The Adventures of Stunt Boy and His Amazing Wonder Dog Blindfold (16 page)

28

Danger ahead

W
e made our way through the deserted circus, which looked even more sinister because it was so dark. I'm not afraid of ghosts. It's bad people like Barry Chesterley that you've got to look out for in life, not dead people – who I don't think could be bothered following living people around trying to scare them when they were getting on with their own deaths.

‘What's that noise?' said Caleb, stopping dead in his tracks.

I couldn't hear anything, just an eerie silence punctuated by animal noises.

‘I don't know,' I answered. ‘What does it sound –'

‘Shut up for a sec, Stunt Boy,' said Caleb, all impatient, lifting his chin and tilting his ear towards the sky. It made me feel cranky, as he'd asked me a question. ‘I recognise the sound of that engine. It's my ute! Listen, she's calling me.'

I strained to hear, but could make out nothing except the rushing of the wind and, in the distance, the faint howls of protest coming from the Stoked people out the front.

‘She's this way. Quick, run!' said Caleb, taking off in a sprint, giving Blindfold and I no option other than to chase after him.

Way on the other side of the circus was a hangar. In the distance, we saw the tail-lights of Caleb's truck fade out before the doors of the hangar slammed shut. Parked at the side of the hangar was a giant purple monster truck, its massive wheels ten times the size of me. Could this be what Hayley was talking about when she told Caleb about Chesterley's Monster Circus? But why would an animal circus need a monster truck? And how would Hayley know?

We snuck to the front of the hangar and heard the sound of a door opening. I poked my head around the corner and saw the back of a woman. She was using a mobile phone for light, as she disappeared into the night.

‘I bet it's Ginger Styles!' I said to Caleb. ‘I knew she was up to no good!'

‘You think she'd know how to hotwire my truck?' asked Caleb, scratching his head.

‘I wouldn't put it past her,' I replied. ‘I don't know what she's capable of.'

We tried the door but it was locked, and so was the side door.

‘I could pick that sucker in seconds if I had a paperclip,' I said, looking at the lock. Caleb dug his hands into his pockets and pulled out tissues, coins, a plastic spider, spark plugs, some gum wrapper and, finally, a small screwdriver with a red handle.

‘I've always got a screwdriver about my person,' he said, handing it over. I jimmied the lock open.

‘Jackpot!' said Caleb as the door opened to reveal a workshop much like the one at Stoked, where all the mechanical stuff gets fixed. ‘If they rigged your dad's back wheel, I reckon it would have been here.'

Caleb walked over to his truck and kissed the bonnet. ‘Hello baby girl,' he said, spreading out his arms as if he was cuddling it. ‘Were you frightened?'

The truck didn't reply because it was a truck and couldn't speak.

There were tools scattered all over the workbench. They weren't in methodical order like at Lefty Blue Eye's workshop. What sort of mechanic would leave their tools like this? You had to be tidy in a workshop, so you knew where all your stuff was.

‘Tidy workbench, tidy mind!' Lefty Blue Eye always said.

I asked him what he meant once, and he said that when your stuff is in order, you can think more clearly than when you're surrounded by mess. I'm tidier in the workshop than I am in my bedroom because my dad would freak if I left Lefty's workshop in a mess.

Caleb and I began searching the workshop and suddenly I spotted a pair of clear plastic gloves scrunched up in a small ball that looked like an octopus with its greasy tentacles sticking out. Instinctively, I started to straighten them out and a series of thoughts came racing into my mind all at once and converged at exactly the same time into one big giant thought.

‘Hayley!' I exclaimed, measuring my twelve-year-old boy hand against the extra small gloves. ‘Caleb, Hayley's been here. These are the gloves she uses because she is allergic to latex. She told me latex makes her hands blister. Feel them, they're not latex, plus how many people would have hands this small?' My words were coming out with no spaces between them and I was breathing superfast. ‘This workbench has Hayley written all over it. She was the one who tried to frame Lefty Blue Eye. I remember her telling me that Blueberry told her she'd seen him going to Chesterley's, but when I asked Blueberry she didn't know what I was talking about. Hayley must have switched the wheels when he went to the bathroom. My dad wouldn't have sensed anything was wrong until the impact.'

‘When I was with Hayley at the jumps, we started talking about the future, and she asked me what my dream was. I told her it was to come up with a motorbike trick that nobody had ever thought of and have it named after me. Then she told me her dream was to run her own stunt team. She said if it ever did happen she'd pay me big money and to watch this space.'

