Guardian Cats and the Lost Books of Alexandria

Chapter 28: Finders keepers

Marco escaped back to the tree while Polo loped across the weedy backyard, the cigarette lighter dangling from his mouth, and crawled through a fence hole into the neighbor’s yard.

A tire swing swayed gently in the evening breeze, and the promise of hidden spaces lured the ferret. He dropped the lighter and pulled himself up into the rubbery den, exploring pretty much everything there was to see inside a tire. When he heard voices, he stood straight up and looked out through the wide hole. There were three large animals with black masks sniffing their way around a bunch of kid’s plastic toys. He recognized their bandit faces. Raccoons.

“We’re being watched,” said one of them, suddenly noticing Polo. “Look’it that varmint in the hangin’ tire. What is it?”

“Looks like a deformed rat, don’t you think?” said another.

“Who, or should I say, what are you?” asked the biggest one.

Polo felt no obligation to explain himself and ignored their comparing him to a rat. It happened all the time.

“In case you haven’t heard, we own this part of town now. My name’s Sting and these are my two fine young companions.”

Even though a vagabond and a thief, Polo was completely devoid of cruel intentions, and he did not recognize a bully for what he was.

“You deaf or something?” asked Sting. “You gotta be, with those puny ears.”

“Yeah, deaf and dumb,” said Tank.

Polo had had enough. He drew in a breath. “Hey, bugle ears!” he yelled. “You’re hurtin’ my eyes. How come you’re so fat?”

“No one talks to me like that!” Sting said, and before Polo could blink, he was yanked out of the tire by his neck and tossed to the ground.

Polo was undeterred. He raised himself to his fullest height, bared his teeth and challenged Sting with his fiercest look.

Just as Sting was about to take another swipe at him, the smallest raccoon ran up.

“Hey, Sting! Take a look at this!” He handed him the cigarette lighter.

“My, my,” said Sting. “This is interesting.”

“Hey, that’s mine!” Polo yelled.

“Shut up,” said Sting. “This here trinket might save your life if you was smart enough to keep your trap shut.”

Polo had no intention of letting it go. He tried grabbing the lighter, but Sting seized him by the throat until his eyes bulged and the lighter fell out of his hand gone limp.