By E. A. West
“You must have set it wrong.”
Vinny’s voice boomed, making my ears ring. Who had set what wrong? Where was I? More importantly, did they know I’d been informing on them for the last six months?
“There’s nothing to set!” Sal said. A thunderous thud of footfalls passed me. “See? Just a big red start button to turn it on.”
Clearly my attempt to escape the mob had failed, but had getting hit by that bus made my hearing more sensitive?
“Did you read the instructions?”
“Of course I did.” Papers rustled. “It says right here, ‘The Heal-O-Matic will bring out a person’s true nature while healing them of any injury or illness. Place the person in need of healing on the conveyor belt, press the red button, and wait. When the process is complete, the healed person will come out the other end.’”
If they were trying to heal me, they must still think I was loyal to the mob.
“That doesn’t look like Nicky. You sure he’s not still in there?”
I didn’t look like myself? Or maybe they weren’t talking about me. I forced my eyes open, but everything was out of proportion. Vinny had never been a small man, but now he was absolutely gargantuan. And Sal, skinny little Sal, looked like a flagpole rather than a toothpick. The entire room loomed around me like a baseball stadium.
“It’s awake!” Vinny said. They both rushed toward me.
I tried to scurry back, but my arms and legs didn’t work right. And my tail was dead weight dragging between my feet.
Wait.
Tail?
I lifted my hands and saw rodent paws. I turned to my feet. They were paws too. Dark fur covered the length of my body.
“What did you guys do to me?” I squeaked. Even my voice was wrong!
I rolled over and scampered across the counter like some kind of animal. My injuries were gone, but so was my five-foot-eight human body.
A shiny aluminum paper towel dispenser brought me up short. The reflection staring back at me had beady black eyes, a pointy snout, and whiskers. They’d turned me into a rat!
A large hand grabbed me and lifted me from the counter. I squeaked and fought, but the fingers tightened in my ruff. They had me now.
“I don’t know where you came from—” Vinny dangled me at eye level, “—but you’re going back in the Heal-O-Matic. Nicky better be the one to come out this time.”
He set me on a conveyor belt near a large, dark opening. Sal pressed a big, red button on the side of the machine, and the conveyor took me into the darkness. I spun to run back out, but I smashed headfirst into a barrier. Stars lit up my vision as pain radiated from the impact.
Hunching down, I prepared myself for whatever was coming. With any luck, it would turn me back into myself.
A hum started up, then tingling. The pain in my head faded, but a flash of white light blinded me. Thankfully I stayed conscious.
The conveyor started moving again, and I was out in the open. My vision cleared, but I wished it hadn’t. Everything was still too big. I twitched my nose and winced. The whiskers were still there.
“What did you do with Nicky?” Vinny’s voice boomed like an avalanche as the mountain of a man loomed over me. He reached toward me.
I scrambled through his fat fingers, taking a quick bite on the way past. The flavor of old onions had me spitting before I reached the end of the conveyor belt.
“Ack!” Vinny’s voice had never sounded so high. “I’ve got rabies!”
Sal danced around him, waving his arms. “We have to catch that rat!”
I leaped off the conveyor belt. Please let me survive the landing! My tail whipped around and my paws flailed as I flew through the air. I landed feet first on a rolling chair, and my claws caught in the rough fabric covering the seat. My momentum sent the chair flying into the wall. The impact knocked me to the floor.
Sal and Vinny rushed toward me, but I dodged around their humongous feet and darted toward a hole in the wall. Thank goodness they’d brought me to one of the mob’s more dilapidated buildings.
Once in the safety of the wall, I collapsed against the crumbling drywall, panting. Somehow that machine had turned me into a rat. But how?
The instructions Sal had read echoed like a bad memory. “The Heal-O-Matic will bring out a person’s true nature…”
The machine had brought out my true nature—as an informant.
I stared at my paws in the dim light coming through a hole higher up in the wall. Now I didn’t just rat people out. I’d become an actual rodent. My whiskers twitched as I smiled. Vinny and Sal had made my job a whole lot easier… if I could figure out how to communicate with humans again.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ha, that was funny! The rat becomes a rat. I’m sure Peter Pettigrew could offer a few tips! ;)
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Hahaha – that was great!
I love this!
I thought he was going to be horrified at the realization of his true nature, so the ending came as a pleasant surprise.
Great broadcasting in the beginning. As soon as they read the description for the Heal-O-Matic, I knew this was going to be a fun one.