by Gwyneth Rees
Ava let out a scream as she was yanked right off the platform and swung through the air upside down, her tiara falling off her head and hurtling to the ground amidst lots of oohs and aahs from the audience.
‘Smile, Little Miss Butterfly – you’re the star of the show!’ Dulcie shouted cheerily. And she swung Ava to and fro a few more times, before calling out in a mischievous voice, ‘Oops . . . Butterfingers!’ as she let go.
8
Ava screamed the whole way down, hitting the net with a thud that knocked her breath away before shooting back up again. She curled herself up again instinctively for the next bounce, terrified the whole time that she was going to bounce right out of the net.
Val was the first to reach her, shouting up to ask if she was OK. The trapeze act seemed to be continuing above them as the ringmaster made an announcement to reassure the audience. Ava wasn’t listening to what he said. All she could hear was her own rapid breathing as her heart thumped away manically inside her chest. With Val’s help she managed to swing down over the side of the net, trembling and close to tears as she landed on the ground.
Val was dressed in a bright red corset-and-feathers outfit, with a feather boa and a matching silky cape. She immediately sat Ava down and went off to get her a drink of water, returning after a few minutes with a grubby looking glass. ‘What a carry-on up there! I don’t know!’ She shook her head disapprovingly as she watched Ava take a sip.
‘Wait till I get hold of those two!’
Marietta snapped as she joined them, having just climbed as fast as she could down the rope ladder. ‘Ava’s never been on a trapeze before! She could have been killed!’ Her cheeks were flushed as she handed Ava her butterfly wings. ‘As for you, miss,’ she told her crossly. ‘I’m taking you straight home!’
‘But Gemma said—’
‘No buts!’ Marietta interrupted her. ‘I don’t care what Gemma told you – you should never have climbed up there! Now I know how your dad felt, when he had to look after me as a kid and I was always running off and doing something stupid!’
Ava had never seen Marietta lose her cool before. She didn’t know what to say, but she did know that there was no way she was ready to go home yet. She remembered that she was meant to have joined Stella and Lexi at the lorry by now and she only hoped they hadn’t already left without her.
‘Wait!’ Ava protested, pulling her arm away as Marietta helped her up. ‘I have to . . . to say goodbye to Lexi first . . . and . . . and . . . what about my tiara? I can’t go home without that.’
Marietta seemed to calm down a little. ‘OK – you go and see Lexi. I’ll come and find you after I’ve spoken to Tony. We’ll have to wait until the interval in any case, to look for your tiara. It’s got to be in the ring somewhere, or maybe it’s caught in the net.’
Just then Val let out a scream as she spotted a big spider running over the ground near her foot. As she jumped sideways, she bumped into Ava, and something fell out from under her cape. It was Ava’s tiara.
As Ava picked it up from the floor, Val went bright red and started to mumble something about being about to give it to them when the spider had distracted her.
Marietta was looking furious and Ava would have liked to stay and hear what she had to say to Val. But there was no time – not if she wanted to catch up with the others.
The lorry was gone when Ava got there and she felt so disappointed she almost started to cry. Then she glanced across the field to the gate and saw the lorry parked in the lane just outside.
‘Where have you been?’ Stella hissed, leaning out of the driver’s window as Ava approached. The lorry’s engine was ticking over and she was clearly keen to get going. ‘Never mind. Tell us when you get your breath back.’
‘Goodness, why haven’t you changed into some normal clothes?’ Lexi asked as Ava climbed up into the cab, slamming the door shut behind her.
‘I was in a rush,’ Ava murmured, reaching up to check her tiara was on securely, relieved that she had decided to leave her wings behind. She felt a bit guilty about running out on Marietta like this, but at least Stella had left her a note in her caravan explaining where they’d gone.
Stella released the lorry’s handbrake, keeping the headlights switched off so as not to attract attention. Ava had never ridden in the cab of a lorry before and she was surprised by how high up off the ground it seemed compared to being a passenger in a car.
‘How long do you think it’ll take us to get there?’ Ava asked as soon as they were out of sight of the circus encampment.
