by Micol Ostow
“It’s true,” Fernando said. “My dad said some people were complaining about the broken machine, too.”
“But then! I also heard Chuck Cluck talking last night. He told Cady the Bearded Lady that ticket sales are down. Down! Like that movie theater in the word problem with all those empty seats! What will happen if we don’t sell enough tickets?”
“Oh no!” Stella cried.
But Jed’s forehead unwrinkled. He didn’t look confused anymore. Now he just had a grown-up, smarter-than-you face on.
“Your mother was right, Louise,” he said. “You probably misunderstood what you heard.”
“I didn’t misunderstand!” I scrunched my nose up in my angriest way. Why were grown-ups always so busy not-believing what kids say? Even about things we heard with our very own earholes!
Being not-believed is the worst.
“Ticket sales are not for you kids to worry about, Louise,” Jed said. “Or adult arguments, either. The cotton candy machine can be fixed. Everything is just fine with the circus.”
I didn’t totally believe him, even though I wanted to. But just then there was a knock at the trailer door. It was Petrova the Human Pretzel. She had a message for Jed from Ringmaster Riley.
“I’ll be right back,” Jed said. He moved toward the doorway. “Fernando, keep reading. Louise and Stella, solve the word problem and show me your work. And all of you—calm down.”
But those unicorns were still galloping away in my brain. As soon as the trailer door closed behind Jed, I turned to Fernando and Stella.
“I don’t care if Jed says not to worry,” I said to them. “If ticket sales are down, that is extremely bad news.”
“I agree,” Stella said.
Fernando sighed. “I agree, too,” he said at last. Linus swished his tail to say so did he.
My mouth dropped open, I was so surprised.
“This is an emergency problem,” I said in my most dramatic voice. Fernando and Stella both nodded. “It’s up to us to save the day!”
“But how?” Stella asked.
“Lucky for us, I have a eureka! idea,” I said. I leaned closer to them. “We need to come up with an amazing new act for our show!”
“Perfectamundo!” Stella said. “Then people will buy more tickets and—”
“—the circus will be saved!” Fernando interrupted.
It was extremely rude of him to interrupt, but I didn’t care. For once, Fernando was totally and completely right!
Stella, Fernando, and I agreed to work together to think up new acts for the circus. In class when we have to think very hard, it’s sometimes called brainstorming. Brainstorming works better when you have lots of people cooperating to think.
We planned to meet behind the Big Top tent after siesta. Most of the grown-ups were drinking coffee and doing errandy things then, so we knew no one would ask what we were up to. I had a stripy bag filled with lots of props we could use for trying out tricks. It was time to get our brains all stormy!
It was very quiet while I walked to our meeting spot. But I did see one strange-ish thing:
Just beside the box office tent, our Fire-Eater, El Fuego Mateo, was practicing swallowing giant torches of flameyness!
Now, Mateo always gobbles down fire the way normal people eat ice cream and other regular food things. But today he was gulping those flames away at super-high speed! It was just like how Tolstoy was juggling in fast-forward yesterday.
Why were all the Sweet Potatoes suddenly moving so lickety-split quick?
I didn’t have time to ask, though. I could see that Stella was already down by the Big Top with Clementine. Fernando was right next to her, high-high-high up on his stilts. When I saw them, I forgot all about Mateo.
“I hope you’ve both been thinking hard about your acts,” I said. “It’s time to storm! With our brains! Because we might be the Sweet Potatoes’ only hope.”*
“Well, I’m a great brainstormer,” Fernando said. “My idea will probably be the best.” He made a smirk.
(Ooh, he was even a know-it-all when he was cooperating!)
“We’ll see about that!” Stella said. She looked at me. “Can I go first? Prettiest please?”
“Of course you can,” I told her. “We need to make the ideas storm from our brains,” I said. “Everyone, think of things Stella can do in her act.”
“She stands on Clementine,” Fernando said.
