foxes. Sometimes cougars come down from the mountains.”
Felix watched as the professor’s shoulders shook slightly, then in a very strange, squeaky voice he said, “I see. Nature can be cruel at times―but then, life is a bit cruel for all of us occasionally.”
Aesop crept out from beneath the hedge as the Huttons’ car pulled away from the house. He saw clearly that Jake was driving and Elaine and Melinda were passengers. The car disappeared down the lane and that meant the house was empty.
Eagerly, the rabbit sped across the garden towards the house. When he reached the back door he froze his movements, gradually changing from brown to pink. Then his entire body began to contort. His fur seemed to dissolve and his hind legs grew to several times their original length. His long floppy ears receded then flattened against the sides of his head, and his front paws slowly became hands. Within a matter of minutes a tall, muscular man with grey-streaked brown hair appeared.
Aesop examined his hands, looking at them as if for the first time. He looked at his palms, then at his fingers as he clenched his fists. Laughing in delight, he looked at the rest of his body, shivering slightly.
When he was satisfied with his transformation, he began looking around the back porch. There were about a dozen pots of red geraniums lining the steps. His pulse quickened as he lifted each one. Upon hoisting the eighth pot, a wide smile lightened his expression. Quickly he grabbed the gold key that had been hidden underneath, replaced the pot and, with trembling hands, inserted the key into the lock on the door. He turned the handle and dashed inside.
Aesop trotted through the kitchen and down the hallway, up the stairs and directly into Jake and Elaine’s bedroom―more precisely, directly to Jake’s closet. He rummaged through the hangers, choosing a maroon button-down shirt and a pair of casual beige trousers. Next, he hurried over to Jake’s chest of drawers and withdrew underwear and socks. After dressing, he admired himself in the floor-length mirror by the window; the trousers were snug and a couple of inches too short and the shirt pulled at the buttons. He sat down on the bed with a smile.
He seemed excited and exhausted and slightly confused as he sat there for a couple of minutes, then reached over to a bedside table and lifted the phone. Pausing only to take a deep breath, he dialed a number, crossed his fingers and closed his eyes as he listened to the ringing through the receiver. Finally there was an answer and he sighed happily. “Hello,” he said, almost startled at the sound of his own voice. “Could I please speak with Dr. Harmony Melpot?”
CHAPTER TEN
The day arrived when Felix was scheduled to move into the dormitory. Dr. Melpot had volunteered to pick him up and help him get settled; she was due to arrive any minute and Felix was dreading the day ahead of him.
He sighed as he looked out the front windows at the bright October morning. Autumn reds and golden yellows were beginning to mix with the green that dominated the formal gardens. He knew he would miss this place. The professor had promised that he would be back for lots of visits, but it wouldn’t be the same as living here. He had gotten used to the splendor of the estate, and the prospect of settling into a room that was about the same size as his closet here left him feeling a little depressed.
After glancing at his watch another depressing thought blanketed his mood: Dr. Melpot would be there soon. Felix would miss his nightly chats with Professors Mulligan and Stumpworthy as much as he would despise constantly having to avoid Dr. Melpot.
He stepped out through the front doors and filled his lungs with the cool autumn air. The gardens reached out as far as his eye could see, with the distant sound of traffic the only reminder that the estate was in the heart of Paris. Just then a grey flash caught his eye at the far end of the garden―a grey streak that darted across an expanse of lawn in the distance, then disappeared behind a large magnolia tree.
Felix adjusted his glasses and watched as what turned out to be a grey shaggy dog darted across the grass again, then disappeared behind another tree. Seconds later, it poked its head out, looked from side to side, then, in an almost crouched run, crossed the lawn to hide behind another tree.
Felix smiled for the first time that morning as he watched the animal’s bizarre commando-style maneuvering. He laughed out loud as he imagined the dog rolling onto its stomach before opening fire with its imaginary submachine gun.
“That’s Oscar,” Professor Mulligan said, startling Felix as he walked up from behind. “I was watching from the window; you seemed to be enjoying yourself out here so I hadn’t wanted to interrupt, but Harmony just phoned and said she’d be here in about five minutes.”
The smile on Felix’s face disintegrated. He nodded his understanding, returning his attention to the dog Mulligan had called Oscar. “I didn’t know that Professor Stumpworthy had a dog.”
Mulligan laughed heartily. “Oh my, no. Oscar is not Professor Stumpworthy’s. In fact, Oscar doesn’t seem to be terribly fond of Horace at all. He comes around here all the time―I think the kitchen staff must feed him. But when he catches even a glimpse of Horace he goes wild, bears his teeth and growls. To be honest I think that the beast would simply love to take a big chunk out of Horace’s flesh.”
