Send in the Clowns Read online

Mary Beth would not have to practice riding an elephant. Not once.

  Rachel would not have to practice dancing. She knew how.

  Even Jody wouldn’t have to practice feeding the animals. The circus keeper would give him food and he would give it to the animals. Molly should be feeding animals. She fed her own dog at home with no trouble. Even having her arm bitten off wasn’t as scary right now as doing magic in the center ring!

  “I just take tickets at the door,” Tim said to Molly as they walked out of Mrs. Peters’s house. “Simple.”

  Tim had it made! He wouldn’t even have to think to do his job. He could collect tickets in his sleep!

  And give Kenny a broom and he could sweep. Big deal. No one had to practice cleaning.

  Molly walked home and wondered if she should talk to her parents about her problem. But she hated to go whining like a baby and asking for help. She was in second grade.

  “Don’t bite off more than you can chew,” her grandma always told her.

  Her mother and dad were tired after work and often said they liked to come home and relax. They don’t need to worry about how I’ll learn magic in a few days! Molly thought. This is my problem, and I have to solve it.

  All week long the Pee Wees talked about what they were going to wear and how much fun they would have being in the circus. All the Pee Wees, that is, except for Molly. She was so worried about what she would do once she got into that ring, she didn’t even think about a costume. Mrs. Peters said the circus people would help, but what if they didn’t? What if the time came and Molly was left on her own with no magic at all?

  One night Kevin called her to ask to borrow a dog leash.

  “I’ve got these dogs to practice my small-dog act with,” he said. “They can do three tricks already!”

  Tracy called to tell her she was taking clown lessons at the clown club.

  “I learned how to paint my face with a big red nose and blue cheeks,” she said. “I get to squirt water out of a flower on my shirt and throw candy to the kids.”

  Anyone could do those things, thought Molly. But I still don’t know what I’m going to do.

  When her dad came in to use the phone, he said, “How are those circus plans coming?”

  “Fine,” lied Molly.

  “Need any help?” he asked.

  “No,” Molly lied again. She could see that her dad had other things on his mind. Important things. She would solve this herself. The library was a good place to look for help.

  “Here’s a book called Magic Made Easy,” said Mrs. Nelson, the librarian. That was exactly what Molly needed! She took the book and sat down in a quiet corner to read it. It told about lots of magic tricks, but they all seemed really hard. Molly finally decided that three of them sounded pretty easy. She chose picking a rabbit out of a hat. And pulling scarves out of her sleeve. And throwing her voice, which was also known as ventriloquism. Molly had seen ventriloquists on TV. They always had a dummy on their knee and made it talk. How hard could that be?

  The next morning Molly packed a big bag of stuff and went to Mary Beth’s to practice.

  “It says here you have to get a big red scarf, and a fake thumb,” said Mary Beth. “Before you go onstage, you fold the scarf up real small and stick it into the thumb. Then you put the fake thumb on your real thumb. When you’re in front of a crowd, you snap off the fake thumb real fast and the scarf comes out like magic.”

  Molly had a red wool winter scarf. But it was too thick to fit in a thumb. “Where do I get an artificial thumb anyway?” she asked.

  “I guess at a magic shop,” said her friend. “If you have enough money.”

  Molly shook her head. “I don’t. I just bought my aunt’s birthday present.”

  Mary Beth thought for a moment. “I suppose we could make one out of some old rubber gloves,” she said. “My mom threw some out. They’re in the garage.”

  The girls ran and got the gloves. They were perfect! Molly cut the thumb off one of them and put it on her thumb. It was too big.

  “It won’t be once the scarf is stuffed in it,” said Mary Beth. “Even your thick red scarf will fit. We won’t have to get a new one.”

  The girls stuffed the scarf into the thumb. It stretched and got huge. When Molly put it on her thumb, it looked as if she had a boxing glove on!

  “It’s the best you can do,” said Mary Beth. “Now snap it off real fast and pull out the scarf.”

  Molly gave it a try. She tugged her thumb. It didn’t snap. And when she finally did pull it off, the scarf stayed inside. By the time she pulled it out and waved it around, her trick didn’t look like magic. It looked like Molly taking a heavy scarf out of a balloon.