‘Hayley was trying to steal you too! Why didn't you tell me?' I said.

‘We were talking about dreams, Stunt Boy, not reality. She didn't actually ask me to work for her.'

He was right. Sometimes people say stuff that means other stuff. It's confusing. Who the hell was Hayley anyway? She had turned up out of nowhere a year ago asking my dad to give her a job and saying she'd grown up with a poster of him on her wall. He took her on because she was eager to learn and he loved employing girls as he said the stunt world was way too dude heavy. Jem never really took a shine to Hayley, though. She said that she wasn't a girl's girl, whatever that meant.

‘It's all very well having theories, but how are we going to prove it, Stunt Boy? Not with a pair of extra-small, non-latex gloves, that's for sure,' said Caleb.

‘Okay, let's search this place from top to bottom! There's got to be something here!'

We opened drawers, looked in files, in tool kits, in rubbish bins, searching high and searching low, but there was no mystery smelter to make the replacement spindle or anything. It felt hopeless.

‘Maybe it's time to throw in the towel and get you to the hospital,' said Caleb.

‘Yeah, okay,' I said.

Just then I heard Blindfold's bark through the wall. He must have nudged the door and gone outside. I followed his bark, past the monster truck, which had an evil smile painted on its grille, to a massive green recycling bin.

Blindfold cocked his back right leg and a stream of pee went all over the bin. I'm not sure if he needed a pee or wanted to get my attention, but I thought it was a good idea to search the bin. Caleb came out and we climbed into the bin.

Chesterley's people weren't the sort of people who bothered recycling unlike the people from Stoked, who looked after the environment. It stunk to high hell in that bin. I had to block my nose because I could taste the foul stench in my mouth as I dug through oily rags, old banana skins, newspapers, plastic drink bottles, take-away containers, pizza boxes, animal poo, beer bottles, screwed up oily paper hand towels, plus a whole bunch of used non-latex gloves – exactly the kind of gloves that Hayley favoured.

Then, right at the bottom, I found some photocopied sheets of paper. Someone had been working on a logo. It read ‘Hayley Letters-Chesterley presents . . . Chesterley Monster Circus Stunt Team'.

‘I found it, Caleb, I found it! Hayley and Chesterley must be related!'

‘That's awesome, Stunt! Let's keep digging, though,' said Caleb. ‘We need hard evidence that they rigged the bike.' He flung handfuls of dirty paper towels behind him.

Then I saw it nestled in the remains of a Chinese takeaway box, the silver glinting catching my eye. It was about as long as a pencil with a thread and a couple of flanges on either end. It looked like its nuts were missing.

‘Caleb! Is this it? Is this the spindle?' I said delicately passing it to him. He held both ends in his hands scrutinising the piece of metal, and then looked up at me.

‘I think it is, Stunt,' he said laughing. ‘I think you found it! Now let's go grab my bikes and get out of this stinky bin and out of this stinky circus.'

Wow! I was going to get to ride on one of Caleb's bikes!

‘We've got to get to the Stoked people,' I said.

Back inside the hangar, Caleb jumped on the back of the trailer and freed the motorbikes from their chains. Then he hotwired both of the engines. Caleb passed me a helmet and Blindfold jumped on the back and assumed position – left paw on my left shoulder, right paw on my right shoulder. He didn't have his goggles, but I think he liked riding without goggles because he barked his happy bark. Still, I don't know if Blindfold actually understood the danger that was ahead.

29

What any kid would do

I
could feel the mad buzz of adrenaline coursing through my body. Benny gets an adrenaline rush just as he's about to wrestle in a big tournament. I remember once he told me that you get a massive boost of glucose and oxygen to your brain and muscles, which improves your physical performance. It comes from the times when cavemen used to get chased by wild animals because they didn't have guns and stuff. You either had to fight or take flight. People have done mad things when they're filled with adrenaline, like lift cars off people and things like that.

I get filled with it before I perform. Fred, the sword swallower, gets so much of it, he has a puke bucket backstage that has his name written on it. He throws up before he goes on, which is probably a good thing if you're sticking twenty swords down your throat into your gut. My dad gets hyped and is like a big kid, jumping around and acting as if he's a two year old or something. Jem goes really quiet and reads a book. While Sue the Bearded Lady does meditation, where she closes her eyes and watches her breath. She says it calms her down and gets her into the zone.

