As the animals were led by Sanjit and Luke towards the petting zoo, Zsa-Zsa said to Malcolm:

“Right. What should we look out for?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your family, Fatty Bum-Bum. What do they look like?”

“Er …” Malcolm thought. He tried to picture them. But it was hard.

“Come on, Malcolm,” said Zsa-Zsa.

“I can’t remember …” he said quietly. “The longer I’ve been an animal, the more my human memories seem to be … going …”

Ludwig stopped and turned. “Try, Malcolm,” he said, kindly. “I suspect that of all your memories, this is the one you need to hold on to the most.”

As Ludwig said this, Malcolm realised that it was true – if he was ever going to get back to being human, the one memory he mustn’t lose was the image, somewhere in his mind, of his family.

He realised something else as well. Which was that Ludwig may not have been able to read or write – and he may have been slightly pompous and absurd – but it was true: he was a very wise pig.

So he shut his eyes and thought, thought hard, about what his family were like. And a faint image came back to him, of Stewart and Jackie and Bert and Libby and Grandpa, of them all coming to the zoo together, as he knew they did every Sunday, and going straight to … going straight to …

“Hey, guys!” he said, opening his eyes. “I’ve remembered something!”

Unfortunately, however, when he had shut his eyes, Malcolm had also stopped walking.

None of the other animals had.

So now they were nowhere to be seen.