Malcolm at Midnight, page 15
Clyde looked at him in disgust. "So what're you going to do now? Go back to your friends—the ones who threw you out?"
Malcolm didn't know. But he did know he couldn't live like Clyde. And now he knew there were two things left he needed to do. A note for Amelia and Jovahn. And something for you, Mr. Binney.
In the distance, a shadow flickered in front of the moon. Malcolm acknowledged it with a nod. He pulled on the ring on Clyde's tail. "This wasn't Snip's to give away," he said. "It belongs to someone else."
Clyde growled and yanked back. He was so mad he was foaming. "You'll see. Living on your own. You'll starve. You'll see what you're willing to do then!" He shoved Malcolm, and Malcolm stumbled on the window ledge. "You're nothing but a spoiled pet. You might as well be a mou—"
His words were cut off by a white swoop. A ghost dropped silently out of the sky and scooped Clyde from the windowsill with long talons. Clyde was so surprised, the ring slipped from his tail.69 It spun through the air for a moment, its midnight blue stone dazzly glim with the moonlight. Then Malcolm—with the agility only a rat possesses—stretched out the tip of his ratty tail and neatly caught the ring.
The ghostly barn owl banked upward. He turned. And as he flew over the school with that rat fink Clyde in his talons, he nodded to Malcolm. "Perhaps I can help you," he said in his deep voice. "Know a special place for this one." Then he flew out of sight, over the oak trees.
And it was only then that a voice from inside the school spoke. A familiar voice. It said, "Perhaps you'd like to come in now. It's getting quite chilly with the window broken."
Chapter 31
Dwell Here
Malcolm was so startled by the voice, he tripped on the window ledge and fell into the room. He was on top of a bookshelf, where he tangled with a model skeleton, before crashing to the floor, the floor of the library.
A circle of critters surrounded Malcolm. But Malcolm stared at only one of them.
"Aggy," Malcolm gasped. "You're here! You're better!"
Aggy bowed her head. Her scales had gained some luster since Malcolm had last seen her. "Yes. Alive and improving, thanks to you."
Billy burst through then and flung her paws around Malcolm's neck. "Malcolm, you're alive. I'm so glad. We're so glad." Ouch! Something under Malcolm ground into his hind leg, but he was too happy to care.
Harriet the hedgehog sniffed. "We were trying to have an Academy meeting. Our first since Aggy was recovered and the school was flooded. And then you fell in." Everyone looked up at the broken window. Malcolm shifted.
And the chalky white stone rolled out from under him.
The Academy all stared at it. Malcolm looked around, almost too afraid to ask. "Did you—did you all—"
"We heard, Malcolm," Jesse said. "We did. We all heard Clyde."
Tank the turtle nudged him. "We thought it was you. HB had seen a rat ... we never knew Clyde was still around."
"Peep! Speak! Heap!" The three chicks interrupted.
Pete tucked his pincher in his shell and smiled sheepishly at the birds. "Um, perhaps you did try to tell us."
"Hey, they said a new word!" Jesse hooted. He high-fived each of them.70
Malcolm continued, "Clyde said he was in the Academy once."
Aggy nodded. "Clyde's is a long story, but it's why some found it so hard to trust a rat. He was Honey Bunny's pledge." She cleared her throat. "And Honey Bunny doesn't like to make mistakes."
At those words, Malcolm's throat gummed up. "I made a mistake about Honey Bunny. I thought he was the one working with Snip." He swallowed but pressed on. It was important to get it all out. "I was so sure it was Honey Bunny that I didn't consider anyone else."
Silence settled on the group. Then from behind Harriet, someone cleared his throat. "I think I said to not call me that."
Malcolm's eyes bugged out. How could it be? But yes, alive and scowling, with his ear bandaged and his back leg in a cast. A pink one. Honey Bunny.
"You're alive! But—but—how?"
Honey Bunny shrugged. "The tents in the courtyard."