My adrenaline affects my bowel. That's because I've got lots of hormones surging around my body. I always poo before a show, as there is nothing worse than being ten metres up in the air at the top of a jump and having to squeeze your bum cheeks super tight and smile and wave at the same time.

I could feel the rumbling in my guts right now, as I followed Caleb as we rode out of the paddock. Then from the direction of the crew camp, a ute with a bright light mounted on the top of the cab came screaming towards us, heading us off and forcing us towards the back of the circus. I hit the throttle and sped to the ute's left side as Caleb went to the right. I turned my head to see a dust cloud rising behind me.

Then it was as if someone had turned on daylight. A deafening roar that sounded like ten million angry lawnmowers choking on wet grass filled my ears. I took a brief glance over my shoulder and saw a sinister smiley face emerging from out of the dust cloud. It was the purple monster truck and it was gaining on my motorbike fast.

A third vehicle, a jeep, came skidding to a stop between the props store and some animal cages. We were surrounded now: the fence behind us, the two vehicles closing in, one in front converging to block our way.

It was fight or flight. Caleb and I had exactly the same thought at the same time and swung our bikes around to face the first ute, which had left the narrowest of gaps along the fence line. Caleb gestured for me to go first and I opened the throttle and sprinted past the jeep as Blindfold's paws ripped into my skin, holding on for dear life. Caleb was right behind me on his bike.

Then I saw a clown stand up on the back of the ute, struggling with what looked like a heavy silver beer barrel before a glint of silver flew through the air. I turned to see it catch the back of Caleb's bike, sending him tumbling to the ground.

The ute raced after me and I zigzagged to avoid it as I did a full circle past the props shed and animal feed station. I could have turned left towards the front gates, but I couldn't leave Caleb. He'd come to save the circus on his holidays when he could have gone to the beach or something! I did a 360 degree turn just as the monster truck revved its guts out as it headed towards Caleb, running over his bike and flattening it. However, part of the bike got stuck beneath its wheels. It reversed back and forth over the bike, revving its huge engine, stating its intention to flatten Caleb as it had squashed his bike.

I turned my bike to face the monster. I opened the throttle and accelerated towards Caleb at the same time as the monster truck expelled Caleb's bike from beneath its wheels like a used toothpick.

‘Hold on, Blindfold,' I yelled, feeling Blindfold's claws dig even deeper into my shoulders as we sped towards a half dazed Caleb, who was now on his feet, his hand to his eyes blocking the blinding light.

I leant my weight to the right of the bike, so my knee was almost touching the ground. I kept my left hand on the throttle and decreased the revs to almost nothing.

‘Caleb!' I yelled as I reached out with my right hand and grabbed his hoodie.

The bike was on the brink of toppling over but, powered by adrenaline-fuelled strength, I managed to pull Caleb up and onto the bike, the weight of his body lying diagonally across the petrol tank, as I righted us with a burst of the throttle.

But Caleb's weight had knocked the bike off balance, making it wobble. Somehow I managed to keep it upright as I roared past the monster truck, catching sight of Hayley in the passenger seat.

I chucked a 360 turn and took off, outmanoeuvring the ute, but I couldn't keep a hold onto Caleb for much longer. He was just too heavy and my adrenaline was nearly all used up.

The garage door to the animal enclosure was open, so I drove inside, the revs of the engine reverberating off the tin walls and echoing in the darkness before it idled to a stop. I yanked Caleb off before slamming the roller door down and locking it with a big metal bar.

In the darkness, I could see the animals' eyes before I flicked on the light.

On the floor, Caleb held his head in his hands. ‘Ow, my head. What happened?' he said.

‘The clowns knocked you out with a barrel and you came off your bike,' I explained. ‘I'm sorry that monster truck killed your bike, but at least it didn't kill you.'

‘You saved my life, man!'

‘I did what any kid would have done, Caleb,' I said, kind of shy about saving his life.

The evil goon clowns hammered at the door, yelling out how they were going to kill me and stuff including using lots of triple-X rated swear words, too rude to print here. Then about ten minutes later, I heard a voice I clearly recognised.

‘Runt Boy! Runt Boy! You're dead. You're dead!' cried Barry Chesterley hysterically, the door shaking and swaying. ‘Your father may have escaped with his life because I left it to the amateurs, but you're playing with the big boys now.'