But then it came back to him.
“K-Pax! The old one!”
Benny nodded. Bjornita nodded.
“What?” said Malcolm.
“Well …” whispered Benny, “there’s a rumour here on the farm … that K-Pax … can do stuff …”
“Like what?”
“Weird stuff,” said Bjornita, also in a whisper.
“Magic stuff?”
“Yes. Because, sometimes, right …” said Benny, leaning forward, and speaking even more quietly, and looking round, as if they were being watched, “… he baas. Like a sheep!”
“And …” said Bjornita, leaning in to what was now a very close triangle of tortoise heads, “I’ve heard that some of the lady goats in there – because of him – can make milk! Like a cow!”
Malcolm nodded. He took a deep breath.
“Yes. Sorry. None of that is magic.”
“It isn’t?” said Benny.
“No, it’s just what goats do.”
“How do you know?” said Bjornita. “We’re just going by what we’ve heard. Because we can’t see over the fence.”
“No. But I can. I was looking over the fence earlier today. WHEN I WAS A BOY!!”
Benny and Bjornita looked to each other.
“Maybe … maybe he’s telling the truth, Benny.”
“Yes. Maybe he is, Bjorn.”
“… ita.”
“Oh. Yes. Sorry, sometimes even I forget.”
“Well, as I said,” said Bjornita, “being a tortoise is not such a terrible thing to be. But … if it’s true that you are a boy, I can see how it might seem …”
“Terrible,” said Benny. “Absolutely awful.”
“Shut up,” she said. Then she looked at Malcolm, who was hanging his little tortoise head. Bjornita, though quite high and mighty, was not without compassion.
“Listen, Malcolm,” she said, “I’m sure we can find a way out of this. The first question to ask is: why have you been changed into a tortoise? What were you saying to K-Pax?”
Malcolm cast his mind back. Again, it took a bit more of an effort to remember than he’d thought it would, given it wasn’t that long ago. But then the words reappeared in his mind.
“I was saying to him that I didn’t really like – that I didn’t know why I didn’t like – and if there was any way of getting to like …”
Malcolm trailed off. Benny and Bjornita looked at him, quizzically.21
“Look,” Malcolm said, “never mind exactly what I said to K-Pax. I just need to know if there’s anything I can do – anything I need to do – to break the spell.”
“What happened next? After you spoke to him?” said Benny.
“I don’t know. I fell asleep.”
“Well, maybe that’s it!”
“What is?”
“You changed into a tortoise when you fell asleep. So maybe you’ll change back into a human if you fall asleep again …?”
Malcolm thought about this. He had no clue if it was right. Apart from anything, it was, after all, an idea being suggested to him by a tortoise. And y’know: even someone who really liked animals to begin with – even his mum, or dad, or sister – might not necessarily think that the answer to really difficult and mysterious questions lay with Benny the tortoise.
But he didn’t have any other ideas. So, he shrugged his shoulders22 and closed his eyes.
Then he heard a loud slam. And the ground began to shake.