The Mystery of the Carnival Prize

by David A. Adler

  “You shouldn’t wear those when you ride your bicycle,” Donna said.

  “If a car honks, you won’t hear it. And you won’t hear police sirens,” Eric told her. “You won’t know to get out of the way.”

  “And you should lock your bicycle,” Cam said as she and Eric walked away. “Someone might steal it.”

  Bong! Bong!

  “We have a winner here. We have another winner!” Freddy called out from the Dime Toss booth.

  “Let’s hurry,” Donna said. “Freddy must be wrong. That Dime Toss must be easy. I want to get there before he runs out of prizes.”

  A crowd had gathered around the Dime Toss booth. Inside the booth, on the ground, was a large sheet of cardboard with several circles drawn on it. Children were throwing dimes, trying to get them to land in the middle of a circle.

  A girl with her hair arranged in long brown braids and wearing sunglasses walked away from the booth. She was holding a large toy poodle.

  “She must be the winner,” Diane said.

  Cam and Eric watched as the other children threw dimes onto the cardboard. A few dimes touched the edges of a circle. But none landed completely inside a circle. Every few minutes Freddy used a broom and swept the dimes into a box at the edge of the cardboard.

  “Why don’t you try?” Donna asked.

  “We’re studying the game,” Eric said.

  A tall, skinny girl threw a dime onto the cardboard. The dime bounced up and landed on the ground.

  A young girl sat on the ground. She dropped a dime onto the cardboard. The dime started to spin in the middle of a circle. Everyone near the booth watched as the dime spun slower and slower. Then it stopped with only half of the dime inside the circle.

  “Did you see that?” Eric whispered to Donna. “The girl didn’t win because the dime wasn’t completely in the circle.”

  An older boy came to the booth. He sat on the ground and gently tossed a dime. It slid to the circle in the center of the cardboard and stopped.

  “He won,” Eric said.

  Freddy took a wooden spoon from his pocket and banged it on the bottom of a large pot. “We have another winner,” he called out. Then Freddy asked the boy which stuffed animal he wanted.

  “I’ll take that one,” the boy said. He pointed to a large furry brown teddy bear.

  Cam looked at the boy. He was tall, with curly blond hair. He was wearing a large brown cowboy hat.

  “I think I know what to do now,” Eric said. “I’ll just try to slide the dime into the middle of a circle.”

  Eric held a dime. He sat on the ground. Before he tossed his dime onto the cardboard, he turned to Donna and Diane and said, “I’m playing this game for you. If I win, you two can share the prize.”

  Chapter Five

  Eric gently tossed the coin. It slid past three circles and stopped just at the edge of the cardboard.

  “We didn’t win,” Donna said.

  Cam reached into her pocket. She took out a dime and said, “Let me try.”

  Cam sat on the ground. She carefully tossed the dime up in the air so that it landed flat on the cardboard. It landed near one of the circles.

  “I don’t see how anyone can win this game,” Cam said as she got up from the ground. “It’s just about impossible to get a dime right inside a circle.”

  “Let’s try something else,” Donna said. “Maybe we can win a prize at another booth.”

  “I’ll bet you can win at the Trivia booth,” Eric said to Cam. “When you say your ‘Clicks’ you can remember all kinds of things.”

  As Cam, Eric, and the twins were walking toward the Trivia booth, they passed Ms. Benson. Cam and Eric stopped to ask Ms. Benson if she needed their help.

  “Please check the bicycles again,” Ms. Benson told them. “Then walk through the schoolyard. See if any of the young children are crying. Make sure there are no problems at any of the booths.”

  At the bicycle racks, Cam and Eric pulled at all the locks. They were all closed. Even Debby Lane’s bicycle was locked.

  The boy at the Button Jar Guess needed paper. “I’m doing great,” he told Cam and Eric. “I already have one hundred and ninety-four guesses.”

  Eric got some paper from Ms. Benson. He took it to the boy.

  One of the rings at the Ring Toss broke. Cam helped tape it.

  Cam, Eric, and the twins went to the Trivia booth last. The girl there said that her only problem was that so few children wanted to come to her booth.

