by Micol Ostow
Only, I must have dangled too-too far, because the next thing I knew, I was sliding off the plank—splish-splash-splosh!—and into the dunk tank!
Eep!
“Louise!” Katrina called. She rushed to the edge of the platform and reached for me. She tugged hard to fish me out.
Once we were back on the ground, she asked, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said. “Just drippy.”
It was mostly true. But water was splooshing all down from my twisty-noodle hair, along my back, and even into my shoes. And even though it was a sunny day, I was getting goose bumps from being soaking wet.
Suddenly, I felt a tingle in my nose. My head must’ve wanted to sneeze out all that watery-ness, because the next thing I knew I let out a gigantic “ah-CHOO!”
I smacked my hand over my mouth and nose for politeness. I sneezed out two more giant ah-choos. And when I took my hand away, there it was:
My tooth!
My loose tooth had completely fallen out!
I looked at the tooth in my hand.
I looked at Stella and Katrina.
Stella and Katrina looked at me.
I couldn’t believe it! I lost my first tooth!
Madame Fortuna’s prediction came true! I lost the bet with Fernando! And I for definitely wasn’t the boss of my own mouth.
Everything had happened so fast-fast-fast, it was a complete and total surprise. I didn’t have time to feel any hurty-ness. But now that it was over, I was holy-trapeze shocked.
And I wasn’t the only one! Stella’s mouth was wide open.
I didn’t blame her. Keeping loose-tooth secrets is not a very BFF way to be. I felt my face go all tomato red. I didn’t know what to say to her.
My brain was jumping around like popcorn. The very last thing I wanted was to explode from embarrassment in front of Stella and Katrina. There was only one thing I could think to do!
I ran!
I zoomed down the row of carnival tents until I got to the end. I found a half-up tent next to a tall, leafy tree. My breath was very fast-ish and my face was hot, so I stopped running and sat—thump—crisscross-applesauce under the tree.
It wasn’t until I was sitting that I noticed someone else beneath the next tree over, reading.
“Where’s the fire?” that someone asked.
“What?” I didn’t see a fire anywhere.
That someone laughed. “It’s just an expression. I was wondering why you’re in such a hurry.”
I looked at him. Normally, I would be super excited to learn a fancy new expression like where’s the fire? But right now, I was distracted.
Because this man was totally and completely one hundred percent covered in tattoos!
Of course, I’ve seen tattoos before. Cady the Bearded Lady has bunches and bunches of tattoos on her arms and legs. And Stella and I love doing glitter tattoos at our sleepover parties. (Ours are the wash-off kind.) But I never in my whole lifelong time saw anyone with as many tattoos as this man. His body was more tattoo than regular skin!
The man noticed my wide-open mouth. “I’m Frankie the Tattooed Marvel. This is my first year with the carnival.” He folded over a corner in his book to save his place. Then he reached out and shook my hand like I was an actual grown-up.
“I’m Louise Trapeze,” I told him. “I’m with the Sweet Potato Circus. My family’s the Easy Trapezees.”
“Trapeze! That’s my favorite of all the circus acts,” he said, smiling.
“Mine, too!” I said.
“So tell me, Louise: why do you look so down?” Frankie asked.
I bit my lip. I was still holding my just-fell-out tooth tight-tight-tight in one fist. I didn’t want to tell him about today being not actually very great. But he was being so nice. And it sounded like he really wanted to know what was bothering me.
“A lot of things went wrong today,” I said softly. “First, I lost my favorite shoes. And Mama reminded me that I lose things a lot. Including my light-up hula hoop that I’m supposed to use in my special carnival act. And then Madame Fortuna read my future and my best friend Stella’s. She predicted that Stella would have water in her future—and then Stella was picked to be the Mermaid Apprentice!” I swallowed, remembering how jealous that made me feel.
“Well, what did she predict for you?” Frankie asked.
I made a grumpy face. “She predicted I would lose something else!”
“Hmm,” Frankie said. “I’d be upset with a fortune like that, too.”
“Really?” I asked in my most hopeful voice. It was nice to know that Frankie didn’t think I was being babyish.
“Oh, definitely,” he said. “And I’m totally forgetful! So I know just how you feel. In fact”—he leaned in—“the very first tattoo I ever got was this one.” He held out his arm to me. Right by the bendy part of his inside elbow was a small red playing card. It was the ace of hearts.
“Ace was the name of my first puppy ever. We were best friends. And when he died, I got this tattoo so I’d always remember him. Then it turned out I loved tattoos. So I started getting them in honor of lots of different things I wanted to remember or celebrate.”
“And now you have more tattoos than regular skin!” I said.
He laughed. “Yeah, that just kind of happened. One day I woke up and I was Frankie the Tattooed Marvel. And the rest is history.”
“We learn history in our special circus classroom,” I told him. “Like about countries being discovered, or things being invented, or the presidents.”
Frankie laughed again. “I’ll bet you do,” he said. “But the rest is history is actually another expression, like where’s the fire?”