  “You’ll just have to practice until you can do it faster,” Mary Beth said. “There’s no other way. We’d better get to the next trick. You have a lot to learn.”

  Molly pulled an old blue golf hat of her dad’s out of her bag for the rabbit trick.

  “Aren’t you supposed to use a big black hat?” asked Mary Beth.

  “This is all I’ve got,” Molly said. “It will have to work.”

  This whole magic thing is so hard, thought Molly. Big deal if my hat isn’t perfect. It’s good enough for me, and the rabbit won’t know the difference between a blue hat and a black one. She’d be fine. Her trick would be okay because she would practice as much as she had to. That was all she needed to earn her badge—a little practice. And she could do that, no problem.

  “Hey, Molly,” Mary Beth said. “Where are you going to get a rabbit?”

  CHAPTER

  4

  Magic Is Not Easy

  “Oh no,” Molly said. “I don’t know how I’ll find a rabbit.”

  “I think Roger has a rabbit,” said Mary Beth.

  “We can’t use Roger’s rabbit,” said Molly. “Roger hates us.”

  Mary Beth stamped her foot. “We can’t be fussy,” she said. “We need a rabbit and he’s got one.”

  The girls walked over to Roger’s house.

  “May we borrow your rabbit?” asked Molly politely when he answered the door.

  “Go away,” said Roger, slamming the door.

  Molly could see Roger through an open window. He was eating cornflakes.

  “We’ll pay you,” Mary Beth yelled through the window.

  Roger reopened the door. “How much?”

  “Well, I don’t have any money,” said Molly.

  “She’ll let you be in her act,” Mary Beth volunteered.

  “What can I do?” asked Roger suspiciously.

  “You can be the dummy in the ventriloquist act,” said Mary Beth quickly.

  Rat’s knees, thought Molly. She didn’t want to hold Roger on her knee!

  “No way,” said Roger. “I’m no dummy.”

  Mary Beth stuck her foot in the door. “You can be the ventriloquist,” she said. “Molly will be the dummy.”

  What had Mary Beth just said? Molly was not going to sit on Roger’s knee!

  Roger was thinking as he ate a Pop-Tart. “Okay,” he finally said. “I’ll lend you my rabbit. But you have to be nice to Fluffy.”

  “We will,” Molly promised.

  “We’re just going to pull her out of a hat. We won’t even need her until show time. Just bring her to the circus for the performance. And get ready to do the ventriloquist trick. You and Molly can practice tomorrow.”

  “I’m not going to practice that. I’ll be ready on Saturday. Bye.” Roger slammed the door.

  “That settles everything,” Mary Beth said. She seemed very pleased.

  On the way home, Molly said, “I thought a dummy was a big doll with a mouth that opens and shuts.”

  “You can do that,” said Mary Beth. “Roger won’t be the dummy. And you need his rabbit. Anyway, now you don’t have to find a real dummy.”

  “I guess,” Molly said. “I’d better hurry home and practice.”

  “Well,” Mary Beth said, “we told Roger you won’t use Fluffy until
show time. And I doubt you really want to practice the ventriloquist act with him. You’ll just have to wing it.”

  “How will I do that?” shrieked Molly.

  “Just read your book and figure out the rabbit trick. It shouldn’t be too hard. And a dummy doesn’t really say anything,” said Mary Beth. “Roger is supposed to throw his voice and pull a string to open and shut your mouth.”

  Molly stared at her. “There is no string on my neck,” she said. “And I’ll bet Roger has no idea how to throw his voice.”

  “It will work out,” said Mary Beth. “You’ll see. Just practice the scarf act and I’m sure the rabbit thing and the dummy thing will be okay. I’ve got to go home. My grandma’s coming to take me shopping.”

  Mary Beth waved and walked away humming, just as happy as could be. Rat’s knees! It dawned on Molly that her best friend, and all the rest of the Pee Wees too, were not worried about their circus acts the way she was. They didn’t worry about anything the way she did!