  “We can help you with that,” Donna said. “Cam wants to take your test.”

  The girl opened up a folder. She was about to ask Cam a question when Freddy banged on the large metal pot again.

  “We have another winner,” he called out.

  Cam turned. She saw a girl holding a large stuffed animal, a giraffe. The girl was smiling. She had braces on her teeth and was wearing a green hat.

  “I don’t understand how people keep winning. That Dime Toss is impossible,” Eric said.

  “Your first question,” the girl at the booth said, “is How fast can an elephant run? And you don’t have to give me the exact answer, but you have to be close.”

  Cam said, “Click,” and closed her eyes. “I saw a chart in the Kurt Daub museum,” Cam said. “It listed the speeds of different animals. Now, let’s see. The cheetah was the fastest animal on the list. It runs seventy miles an hour. That’s about one hundred and fifteen kilometers. And the elephant runs twenty-five miles an hour. That’s about forty kilometers.”

  “That’s right,” the girl said. “You win a school banner. Do you want to try for another prize?”

  “Yes,” Donna said.

  “All right,” the girl said, reading from her folder, “in what year did an astronaut first walk on the moon?”

  Cam said, “Click,” and closed her eyes. “His name is Neil Armstrong,” Cam said, with her eyes still closed. “He first stepped on the moon on July 20, 1969.”

  “That’s right,” the girl said. “You win a school T-shirt.”

  Bong! Bong! Freddy banged on the large metal pot again.

  “Look,” Eric said to Cam, “there’s another winner at the Dime Toss.”

  Cam opened her eyes. She turned to look at the Dime Toss booth. A tall boy was walking away from the booth. He was wearing a blue woolen stocking hat. It covered most of his hair. The boy was carrying a large teddy bear.

  “Would you like to try one more question?” the girl at the Trivia booth asked.

  “That boy looks familiar,” Cam said, still looking at the Dime Toss.

  “She’ll try another question,” Donna told the girl at the Trivia booth.

  “Maybe she doesn’t want to,” Diane said.

  Cam closed her eyes. She said, “Click.” She said, “Click,” again.

  “If you get this one right,” the girl at the Trivia booth said, “you win a school notebook.”

  Cam opened her eyes. “I don’t have time to play any more games,” she told the girl. Then she said to Eric, “We have to go to the Dime Toss booth. There’s something strange going on there.”

  Chapter Six

  Cam and Eric ran to the Dime Toss. The booth was surrounded by children who were taking turns throwing dimes onto the cardboard.

  “Hey, Freddy,” Cam called. “I want to talk to you.”

  “Not now. I’m busy.”

  Cam and Eric watched the children throw their dimes onto the cardboard. Not one even came close to winning. Then a girl wearing a red baseball cap gently tossed a coin onto the cardboard. It slid and then stopped inside the circle in the center of the cardboard.

  “I win,” the girl said, and she smiled. She had braces on her teeth. There were only two prizes left. “I’ll take that one,” the girl said. She pointed to a little toy monkey.

  Freddy gave the stuffed animal to the girl. She walked off with it. Then Freddy picked up the metal pot. He reached into his pocket and took out the wooden spoon.

  “Don’t ban
g on the pot,” Cam said.

  “But why not? I have a winner,” Freddy said.

  “There’s something odd about that middle circle. Both times I was here, a dime suddenly stopped inside it. Maybe there’s some jelly or glue on it.”

  Freddy took his broom and swept the dimes into the box at the edge of the cardboard. The winning dime didn’t move. Freddy pushed harder on the broom and swept it into the box with the other dimes.

  Cam felt the top surface of the cardboard. She told Eric and Freddy that it was smooth.

  “You know,” Freddy said, “now that I think about it, it was odd. Every winning dime was inside the same middle circle.”

  Cam sat on the ground in front of the booth. Eric sat next to her.

  Cam closed her eyes and said, “Click.” She told Eric, “I’m looking at the children who won at the Dime Toss.”

  “I remember the first girl who won,” Eric said. “She was standing in front of Donna and Diane at the refreshment stand. She was the girl who said she had a lucky dime.”

