Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism (26 page)

T
hat night, Molly and Rocky finally went to bed at two A.M. At four o’clock Molly woke up.

The full December moon was shining through the window, its beams drenching Molly’s bed.

Molly felt strange. Her hands began to sweat, and then, as if something were calling her, she got out of bed, put on her robe and slippers, and took the leather-bound hypnotism book from under her mattress.

As if in a dream, Molly found herself leaving the bedroom, descending the staircase, collecting a coat, and stepping out into the frosty night.

The moon lit the way as she opened the orphanage gates, trod the icy road that led down the hill, and walked toward the village.

Molly felt drawn. Pulled. And she didn’t mind the cold. Nor did she feel frightened. She simply felt she had to do something, although what exactly she didn’t know. She found herself stopping finally at the Briersville Library. She walked up its stone steps, past its old stone lions, and into the library lobby. Across the way, in the reading room, she could see a light on. She walked to the door and pushed.

There, sitting behind her desk, was the librarian.

“Ah,” she said, looking up, smiling. “So you’re back.” And looking out the window at the full moon, she added, “And perfectly punctual.”

When she said that, Molly suddenly snapped out of her dreamlike state. She felt as if she’d just woken up from a very good sleep. There she was, in her robe, coat, and slippers, in the library reading room, with the hypnotism book under her arm. In a daze she offered it to the librarian.

“Thank you, Molly. I hope it helped you,” said the librarian, taking off her spectacles.

Molly began to find her bearings. She looked at the librarian quizzically, wondering how she knew her name. Then she realized that the librarian must have seen her name scores of times when she had taken out books. But how did she know she was coming? Molly
asked suspiciously, “What did you mean when you said that I’d come back ‘perfectly punctual’? I can’t remember making any arrangement with you.”

She thought back to how she’d stolen the hypnotism book from the library. Had the librarian seen her? She felt embarrassed that she’d been caught red-handed. She’d wanted to put the hypnotism book back quietly to make everything better. But then she thought again. She was
sure
she’d smuggled the book away when the librarian wasn’t looking. So how did the woman know? Did they have cameras in the library? Suddenly Molly felt very muddled.

The librarian smiled. “Oh, Molly, don’t worry. Come and sit over here.” Molly sat down at the desk, in front of the librarian. And for the first time Molly looked at her properly.

She was a studious-looking woman, but now that she had taken her spectacles off, Molly saw she wasn’t as old as she had seemed before. She wore her hair in an old-fashioned bun, and some of it was going gray, but her face didn’t match it. Her face was young and smooth, and as she smiled, her eyes lit up with kindness.

“You probably thought I never noticed you, Molly, since I always had my nose stuck in a book or a file. But I did notice you. I noticed how you’d come in here so lonely and cold, and sit by the radiators. I had my eye
on you for ages. I wanted to help you. I had a feeling you would learn something—well, a lot really—from the hypnotism book. So on that afternoon when you came in here, all wet and bedraggled, I hypnotized you. Do you remember waking up after a sleep on the floor?”

Molly nodded, bewildered.

“Well, that sleep was brought on by me. I hypnotized you when I said hello to you. And while you thought you were just sleeping, I, in fact, was suggesting things to you. I hypnotized you to find the book. I thought that four weeks with it would be the right amount of time for you to have an adventure. So I asked you to bring it back on the night of the December full moon.”

“Perfectly punctual …” Molly said.

“That was the phrase that I said would wake you up from your full-moon walk. You weren’t hypnotized to do anything else, by the way. Everything else that has happened to you was your
own
adventure.”

“Normally I’m so late for everything!” said Molly, although her next thought was that, actually, she hadn’t been late for anything for weeks. “But how come you didn’t give the book to Nockman?” asked Molly, trying to think straight.

“Oh, him. That liar. I had done some research and found that a Professor Nockman did not exist at the Chicago Museum. Not in any department. Before he’d
set foot in this country, I knew he was a fraud. And also, by then, I’d been thinking about you. I wanted to lend it to you.” The librarian switched off the light on her desk.

Molly was just starting to wake up, and questions were filling her head. “I’m not dreaming, am I?” she asked.