Malcolm's mouth opened, but nothing came out. What do you say to someone you thought you had killed but then ended up not?
Honey Bunny cuffed him lightly. "Look, don't worry about it, runt. You were doing what you thought was right. No less than me. And if it weren't for you—well, who knows what Snip would have done."
The rest of the group pressed in. "Yes," said Harriet. "Aggy, we're going to reinstate, him aren't we?"
The rest of the group murmured in agreement.
Malcolm cleared his throat to interrupt. "Thank you, everyone, but please—wait. I don't want to lie anymore. No more secrets. I did talk to a nutter. Actually, two now. And I—well, I'm going to again." Malcolm pulled his tail out so that everyone could see the ring. "I need to give this back to a lanky."
Honey Bunny sighed. He hobbled closer. "Malcolm, I think we —I —gave you the wrong impression. Helping nutters and lankies is what we do. Yes, talking to them is unconventional, but I think I need to say that I've been unfair. I couldn't see beyond the fact that you are a rat." He blew out a gust of air. "I'm sorry. If you need to talk to a lanky to make things right, then we owe you that much. By claw, I'd walk you there myself, if it weren't for this busted-up leg."
Malcolm felt a warm glow growing in his chest. "Thank you, Honey—HB." He ducked his head down.
"So it's settled. You'll return to the Academy. After you return the ring," Aggy said briskly. She certainly was back to herself. "Well, do we all agree that Malcolm here shall be considered a full member? I think his pledge time is more than over."
Malcolm looked from critter face to critter face. Harriet sniffed but didn't say anything.
But something was still bothering Malcolm. Yes, he wanted to be back with the Academy, with McKenna School, with the nutters, but maybe the critters didn't know—"Aggy? I'd love to join you, but I can't go back to Room Eleven. I bit a nutter."
From the front desk, a splashing noise started up. "Oscar!" Billy cried. She darted up to the aquarium, where Oscar shifted and rearranged the beads and letters. Billy read aloud, "WELCOME BACK NOT A RAT. R FOUR TWENTY-THREE."71
"R four twenty-three?" Jesse repeated. Octavius shrugged.
But Malcolm knew what Oscar meant. He moved to the bookshelves. "R four twenty-three." Malcolm stopped in front of a giant dictionary on a bottom shelf. It was as big as six social studies textbooks stacked together. It was almost as big as Malcolm's f super-deluxe cage back in Room 11.
Malcolm sniffed it. He pawed at it. And then he saw it. On the spine of the book. A Mark.
The Midnight Academy had followed Malcolm to the book. Aggy sucked in her breath. "That's an old one. We don't even use it anymore. It means 'dwell here.'" She looked around at the group and everyone shook their heads. How long had this been Marked? Why? Who else had lived there?
Malcolm squeezed around to the back of the shelf. And found that the book was hollowed out. He could dwell here. He could stay snug as a ... well, a rat in a really big dictionary. And by night? He'd come out to serve the Academy.
Aggy said, "Octavius? We'll need to record all this. Malcolm, you weren't in the Academy long enough to know, but we keep minutes of all adventures and transactions. You'll need to start meeting with Octavius."
Malcolm poked his head out from his new dictionary dwelling. It had given him an idea. "Um, Aggy? What if—would it be okay—well, Amelia—my nutter—she and I kind of have a system. And she's a really fast typist. Maybe if I told the story to her, she could write it down?"
The other critters fell silent.
It was Honey Bunny who spoke up. "I think that's a grand idea. That frees up Octavius here. Because we still have a lot of loose ends to wrap up. There's been no sign of Snip since yesterday night, but we're not sure what that means. And I'd like to talk to that owl—from a respectable distance, mind you—to see what he did with that scoundrel Clyde. Maybe he'd like to join us. We could use some reconnaissance on the outside..."