  Cam said, “Click,” again. She said it a few more times. Then Cam opened her eyes.

  “I was looking at the pictures I have in my head of all the winners. That girl with the lucky dime didn’t win just once. She won four times. And she wore disguises. She wore her hair long. Then she wore it in braids. She wore sunglasses once. And she kept changing hats.”

  “How do you know she was the same girl?” Freddy asked.

  Eric said, “Disguises like that can fool some people, but they can’t fool Cam’s mental camera.”

  “And every time that girl smiled, I saw the braces on her teeth,” Cam added.

  “Excuse me,” a tall boy said. “You’re in my way.”

  Cam and Eric moved. The boy sat on the ground. He reached into his pocket and took out a dime. The boy was wearing sunglasses and a dark blue rain hat.

  The boy gently tossed the coin onto the cardboard. It slid and then stopped right inside the middle circle.

  The boy took the last stuffed animal as his prize. As he walked away, Cam looked straight at the boy and said, “Click.”

  Freddy swept the last few dimes into the box. Then he sat next to Cam and Eric. He was holding the box of dimes.

  “Well, that’s it,” Freddy said. “My booth is closed. I’ve given away the last prize.”

  Cam wasn’t listening. Her eyes were closed again. And she kept saying, “Click.” Then Cam jumped up. She started to run toward the schoolyard gate. “Come on,” she called to Eric. “We have to catch that boy.”

  Chapter Seven

  “Wait, Cam, wait,” Eric called as he ran.

  Eric caught up with Cam at the gate. She was standing there looking in all directions.

  “I lost him,” Cam said. “I don’t know which way he went.”

  “What did he do?” Eric asked.

  “That was the fourth time he won at the Dime Toss. He wore a different disguise every time, but it was the same boy. And when we ran after Debby on that bicycle, we passed him and that girl. They were talking to each other. They’re in this together.”

  “So what?” Eric said as he turned and started to walk back into the schoolyard. “Wearing a disguise isn’t a crime. And we can’t chase after every kid who wins a prize.”

  “But Eric, they must have done something wrong. How else could they keep winning?”

  Cam walked with Eric into the schoolyard. As they walked, Cam closed her eyes and said, “Click.”

  “Watch where you’re walking,” a boy said to Cam. “You almost bumped into me.”

  “What are you doing?” Eric asked.

  Cam’s eyes were open now. “I think we should look at those dimes,” she told Eric.

  Cam and Eric went back to the Dime Toss booth. Freddy was no longer there. They found him near the refreshment stand. He had just given the box of dimes to Ms. Benson.

  “May we look through those dimes?” Cam asked Ms. Benson.

  Ms. Benson gave Cam the box.

  “Look at this,” Cam said as she took out a coin. “This explains why that boy and girl kept winning.”

  Freddy looked at the coin. Then Eric looked at it.

  “It’s shiny,” Eric said. “And it’s lumpy. But how did a lumpy dime help them win?”

  “It’s not a dime,” Cam said as she looked through the box. She took out a few more coins.

  “Look,” Cam said as she peeled the face off one of the coins. “They rubbed some aluminum foil over a real dime. Then they glued it to a round metal slug.”

  “But how did that help them win?” Freddy asked.

  “Come on. I’ll show you,” Cam said. She gave the box of dimes to Ms. Benson. Cam kept the fake dimes and walked with Eric and Freddy to the Dime Toss booth.

  Cam sat on the ground. Then she gently tossed one of the fake dimes onto the cardboard. It slid across the board and then stopped inside the center circle. Cam tossed another one. It did the same thing.

  “What made this happen?” Freddy asked.

  “I bet it was a magnet,” Eric said.

  Cam nodded and said, “When we first came to the carnival, we saw that boy leaving. He was carrying tape. You thought he was helping set up the carnival. He wasn’t. I’ll bet he taped a magnet right under the center circle.”

  Freddy lifted the cardboard. He found a magnet taped beneath it.

  “That’s why I always had trouble sweeping off the winning dimes,” Freddy said. “But what do we do now?”

