People are put together very well.  Give your arm a tug and you'll see; it stays connected to your elbow.  Your fingers stay connected to your hands, and your head stays on your neck.  Once there was a boy named Junan who was not put together as well.  He could take his fingers, nose and eyes off.  When his parents wanted to talk about him and told him to leave the room, Junan could take off his ears, leave them on a table and listen to every word.  He could even jumble his bits and pieces together like a jigsaw.  If he had been walking for a long time and his feet hurt, he would take them off, swap them with his hands, and walk on his palms for a while.

 

Junan realised that he was the only little boy  with a jigsaw body one day at school.  Ted complained that his arm was tired.  Junan said, "Why don't you take it off and give it a rest.”  Ted looked at Junan like he was crazy.  On another day, Junan saw Luke, a double-jointed boy, pull his finger backwards until it touched his wrist.  The other boys laughed at Luke and said he was 'weird'.  Junan did not want to be called 'wierd' so he decided, right then and there, never to tell anyone about his Jigsaw body.  He also decided to stop taking off his bits and pieces so no-one would see.

 

He kept this up until one Friday night when he was trying to sleep but it was too loud.  Outside, the cars on the street were thundering by.  In the next room, Muffo the dog was barking.  Junan decided to take his ears off just this once.  He got out of his bed and put his ears in the cupboard.  This did not help.  It was still too loud.  He walked downstairs to the pantry. It was the quietest place in the house.  He took off his ears and left them on top of a can of beans.  When he went back to bed, it was easy to fall sleep.

 

In the morning, Junan got up and put on a hooded jumper so that if his parents saw him they wouldn’t notice he had no ears.  He walked to the pantry but his ears were no longer on the beans.  Maybe they fell down? he thought, but they were not on the floor.  Maybe Muffo found them and run off with them? Junan hoped that wasn’t it, because Muffo was an energetic dog and could leave his ears anywhere.

    

Right then, Junan felt a hand grab his shoulder.  He was startled because he hadn’t heard anyone behind him.  It was his mother.  It was strange.  She was moving her mouth but Junan could not hear what she was saying.  That wasn’t the only strange thing.  Her face looked odd.  He didn’t know why at first, but then he realised.  It was her nose.  His mother usually had a very big, spade shaped nose that jutted out of her face like a raven’s beak.  His mother’s nose was  so long that it could smell anything.  Anytime Junan got up to any mischief his mother’s nose would twitch and she would catch him.  Today however, she had a nose as small as other people.  Junan was confused.

    

Junan followed her to the table and all through breakfast he nodded at whatever she said because he couldn’t hear.  In the middle of breakfast Junan’s father walked in.  He looked strange too.  Usually, Junan’s father was about the fattest person anyone had ever seen.   He didn't even need pockets because anything he wanted to carry would fit between flaps of his flesh.  Today however, Junan's father had a belly and arms and just like any other person.

 

Junan was even more confused now and he would have asked his parents what was going on, but he knew he wouldn’t hear their answer.  All Junan could hear, all through breakfast, was the sound of birds chirping and crickets fiddling.  

 

My ears must be in the garden, he realised. 

 

After eating, Junan put on his gum boots and went outside.  It was muddy and cold.  Junan looked all over the lawn then he looked by the hedge.  He looked through the flowers and even up the tree house.  There was no sign of his ears.  Junan was looking by the pond when he saw an old man approaching.  He was about the weirdest looking old man Junan had ever seen.  He had glossy black skin and long tangled white hair.  His moustache curled and his beard was knotted into braids.  The old man’s eyes were little and gleamed.  He was wearing a multicoloured suit with little umbrellas and horses and all sorts of things painted all over it.  His tie was purple.  “Junan,” the old man said in a voice that was raspier than the wind.  Junan was surprised to hear the man’s words because he hadn’t yet found his ears.

 

“How do you know my name?”  Junan asked.

 

“I am Ufara and I know the names of every weird thing in the world.  You are one of the weirdest so of course I know you.”

 

Junan shook his head.  “I am not weird.”         

 

Ufara smiled.  “I am 657 years old.  That’s weird, even for an old man.  If I wasn’t weird I would be dead, so if you ask me, weird is good.”

 

“I am not weird,” repeated Junan.  He could still remember the boys laughing at Luke.

 

Ufara looked disappointed.   “That’s a shame because I am looking for a weird boy whose ears I borrowed.  If you happen to see him...”

 

“You have my ears?”

 

“They can’t be yours because I know that these ears belong to a weird boy.  If I don’t find him... finders keepers.”

 

“Why did you steal my ears.”

 

“Borrowed!" Ufara objected.  "How would you like it if I called you a thief.  I borrowed your ears because I needed them on a hunt.”

 

“What are you hunting?  Treasure?”

 

“No, I am hunting a vicious creature. One of the most dangerous and scary creatures there is.”

 

“A dragon?  A troll?”

 

“A mole.”

 

Junan started to laugh.  “A mole’s not scary.”

 

“This one is,” said Ufara in an ominous voice.  “He’s called the Nor Mole and his claws are so long and sharp that when they cut someone they dig out whatever in them is different from other people.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Your mother didn’t look like you remember today did she?”

 

“No her nose was little.”

 

“Yes.  And your father’s belly was smaller.  That’s not all the Nor Mole took from them.  Your parent’s voices now sound like everybody else’s, they like the same food as everybody else, and they want the same things as everybody else.  And it’s not just people.  Look at the trees.”