Honey Bunny blathered on, but Malcolm's ears drooped. Gristle, he was tired again. And the Niche was so cozy. Someone had filled it with rags. They didn't smell quite as nice as Amelia's strawberry shampoo, but they'd do. Malcolm wiggled in. The murmur of the Academy filled the room as Malcolm folded his ears down and pulled his tail around him. The ring was still there. It'd be okay for a while longer. A nap, then Malcolm would put the ring on your desk, Mr. Binney. And then maybe a snack. Malcolm wondered if Jesse or Billy would be up for a Nosh and Fodder later on. Or maybe he'd take them down to play in the boiler room.
But before he could even ask, Malcolm drifted off to sleep.
And we all know what that meant.
Being the rat you are—a rat of valor and merit—is really very exhausting.
Or maybe it meant that Malcolm the Rat was finally, finally home.
Epilogue, or, Thought you Might Want to Know
Dear Readers,
It should be noted that this story—Malcolm's story—isn't completely done, even though the writers have finished writing it. No, there's one last part you should know about.
One day in winter, not long after Mr. Binney read Malcolm's story, the fifth-graders of Room 11 came into the classroom to find their teacher sitting on his stool as usual at the front of the room. On one side of him sat Ms. Brumble.72 On the other side was Malcolm's old three-story cage—with the drip-free antibacterial water bottle, fleece-lined Comf-E-Cube, tail-safe wheel, and all.
Mr. Binney grinned. "Come on in, everybody. I'd like to introduce you to our new classroom pet." He reached his hand in the cage, scooped out a critter, and placed him on his shoulder. "Malcolm. Meet Malcolm the Rat."
"But Mr. Binney, that's the same mou—"
Mr. Binney carefully cleared his throat. "No, Kiera," he said firmly. "Can't you tell? This is clearly a rat. Not a mouse. Look at his magnificent tail. His whiskers. His intelligent coffee-black eyes. Clearly a rat. A rat of some valor and merit, in fact. Right, Amelia? Jovahn?"
Amelia and Jovahn, who were sitting next to each other, grinned back. "Right," said Amelia.
"But—" Kiera started.
Jovahn elbowed her gently. "He's definitely a rat, Kiera."
"Furthermore, I have a new read-aloud for us," Mr. Binney said, moving on. (Mr. Binney had learned in all his years of teaching that sometimes what works best with students like Kiera is to Just Keep Going.)
The class drew up their chairs. It wasn't really read-aloud time—first thing in the morning. But no one was going to argue with Mr. Binney. Ever since the morning he had found that ring on his desk, he had been different. And any numb-brain would take read-aloud over the usual daily math warm-up.
"Today," said Mr. Binney, "I'm going to read to you one of my favorite stories." He reached behind him and pulled out a stack of papers. "It's a story about a rat hero. It's called Malcolm at Midnight."
And that, Readers, is the real end of the story. Thought you might want to know. It turns out that a lot happens in a school even if the teachers are looking.
Sincerely,
Mr. Mark Binney, fifth grade teacher
Acknowledgments
I Know (with a capital K) that Malcolm would not be who he is without the support and input from a long list of people: My early listener, Cal. My very patient sounding boards, Don and Eli. My writer-readers, Kami Kinard, Kathryn Erskine, and Kristen Kittscher. The SCBWI for a work-in-progress grant encouraging me to finish my silly footnoted talking animal mystery. Linda Pratt, for finding Malcolm such a happy home. Brian Lies, for his questions as well as his art. And finally, everyone at Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, especially Kate O'Sullivan, Scott Magoon, Rachel Wasdkye, and Jennifer LaBracio. Crumb, you guys are good.
Footnotes
1 This'll come later, too. Just wait.
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2 Duplicity = dishonesty. Extra credit spelling/vocabulary word from Nov. 18's list. See? You thought our brains were like holey buckets, that nothing stayed in them. Not true. At least for most of us. Maybe it's true for Kiera.
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3 One way rats are superior to mice.
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4 Except for the mouse-rat thing.
