The Adventures of Stunt Boy and His Amazing Wonder Dog Blindfold (13 page)

Caleb unfastened his arm from my chest and walked over to Lefty Blue Eye. He put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and patted him on the back.

‘Stunt Boy, he seems pretty genuine,' he said, turning to me. ‘And he's right. If he had rigged the bike, why would he still be here?'

‘I don't know who to trust any more,' I said, really not knowing who to trust.

‘Well, you can trust me, Stunt Boy,' said Lefty Blue Eye, sounding a bit angry now as he stood up. ‘I thought you would know that. I held you as a little baby when your poor mum was too sick to. I came here twenty-eight years ago to work with your grandfather. I watched your dad and his brothers grow up. I've seen those ungrateful twins demand to be given two-thirds of whatever profit your dad made or they would make him sell the land. Your granddad John left it to all three boys, but your uncles didn't want a bar of it. They've been bankrupting Stoked for years. And if you think that I would go to work for a snake like Chesterley, you're wrong. When he rolled into town twenty-five years ago looking for land, Newstadt was already pretty packed. So when the council filled in the dump, Chesterley got the land dirt-cheap because it used to be a tip.'

‘So that's what that spongy ground and disgusting smell is,' I said.

‘My theory is he wants Stoked land, Stunt Boy, and he'll do anything to get it,' said Lefty Blue Eye, patting what remained of my dad's bike. ‘I just don't know how he managed to rig the bike right under my nose.'

‘While I respect your years of experience, sir,' said Caleb in a humble way so as not to make Lefty Blue Eye feel like he was a young upstart just waltzing in and telling him stuff, ‘maybe a fresh set of eyes and ears may be able to help?'

‘I'd appreciate your help, Caleb,' said Lefty Blue Eye. ‘And yours too, Stunt Boy. Just remember, we're on the same team. We're looking for the same answers.'

‘Okay, let's do it,' said Caleb.

‘Hang on, boys,' said Lefty. ‘Give me a moment. Bathroom. Irritable bowel.'

Over the next three hours, Caleb and Lefty Blue Eye rebuilt the engine, inspecting every part for cracks or other signs of tampering. When it was all in one piece again, they revved her up.

‘Tell me your secrets,' Caleb purred to the engine as she came to life. He listened for a minute or two, then said, ‘She's saying she's fine.'

‘What about the wheels?' I said, eyeing two smashed-up wheels standing against the workbench.

‘I've been over those wheels a million times. Besides I can't see how one of his wheels could just crack up after your dad had taken off and landed,' said Lefty Blue Eye. ‘It's got to be something to do with the engine.'

‘Let me take a look at those wheels, Stunt,' said Caleb.

Caleb and Lefty disassembled the wheels on the workbench, but Caleb couldn't find a thing wrong with them. Maybe everybody was right and it was just a tragic accident that proved my dad was human after all and Chesterley and my uncles were just taking advantage of a bad situation.

Caleb was examining the spindle that the wheel rotates around. It was the size and shape of a lead pencil. Suddenly a weird look crossed his face. His eyebrows shot up to the top of his head, creating six lines across his forehead, and his eyes opened really wide.

‘Stunt!' he said, biting his bottom lip and looking serious. ‘It looks as if it is ever so slightly bent.'

Caleb retrieved the spindle from the front wheel and then closed his eyes and stood with his arms outstretched, a spindle in each hand, moving his arms ever so slightly as if he were a set of scales.

‘Lefty,' he said, ‘I might be wrong about this but the spindle from the back wheel feels lighter. It's hard to tell but it looks like a softer metal.' He passed the spindles over to Lefty, who himself became like a human weighing machine.

‘You're right, Caleb,' said Lefty. ‘It's minimal but I can feel it too.'

‘What are you talking about?' I asked.

‘They're slightly different weights, Stunt Boy!' said Caleb as Lefty Blue Eye handed me the spindles. ‘Feel. My hunch is they are made of different metals.'

I weighed them in my hands, but couldn't really feel the difference. Lefty Blue Eye and Caleb then examined the spindles, looking for something like a crack, but they couldn't find anything.

‘Here, let me look,' I said as I turned the back wheel spindle over and held it right up to my eye. ‘It's broken! I can see a crack!'

Caleb and Lefty Blue Eye still couldn't see it. I had amazing eyesight on account of being a kid and having amazing eyesight.

‘Someone could have replaced the metal on the back-wheel spindle with a softer metal, which means it could have cracked on impact, sending your dad's bike out of control,' said Caleb.

‘But the bike was with me the whole day. I even rode it to warm her up,' said Lefty Blue Eye. ‘They would have had to take the whole wheel off to replace the spindle. I can't see how anyone could have done it unless they were a super-fast, ace mechanic.'

‘They could have cast the original part in an inferior metal, then replaced it with the defective one when Lefty wasn't around,' said Caleb.

‘You would have had to go to the loo at sometime, Lefty, right?' I said, remembering Lefty was always running off to the loo.

