Chapter 3
The tree house was silent except for a faint snoring sound coming from the direction of Challenger's room. Marguerite tried to pad as quietly across the hard wood floor as possible but her over-sized, masculine feet kept getting in the way. I'm as graceful as an elephant in this body, Marguerite thought with irritation. A board squeaked nosily beneath her, and she paused. She held her breath, listening, but the snoring continued to drone on uninterrupted. Visibly relaxing, she made the rest of the way to her room and slipped inside.
"Malone?" Marguerite lit one of her lamps when she got no reply. The light flooded the
room and illuminated the bed, where Marguerite's body was peacefully sleeping away.
"How can he sleep at a time like this?" Marguerite mumbled as she approached the inert form. Malone was very soundly snoozing on his stomach, his slender arms sticking out from his body at awkward angles and a small trickle of drool escaping his full lips. Marguerite wrinkled her nose at this grotesque picture of herself.
"Beautiful dreamer you're not, Malone," she whispered as she tried to shake him to life.
Malone's eyes opened slowly as he turned toward the source of his rude awakening. Startled at seeing that it was in fact himself doing the shaking, he jumped out of the bed and landed with a loud thud on the floor.
"Malone!" Marguerite hissed sharply, "Do you want to wake up the entire jungle!"
Malone stood up quickly, nearly knocking into Marguerite in the process, and rubbed his eyes violently. "I forgot that- well, I mean it seemed like a bad dream. I-"
"Well, it wasn't!" Marguerite replied angrily, "but if you want to make it one I suggest we quietly make our way to Challenger's lab."
"Fine!" Malone said groggily, "the sooner we switch back the better. As soon as I use the bathroom…"
"Don't even think about it!" Marguerite snapped, "keep your eyes on the prize." She shoved him towards the door as she added, "And your hands to yourself!"
As Malone was heading out the door and into the common room, Marguerite let out a short shriek behind him that forced him to spin around. "What? What's the matter?" he raced back into the room his eyes searching his body for harm.
Marguerite stared at him with fire in her eyes. "You ripped it!"
"What?"
"My skirt, there's a big rip in the back!"
Malone just stared at her in disbelief. "I guess I stepped on it. Let's go, we-"
"Stepped on it! Do you realize that that is the only good skirt I have left?"
Malone grabbed Marguerite's arms and tried to shake some sense into her. "We have no time for this!" Marguerite was too busy trying to get a look behind Malone at her damaged skirt to listen.
Trying one last time, Malone grabbed Marguerite's chin and forced her to look down into his new thickly eye-lashed eyes. "We have no time to discuss this! We have to do it before the others wake up!"
"Do what?" Veronica asked as she entered the bedroom, her face alternating between astonishment and anger.
Malone quickly dropped his arms and took a giant step away from Marguerite. His mouth hung open uselessly as he stared at the angry object of his affection.
"Well?" Veronica pressed, "What are you doing in Marguerite's room at one in the morning, Ned?"
Veronica was of course staring at Malone's body, but it was Marguerite's body, with poor Ned inside it, that automatically answered. "This isn't what you think Veronica. I was
just-"
"I didn't ask you!" Veronica snapped.
"I heard some noise. What's happening?" A haphazardly dressed Roxton demanded, as he raced into the room with a half-awake Challenger in tow. His expression of concern changed to confusion and then to suspicion as he noticed the two guilty looking occupants.
"Malone was just about to tell me what he was doing," Veronica explained through clenched teeth. All three pairs of eyes focused on Malone and inside his body, Marguerite wilted under their gaze. If only I could remember all the reasons men ever had for being in my room at night, beside the obvious, Marguerite thought sarcastically. She glanced at Malone for help but all she saw was her own body staring back at her blankly.
"I, ah…" Marguerite's mind raced desperately within Malone's body but the menacing scowl that Roxton was focusing on her had her rattled. "I…broke one of Challenger's experiments."
The others stared at her with puzzled frowns. "What?" Veronica demanded.
"Yes, I know Challenger said not to touch it but I was looking at his container and, stupid me, I dropped it. The contents went spilling everywhere."
"What? No I-er- you didn't!" Malone protested but the others ignored him.