“No,” laughed the librarian. “But you should be. You should be in bed, fast asleep. I would love to talk to you properly, when we’re both fully awake,” she added. “As soon as you’ve got a moment, let’s meet up for tea. You can tell me some of the adventures that you had, and I’ll tell you some of mine.”

“You had adventures using hypnotism too?”

“Of course. Everyone who finds that they have the gift has adventures. I rarely use my skills now, though. I use them sometimes, just to help people. I find that’s best.”

“Like you helped me?”

“Did I? I’m so glad.”

For a moment Molly was quiet, as she thought of how much she’d changed over the last few weeks. She might still be miserable if it weren’t for the librarian.

“Thank you,” she said. “Erm, sorry, I don’t even know your name.”

“It’s Lucy Logan,” said the kind-faced woman.

“Like the doctor?” she gasped. “Like the Dr. Logan who wrote the book?”

“He was my great-grandfather,” Lucy Logan replied, smiling again. “But look, you’ve had enough surprises for tonight. So let’s both go now, and Molly, come back and visit whenever you like, and I’ll tell you all about my great-grandfather and we can talk about hypnotism. All right?”

Molly nodded and got up from the table.

As she left the library, Lucy Logan waved. “And Happy Christmas, Molly, if I don’t see you before then!”

“Happy Christmas,” said Molly, dizzy from the night’s revelations.

Molly walked back home under the December moon. Every so often she shook her head as she thought of an episode from the past few weeks, reliving exciting or scary moments and seeing how chance had been on her side. She marveled at how things had unfolded.

As she padded up the country road, thick, soft snowflakes started to fall, and the ground underfoot became white and gently crunchy. Trees above the hedgerow by the road seemed to beckon her onward.

Molly saw the Briersville billboard, lit up in the distance. The Qube people in the swimsuits looked as
though their shiny teeth would be chattering now. And Molly thought how funny it was that only a month ago she’d thought these people were wonderful and she’d longed to be like them. Now she couldn’t care less about their Qube life. She had her own life to live, and it was far more interesting and meaningful to her than theirs.

Snow filled the air, swirling about Molly, muffling noises so that her walk was extra quiet and private. She felt truly excited about her life for the first time ever. She liked being Molly Moon.

The hypnotism book had taught her that she had the power to learn anything, as long as she tried. Six months ago, if someone had told her she could be a great hypnotist, she wouldn’t have believed them because she’d believed she was rotten at everything. Now she couldn’t wait to try all sorts of other things. She would start cross-country running just to see if she could get better at it. And she would really learn how to tap dance. Not to become a hugely famous tap dancer, but just to become good enough to enjoy it.

Now, there were only five days to go until Christmas! Molly had been so busy, she’d clean forgotten. She smiled. This was going to be the
best
Christmas
ever.

Molly breathed in the fresh cold night air and grinned at the still, sleeping countryside. Tonight, life
was almost too exciting. What had she thought when she’d first found the hypnotism book? That the possibilities it could bring were endless? Tonight Molly felt that was certainly true about her life. From the top of her head to the tips of her toes. Life felt completely magical.

Ahead, the road shone like a silver ribbon in the moonlight, all the way home to Happiness House.

grew up by the River Itchen in Hampshire, England, in a large family. After leaving school, she studied drama and worked as an actor and children’s entertainer. She lives in London with the artist Marc Quinn, her daughter, Tiger, and baby son, Lucas. This is her first novel.

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Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism Copyright © 2002 by Georgia Byng

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EPub Edition © SEPTEMBER 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-03407-6

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Byng, Georgia.

Molly Moon’s incredible book of hypnotism / Georgia Byng.

—1st American ed.

p. cm.

Summary: Unlucky and unloved, Molly Moon, living in a dreary orphanage in a small town, discovers a hidden talent for hypnotism and hypnotizes her way to stardom in New York City.

ISBN 0-06-051406-X-ISBN 0-06-051407-8 (lib. bdg.)

[1. Orphans—Fiction. 2. Hypnotism—Fiction. 3. Friendship—Fiction. 4. England—Fiction. 5. New York (N.Y.)-Fiction.] I. Title.

First American Edition

First published in Britain by Macmillan Children’s Books, 2002

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