‘I guess,' said Lefty. ‘I do have a very irritable bowel. Growls like a blocked drain, I tell you.'

‘If we could find the original spindle, that would be all the evidence we need,' said Caleb. We finally had a possible solution, but now came the next part of the problem: how on earth were we going to find the evidence to prove it?

‘Let's just keep this info to ourselves for the moment,' said Lefty. ‘There's gossip running amok at Stoked right now.'

‘Even Jem?' I replied, as I wanted her to know that I had been right all along.

‘I agree, let's keep this information on lockdown until we know for sure what the hell is going on,' said Caleb.

Caleb and I headed back to our caravan and grabbed some drinks and snacks, then sat in the two deckchairs on the deck, dissecting the whole story from start to finish.

‘So tell me about this Chesterley dude again?' said Caleb, who was sitting in the chair that Benny always sat in. I wished Benny wasn't being so weird with me, especially when I had all this stuff going on. But the thought soon disappeared as I focused on what was going on at Stoked.

‘He used to hate stunts but now people think it's cruel that wild animals are trained to do tricks and have to live in captivity, he's furious, like it's our fault because we're a new breed of circus.'

‘So what are the monsters at his circus?'

‘Monsters? I know he has elephants and tigers and stuff.'

‘Hayley was telling me about Chesterley's Monster Circus. It was just before you turned up at the practise jump.'

‘I have no idea. He's got commercials running on TV all the time, but they don't mention anything about monsters.'

‘All roads seem to lead to this Chesterley dude. Maybe we need to go over there and find out what's going on,' said Caleb.

‘To Chesterley's Circus? I don't know, Caleb. The last time I went over there I came back in a police car. After that I promised Sue I'd ask for help and not take things into my own hands.'

‘We can't go charging over there in a mob, Stunt. We need an element of surprise. This has to be a reconnaissance mission. We need to find some evidence of how Chesterley is involved with the rigging of the bike. Let's go there when they're doing a show and have a look around.'

‘Well it's Friday, so they'll have a show on tonight for sure,' I said.

‘There's no time like the present – we should go now,' said Caleb, standing up. ‘We need to be sneaky though. Let's wear black so we can blend into the night. Have you got a black hoodie and a beanie?'

‘I think so,' I said. ‘We really shouldn't tell my sister. She'd go nuts if she knew I was going back over there.'

‘Okay, tell her I'm taking you trail riding to cheer you up,' suggested Caleb, which meant that we had to take the truck with the trailer on the back with Caleb's bikes to make it look authentic.

Jem asked if she could come but I said I wanted some male-bonding time, which meant doing fun stuff with boys – ie no girls allowed.

I decided that I should leave Blindfold at home on account of all the sneaking I was about to do. I had to pretend we were having an early night and put him in my bedroom and quickly shut the door. The last thing I saw were his bewildered brown doggy eyes staring up at me in confusion.

22

Bears don't waltz in the wild

C
aleb drove with his elbow out of the window as he nodded and tapped on his steering wheel in time to hardcore metal. It made my ears kind of buzz but I liked it. The bass going through my chest took away the apprehension of what I was about to do.

However, as we cut through the centre of the city and hit the east side of town, nothing could alleviate my fear that if I got caught again I could get thrown into some kind of kid jail. They have kids' jails, places where they put kids who have been super bad. I'm not a criminal, I'm a good kid (most of the time), but if I were caught trespassing again I don't think a judge would take into account that I was on the hunt for evidence that someone had messed around with my dad's back wheel.

As we arrived at Chesterley's Circus, the sun was resting on the horizon, ready to drop down and light up the other side of the world. It was the kind of sky that looked like the sun was a big bright ball of fire – which it is really – it was orange as far as the eye could see. I thought about how Benny had told me the sun was green and I realised in life not all things are what they seem, which makes it hard to know what is going on.

Thinking about Benny made me miss him. We'd been friends for six years. I wasn't even sure why we weren't talking. I'd said sorry for not calling him. It's weird how falling-outs happen and how hard it is to get back to being friends again. One minute you're best friends for life and then the next you're like strangers and you can barely remember what it was that made you friends in the first place.

We parked well away from the gates because Caleb's flame-painted truck would draw attention to us. The plan was to take advantage of the fact that Chesterley's people would be occupied with their show, then to take a look around.

As the sun dropped lower and lower, the sky blackened and a swirl of moody dark clouds moved at a pace across the horizon. Caleb and I pulled our knitted beanies down over our heads so they sat just below our eyebrows.

Chesterley's Circus gates were open, but there wasn't anybody about as the circus was well underway. We heard Chesterley's booming voice over the PA coming from inside the circus tent.

‘Now let's meet our little lady of the circus, Sheeba,' he said, before putting on a creepy childish voice. ‘She's my ickle bickle little baby girl.'

Then a dumb pop song where some kid sings, ‘Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby' came on and the crowd applauded. But I knew Sheeba wasn't Chesterley's baby at all.