“That’s weird.”
“I suppose it’s another example of Horace’s animal magnetism. That dog would sooner grab Horace by the throat than look at him. I’ve never seen a dog behave like that, but then, I had never seen an attack rabbit either.”
Felix laughed briefly before feeling a slight pang of sadness at the mention of Melinda’s rabbit. “Why doesn’t the professor do something about it—couldn’t he talk to the owners?”
Mulligan shook his head. “Horace is surprisingly affectionate towards animals—even when their preference is to cause him pain.” He patted Felix’s shoulder. “Anyway, it’s not our problem, and we have our own concerns―work to do, places to go, or what
ever that old cliché is. I’ll see you at school on Monday.” He trundled back into the house, leaving Felix alone on the front steps.
Seconds later the dog darted out again, running from tree to tree until it was close enough for Felix to see it clearly. Without thinking about his movements, Felix walked down the steps and whistled for Oscar to come.
The dog stopped in his tracks, sniffed the air and began taking tentative steps towards Felix, wagging its tail slowly.
Felix could see that the dog’s coat was rough and unkempt; he looked malnourished and frightened. “If only my dad was here,” Felix whispered as the poor sickly animal came closer. Tentatively, Oscar inched his way toward Felix―then, as if frightened by something unseen, stopped, lowered his head, bared his teeth and growled.
“It’s OK, boy,” Felix called nervously at the same time that a stinging pain hit the back of his neck. His eyes rolled up and the ground hit his face before he had even realized that he was falling. He heard the dog yelp painfully…he felt the warmth of the sun…he was aware that he was lying face down on the moist grass, but he was completely helpless to do anything about it.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Harmony Melpot smiled as she replaced a small picture of a man into the top drawer of her desk, looking up as Professor Mulligan marched into her office. “Please, come in,” she said tersely.
Professor Mulligan looked more disheveled than usual. “There’s no change, I’m afraid,” he said, shaking his head. “Horace has talked with the doctors and has secured Felix’s release from the hospital.”
“If there’s no change,” Harmony said hotly, “then why is Horace arranging for his release?”
“You didn’t let me finish,” Mulligan wheezed. “Since Felix is still in a coma, and doesn’t appear to be worsening, Horace has arranged to have the boy moved back into his house. That way, when his parents and sister arrive, they’ll be together; after all, the boy’s father is a doctor.”
Harmony seemed to ponder this for a few seconds. “Do the doctors at the hospital have any idea what is wrong with him?” she asked, tapping her fingers on the desk.
Mulligan shrugged his bulky shoulders. “They don’t know for sure, but they’re guessing that he’s had a rather serious reaction to an insect sting.”
Harmony raised a single eyebrow and leaned forward over her desk. “That’s what I assumed when I found him lying in the grass…there was a tiny red mark on the back of his neck, like a bee sting.”
Mulligan nodded. “I actually didn’t come in here to discuss his diagnosis. As the teacher in charge of his dorm, I simply wanted you to know about Horace’s plans.”
Harmony’s eyes narrowed. “Of course,” she said curtly. “Horace has everything under control.”
Felix would have smiled if he could have when his father lifted his eyelids. He had heard his voice, along with his mother’s and sister’s, when they came into the room. It was wonderful to see their faces, even if only for a second or two. After Jake had finished examining Felix’s eyes, he closed the lids again, returning Felix to the blackness that he had become accustomed to over the last few days.
It wasn’t an uncomfortable feeling, but it was one that Felix wouldn’t have chosen. He was in a state of absolute relaxation. He didn’t feel any pain but he did feel. In fact, he felt everything from the touch of a hand to the jab of a needle. He could hear and, if someone would open his eyes for him, he was able to see, too. The truth of the matter was that even though he was totally paralyzed, he was comfortable. In fact, he had never been so comfortable. He couldn’t move a muscle, not even to open his eyes, and for some strange reason he didn’t mind. It was like he was in a state of suspended animation where he knew that the world was functioning around him but was not terribly interested in taking part.
The last few days had been very strange. It seemed only an instant after he had fallen onto the grass that Dr. Melpot found him. He had thought about standing up but he couldn’t. He tried to speak but he couldn’t. He had no idea how he had gotten into such a state and he didn’t care.
He was glad to be back in Stumpworthy’s house, having not enjoyed the stay at the hospital very much. Being examined by all those doctors left him feeling like he was nothing more than a specimen to poke and prod, much like the unfortunate toads from his biology class. He was glad his father had arrived. He felt confident that he wouldn’t be subjected to any more of the hospital’s dehumanizing examinations―and maybe, he thought, the daily jabs in the back of his neck would stop.
