Chapter 7

Changing the Subject

Before long, Grandma Kit, Grandpa Tom, Alfreeda, and I were sitting at a table at Queen Lizzie’s Pizza Palace. We sipped lemonade and waited for the onion and extra-cheese pizza we’d ordered.

A large picture of Lizzie hung on the far wall. She wore a crown. The picture had a fancy frame around it.

The restaurant looked like the dining hall in a castle. Wooden beams crossed the high ceiling. Big tables filled the large room. The servers dressed like people from the Middle Ages. They looked really cool. I even saw two knights in shining armor!

A wood-fired oven filled the wall behind the front counter. Piles of firewood were stacked beside it. Cooks put pizza after pizza into the oven to bake.

The place was packed with pizza lovers. The busy servers leaped, catlike, between tables, bringing food and drinks.

More hungry people arrived. The headwaiter rang a bell and shouted “Welcome!” every time a guest entered the restaurant.

I watched people eating pizza, and my mouth watered. I couldn’t wait!

But I had to wait. And I had to listen to Alfreeda chatter on and on about dogs too. Grandma Kit tried to change the subject. She even thanked Alfreeda again for saving Lizzie in the basement.

“No problem,” Alfreeda said. “But that’s a cat for you. A dog would never run into a room and look for the highest spot to hang out.”

That did it. I snapped, “Would you please stop bragging about dogs and putting down —”

Grandma Kit kicked me under the table.

I shut my mouth. I spun sideways in my seat so I wouldn’t have to look at Alfreeda anymore. I frowned at the front counter that had started this problem in the first place.

Then I looked around the rest of the restaurant. And I slowly began to realize something — something important.

Suddenly I sat up straight, snapped my fingers, and cried, “That’s it!”