The Mystery of the Circus Clown (2 page)

“Look,” Eric said to Cam. “Here come the horses.”

“And here comes the Elkans Troupe,” Cam said.

There were elephants, monkeys, bears, and camels in the parade. Small dogs wearing clown hats and little skirts ran out. Circus men and women in fancy costumes smiled and waved.

“Look, here comes the circus fat lady,” Cam said.

Aunt Molly laughed and said, “She looks more like a thin lady wearing lots of padding.”

Just as the parade was ending, the ringmaster called out, “I direct your eyes now to the wire high above you. We proudly present the Bailor Brothers!”

“I can’t look,” Aunt Molly said, and covered her eyes.

Two men in bright yellow costumes walked slowly across the high wire. They were holding long poles to help them keep their balance. When they got to the platform at the other end of the wire, the men picked up a few wooden clubs. Then they walked back onto the wire.

“What’s happening now?” Aunt Molly asked.

“They’re juggling,” Cam said.

“And it’s not scary,” Eric said. “The wire isn’t even shaking, and anyway, there’s a safety net.”

In the next acts tigers leaped through burning hoops, and elephants stood on their hind legs. Bears danced and rode motorcycles. The Elkans Troupe of acrobats built a human pyramid. The trapeze artists flew from one swing to the next, spinning and turning as they flew. Then a big cannon was rolled out.

“This is the last act before the intermission,” Cam said.

The music stopped. A man dressed in silver walked out. He climbed to the top of a ‘platform near the mouth of the cannon and waited.

“And now,” the ringmaster announced, “the Jack Wally Circus is proud to present Zanger, the Human Cannonball.”

Aunt Molly said, “I don’t want to see this,” and she closed her eyes again.

The man in silver put on a helmet. He slid down the mouth of the cannon. Someone lit a string at the base of the cannon. There was a loud bang and lots of smoke as the Human Cannonball flew into a net at the other end of the arena.

The people in the audience clapped. Cam, Eric, and many others stood up and cheered. Aunt Molly opened her eyes. When she saw the Human Cannonball climb out of the net, she clapped, too.

The ceiling lights went on. People hurried from their seats toward the lobby. Some children cried. Some asked for ice cream, soda, popcorn, and cotton candy.

Cam, Eric, and Aunt Molly let a small girl and her mother move by. After they passed, Aunt Molly looked on her seat and on the floor in front of her.

“What are you looking for?” Cam asked.

“My handbag. I forgot where I put it.”

Cam reached under Aunt Molly’s seat and took out the handbag. Aunt Molly opened it and said, “Let me give you money so you can buy some ice cream or cotton candy.”

Aunt Molly sat down. She took a scarf, a few gloves, a hairbrush, and an old woolen sock from her handbag. She put those things on her lap and looked inside her bag again. Then she said, “I had my wallet when I bought the tickets. Now I can’t find it.”

Cam searched through the pockets on the side of the handbag and the ones in Aunt Molly’s coat. Eric looked on the floor. But the wallet was gone.

Chapter Three

Aunt Molly put the scarf, gloves, hairbrush, and woolen sock back into her handbag. Then she said, “Maybe I left the wallet at the ticket booth. Or maybe the Lost and Found has it.”

“When Aunt Molly took me to the zoo,” Cam told Eric, “she lost her sweater. We found one of the monkeys wearing it.”

Aunt Molly said, “I do seem to lose things. Once, while I was reading in the library, I took my shoes off. I didn’t remember them until I stepped in a puddle on the way home.”

Aunt Molly closed her handbag. “I’m going back to the ticket booth,” she said. “Do you want to come along?”

“I brought some money,” Eric said. “I’d like to buy some ice cream for all of us.”

Cam, Eric, and Aunt Molly walked to the large round lobby that surrounded the arena. Long lines of people were waiting to buy food and circus posters, banners and books. Other groups of people were talking and eating. Cam and Eric looked for the ice cream stand. Aunt Molly went the other way, toward the ticket booth.

As Cam and Eric walked through the lobby, they came to a crowd of laughing people. Cam stood on a bench behind the people to see what was happening.

