Weak At The Knees

Will you remember me? asks Prong.

I don't have to remember you, says Terence.

I mean when I'm a parrot from years  ago, like Mouldy, says Prong.

Yes, says Terence. I'll remember you when it's years ago.

Thank you, says Prong.

Are we there yet? asks Terence.

We'll arrive late tonight, says Katherine. Even later, if we're stopping for dinner.

I think we should stop for dinner, says Gaius. 

All right, says Katherine. We'll stop in Pinnaroo.

Was that where I got Prawny, asks Terence.

No, says Katherine.

See, says Terence. I remembered Prawny.

Of course you did, says Gaius. It was a short time ago.

It's funny we don't remember Mouldy, says Katherine.

A few things are coming back to me, says Gaius. He was one of three pebbles Terence encountered.

Which one? asks Terence.

The mouldy one, says Gaius. And he travelled with us for a time.

A pebble? says Prong. How did he do as a parrot?

Perhaps Belle will have unnearthed more information, says Gaius. She's going to look at her M file.

Why EM file? asks Terence.

M for Mouldy, says Katherine.

To Terence, that doesn't sound right.

.... 

But it is right, and Belle has found her M file.

It contains Mouldy's parrot passport, as well as a few bits and pieces.

A receipt for a tiny bicycle. A short poem by Terence.

A note from the Hong Kong police: Wanted: Mouldy. Last seen cycling across the Sea Bridge from Hong Kong to China, on a bicycle. 

Belle looks at Mouldy's passport photo and compares it to the one Gaius has sent her of Prong.

Mouldy's beak looks unusual. 

Yes she remembers it now. Mouldy had no beak, and so two false red fingernails had been attached to his face, with fish glue.

And a few feathers, obtained from ...who?

And Prong. She seems to have curly whiskers, unusual in a parrot.

She looks nothing like Mouldy.

But so what? All Belle has to do is change the photo on Mouldy's passport.

Easy. 

She looks again at Terence's poem:

la la la three good things/ about Mouldy's beak / his voice is longer/ his smell is stronger/ if you kiss him his knees will go weak.