‘If all goes well about five or six hours, I should think,’ Stella said. ‘You girls should try and get some sleep.’
‘Oh, I couldn’t sleep!’ Ava protested.
‘Me neither!’ agreed Lexi.
Stella laughed. ‘Well, we’ll see . . .’
‘Will Sukey . . . I mean Bonnie . . . be all right shut up in the back the whole way?’ Ava asked.
‘She’s got lots of water to drink and plenty of fruit and veggies to eat, and I wedged open the back door a little at the top to let in some air,’ Stella replied. ‘She should be fine, but you can check on her if you pull back that little curtain just above your head.’
Ava twisted round in her seat to find a small dusty curtain covering a window that allowed those in the driver’s cab to see into the back of the lorry.
Ava could see Bonnie sucking up some water into her trunk from a metal bucket that was tethered to the floor. ‘She’s having a drink,’ Ava reported. But instead of squirting the water into her mouth, Bonnie lifted up her trunk and sprayed the water all over her back. ‘Oh, wait . . . she’s giving herself a bath instead!’
Lexi knelt up against the back of her seat to look too. ‘Hey, Bonnie – are you trying to get rid of all those nasty circus smells before you go back to your mother?’ she joked.
And Bonnie raised her head and gave a loud snort as if she agreed.
‘Ava, wake up!’ It was dark outside and Stella was shaking her gently.
For a few moments Ava couldn’t think where she was as she sat up sleepily, rubbing her eyes. She reached up to check her tiara was still on her head as she asked, ‘What’s happened? Is something wrong?’
‘We’re here,’ Stella said softly. ‘It’s two o’clock in the morning. You’ve both been asleep for the last four hours.’
Beside her, Ava saw that Lexi was just stirring too.
‘Look. That’s the entrance to the zoo,’ Stella said. They had arrived at the end of a quiet road and the lorry was parked in front of a pair of big iron gates locked together with a metal chain. Fixed to the wall on one side of the gates, and illuminated by a lamp directly above it, was a sign that read: FANCY’S ZOO AND ELEPHANT SANCTUARY.
‘Listen, I’ve been thinking,’ Stella continued. ‘I reckon we should tie Bonnie up to the gates and call the police anonymously to tell them she’s here. We passed a phone box further back along the road. You girls can stay here with Bonnie and I’ll drive back and make the call. Then I’ll park the lorry somewhere where it won’t be noticed and come back here on foot. When the police get here we can hide and watch what happens.’
Bonnie seemed to approve of their plan, for she trotted readily out of the lorry when Stella put down the ramp for her.
But as the lorry reversed down the road away from them Ava started to feel uneasy. The full moon, which had been shining brightly when they had arrived, had disappeared behind a cloud, and without the lorry’s headlights they were in darkness apart from the dim circle of light coming from the lamp outside the zoo entrance. Lexi didn’t seem to be aware of anything other than Bonnie as she stood with her arms around the elephant, whispering goodbye as Bonnie made little snorty sounds and curled her trunk affectionately around Lexi’s neck.
Ava waited tensely, jumping at every sound until, after what seemed forever, the moon came out again and they could see better. Shortly afterwards a pair of headlights appeared along the road.
‘Quick, Lexi! We’d better hide!’ Ava exclaimed in alarm, but then she saw that it was their own lorry returning.
‘Don’t worry, Bonnie. It’s only Stella . . .’ Lexi murmured.
‘I thought Stella said she was going to walk back,’ Ava said, wondering why the plan had suddenly changed.
They soon found out after the lorry came to a halt right in front of them, its headlamps shining directly on to Bonnie and the two girls. As Ava and Lexi shielded their eyes from the glare the headlamps were switched off abruptly.
‘Did you really think I wouldn’t find you?’ came a gruff male voice as the driver’s door was flung open and a bulky figure jumped down from the cab.
‘Uncle Max!’ Lexi gasped in horror, quickly going to stand beside Bonnie. ‘How did you get here?’
9
‘Where’s Stella?’ Ava demanded as her eyes gradually adjusted to the moonlight again.