“That is true,” I agreed. “But think stormier! What can she do while she is standing on Clementine that would be more special?”
Stella tapped her chin with her finger. “Hmm.”
“Hmm,” I said.
Fernando wrinkled his forehead like he was thinking, too. “Hmm.”
Stella looked at me. I knew what she was thinking: this brainstorming was not nearly stormy enough. “What do you have in that bag, Lou?” she asked. “Maybe there’s a prop that will give us an idea.”
“I’m glad you asked,” I said. I opened the bag and pulled things out: a silver horn with a shiny red squeaker, three jump ropes, a wig made of glittery gold tinsel….
“Ooh!” I said, pulling out one more thing. “It’s a bunch of bananas!”
Stella’s eyebrows went up-up-up. We both had the same idea about those bananas! I broke off three of them for Stella.
I stepped forward and made a trumpet sound. “Presenting…Stella Dee Saxophone and Clementine the Elephant!” I called. “Starring in—” I looked at Stella. “What should we call this trick?”
Stella shrugged. “I don’t know! We just thought of it,” she said.
“Starring in Something Superb That Will Have a Real Name Later!” I shouted.
Clementine wrapped her trunk around Stella and lifted her onto her back. Stella unbunched the bananas and raised them one at a time, like she was showing them off to an imaginary audience.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I will now juggle these three bananas while standing on tiptoe on Clementine’s back!” Stella announced. She pointed her toes so she was the tallest she could be.
Zip-zap-zip! Stella tossed the bananas high into the air. I held my breath, waiting to see her juggle.
I waited a few seconds more.
Those bananas sure were high up.
Even Stella looked surprised at how high they went. She tilted her neck to look at them. But I guess the sun got in her eyes, because she blinked.
Boom! Bang! Bop!
One banana landed on the ground. One bounced right off Fernando’s head!
Stella reached to grab the last one, but it slipped past her fingers. Clementine stretched out her trunk and caught it. Then she ate it in one huge gulp!
“Whoops,” Stella said sadly.
“You just need to practice some more,” I told her. “Practice makes perfect!”
(That’s what Mama always says.)
“Maybe,” Stella said. “But even if I do, it probably isn’t a stormy enough trick. We already have juggling chickens in our circus! And Tolstoy juggles, too. So maybe another juggler isn’t actually that special.”
“You may have a point,” I said. I sighed.
But Stella didn’t stay sad. She turned to Fernando. “Now it’s your turn. What should your act be?”
“Something on stilts,” Fernando said.
“Well, of course!” I agreed. Fernando does almost everything on stilts. He would probably sleep in them, if his bed weren’t too short.
Thinking about Fernando lying down in stilts gave me an idea. “It’s too bad you can’t do a cartwheel on stilts,” I said. Cartwheels are fun, and a stilt cartwheel would be the highest cartwheel of ever!
Fernando frowned. “That would be exciting. But I don’t think I can learn a cartwheel in time for our next show.”
Stella was making a brainstormy face again. “Can you…jump on your stilts?” she asked.
Fernando gave her a look. “Of course.” He glanced around. “But what can I jump over?”
Now my brain was storming!
I grabbed two jump ropes. “I know!”
I set up the jump ropes wide-wide-wide apart in the grass, like there was a river between them. If this trick worked, it would for sure be extra special. The only time I ever saw jump ropes in the Sweet Potato Circus was with Stefano Wondrous’s Wonder Dogs. And sometimes Tolstoy the Clown. But none of them ever used stilts at the same time.
“So…I jump across the jump ropes?” Fernando asked.
I nodded. “We’ll call this trick Jump the River!”
“Okay,” Fernando said. He turned to Linus, who was resting on his shoulder. “Why don’t you wait on the ground for this?” he asked. “I need to balance.”
Once Linus was settled, Fernando walked backward on his stilts until he was a few whole Louise lengths away from the jump ropes. He took a big breath, then counted quietly to himself.
“One, two…three!”