  “We have to find those two. We can’t let them keep all those prizes,” Cam said. She started to run toward the gate.

  Eric called to her. “Stop! We don’t even know where to go. Let’s find Ms. Benson. She’ll tell us what to do.”

  Chapter Eight

  Cam, Eric, and Freddy went to Ms. Benson. They told her everything that had happened at the Dime Toss booth.

  “Once those children leave the schoolyard,” Ms. Benson said, “there’s very little I can do. I’ll drive you to the police station. Maybe they can help.”

  They walked to Ms. Benson’s car. It was a big old blue car. Books and papers were piled on the back seat. Eric began to open the back door.

  “No, don’t,” Ms. Benson said.

  It was too late. Books, papers, and a box wrapped in gift paper fell out. Eric and Freddy chased after the papers. They picked up the books and the gift. Then they climbed into the car. Cam sat in the front seat next to Ms. Benson.

  “I think this will be the best fifth-grade carnival ever,” Ms. Benson said as she drove. “All the prizes were donated, so all the money we make will go to the library. We may even have enough to buy a new encyclopedia.”

  “We made a whole boxful of dimes at my booth,” Freddy said.

  Ms. Benson waited at a traffic light. When the light turned green, she started to drive off.

  “Don’t go straight,” Cam said. “Turn left.”

  “But that’s not the way to the police station.”

  “I know. But I see something at the end of the block.”

  Ms. Benson put on her turn signal. As she made the turn, Eric said, “I see it, too.”

  A small table was set up. A tall boy with curly blond hair was calling out, “Bring home a toy for your children. Buy a soft, furry stuffed animal.”

  The girl with him had braces on her teeth and long brown hair. She was holding a toy giraffe. She was showing it to people who walked by.

  “They won all those prizes at my Dime Toss,” Freddy said.

  “They didn’t win,” Eric said. “They cheated you out of them.”

  Ms. Benson parked her car. She told Cam, Eric, and Freddy to wait inside. She would talk to the two children.

  As Ms. Benson walked from her car, the girl came over to her. She tried to sell Ms. Benson a teddy bear. Then Ms. Benson started to talk. She called to the tall boy.

  “What’s she saying?” Eric asked.

  “I can’t hear her,” Cam said. “And I can’t open the win
dow. It’s stuck.”

  “So is mine,” Freddy said.

  They watched as Ms. Benson talked to the two children. Then Ms. Benson walked back to the car. The two children followed her, carrying the stuffed animals.

  “Jennifer, Eric, and Freddy,” Ms. Benson said as she opened Cam’s door, “I’d like you to meet Bert and Sylvia. They are going to give these prizes back. And they agreed to help in the library every Monday afternoon. Isn’t that nice?”

  Neither Bert nor Sylvia smiled. “Are you taking us to the police?” Bert asked.

  Ms. Benson shook her head. “I’m sure you have learned your lesson,” she said. Bert and Sylvia put the prizes into the trunk of Ms. Benson’s car. Then they folded up the small table and walked off.

  “Well, you children caught two thieves,” Ms. Benson said as she drove back to school. “By cheating at the Dime Toss, they were stealing those prizes. You also solved a mystery. I was wondering why there were so many winners at Freddy’s booth.”

  Later that afternoon, the winner of the Button Jar Guess was announced. A first-grade boy’s guess was the closest. The toy kangaroo mother and baby that he won were almost as big as he was.

  “I don’t care if I didn’t win,” Donna said. “At least Cam won a school T-shirt for me.”

  “And she won a banner for me,” Diane said.

  Chapter Nine

  A few days later, Cam and Eric were back in school. Spring vacation was over. At three o’clock, when the class was getting ready to go home, Ms. Benson asked Cam and Eric to wait. Then she walked with them to the library.

  “Oh, there you are,” the librarian said when they walked in. “Ms. Benson told me how you figured out what was happening at the Dime Toss. You two must read a lot of mysteries.”

  “We do,” Eric said, “but that’s not why we can solve mysteries. It’s Cam’s memory. It’s amazing. She remembers everything she sees.”