  Molly practiced the scarf act, and it did not go well. The scarf simply did not pop out of the rubber thumb very fast. She had to tug it out. That didn’t seem very magical. The audience would see through the trick in a flash.

  Well, at least she had a rabbit. And a dummy! (Even though she was the dummy!) She would cross her fingers and hope the circus people would help her figure the rest out. She only had one more day to wait because tomorrow was Saturday and the circus was coming!

  In the morning, all the Pee Wees were at the park bright and early. The Peterses were there, and most of the parents.

  Sonny was pushing his unicycle, but Molly noticed he was not riding it. Tracy had on her clown outfit. She had big floppy orange shoes and an orange wig. Rachel was dressed in her tutu and was standing on her toes, even though it wasn’t time for her act.

  “Rachel is showing off,” Lisa whispered. “She doesn’t need that tutu yet. She just likes an excuse to look like a dancer.”

  What Lisa said was probably true. But Molly had to admit that if she could dance she would want to wear a tutu too. It took a lot of lessons and hard work to be a dancer.

  As the Pee Wees and the crowd watched, the big circus trucks pulled up to the park and began to unload. The Pee Wees cheered. Roger whistled and Sonny and the other boys stamped their feet and shouted.

  “Hooray for the circus!” shouted Jody.

  “On with the show!” Kenny yelled. “We want elephants! We want elephants!”

  The rest of the crowd picked up the cheer and chanted it over and over. A circus man with a big mermaid tattoo on his arm put a ramp in place behind a big truck. Then he opened the truck’s back door.

  Down the ramp came a reluctant elephant.

  Just one elephant.

  A small elephant. A shy elephant.

  “It’s not very big,” said Tracy.

  Now Molly really wished she had signed up to ride on it. A small elephant. And it seemed like an old, slow, friendly elephant. Not one that would run off with people on its back.

  The man with the tattoo led the elephant down the ramp and tied it to a pole.

  “I don’t think they need to tie it,” said Rachel. “It’s not going anywhere. It looks like it needs a nap.”

  There were not many other animals—just a few dogs with fluffy balls on their tails and blue ribbons tied on their ears.

  “There’s my horse!” shouted Lisa. “The one I’ll ride bareback! Look how pretty she is!”

  This is not a big circus, Molly thought. The horse was not big. The elephant was not big. The dogs were not big. Even the tents were not big. The trapeze was so low you didn’t need a ladder to get to it.

  The circus people were very friendly. They shook the Pee Wees’ hands and said how glad they were to be there. And the crowd cheered the small circus just as though it were the biggest, tallest, most amazing circus ever.

  “I’m Max,” the elephant trainer told the Pee Wees. “You all look like good helpers. And there are so many of you! What a great time we’ll have!”

  Will I have a great time? Molly wondered. It all depended on a red scarf, Roger’s rabbit, and what kind of a dummy she could be! One thing for sure, she would soon find out.

  CHAPTER

  5

  Let the Games Begin!

  “It took a long time to set up the circus,” Kenny said when the Pee Wees came back from a late lunch. The crowds were arriving. “But it looks like they’re ready to go already! I guess the circus people aren’t going to practice with us now.”

  The circus people were very busy indeed. Families were lining up to buy tickets from Max, who seemed to do a lot of jobs under the big top. He took people’s money, then handed them tickets. The people handed their tickets to Tim and sat on one of the folding chairs a circus clown was setting up. The clown had a red nose, but otherwise he looked like anyone else. He wore regular clothes. Tracy definitely looked more like a clown than the real one did!

  Molly started to get nervous. If the circus started soon, she’d have to do her magic act without any more practice. No one from the circus had helped her yet. She saw Roger and tried to ask him if he was ready to do the dummy act and if Fluffy was around, but he didn’t pay attention to her. It looked as if he was arguing with his mom. They both kept pointing to his bike.

  “He’s probably ready,” Molly told herself. “Don’t worry so much.”

  Some of the children walked over and patted the elephant on its trunk. And others watched the horse paw the ground. The clown threw the kids some candy.

  “That must be where the circus people sleep,” said Lisa, pointing to a trailer parked nearby.

