3. The Mystery Acrobat

Capter 3 The Mystery Acrobat Brian sold the rest of his tickets the next day. Josh and his parents each gave him two dollars, and he sold the last two tickets to Ellie when the kids were having ice cream at her diner. Brian added his ten dollars to the money in the box, then slid it back under Bradley's bed. Now the box held two hundred dollars. "When do we have to give the money to the acrobats?" Lucy asked. "I don't know," Bradley said. He looked at his calendar. "Um, Bri, when does the circus open?"

"Tomorrow. Why? Oh my gosh!" Brian said. "They're supposed to set up their tent tonight! Maybe they're already here!" "All right," Nate said, rubbing his stomach. "Let's bring them the money and get our free popcorn and hot dogs!" "I don't want to walk around town carrying all that money," Bradley said. "Let's just go see if the Flying Fortunatos are here yet. We can give them the money later." The others agreed, and they took off toward the high school, where the circus was going to be. When they passed Nate's house on Woody Street, they waved to his sister. She was in the backyard with Dink and Josh. They cut across Pleasant Street and headed toward the high school playing fields. When they came out of the trees, they stopped. A hundred feet in front of them stood a giant tent. The tent leaned to one side, as if it wanted to go to sleep. A canvas flap was tied open. It was dim inside, but Bradley could see seats and some kind of pole with wires on it.

Across the lawn from the tent, they saw a long trailer with a door and four small windows. Narrow steps were under the door. The words THE FLYING FORTUNATOS were painted under the row of windows. The paint was so faded that they could hardly read it. Parked near the trailer was an old Volkswagen bus that needed to be washed. The kids didn't see any elephants or tigers. Or men being shot out of cannons. Or any Flying Fortunatos. Bradley felt his stomach drop like a water balloon. We sold a hundred tickets for this? he thought. "It's a pretty small circus," Lucy said.

"It's not a circus," Bradley said. "It's a disaster!" "At least they have a tent," Nate said. "Let's look inside." The kids walked around the tent to the open flap. They stepped inside and looked around. Without the sunlight, it was dark. They saw tall poles with a net stretched between them. They heard soft music, the kind that made you dream about faraway places. "There's nobody—" Nate started to say. Suddenly bright lights lit up the space. A figure appeared from the back of the tent and climbed one of the poles. Whoever it was wore silver tights that shimmered under the lights. A silver hood covered the figure's head and eyes. Only the nose and mouth could be seen. At the top of the pole, the silver person unhooked a trapeze swing that had been tied to the pole. With a leap, the figure was sitting on the trapeze bar. Then he or she stood and began swinging back and forth. Down below, the kids stood with their mouths open, watching.

Bradley could hardly swallow. Even with the net under the trapeze, it would be a long way to fall. But the figure in silver tights didn't fall. He or she swung, turned flips, and did a hundred other tricks on the trapeze. "That's amazing!" Nate whispered. "He's like Spider-Man!" "How do you know it's a man?" Lucy asked. She gazed up at the trapeze artist.

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