On three, Fernando went running faster than ever, right toward the jump ropes. “Geronimo!” he shouted.
Just before he got to the first jump rope, he pressed as hard as he could into the ground with his stilts. Ka-boing! Up into the air Fernando went!
But—oh no! As he sailed forward, Fernando’s right stilt got all tangled up with his left stilt!
“Ack!” Fernando called. He started wobbling all over. It looked like he was going to ka-boom! straight down onto the ground.
Thank goodness gracious, Clementine knew just what to do. She reached out her trunk to help catch Fernando!
“Are you okay?” I asked. Fernando might be my number one enemy a lot of the time, but I didn’t want him to get hurt!
He shrugged. “I’m fine,” he said. But his voice was gruffish. He didn’t look so happy about being caught by an elephant.
“I messed up my trick, too,” Stella reminded him. “Everyone messes up sometimes.”
“Even nine-year-olds,” I added. I smiled so Fernando would know I was teasing.
“Okay, okay,” Fernando said. He waved his hand, but I could tell he was getting less grumpy. “Last but not least…” He waggled an eyebrow at me.
“Last but not least!” I agreed.
It was time for my very own one hundred percent stupendous act!
Fact: The Sweet Potato Circus’s ticket sales were down.
Fact: Fernando, Stella, and I had to come up with a stupendous new act to get people to come to our show and buy tickets!
Fact: Neither of our brainstorms for Stella’s and Fernando’s new acts had worked out at all.
That meant it was time for me to pull out all the stops.*
I was an eensy bit nervous about being the Sweet Potatoes’ very last hope. But I had no choice!
“Let’s brainstorm for you, Lou,” Stella said.
“Actually,” I replied, “when we were doing Fernando, I had a brilliant eureka! idea all on my own!”
(Sometimes that happens with brainstorming.)
Quickly, I led everyone to my tightwire. It was a little lower than a real-live grown-up tightwire. Low down enough that I didn’t need a net.
But it was still a little bit scary!
I took a deep being-fearless breath and scampered to the top of the tightwire. Everyone watched me extra closely. Stella, Fernando, and even Clementine and Linus had their eyeballs trained right on me!
I felt the peanut-butter-lumpish kind of nervous in my throat.
Don’t worry, I told myself. You, Louise Trapeze, are ninety-eight percent fearless. That was a lot of percents! And I’d done the tightwire zillions of times, even if I’d never done this exact trick before.
It was time. Tip-tap-toe. I inched along the wire, ballerina-graceful.
Zip-zap-zip! I sprang up in a dancer twirl and turned all the way around. Stella clapped her hands very excitedly.
But that wasn’t even the special trick! That was just the beginning!
I put one leg in front of the other on the wire and stretched my hands into the air.
Spring-sprang-sproing! I leaped forward, grabbing the wire with my right hand, and then my left. I made my muscles extra tight and sent my legs up-up-up.
Fliiiip!
Flop!
Oops!
What I meant to do: a stupendous cartwheel on top of the tightwire.
What I actually did: a gigantic belly flop off the tightwire and onto the grass!
“Louise! Are you okay?” Suddenly, Stella’s face was right next to mine.
I pushed myself up and looked back at her. “I think so.” I sat extremely still for a minute, to see how my arms and legs were feeling. They were fine. The only problemy thing was my stomach: it was squeezing from belly-flop embarrassment!
Even Fernando had come down off his stilts to see if I was all right. “How many fingers is this?” he asked. He held up two fingers like bunny ears.
“Two,” I said. “Of course.”
Fernando shrugged. “I saw that on TV once. If you can tell how many fingers, it means your brains are okay.”
That was good to hear. But my brains weren’t totally okay. They were still very worried!
“But our brainstorming didn’t work!” I cried. “We didn’t come up with a new act! How are we going to save the Sweet Potatoes now?”
No one answered me. No one had any eureka! ideas at all.
I sighed.
Stella sighed.