Roxton stepped threateningly toward Marguerite, blocking her view of Malone. "But that still doesn't explain what you're doing in Marguerite's room," he growled.
Marguerite's eyes widened slightly but she swallowed and continued. "Well, Marguerite heard the crash and came to investigate. We didn't have time to clean it up so we were going to do it now and no one else would have to know I was fiddling with Challenger's experiment."
Roxton's eyes narrowed slightly and he asked in disbelief, "And Marguerite was helping you out of the goodness of her heart?"
Now it was Marguerite's turn to narrow her eyes, "What is that supposed to mean? For your information, Marguerite is a very considerate person."
"Give me a break," Malone muttered from behind the other tree house occupants, and they all turned to look at him.
"Is this true Marguerite?" Challenger asked.
Malone hesitated, not wanting to implicate himself in this ridiculous scenario, but Marguerite raised her eyebrow at him expectantly. "Yes," Malone sighed, "we were just going to quietly clean up."
Challenger broke the uneasy silence. "Well, now that the cat is out of the bag it is probably best to leave the tidying until tomorrow. I suggest we all go back to bed, but I must say Malone that I am disappointed that you disregarded my warning about touching my experiment."
In Marguerite's body, Malone flinched, but Marguerite merely nodded repentantly.
Roxton, Challenger, and Veronica filed out of Marguerite's room. They looked back inside and Marguerite jumped before coming out into the common room to join them. "Right," she said, "Back to my room."
Veronica darted Marguerite an angry glance as she left. Geez, even when I'm her precious Malone that girl doesn't like me, Marguerite reflected.
Before she could head for Malone's room, Roxton grabbed her roughly by the arm and glared at her. Funny how he's more scary even though I'm closer to his size, she thought.
"I suggest you stay in your own room for the rest of the night, Malone," Roxton said meaningfully and then he sauntered off.
Marguerite entered Malone's room and collapsed onto the bed. Well, she decided, apparently excessive back hair is not the only drawback to being a man.
---
A bright streak of sunlight fell across Marguerite's eyes and sneaked in beneath her eyelids. She slowly opened them with a leisurely stretch and saw…Malone's room. She groaned and buried her face in the pillow. Malone had the right idea, she decided, this should all just be a bad dream.
Distant voices stirred her from her self-pity, and she realized that she had to get up or risk Malone making a complete fool of himself with the others. Standing up she looked down at the rumpled clothes that she had slept in and frowned. What was she going to wear? Marguerite walked over to the trunk in the corner and opened it. Inside, Malone's clothes were carefully folded and arranged in neat piles. Smirking, Marguerite picked out the first pair of pants she found and then began to look for a shirt to match but caught herself. Style is not an issue here Marguerite, just get dressed and then get out of this body!
Marguerite changed quickly. As she went to put the fresh shirt on, she stopped to admire her new well-shaped biceps. Not bad for a reporter, she thought approvingly.
Marguerite, washed and dressed, stepped confidently out into the common room and headed for the kitchen. Her heart sunk as she saw that everyone, except Malone, was sitting around the table eating. She straightened her back and prepared to meet the lions.
"Good morning, everyone," Marguerite said with forced cheerfulness. Challenger smiled back weakly, Roxton stared at his food, and Veronica looked away.
Well, I'm glad I'm not going to be Malone much longer, Marguerite thought as she grabbed some fruit. As she was popping some into her mouth she asked, "Has anyone seen Marguerite yet?"
Roxton's head jerked up. "Why?" he asked warningly.
"Uh, no reason. Just being polite." Marguerite sat down at the table, as far away from Roxton as possible, and chewed in silence.
After a few awkward minutes, Malone emerged from Marguerite's room. His clothes were all crumpled and his hair frizzed around his face. Everyone's jaw dropped at the same instant, including Marguerite's.
"Marguerite?" Roxton exclaimed.
"Are you-did you sleep in your clothes?" Veronica asked.
Malone stopped and stared sheepishly down at his appearance. "Well, I-I was exhausted last night," he stuttered. When no one replied, he went passed them into the kitchen and started filling a plate with a very-unladylike amount of food.
The three explores, who all thought the bedraggled new arrival was the ever-poised Marguerite, stared at each other until Veronica spoke up.