‘Let's find the mechanical workshop,' whispered Caleb. ‘That's the place we should start looking.'

As we were making our way around the side of the big top, a man in a red and white striped suit appeared from Chesterley's big top.

‘You boys, right?' he said eyeing us off. ‘Where are your tickets?'

‘I just took my little brother here to the toilet. He gets scared going alone and now we can't remember which exit we came out of,' said Caleb. I felt a little annoyed that now the dude thought I couldn't go to the toilet alone. Who can't go to the toilet alone at twelve? ‘Our parents are inside,' Caleb added.

The man didn't ask if he could see the tickets or anything. He just ushered us inside. The venue was packed with families because of Chesterley's kids-go-free campaign, but towards the back we saw two seats next to two old people who looked more like grandparents than mums and dads.

‘There they are,' I said, walking up the stairs and along the aisle, annoying the seated patrons by blocking their view. I could feel the ticket man's eyes on my back following us. When I got to the seat, I kissed the grandma on the cheek and said, ‘Hello, I wish I had a grandma like you.'

‘What a charming young man, you are!' she said, smiling and patting my knee, which made the ticket man relax and take a seat next to the exit. We could hardly get up and leave now.

In the ring, a man wearing a white tuxedo was waltzing with a big bear in a wedding dress.

‘I didn't know bears could dance,' said Caleb.

‘They can't. It's the way they train them. You never see bears doing waltzes in the wild,' I said as the music changed from classical to disco.

Out of the blackness a spotlight shone, illuminating Chesterley in the centre of the ring. He was dressed in a tight white jumpsuit unbuttoned to the navel, a big gold medallion swung like a pendulum as he danced. On his shoulder, a monkey wearing the same outfit was doing the same moves.

‘Who likes to disco, baby?' said Chesterley, one hand pointed in the air, the other pointed downwards as a giant disco ball reflected spots of light around the tent. ‘Who likes to boogie?'

The crowd responded with a weak cheer.

The lion that was in the cage next to Benny and I when we were prisoners entered the ring wearing a pair of white flared trousers on his hindquarters. A trainer holding a whip then attached what looked like strings to the lion's legs. The lion stood up on his hind legs and started dancing in time with Barry Chesterley and the monkey.

How were they doing that? I followed the wires up to the rigging to see a guy sitting in a chair manipulating the wires as if the lion was a puppet.

Then the ballerina clowns that I had seen on TV came out in a chorus line doing high kicks. I'm not scared of many things but clowns freak me out, especially when they're wearing tutus. What is the point of clowns anyway, apart from to scare the living daylights out of kids? If my dad had clowns, I'd have to run away from home and leave the circus.

Next Biggsy appeared in the tiny little pink clown car we'd hidden behind on our last visit and the monkey and the ugly ballerina clowns chased him around the ring. He was weaving between their legs and the monkey was doing somersaults over the car.

As I sat there watching lame act after lame act, the pieces of the puzzle started to make more sense. Chesterley was trying to steal our people because his show was not only cruel, it was boring. People were yawning, especially the kids, and I don't think it was because they were tired.

Then things started to get exciting. There was a sudden commotion above the ring when two ropes unfurled and two people dressed head to toe in black, wearing black balaclavas, came abseiling down from the rigging in the roof.

I squinted up into the bright lights to see one of them holding a megaphone. I didn't know Chesterley had an aerials team. For a moment, I thought maybe it was someone from Stoked. Then a giant banner unfurled between the two people and on it in big black letters were the words,
Freedom to circus animals!

‘This circus is cruel towards animals,' yelled a woman's voice through the megaphone. ‘Freedom to all circus animals! Freedom!'

I wanted to yell out that I wasn't supporting Chesterley and his rotten circus, I hated him too, and then I thought I recognised the voice. It sounded just like Benny's mum when she was telling him off! The house lights came up and the goon clowns swung the bottom of the ropes, as if they were trying to shake off the people dressed in black.

‘We're coming down, stop shaking the rope,' shouted the woman. ‘We could get hurt.'

The two figures dressed in black abseiled down to the ground. The ballerina goon clowns emerged and grabbed the protestors, ripping off their balaclavas. It was Benny's mum and dad!

The clown roughly placed Benny's mum's arms behind her back as another grabbed Benny's dad and held him in a headlock.

‘Freedom to animals!' called out Benny's mum as one of the clowns dragged her away with Benny's dad following close behind.

I turned to Caleb in total awe. ‘That's my best friend Benny's mum and dad!'

‘Folks,' said Chesterley, his face red and angry looking. ‘Pay no mind to these animal-rights extremists who don't know the meaning of fun. They are the anti-fun police. Maybe we should feed them to the lion? Let me hear you cheer if you want me to feed them to the lion.'

Nobody really cheered and everyone looked quite shocked at what had happened.

‘So, let's get on with the show,' said Chesterley in an old-fashioned showbusiness voice.