Even Clementine sighed, in an elephantish way.
But Fernando wasn’t sighing. Instead, he was completely distracted!
I stomped my foot. “Fernando!” I called. “What are you looking at? We are not finished cooperating!”
I glanced over to where he was staring. Off in the field, Jed was on his dirt bike. The engine was revving like a tiger, and he was turning very tilty circles so the bike dipped low-low-low on its side.
It was extremely exciting to watch, actually. I could see why Fernando was so distracted.
Zoom-zoom-zoom! Jed raced his dirt bike up the field toward us just on his back wheel! Clouds of dust exploded from his bike wheels. I never saw anything like it!
Vroom! Jed slid his bike to a stop a few feet in front of us (far enough away for safety, of course).
“Whoa,” Fernando said. “Can you teach me to ride like that?” His eyes were as big as the dinner plates Stella’s mama sometimes spins in her act.
“When you’re bigger, sure,” Jed said. “What are you troublemakers up to?”
No one said anything. We didn’t want Jed to know we were brainstorming ways to save the circus. Not after he told us to calm down. We weren’t being calm at all!
“Never mind,” Jed decided. “I don’t want to know. As long as you’re ready for class tomorrow. Lou, Stella—I’ve got new word problems for you!”
Stella and I made polite smiles. We waved at Jed and promised we’d be ready. He waved back and zoomed away again—safely, of course.
Right away when he was gone, I stopped smiling. Word problems, real-live Sweet Potato Emergency problems…
With so many problems, how would I ever save the day?
Jed was not joking about giving us more word problems. The next day, we had to solve special ones about money! Jed likes to call math problems with dollars and cents “funny money” problems.
“An ice-cream cone costs one dollar,” Jed said. “But, Louise, you have two quarters, and Stella also has two quarters.”
A quarter is only twenty-five cents. And a dollar is one hundred whole cents! So fifty cents was not nearly enough cents for an ice-cream cone, actually.
“I guess that means neither of us can have any ice cream,” I said saddishly. Ice cream is my favorite (after cupcakes with yellow frosting).
Jed smiled. “That’s one way to look at the problem. But it doesn’t sound like a very cheerful solution, does it?”
“No,” Stella said. “It doesn’t sound cheerful at all.” (Stella likes ice cream even more than I do!)
“Well, let’s get creative in our thinking,” Jed said. “How many quarters are ther
e in a dollar?”
“That’s easy,” Fernando snickered. “Four.”
“Correct,” Jed replied. “But you’re supposed to be reading.”
Fernando rolled his eyes and picked his book back up.
I went to make a face at Fernando. But then—I had an eensy-weensy eureka! thought. And actually, it came from Fernando butting his big old nose into our funny money math. Butting in is rude. But it made me think about cooperation and working together.
“Oh!” I jumped up from my seat. “What if Stella and I put our money together? Then we could buy one ice-cream cone and share it!”
“Eureka!” Stella shouted.
“Perfect! That’s exactly how I hoped you’d solve this problem. With teamwork!” Jed said. “Although, next time do you think you could wait to be called on, instead of yelling out the answer?” Jed smiled, so I knew he wasn’t really upset with me.
“Sure!” I agreed.
I was extra proud of myself for solving the funny money problem. But also, I was thinking my very hardest about the Sweet Potato Emergency Problem.
Brainstorming together was not enough to come up with a stupendous new act for the circus. Brainstorming was a kind of thinking together.
But maybe Stella, Fernando, and I needed to be working together!
I finally knew just how to save the Sweet Potato Circus!
Instead of just brainstorming acts for each other, Fernando, Stella, and I needed to come up with one extra-ultra-stupendous teamwork act!
That was definitely for sure going to work. It just had to!
Teamwork was completely the way to save the whole entire day!
“What we need to do is to think of things all three of us are excellent at,” I said. “Tricks we can do together to make one new act. Instead of just brainstorming different ideas for each other separately. Teamwork will save the circus.”