 

Junan looked.  They seemed normal at first, but then Junan realised. The branches of each tree curved in the same way and the leaves were exactly the same colour.  The grass on the ground was not patches of green and patches of brown, it was the same uniform green.  And in the sky, the clouds were all exactly the same shape. 

 

Ufara’s face became very sad.  “If he gets to everything in the world before I stop him, it will all look the same and sound the same and smell the same and...”

 

“That sounds pretty boring,” said Junan.

 

“Exactly ,” said Ufara.  “That’s why I’m hunting him.  Every time he eats what is special in something he gets bigger and more dangerous.  I have a magic net to catch him with but it’s no use because, like all moles, the Nor Mole tunnels everywhere.  I never know where he is going.  I borrowed your ears because with two sets of ears, I can hear well enough to hear him digging under the ground.”

 

“Did you find him.”

 

“Yes,  but the problem with being 657 years old is that I’m not the runner I used to be.  I can find him now, but whenever I do I’m to slow to follow him.”

 

“I will help you,” said Junan.

 

“Are you sure.  It will be dangerous.”

 

“Where do we start?”

 

*     *     *     *     *

 

This is what Junan and Ufara did.  They walked around and whenever Ufara heard the Nor Mole rumbling underground he handed Junan back his ears  and said, “the mole went that way.”  Junan would run in the direction Ufara pointed holding his ears in one hand and the magic net in the other.  The first time Junan had to stop because the Nor Mole tunnelled under a wall.  The second time Junan had to stop because the Nor Mole tunnelled under a river.  But the third time, after Junan and Ufara had been searching for two hours, the Nor Mole tunnelled into the forest.  Junan ran and ran, going the direction Ufara had pointed until he came to a mole hill three times the size of his parent’s house.

 

This must be where he lives.  Junan climbed to the top of the mole hill and looked in the hole at the top.  Inside it he saw the Nor Mole.  It was  as long as two horses and at least as big.  It had musty red fur and a squashed together face.  Its snout was long and pointed and its mouth was half open.  Junan could see its sharp yellow teeth but its claws were what looked the scariest.  Each one looked like a butcher knife and was curled and razor sharp.  The Nor Mole's den was covered with rotting dead things.  Junan did not want to become one of them so he decided to wait until the Nor Mole went to sleep. It took around twenty minutes. 

 

When it dozed off, Junan clipped on his ears, lifted the net high in the air and climbed into the den.  He landed on the floor with a thud and looked at the Nor Mole.  It had not woken up.  Very slowly Junan began to creep forward.  He took one step at a time and tried not to make a sound.  When he was three steps away, Junan lifted the magic net up in the air.  Suddenly, the head of the Nor Mole moved.  It darted at him, baring its teeth, and rammed into Junan.  Junan was knocked backwards and he dropped the magic net.  

 

“Got youuuuu,” said the Nor Mole in a shrill voice.  “Got youuuuu, got youuuu, got you.”

 

Junan crawled towards the magic net but the Nor Mole whipped forward.  Junan had to roll away.

 

“Look skinny, look skinny, look skinny, but smell tasty,” screeched the mole.  It began to crawl towards him, baring its fangs.  A stream of drool leaked off its lips.   

 

Junan took off his right hand and flung it at the mole.  It knocked the mole and bounced off.

 

The Nor Mole was surprised.  “Your pieces come off!  Your pieces come off!  Very weird little boy.  Bet you think you’re better than I am.”

 

“I don’t,” replied Junan, who was trembling now.  The Nor Mole stood between him and the magic net.

 “You all do.  All of you think you are so special.  So different.  Better, better, better.  But I fix that.  I fix it now and always.  I make it all the same, every one the same and no-one better.  Same, same, same.”  The Nor Mole leapt at Junan.  He tried to move out of the way, but the Nor Mole moved too fast.  The Nor Mole's claws dug into his shoulders and he toppled over.

 

“Tasty, tasty, tasty,” the Nor Mole said and lifted its claws, ready to strike.

 

Junan was desperate.  He said the first thing that came to his mind.  “What about you?”

 

“What?” it asked.

 

“You say you want everything to be the same, but you’re like no other mole I’ve ever seen.  What kind of a mole goes around sucking things out of people with magic claws?”

 

The Nor Mole hesitated.  It thought about what Junan had said and a very strange thing happened.  The Nor Mole began to glow and wriggle and shake.  It let out a strangled screaming sound and in front of Junan's eyes it began to shrink.  Junan pulled himself up to a sitting position and watched as the Nor Mole continued to shrink and its claws became little and blunt.  When the shrinking stopped the Nor Mole looked just like any other mole.  Junan didn’t even need to use the magic net.  He just picked it up with his left hand. 

 

Junan put his right hand back on and then went back to his garden where Ufara was waiting.  “You did it you wonderful boy. You did it.”

 

"I don't even really understand what happened."

 

"That's cos you don't understand magic Junan.  The Nor Mole's magic all came from the way that it looked at things.  It thought everyone was special and it was normal so it hated itself and there's nothing that evil magic is drawn to more than people who hate themselves.  When you made the mole realise it wasn't as normal as it thought, it couldn't take it."

 

 Ufara took the Nor Mole and the magic net from Junan.  “Thank you, you weird boy,” said Ufara, then he stopped.  “Oops, I’m sorry, you’re not weird.”

 

"Yes I am,” said Junan.

 

Ufara held the Nor Mole above his head and shook it.  As Ufara shook the small mammal, the world began to shimmer.  Junan saw the clouds above lengthen and clump; the branches of the trees wriggled and settled into different shapes; patches of different hues appeared in the grass.  Later that evening, Junan smiled when he saw his mother’s long nose and his father’s giant belly.