Dunc and Amos Hit the Big Top Read Online Free Page B

“Not like that. We’ve been working together, and what I mean is, we should split up. You work one side of the circus and I’ll work the other, then we’ll get together this evening and compare notes.” He dug in the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a small notebook and a stub of a pencil. “Just write down anything that looks a little odd to you, all right?”
    Amos nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
    Which turned out, all in all, to be just about the biggest mistake he’d ever made.

• 7
    The plan initially worked so well that Amos literally didn’t see Dunc for nearly two hours.
    Dunc had headed for the big top, and Amos had moved toward the sideshow tents. Both boys pointedly and carefully avoided anything to do with the animal enclosure and the wrong ends of the animals.
    Amos stopped next to the banner advertising the sword swallower and the fire eater, looking up at the paintings.
    They look
, he thought,
as if I’d painted them myself
. The paintings on the banners showed a man about to swallow a sword longer than he was, painted as if it had beendone with poster paint and a thick brush. Next to it, a man who looked very similar was about to shove a flaming torch down his throat while a girl—or it could have been a car or a lamp (Amos couldn’t be sure)—looked on in horror.
    He shook his head. Farther down the banner, there was a painting showing what was called the smallest horse in the world. Amos thought it could also be a duck or an alligator with its tail cut off or a really sick chicken or even a parrot. (He knew rather more than he wanted to know about parrots since his run-in with the treasure-hunting variety.) And beyond that was a painting of what could have been either a bowling ball with a neck and head or a black hole with lettering that proclaimed: UNKNOWN SPECIES ! SEE IT ON THE INSIDE !
    Amos shook his head and took a step to leave—he wanted little to do with the sideshow—when the whole banner system—poles, signs, and all—wavered once, twice, and fell over directly on top of him.
    “Wh—”
    Amos went down beneath canvas, poles,and paintings of ruptured ducks bowling balls.
    For a moment he was confused, couldn’t seem to find his way out. Then he heard a voice.
    “Not to worry, everything will be all right, just fine, don’t worry.”
    A large hand came under the canvas, caught Amos by the back of his T-shirt, and plucked him out into the sun.
    “See? Right as rain, right as rain.”
    Amos found himself looking at a man with dark hair, an almost perfectly square face and head, and a lower jaw like a bear trap.
    “Clive,” the man said, holding out his hand for a shake. “Clive Haskins, but they call me The Throat. I swallow things. Swallow lots of things.”
    He reached down, took a handful of dirt, put it in his mouth, and swallowed. “See?”
    Oh
, Amos thought—
oh good. Another circus person
. Of course they were all circus people, and maybe it would be nice to just meet a normal person, but no, here was Clive, another circus person.
    “Just pick them up and swallow them.That’s how I got started when I was a kid. Swallowing things. Be walking along, see a bug—bam! Pick it up and swallow it. See a nickel—bam, swallow it. See a pretty marble—bam, swallow it. Here, hold this rope.”
    He handed a rope to Amos, who was wondering just how odd things had to be before he wrote them in the notebook for Dunc.
Note one: I met a man who swallows things. Sees a bug—bam, swallows it. Sees a quarter—bam, swallows it. Sees a parrot—bam
.… He shook his head.
    “You a rousty?” Clive asked.
    “I don’t know,” Amos said, shrugging. “What’s a rousty?”
    “Roustabout—you know, helper. You a helper?”
    Amos nodded. “I was just on my way to work on the—”
    “Never mind that. I need help setting up the geek show. You can do it.”
    “What’s a geek show?” Amos looked around, half expecting to see a bunch of geeks coming at