1 Cordelia and Isaac to the Rescue!

 

  Cordelia and Isaac placed the brand-new squirrel’s nest in Miss Gertrude’s larch tree. Miss Gertrude’s old nest had been blown right out of her tree during a big storm the day before.

  “We built the nest with twigs and leaves and some bark,” Cordelia told Miss Gertrude as she and Isaac climbed back down.

  “And we added extra moss to make it soft,” Isaac said.

  Like Cordelia, Isaac spoke to Miss Gertrude in Chittering, the language squirrels speak. Except his Chittering still needed some work, because what he actually said was “We added extra sauce to make it explode.”

  “Oh dear,” Miss Gertrude said nervously, looking up at the nest in her tree. “I’m not sure I want my nest to explode.”

  “No, Miss Gertrude,” Cordelia quickly corrected. “Isaac meant to say that we added extra moss to make it soft!”

  “Oh! Well now, that’s lovely!” she exclaimed. “You two are my heroes!”

  Cordelia and Isaac smiled at each other. Heroes. They liked the sound of that.

  Just then a slender gray pigeon swooped down and landed on the grass in front of them.

  “Hello, Minerva,” Cordelia said, crouching down to greet the pigeon.

  “Do you know her?” Isaac asked in surprise.

  “Everyone knows Minerva. She’s a messenger pigeon. If a squirrel on the east side of the park wants to send a message to a squirrel on the west side of the park, they ask Minerva to take it.”

  “Oh! So she’s like the Central Park postal carrier,” Isaac said.

  “Exactly!”

  Minerva had been holding something in her beak. Now she dropped it on the ground by Cordelia’s feet. It was a rectangular slip of paper. Cordelia picked it up and examined it.

  “It’s a ticket for the Central Park Zoo,” she said.

   

  “Coo-coo!” Minerva said encouragingly.

  “Look! Bite marks!” Isaac pointed to the little marks on the edge of the ticket.

  Cordelia looked at them closely. “Those are bite marks from a rat.”

  “Coooooo!” Minerva’s head pumped up and down.

  “The only rat I know who would send me a message is Fenton. So I’m guessing that Fenton wants me to meet him at the zoo,” Cordelia concluded.

  Minerva hopped up and down excitedly.

  “He’s never sent me a message by Minerva before.” Cordelia frowned. “It might be an emergency.”

  “He probably needs your help,” Isaac said. “Hey, it’s kind of like you’re a superhero.” He raised one fist in the air. “Cordelia to the rescue!”

  Cordelia raised her fist in the air too. “Cordelia and Isaac to the rescue!”