‘In there,’ Max replied, pointing to the back of the lorry, from where they could now make out a muffled yelling. The corners of his mouth twitched slightly as he added, ‘Tied up with Val’s feather boa!’
As he spoke a small van had driven up behind the lorry and now its occupant stepped out.
‘Aunt Val!’ Lexi exclaimed.
Ava watched, too scared to move, half expecting Val to produce two more feather boas to tie up herself and Lexi.
Instead Val ignored Ava and narrowed her eyes at her niece, snapping, ‘You need a lesson in family loyalty, young lady. It’s lucky we caught Stella before she’d had time to phone anybody!’ She marched Lexi over to the van and told her to sit in the front passenger seat and keep quiet. ‘Otherwise you won’t be spending any time at all with that elephant after we get her back to the circus,’ she added before slamming the door shut and locking it.
Val came back to address Ava, pausing as if momentarily distracted by her tiara before asking, ‘Right . . . are you going to start causing trouble now?’
Ava shook her head, unable to speak.
‘Good. Well, just you wait there and keep quiet. It’s thanks to your auntie that we’re here, by the way. I’ve never seen anyone get into such a panic about a missing kid! If she hadn’t raised the alarm so quickly we wouldn’t have realized in time that the lorry was gone.’
‘But we left Marietta a note,’ Ava mumbled, puzzled.
Val smiled. ‘Yes, but she didn’t find it straight away. It had fallen on the floor or something. After she read it she calmed down, but by then Max and I had guessed what was going on.’
‘Oh,’ Ava murmured, feeling even more miserable.
Meanwhile Bonnie had started to make a high-pitched squealing sound as Max approached her with a loop of rope. Bonnie clearly sensed what he was trying to do as she kept moving her head, swishing her trunk angrily and doing her best to ram into him when he came too close. When he tried speaking to her in a sickeningly coaxing voice, she didn’t fall for it, swiping out at him and letting out more loud squeals as she butted him with her huge frame, almost knocking him off his feet.
And then, from inside the zoo, they heard another sound – a distant trumpeting.
‘I bet that’s her mother,’ Ava gasped.
Bonnie obviously heard it too for she immediately turned towards the noise and responded with a similar call.
Quick as lightning Max darted forward and threw the rope around Bonnie’s neck. Then as Bonnie continued to concentrate on letting her mother know that she was there Max untied her from the gate. He tried to tug her towards the lorry but Bonnie stubbornly refused to go, squealing even more loudly for her mother to come and rescue her. Finally Max told Val to go to the van and fetch the pitchfork they had brought with them.
‘Wait! Don’t hurt her,’ Ava begged, starting to cry. As Val returned with the pitchfork, Ava rushed forward to stop Max using it, but Val grabbed her and held on to her tightly.
‘MOVE!’ Max barked at Bonnie, raising the pitchfork ready to thrust it into her side.
Ava knew she had to do something – but what?
‘If you let Bonnie go you can have my tiara!’ she shouted desperately. Val dug her fingernails hard into Ava’s arm. ‘What did you say?’
‘I’m saying that if you let her go then you can have the tiara and I promise I won’t tell anyone you’ve got it! It’s made of rubies and amethysts and orange diamonds, so it should be worth lots of money!’
Max lowered the pitchfork and stared at Ava. ‘Did you say orange diamonds?’
‘That’s right. I think they must be very rare . . .’ Her mouth had gone dry and her own voice sounded strange.
‘I told you the jewels on that thing were real, Max,’ Val hissed, letting go of Ava’s arm, ‘but you wouldn’t have it.’
Max still didn’t seem totally convinced. ‘That’s because it doesn’t make any sense. I mean, what circus trapeze girl would own a thing like that?’
‘Oh, I haven’t always been a trapeze girl,’ Ava said quickly. ‘My family . . . you see . . . my family have many beautiful tiaras . . .’
‘I knew it!’ Val exclaimed. ‘Neither her nor her aunt are circus folk! I could tell straight away there was something different about them. Marietta has always pretended she’s from circus stock but it’s not true. The two of them are rich-kid runaways – that’s what they are. I bet that tiara’s worth a fortune!’