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5 Some people think rats can compress their bones to fit through small spaces. They can't. But they are extremely flexible. Unlike mice.
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6 You've probably never noticed, but if you looked at Malcolm's tail, you'd know in an instant he was a rat and not a mouse. Rats' tails are much more magnificent.
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7 You should see all the stupid stunts Jovahn pulls when you're out of the room.
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8 You probably recognize these pets from the classrooms around you, Mr. Binney. You might also have a hard time believing the next bit. But stay with me.
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9 I'm not sure we need to mention to Mrs. Snyder that her glasses are worn by a lizard at night. She has enough to worry about with overdue books.
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10 Have you ever seen an iguana smile? It's not the most comforting thing to see. Especially if you are smaller than she is.
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11 I probably don't need to note that it was Skylar. But maybe you don't know that that was how Simon got his bloody nose.
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12 Jovial = cheerful. Kiera was positively jovial when she and Tianna were paired up in science class. Vocabulary from 12/3.
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13 Valor = heroic courage. Mr. Binney shows valor in choosing to teach fifth-graders year after year. Vocabulary from 9/2.
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14 Merit = worthy of praise. Jovahn's ability to burp the alphabet is of merit, if you are impressed with such things. Also from 9/2.
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15 Especially after recess and from Jovahn.
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16 That was Amelia Vang's.
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1 Malcolm vowed he would grow them out—so he could better serve the Academy. But gristle, it was hard!
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18 Malcolm suspects it was Amelia's tender touch that clouded his judgment and caused him to do what he did next. It's not an excuse for it, mind you. Just a reason.
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19 Kiera says she can judge your mood by how much your hair sticks up in the back, Mr. Binney. The spikier the hair, the grumpier the mood. I hate to say it, but she may have something there.
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20 Believe me, never before had Malcolm so wished he could write. He'd have a lot to say about that story if he could.
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21 Granny Smith, right?
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22 Not the whiskers part so much.
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23 Did you catch what Malcolm had done? If not, you'll just have to keep reading.
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24 Remember how much Kiera complained about the walking on the nature center field trip? Malcolm felt a little like that, only he didn't gripe about it. And he wasn't wearing jeweled flip-flops in the woods.
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25 Remember Skylar's crayon "waterfall" and the lecture about not keeping things on the radiator, Mr. Binney? That took him ages to clean up.
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26 Again, I have to say that if anyone ever took a close look at Malcolm's teeth, they'd have no doubt he was a rat. No mouse has the power he does behind those chompers. Believe me, I know.
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27 Part of the last Academy meeting had been an explanation of telling time. Maybe you should have Aggy teach "quarter to" and "quarter after" sometime to Skylar, Mr. Binney.
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28 Truthfully, no one—especially Skylar—would ever notice.
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29 Malcolm's a lot like Amelia in this way. She doesn't like to not take a challenge either. That's how she and Jovahn got into that very immature staring contest one afternoon. She shouldn't have let Jovahn annoy her into it. She knew better.
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30 No, he wasn't extra plump because of all the animal crackers.
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31 Caribbean, maybe? Pete came from a beach in Jamaica, it turns out.
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32 Disheveled = untidy, unruly. It's kind of the opposite of Amelia. Nothing about her bag or locker is ever disheveled. Vocabulary from 10/4.
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33 Abysmal = horrible. As it turns out, our math test scores were abysmal. Guess we do need those morning warm-ups. Vocabulary from 10/13.
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34 Yes, rats sweat through their feet. If you think about it, it's not any stranger than sweating through your armpits.
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35 In fact, he had intended to ask Aggy about it, but then, well, you know.
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36 Sadly, no scritch ... scritch ... scritch from Aggy.
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37 Asbestos. Not a vocabulary word, but according to Malcolm's New Webster's Student Dictionary, it's a substance used in buildings a long time ago for insulations and fireproofing. Unfortunately, it also causes cancer.
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