  “It’s probably where they put on their costumes and stuff too,” said Tracy.

  But when the entertainers came out of the trailer, they weren’t wearing costumes. They were wearing blue jeans and T-shirts.

  “I think we’re overdressed,” said Rachel, looking at Lisa in her bareback riding costume. And Tracy stood out with her bright orange wig.

  “Maybe they’ll put on their costumes later,” said Jody.

  But later there still were no costumes. Instead, Max walked over to the low trapeze in his blue jeans. He put his leg over it and began to swing. The crowd cheered. The swing went back and forth, not very high, and then the clown with the red nose jumped on beside him. The crowd went wild. They both did a somersault off the swing and landed on their feet on the grass.

  “My little brother can do that and he’s only four,” scoffed Mary Beth.

  Max and the clown were bowing. People were clapping and clapping. One lady even threw flowers at their feet!

  Max held up his hand for silence. “I believe one of our Tee Bee Scouts is going to help us on the high wire,” he said, looking around the tent.

  “Not Tee Bee!” shouted Kevin. “We’re Pee Wee Scouts!”

  “I’m sorry,” said Max. “I meant the Sea Bee Scouts!”

  Kevin groaned.

  “It’s an easy mistake,” said Mrs. Peters. “The circus people are not familiar with our Scout troop.”

  “What little Sea Bee is going to join us in this dangerous high-wire act?” asked Max.

  Roger held up both hands. He ran toward the swing, waving to the audience. He was wearing gym clothes and a helmet.

  Max held Roger’s hand up and they both bowed.

  “I see the Sea Bees come prepared!” said Max. “It’s good to protect your head while performing such a dangerous high-wire feat.”

  “Where is the high wire?” asked Patty. “I don’t see any high wire.”

  “I think that’s it,” said Jody, pointing to a rope stretched between two poles and about a foot off the ground.

  “Where’s his bike?”

  “I think Roger’s mom said he couldn’t ride it on the high wire or he’d be in big trouble. She thought it sounded too dangerous.”

  I thought it was too dangerous too, Molly thought. But what’s so dangerous about walking one foot above the grass?


  “If he falls off that,” shrieked Kevin, “he’ll just land on his feet on the grass! Big deal!”

  Max held his hand up again. “I must ask for complete silence during this act. Any sudden noise or movement could cause a serious accident.”

  The crowd heeded his words. They watched silently as Roger carefully put one foot ahead of the other and tried to walk across the rope. He put his arms out for balance.

  “I thought he was going to ride his bike on a high wire,” said Patty. “I mean a really high wire!”

  Everything was hushed as Roger leaned from one side to the other, trying to keep his balance. He took a few steps—and slipped off. Kevin was right. Roger’s feet landed on the grass.

  “He sure didn’t need a helmet,” said Kenny.

  Roger tried again. He almost lost his balance a few times, waving his hands in the air. Finally he walked the last few feet along the rope, jumped off, and bowed deeply. He’d made it all the way across.

  Now the crowd let loose. They whistled and shouted and clapped.

  “What a star!” Max shouted as he slapped Roger on the back. “Well done. Don’t you agree, audience?”

  They did agree. They cheered all over again. They loved Roger.

  Rachel rolled her eyes.

  “All I can say is you really chose the wrong act,” Mary Beth said to Molly. “You could have done that easy.”

  Didn’t Mary Beth know Molly was thinking the same thing? Why did she have to rub it in?

  “After all that excitement,” said Max, “we’ll take a short break to water the animals. When we come back, another one of our own Sea Bee scouts will give us a great unicycle performance!”

  Everyone looked at Sonny. He turned red.

  Meanwhile, Kenny went around the tent cleaning up ticket stubs and candy wrappers. Jody wheeled over to the water faucet in the park and filled water dishes for the elephant, the horse, and the dogs. Tim was still taking tickets.

  “I surely didn’t expect so many people,” said Mr. Peters.

  “I didn’t expect the acts to go so quickly,” said Mrs. Peters. “I wonder if there will be enough acts to fill the time!”