The Lampo Circus Read Online Free Page A

soon. Unable to articulate this to her exuberantdaughter, however, she opted for a conservative response.
    ‘There are more important things to think about,’ she said, and reverted to reading the newspaper.
    ‘But I can go, can’t I?’ Milli said. ‘They’re only here for a week.’
    Mr Klompet rose to put the kettle on, which he always did at the first sign of discord.
    ‘Milli has to go!’ put in Dorkus, quite prepared to live vicariously through her sister. ‘Who else is going to tell me all about it?’
    Rosie remained noncommittal. ‘We’ll see,’ she replied, smoothing her younger daughter’s dark curls.
    And despite her persistence, this was the only answer Milli was able to elicit from her mother all evening.

CHAPTER THREE
Mrs Klompet Caves In
    S till thinking,’ Rosie repeated calmly for possibly the sixth time that morning. This was in response to her daughter’s incessant questioning as to whether she had arrived at a decision regarding the Lampo Circus. ‘Just bear in mind that I think better when I’m not being badgered,’ Rosie added.
    The circus was putting on its opening performance that very morning and Milli had not yet been permitted to go! What had got into her usually liberal parents? Mrs Perriclof had not expressed reservations of any sort and she was the type of mother who diarised daily sugar intake! But Mrs Klompet suddenly wanted answers to allsorts of things. How long had the Lampo Circus been operating? Were they a licensed company? What had made them decide to come to a small and out-of-the-way town like Drabville? What was Mr Lampo’s personal history? Milli could neither answer nor see the relevance of any of these questions, but with Mr Klompet siding categorically with his wife, the decision appeared to be final.
    When Ernest arrived at the house in his best trousers and a bow tie, the news that Milli would not be accompanying him left him thoroughly downcast. Milli was his best friend and going to the circus without her would be no fun at all. As a display of solidarity, Ernest decided on a noble course of action. If Milli was prohibited from going, then he would make the ultimate sacrifice of abstaining and share with her the deprivation. If this heartless decision was going to cause psychological damage in the long run, then they would be damaged together. He couldn’t allow Milli to go through something like that alone. Milli tried to talk sense into him but Ernest remained steadfast in his decision.
    Touched by this loyalty, Milli resolved to spend every waking hour of the following week withErnest. After all, they didn’t need the Lampo Circus. They had never had any trouble entertaining themselves before. To keep their minds off what they might be missing, they decided to invent a new and outlandish game that would go down in Klompet and Perriclof history.
    But invention was no easy task with their concentration regularly interrupted by reports of the circus and its wonders. In the days that followed, Drabville came to resemble a ghost town. Usually responsible people packed picnic baskets and spent entire days idling on the village green. The news of the circus spread like wildfire and it seemed as if an invisible Out of Order sign had been plastered over everything. Theatre performances were cancelled until further notice, birthday celebrations were rescheduled, wedding ceremonies postponed, and even the Drabville Bank’s annual Invest and Jest party, which had taken place on the same date for ninety-five years, was shifted on the calendar!
    There wasn’t a single shop that still welcomed customers through its doors. Every retailer, traffic warden and postman in town had been granted a holiday. People were forced to bake their ownbread as the bakery staff had taken immediate leave, citing ‘family reasons’ for their absence. For the week that Lampo and his circus were in town, the children were only required to attend half-days at school. If any parents