Chapter Six:

A Ratty Ball of Fur

“Let me go, I say!” Mr. Fitch shouts. “Help me, someone, help!”

It sounds like he’s being robbed! Maybe someone wants his briefcase! I have to help him. Especially after I made him sneeze by petting that cat near his house. Just as I think it, Mr. Fitch starts sneezing again.

I don’t want to go down there, but I have to do something. Before I change my mind, I hurl the silver disk thingy as hard as I can. All my Little League training has given me a pretty good arm, and it goes deep into the darkness. I hold my breath, wondering if I just made a huge mistake. Then I hear the object clatter to the ground and break open. The alley is immediately filled with light.

“So that’s where that went,” an unfamiliar voice says. I look around the alley, but the only person there besides me is Mr. Fitch. He’s standing next to a pile of old boxes, blinking in the sudden light and clutching his briefcase.

“You!” he shouts, spotting me. “Space taxi kid!” He pauses to sneeze. “Get this thing off of me!”

I back up a step. “Um… what thing?”

He spins around and flails at something on his back.

My eyes open wide when I see what’s actually on him. It’s the CAT! The white cat is hanging on to the back of Mr. Fitch’s suit with his claws! His tail is swishing back and forth, and I can clearly see the green circle around it. The cat sticks his head over Mr. Fitch’s shoulder to look at me.

“Young sir,” he says in a calm, well-mannered voice. “Thank you for returning my Light Orb. I am an officer of the ISF—that’s the Intergalactic Security Force—and this man is my prisoner.”

Just when I didn’t think my day could get any weirder, along comes a talking cat! I wonder if cats on Earth can talk, too, but they just hide it.