Return of the Forgotten by Lisa Fiedler

Author:Lisa Fiedler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Ace, it seemed, had branched out. Not only did he relocate rodents from the houses and establishments up and down Atlantic Avenue, but now he was also working part-time at a place called the New York Transit Authority Museum on Boerum Place.

According to Capone, the exceptional cat had gotten the job by sheer luck. One of the museum’s tour guides was in the habit of indulging herself every Friday at noon with a takeout meal from her favorite delicatessen—Bellissimo’s. Every Friday morning she would call and speak to either Vito or Guido to order what she called her “usual”—a small antipasto salad, a meatball sub with roasted peppers and extra cheese, and a serving of tiramisu for dessert—all to be delivered.

The brothers would prepare the meal, and then one of them would whistle out the back door to their third, much younger brother, Benito, who’d come screaming up on his bicycle, which had a deep wire basket attached to the handlebars.

The tour guide’s meal would be placed carefully in the basket and off Benny would go, careening through the streets of Brooklyn, dodging pedestrians and taxicabs, to deliver the food. One day Benny arrived to find the tour guide looking pale and very shaken up.

What’sa matta? Benny had asked.

Trembling, she told him she’d seen a mouse in the museum and it had frightened her so badly, she’d nearly lost her appetite; she’d almost decided to skip her customary Friday luncheon.

Benny had told her that it was a darn good thing she hadn’t, because he was pretty sure he could help her rectify this rodent problem. As it happened, he and his brothers were the owners of a tuxedo cat who held the title of Best Mouser in all of Brooklyn.

“Is there really such a title?” Hope asked.

“Nah,” said Capone. “Benny likes to exaggerate. But the point is, the very next day he put ol’ Ace in his wire basket and peddled him to the transit museum, where our feline friend was able to successfully relocate not only the mouse but three squirrels and a rat as well. The museum folks were so happy, they decided to make it a regular gig. And now, every Friday morning, the tour guide swings by on her way to work and picks him up in her car. In the afternoon, when Benny finishes his deliveries, he swings back by the museum and brings il gatto home with him on the bike. Pretty classy, no?”

“Very,” Pup agreed.

“That’s all very interesting,” said Hope. “But what does it have to do with us?”

Capone chuckled and motioned to an odd-looking two-wheeled machine propped against the wall of the back alley. “Today’s Friday,” he said. “Guess who’s ridin’ with the meatballs?”

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