On her way to Dudley's house, Beat stopped at the post office and retrieved a black bag from a safe deposit box.
Her parents, Roger and Penny Simon, socialized with Dudley's adoptive parents, Bob and Babette Green, in the living room as Beat visited Dudley in his bedroom.
"We'd better make sure there's no hanky-panky going on," said Mrs. Simon as she sipped a cup of herbal tea. "Mrs. Green, would you please have a look?"
When Babette peered inside Dudley's room, she saw the rat boy and the rabbit-aardvark girl holding up a black device consisting of a wire with visors at each end and a control unit in the middle.
She returned to the living room to report. "They're just playing with toys."
"This device is called the Opticron," Beat explained to Dudley. "It transmits thought patterns through light waves. I put my visor over my eyes, and you put your visor over your eyes, and I push the button, and you see a series of colors, and before you know it, you're me, and I'm you."
"Incredible," said Dudley in amazement. "Let's see if it works, shall we?"
"By all means."
In a few seconds, both Beat and Dudley were sporting black visors on their faces, and Beat was clutching the control unit, preparing to activate the device.
"Keep your eyes open for five full seconds," she instructed Dudley. "Don't blink."
In the back of Beat's overcrowded mind, she heard the faint voices of two girls protesting what was about to happen to them. She ignored them and pushed the button.
A kaleidoscopic display of vibrant colors exploded before their eyes. The images changed rapidly, too rapidly for their conscious minds to follow. Dudley did his best not to blink. Several seconds passed.
The scintillating colors abruptly vanished. Dudley, sensing that the procedure was finished, reached up and plucked the visor from his face. To his shock, the first thing he saw was a red skirt that covered his legs in the place of his pants.
He looked down at his hands—the fingers were more slender, the shade of the skin lighter. He reached up to feel his head—shoulder-length hair tied by ribbons, and a pair of elongated ears. He cried out in delight—the voice had a girlish pitch.
Thrilled but frightened, he leaped down from the bed and rushed into the bathroom, feeling taller than normal. The mirror reported astonishing news—he was now the spitting image of Beat Simon, complete with rabbit ears, aardvark nose, red dress, long hair, and other female features.
"I'm a girl again!" she shrieked with joy.
Eager to tell the world of her good fortune, Beat/Dudley bounded out of the bathroom, waving her arms and squealing cheerfully. The next sight to greet her eyes, however, was not a happy one.
A terrified-looking rat boy with a metal brace on his nose was staring at her in disbelief. From Beat's perspective, she was looking at her own jubilant body through the rat boy's eyes. There was no Putnam or Mavis in her mind—she was alone.
Screaming like a banshee, the rat boy nearly knocked Beat/Dudley over in his rush to the bathroom mirror.
"Bloody hell, I'm a BOY!"
"I thought you didn't mind," said Beat/Dudley as she laid a hand on the dazed, disgusted rat boy's shoulder in hopes of comforting him. Dudley/Beat didn't say a word, or even breathe, but only stared incredulously at his boyish reflection.
Trying to be helpful, Beat/Dudley retrieved the black device from the floor, where it had been tossed carelessly. "I tried to warn you that being a boy is unpleasant," she scolded the petrified girl-turned-boy. "But you still have your device. You can change back whenever you so desire."
The sight of the device in Beat/Dudley's hands snapped Dudley/Beat from his trance. "The Opticron," he muttered hopefully. "I can use it to switch us back." He grabbed the device and started to turn it around in his hands. As he looked over the obscurely-marked controls, utter despair overwhelmed him.
"I DON'T KNOW HOW!"
"Don't be absurd," Beat/Dudley chided him. "You used it before."
"I-I don't understand," stammered the increasingly frantic Dudley/Beat. "Putnam's memories should have transferred with mine. I should know how to use the device, but I don't, and now...and now I'm stuck like this!"
The sound of Dudley/Beat's desperate tears attracted both sets of parents into the bedroom. "What happened, Dudley?" asked Mrs. Green. "Why are you crying?"
"I'm Dudley," Beat/Dudley filled her in. Pointing to the sorrowing rat boy, she added, "This is Beat."
"Oh, I see," said Mrs. Green playfully. "It's a game. Why are you crying, Beat?"
"Because I'm a boy!" Dudley/Beat wailed.
When Mr. Simon saw the Opticron device lying on the floor where Dudley/Beat had dropped it, he slapped his forehead in dismay. "Oh, Lord, they've switched bodies."
The combined efforts of the Simons and the Greens failed to console the miserable Dudley/Beat. While he sulked on the couch, Beat/Dudley pranced back and forth in front of the full-length mirror, admiring her beautiful new form.
"I don't remember why I wanted to switch with him," Dudley/Beat lamented. "Maybe Muffy put me up to it."
"I know I should be helping," said Beat/Dudley as she watched her skirt swing back and forth in the mirror, "but I'm so happy to be a girl again, I can't think of anything else."
"If it works the same way now that it worked when I switched Sue Ellen and Francine," Dudley/Beat said tearfully, "then in about a week, I'll have Dudley in my brain as well. Then I'll hate being a boy twice as much."