Melinda stayed with Felix when her mother and father left the room with Professor Stumpworthy. She walked over to his bed, lifted his eyelids and stared into his eyes. “You’re OK, aren’t you?” she smiled, feeling certain that he was. The way the adults had been talking she thought that she would look into an unseeing gaze, but Felix’s eyes were full of life. They didn’t move or respond in any way, but Melinda was sure that he could see.
She smiled, reached up and pulled the big hat off her head, revealing long, pink, floppy rabbit ears. “I got rid of the pink eyes and whiskers,” she giggled, grabbing hold of her ears and pulling them out to the side, “but I’ve had these ever since Aesop ran away. Mum makes me wear that hat all the time now.”
Felix would have laughed if he could have. Before he came to Paris, the sight of his sister in this state would have unnerved him, but now it didn’t matter and actually seemed funny.
Melinda looked around the room, noticing it for the first time. The massive four-poster bed faced tall windows that overlooked the garden. To the left was the door that led out to the hallway; the room was dominated by a beautiful marble fireplace. The wall it faced had a huge dark brown antique armoire in the centre with modern paintings on either side; Melinda wondered if one of them was a real Picasso. On one end of that wall was a doorway leading into a walk-through closet, then into a private green marble bathroom. “Wow, Felix, this place is awesome. Your room is bigger than our whole upstairs in Seattle.” She turned back to face him, still holding his eyelids open. “I wish you could tell me what happened to you. Then maybe we could figure out how to make you better.”
Felix was so relaxed, he wondered if he even cared.
Harmony Melpot waited at Terminal 1 at Charles De Gaulle Airport. She was early, having arrived a full hour before the flight was due to land. Time moved incredibly slowly. She felt that she had been waiting for days. She smiled, thinking that in a way she had been; it had been three days since she’d received the phone call that had changed her life.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Harmony’s eyes seemed to smile as she searched the passengers’ faces, wondering if he would still look like the image in the faded photograph that she clutched tightly in her hand. Her heart leapt when any tall, dark-haired man walked into the arrivals hall, but he wasn’t among them. Fewer passengers were coming into the terminal now; it was down to a trickle of mostly elderly or disabled people. She wondered if she had only imagined the whole thing, if he wasn’t coming. She looked down at her feet, blinking wildly as she tried to stop the tears that were beginning to cloud her vision.
“Harmony,” a man’s voice said flatly. “New haircut?”
Harmony looked up into his handsome face. “New as of five years ago.” She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. “What took you so long?” She pushed away and looked at him eagerly. “You don’t look like a rabbit,” she smirked.
He smiled happily. “If you want, you can still call me Aesop―I’m used to it after all these years. Although, I must admit that I prefer Joe.”
Harmony drove out of the airport car park, listening to her uncle’s explanation of what had happened to him more than six years ago. “I knew it!” Harmony shrieked proudly.
Joe looked at his niece with a raised eyebrow. “You knew about the virus?”
She glanced at him briefly, then returned her attention to the road. “No, of course not, but I was convinced that Horace was behind yo
ur death.” She paused, then laughed, “I mean disappearance. Mulligan hates me for thinking that way.”
Joe shrugged. “I thought Horace and I were good friends—if the circumstance was reversed and it was Mulligan who had disappeared, I wouldn’t have blamed Horace either. Of course, James Mulligan is human, so I don’t know what effect the virus has on them.” He thought about that for a few seconds, than continued, “After Horace injected me with the virus, I began to transform into all sorts of animals until my body settled into the form of a rabbit. Afterward, Horace explained how the virus works. An Athenite has the natural ability to fight the effects by spontaneously transforming into a creature that has immunity. It can be anything, and for some reason, for me, it turned out to be a rabbit. The effects are meant to be permanent but, as you can see, they weren’t.”
Harmony glanced at him briefly. “What happened to bring you back to being you?”
Joe shrugged. “Science is your field, not mine—maybe you can tell me.”
Harmony smiled. “I’ll work on it.” She thought for a minute, then looked nervously at her uncle. “Do you think that Mulligan is involved?”
Joe shook his head. “No, Horace hates humans as much as he doesn’t care for Athenites who might upset his cozy little setup. The man has made his fortune by using his abilities to manipulate people. Mulligan has never represented a threat and has been a useful source of information because of his scientific and business connections.
“I became a threat when I discovered those hieroglyphs in Turkey,” Joe explained. “Those writings could not only prove our ancestral existence, but also prove Athenites had once lived openly in human society. Disclosing that to the world would have changed the course of history, taking mythology out of fantasyland.”
Harmony looked baffled. “I don’t understand why Horace would be so opposed to the idea. What difference would it make to him?”
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