“It’s a clown,” Cam told Eric.

The clown was wearing a large white jacket, and pants with red and blue stripes, and he was carrying a large brown shopping bag. The clown was short, had curly red hair, a tiny white hat, and a large red rubber nose. Two large green stars and a big smile were painted on the clown’s face.

Eric climbed onto the bench next to Cam. They watched and laughed as the clown dropped a coin. The clown bent to pick up the coin and bumped into a woman. The clown bowed to apologize to the woman and then bumped into someone else. As the clown was bowing and bumping into a woman in a red dress, Cam closed her eyes and said,
“Click. ”

Cam and Eric saw Aunt Molly and got down from the bench. Aunt Molly was walking slowly. She looked around as she walked. She seemed to be lost.

Cam ran up to her and asked, “What are you looking for?”

“The Lost and Found,” Aunt Molly said. “The ticket booth didn’t have my wallet. But don’t worry. I’ll find it. You go and get your ice cream.”

There were two lines for ice cream, one right next to the other. Cam and Eric picked what they thought was the shorter line. They were standing right behind a woman and her two children, a boy and a girl.

“The clown that bumped into Mommy didn’t have a real nose,” the boy told his sister.

“Yes, he did,” the girl said. “I’m right, aren’t I, Mommy?”

“No. I’m right,” the boy said.

The woman smiled and told her children, “You’re both right. The clown really has two noses. He has a clown’s nose that isn’t real, and right under that nose is a real one.”

“What’s coming next in the circus?” the boy asked.

Cam closed her eyes and said,
“Click.”‘

She was looking at the picture of the circus program she had stored in her mind.

“In the second half of the circus,” she told the children, “you’ll see Benny’s Dancing Bears. And there’s Maria, a woman who is ‘held in the air as she swings through the air.’ You’ll see Manny’s Monkeys. Polly’s Pink Poodles ride bicycles, and the Bailor Brothers have another high-wire act. Then the circus ends with a really big parade.”

“Oh, good. Another parade,” the girl said.

The line moved slowly. When the woman’s turn came, the man behind the counter gave the children ice cream. Then the woman reached into her handbag for the money.

“Just a minute,” the woman said. “I can’t seem to find my wallet.”

As she searched through her handbag, the man took the ice cream pops back from the children.

“Step aside,” he said. “Let the others go.”

Cam and Eric paid for their ice cream. They had started to go back to their seats when they heard a woman in the next line say, “My wallet is gone! I know I had it before, and now it’s gone!”

Chapter Four

“That’s the third woman who’s lost her wallet,” Eric said.

Cam looked at the woman in the next line. She was wearing a red dress. Cam closed her eyes and said,
“Click.”
Then she said,
“Click,”
again.

“Come on,” Cam told Eric when she opened her eyes. “We have to find that clown.”

Cam ran to where the clown had been just a few minutes earlier. A few people were standing there eating popcorn and cotton candy. But the clown was gone. Cam gave Eric her ice cream. She climbed onto a bench and looked around.

“There he is. I see him,” Cam said, and pointed.

Cam jumped down from the bench. She and Eric tried to run through the lobby. But they couldn’t get through the crowd. There were people walking slowly, holding full cups of soda. And there were little children who kept getting into Cam and Eric’s way.

“He was right here. I just saw him,” Cam said when they reached an area where circus flashlights, banners, toys, and whistles were sold. Behind Cam and Eric, along the back wall of the lobby, were the rest rooms.

Eric gave one of the ice cream pops to Cam and licked some melted ice cream off his hands. Then he asked, “Why are we looking for that clown?”

“I saw him bump into that woman in the red dress. She’s the same woman who was in line next to us. I said,
”Click,“
when I saw it happen. I have a photograph of it stored in my mind.” Cam closed her eyes. “When he bumped into her, his hand went into her handbag. I’m sure he stole her wallet. That’s the clown who bumped into Aunt Molly when we came into the circus. I’ll bet he bumped into the woman with the two children and took her wallet, too.”

Cam opened her eyes and said, “He’s probably leaving the circus right now. But he won’t get far in that costume. I know just what he’s wearing.”