"Maybe we could go to the bathing lake together after breakfast, Marguerite." The blond beauty looked Marguerite up and down appraisingly. "I think we could both use a good bath."
Malone sat down and smiled wolfishly at Veronica. "Sure that sounds like a great idea," he replied.
"No!" Marguerite exclaimed and then regretted her outburst as the others turned to stare at her. "Er- what I mean is Marguerite and I need to clean up the mess in Challenger's lab first."
Challenger shook his head, "Nonsense, Malone. That can wait until later."
"No it can't Challenger," Marguerite said while staring pointedly at Malone, who was trying not to get any of his long hair in the food.
"Well, you know Malone," Malone said with a mischievous smile, "It was you who dropped Challenger's experiment so you could clean it up while I'm at the lake with Veronica."
Malone's self-satisfied smile quickly wilted under Marguerite's murderous look.
"Or I could help you and it would go much faster," he said, pushing away from the table.
"Right now?" Challenger asked as Malone and Marguerite headed for the lab.
"You know what they say George," Marguerite answered, "Don't put off to tomorrow…"
Once they were out of earshot, Marguerite said to Malone, "Well, I'm glad to see that
you're keeping up with my impeccable grooming habits."
"It was either this or going where I have never gone before, Marguerite. Something I see you had no problems with."
Marguerite smiled sweetly at him, "Nothing I haven't seen before Neddy, but good choice on your part."
Once Marguerite and Malone had disappeared farther into the tree house, the others found it safe to resume the conversation that Malone's earlier entrance had interrupted.
"Now I'm absolutely sure of it, something happened while we were gone and they're hiding it from us," Veronica huffed.
"Now, now," Challenger soothed. "Last night's episode turned out to be perfectly innocent, Veronica."
Roxton stood up and took his empty plate into the kitchen. "Innocent? Maybe. But plausable? Malone is not the sort of person who fools around with other people's property George, that's something our dear Marguerite would do." Roxton returned to the table and turned his chair around, straddling it thoughtfully. "And come to think of it when is the last time Marguerite offered such selfless help to anyone? She's the first one who would be thrilled to tell you about your broken experiment and bath in the resulting conflict it would cause."
Challenger stroked his chin and stared uncomfortably at his food. "Perhaps, but other than my broken experiment nothing seems to be wrong. What have we to accuse them of? They could be telling the truth you know."
"Maybe," Veronica sighed and leaned back in her chair, "but Marguerite and Malone are still acting like totally different people."
Suddenly, the group's discussion was interrupted by loud footsteps heading rapidly in their direction. Malone arrived at the table first, his eyes wide and urgent.
"Where is your spirit machine!" he demanded abruptly as Marguerite joined him, her face worried.
Challenger looked questioningly at the other explorers. "My what?"
Malone rolled his eyes in impatience, "The one you used in the cave to free the souls of the criminals sentenced there. Remember? One of them pretended she was my-Marguerite's friend Adrienne? And Maple White."
"Oh yes, of course. We moved it. Before the two of you got up. Why?"
"Where did you take it?" Marguerite asked, obviously hanging on Challenger's every word.
"Well, down to the bottom of the tree. Not very far-"
Marguerite and Malone were already to the elevator. As they both crammed into the confined space and Marguerite grabbed hold of the lever that would send the apparatus in motion, Challenger added: "What do you want that broken thing for?"
Marguerite's hand slipped dejectedly off the lever. "Broken?"
"Are you sure?" Malone chimed in.
Challenger nodded, puzzled. "Yes, it seems to have gotten bumped or something. I noticed it this morning when I checked on the experiment you dropped. No use having faulty equipment taking up room. But I don't understand…"
Marguerite sighed and started to head back for the lab and the broken experiment that still hadn't been cleaned up. "We just noticed it was missing and thought it might be useful or something," Malone said before turning to follow Marguerite.
The three explorers at the table exchanged puzzled looks for the umpteenth time that morning, as the sources of those looks disappeared into the lab.
"Marguerite," Roxton called after her, "I'm not sure if you know this, but you have a big rip in the back of your skirt."
The only reply was a very loud outpouring of frustration that sounded like it came from Malone.
To Be Continued...