Max frowned at Ava. ‘But if we do give back the elephant, how do we know you’ll keep your word?’
‘I promise I will,’ Ava said. ‘And I won’t tell anyone you’ve got the tiara – not even Marietta. I’ll just say that I lost it.’
‘Max, let’s do it!’ Val said, her eyes gleaming as she stared greedily at the tiara. ‘We’re talking about giving up an annoying little elephant who, from what I’ve seen, has turned out to be far more trouble than she’s worth. Think about it, Max. With the money from those jewels we could set up our own circus. Then you can have all the performing animals you want!’
Ava felt a bit sick, realizing that with the money from her tiara they could purchase many more baby elephants like Bonnie. But she didn’t have time to think about it because the lorry’s back door suddenly burst open and something large and cat-like leaped out and came bounding towards them.
‘Stella!’ Ava exclaimed as the figure pounced right on top of Max. Ignoring his cries, Stella sat on his shoulders while she pummelled him repeatedly with her fists.
‘I don’t . . . understand! How did . . . you get . . . free?’ Max spluttered as he squirmed about, trying in vain to shake her off.
‘I’m a contortionist and escapologist, you idiot!’ Stella yelled. ‘Did you really think I’d be thwarted by this?’ And she stuck her hand in her pocket and pulled out a handful of bright red feathers.
‘My feather boa!’ Val exclaimed furiously.
‘More feathers than boa now, Val!’ Stella snapped as she tossed the handful up into the air.
And as the feathers showered down over a horrified Val, Ava found it difficult not to laugh.
10
Ava hadn’t realized just how strongly Stella felt about not causing any trouble for the circus.
Instead of making Max and Val stay and face the police, Stella let them drive off in their van – but only after they had promised to be gone from the circus by the end of the weekend.
Stella was just opening the driver’s door of the lorry, ready to go and make her anonymous phone call about Bonnie when they saw another vehicle approaching. It was difficult to see properly in the moonlight but it looked like an ordinary car with two people in the front.
Stella immediately got the girls back inside the cab of the lorry before going to stand protectively beside Bonnie. Ava held her breath as the car came to a standstill alongside them, its engine still running. What would the occupants say when they saw Bonnie? What would Stella say to explain why they were there?
Ava had her nose pressed against the lorry’s side window watching the car. She let out a gasp as the driver
’s door opened and a circus clown stepped out. As he crossed in front of the car he was fully illuminated by its headlights and Ava saw that he wore orange baggy trousers, a green coat with enormous red spots, and a silly hat with a fake flower growing out of the side. His painted clown’s face made him unrecognizable even in the lamplight, although there was something about him that seemed vaguely familiar.
The clown went over to speak to Stella and after a few minutes Stella pointed at the lorry.
‘I don’t understand . . .’ Lexi murmured as the clown started to walk towards them.
Ava did though, and now she was opening her door. ‘Dad!’ she burst out, jumping down from the cab to greet him. As they hugged each other she gasped, ‘I didn’t recognize you at first, dressed like that!’
‘I know. I asked Marietta for a costume that would help me blend in and this is what she produced . . . Still, I suppose I’m lucky not to be wearing a sparkly leotard. Now . . . are you all right?’
‘Oh, yes . . . and I’m sorry I left the circus without telling anybody, but Marietta was going to make me go home, and I really wanted to help bring Bonnie back to the zoo.’
‘That’s no excuse, Ava,’ her dad said sternly. ‘And don’t think we won’t be talking more about this later. But right now I need to take a closer look at Bonnie.’
Ava was puzzled. ‘Why, Dad?’
But he didn’t answer her, and as he went back over to join Stella and Bonnie, who was starting to get restless, Ava suddenly saw that Marietta was getting out of the car.
‘Hello, Ava,’ her aunt greeted her coldly.
‘Sorry, Marietta,’ Ava said at once.
‘So you should be. And, Stella . . . I thought we were friends!’
Stella looked guilty as she walked towards Marietta. ‘Sorry. I thought if I left you a note stuck to the mirror then you’d understand and wouldn’t worry . . .’