"It doesn't look very complicated," remarked Mr. Green as he scrutinized the Opticron's controls.
"If you push the wrong button, you can erase everything in your brain," Dudley/Beat cautioned him.
"How very ironic," said Beat/Dudley, gazing at her reflected visage. "This is the same face, the same mouth, that once threatened to burn me at the stake."
"This is a fine pickle," said Mr. Simon to the Greens. "We can't take our daughter home with us, because she's turned into your son."
Dudley/Beat gasped. "No! You can't leave me here!"
"It's only until we find a way to reverse the switch," Mrs. Simon reassured him.
"Dudley, you'll have to go with the Simons," Mrs. Green told the rabbit-aardvark girl. "Is that all right?"
"Yes, Mother," replied Beat/Dudley cheerfully.
"Mum! Dad!" Dudley/Beat pleaded. "Don't leave me!"
As Beat/Dudley followed the Simons toward the front door, she removed her cell phone from its clip and tossed it to Dudley/Beat. "This will allow you to stay in touch with your real parents," she said helpfully.
Dudley/Beat burst into tears again as the door slammed shut, separating him from his true family. He was starting to understand what Francine and Sue Ellen had endured at his hand, and wondered if this was an example of poetic justice.
"So," Mr. Green said to him, "do you like hamburgers?"
----
Visiting hours had commenced at the Elwood City Juvenile Detention Facility, and Alan had come with an urgent message for Binky and Molly. The two inmates faced him from the other side of the plexiglass wall, eager to hear his news.
"I have a plan for saving Fern and exposing Mansch," he revealed. "I can't tell you all the details now. Molly, you have to tell the truth about finding the diamonds right away."
"I can't do that," Molly protested. "Remember what the swan said?"
"I have reason to believe that Mansch will release Fern once you confess," said Alan. "Besides, if we expose him first, he'll kill her for sure."
"Okay," Molly agreed. "But your plan had better work, or else."
----
Confident of ultimate victory, Alan fell asleep quickly and slept soundly that night. He dreamed that Fern was embracing him, kissing him tenderly on the cheek, thanking him for rescuing her...
His calm was shattered by the shriek of a wailing siren.
His parents bolted upright. "Tegan!" they cried in unison.
When Alan emerged from his room, they were already racing down the stairway. The siren was the last sound they wanted to hear—it meant Tegan had violated the perimeter.
Over the clamor they could hear the not-so-distant sound of a car motor churning and rubber tires squealing against pavement. To their horror, the front door was hanging open.
"Alan, Joyce, you search the house," Mr. Powers ordered. "I'll look outside."
Alan and his mother pored over every inch of the house, including the guest bedroom, but Tegan could not be found. Alan's father walked back inside, shaking his head.
"Whoever was driving that car must have taken her," Alan suggested. He could think of only one suspect, but he dared not mention the name to his parents.
"I'll call the school," said Mr. Powers, picking up the phone. Outside, several police cars pulled alongside the curb, their flashing lights illuminating the dark street.
The Powers family didn't sleep another wink that night. Nor did they uncover the fate of Tegan, despite the assistance of the police officers and Ballford scientists.
"Either someone broke in and took her by force," said Dr. Minkowski, the eccentric aardvark man, "or she left willingly."
"There's no sign of forced entry," said a police officer.
"I didn't hear a struggle," said Mrs. Powers.
"Why would she leave willingly?" Mr. Powers wondered.
"It's possible that she merged with someone without your knowledge," Dr. Payne theorized. "As you know, she can read a lot from a person during a merge. Sometimes she becomes fascinated with the person, or even changes her personality to resemble the person. She may have left the house in hopes of merging with that person again."
Alan swallowed. It felt like he was swallowing a horse. It dawned on him that anything could have happened during the silent mental intercourse between Tegan and Mansch. Anything, up to and including Tegan switching to Mansch's side...
The day that followed was a happy day for everyone but him. Beat behaved in an unusually girlish manner, failed to answer the simplest science questions, and spoke in what sounded like a colonial accent. April Murphy returned to Elwood, and was picked up at the train station by Sue Ellen and Mrs. Krantz. Binky and Molly were released from juvenile detention, and were welcomed back as heroes by the other students.
Best of all, as the kids heard at the end of the day, a deer hunter had spotted Fern Walters stumbling through the forest on the borders of Elwood.
As Alan walked slowly toward the school exit, he was confronted by the only other people in the school who weren't overjoyed to the point of distraction at Fern's safe return—Binky and Molly.
"Hi, guys," he said sheepishly. "Nice to have you back."
"The police arrested my dad today," said Molly sourly. "What's the next step in your plan, genius?"
Alan could think of nothing to say. He didn't dare reveal that Tegan had disappeared, or that the plan was all her idea.
"Uh, everything's under control," was all he could choke out.
Molly waved a threatening fist. "Like I said, if your plan doesn't work, you'd better start buying up life insurance."
Alan groaned hopelessly as Binky and Molly strolled away, hand in hand. If Tegan didn't reappear soon, he was as good as dead.
----
To be continued in Arthur Goes Fifth III