I was liking Frankie more and more. He knew so many grown-up expressions, and he had SO many tattoos. Plus, he understood what it was like to lose things.
“So you lost your shoes, and you got a not-great fortune reading. What else?” Frankie asked.
Slowly, I opened my fist. “Madame Fortuna was right about my fortune. I did lose something: my tooth!”
Frankie leaned over and peered at the tooth in my hand. “Whoa! That’s pretty neat,” he said. “Losing a tooth is a big deal. Aren’t you excited?”
“I sort of am,” I said. “Except also, I was scared that it would hurt when it fell out. So I kept my loose tooth a secret from my best friend, Stella. Now she’s probably mad at me.”
“Oh, I doubt that,” Frankie said. He pointed just over my shoulder.
When I turned to see where he was pointing, there was Stella!
Stella was standing right beside Katrina. She looked confused and maybe a little bit sad—but she didn’t look angry.
“Louise!” she said. “Why did you run away?”
I sighed. It was truth time.
“I was embarrassed for not telling you about my loose tooth,” I told her. “And I didn’t want to tell you because I was scared my tooth would hurt when it fell out. That’s the whole, real story.”
Stella looked at me. “Louise, you know BFFs don’t have to keep secrets from each other.”
I nodded. “I know. But I still make mistakes sometimes.”
“I knew she’d understand,” Frankie said to me. He turned to Stella. “I’m Frankie,” he said, waving.
“Frankie is a Tattooed Marvel,” I explained.
“Wow,” Stella said. For a second, her eyes went ginormous from seeing all his jillions of tattoos. But then she snapped out of it.
Stella looked back at me again. Her face went shy-ish. “Sometimes I make mistakes, too,” she admitted.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
It was Stella’s turn to go tomato red. “I know you could tell I was being super weird at the dunk tank.”
“You were acting strange,” I agreed.
“My whole, real story is: I’m afraid of being dunked in the mermaid tank!” Stella said. She made very nervous eyebrows at the idea of it.
“But you know how to swim,” I said. “I do
n’t understand.”
“Swimming in the ocean is different than falling into a tank out of nowhere,” she replied. “What if it feels like the bad kind of surprise—like a roller coaster loop? What if water gets up my nose?”
“I never thought about that,” I said. “I was just focused on the fancy costume.”
“It is a nice costume,” Stella agreed. “But I may be too much of a scaredy-cat to wear it.”
“No way,” I told her. I stood up. “I was scared to tell you about my tooth. But when it came out, it ended up not being scary at all. I’m for certain we can find a brave solution to your problem, too.”
Stella smiled. “I like that plan.”
I liked that plan, too. It was nice to remember that Stella had her own Scaredness Things, just like me. And actually, we were excellent at helping each other out when we were feeling afraid. My jealous feelings from before were ice-cream-melting away.
“Also,” I said, “we need to find my light-up hula hoop. That way we’ll both have extra-special acts to perform at the carnival.”
“Maybe you could return this little guy to his owner while you’re at it,” Katrina said. She pointed behind the tree where Frankie was sitting.
I peeked at where she was pointing. Waving out from behind the tree was a skinny patch of fur. It flicked in the sunlight.
That fur patch looked familiar. I moved closer. “Tarot?” I asked.
Slowly, the tail turned around. Bit by furry bit, a small brown monkey made his way out from behind the leafy tree. It was Tarot!
And around his furry monkey neck was my BFF charm bracelet!
“Tarot!” I cried. “Were you what I heard in my trailer during siesta?”
My bracelet twinkled in the sun as Tarot nodded his little monkey head like craziness. Also, he had cotton candy stuck underneath his chin.
“You’re a very messy monkey,” I said. I moved closer to him to brush his chin clean.
Close up, I could see something else funny.
Not only was Tarot wearing my charm bracelet, but he had something else of mine in his paws! It was one of my hair clips—the light green one with darker ribbons that dangled down. That clip had been missing since we first came to Teeny Tiny Town. Just like my gold sandals I was trying to find this morning!
“Tarot?” I gasped. “Does this mean what I think it means?”
Creep-creep-creep went the thoughts in my brain:
Sometimes I lose things, yes (like those slippery chickens!). But I’d been losing way more things than usual since we got to town.
I looked Tarot right in his big brown eyes. “You lost my stuff! Well, not lost, actually. You’ve been following me and taking things!”
Tarot gave a small, monkey-ish I’m sorry squeak. It was hard to blame him. Of course a roller-skating monkey would want to wear a sparkly charm bracelet for a necklace.
(Tarot had excellent taste!)
“It’s okay,” I said in my most gentle voice. “I’m not mad. But I’m going to need everything back. Let’s go talk to your owner about this.”
Tarot scampered back to Madame Fortuna’s tent. I followed, with Katrina and Stella right on my heels. The tent was empty when we got there, but he quickly monkey-walked over to one corner. He stopped by a pile of cozy-looking blankets covered in monkey fur and made proud eeh-aah-ooh monkey squeaks at me.
I peered into the pile. Sure enough, there were more barrettes scattered around and a pair of my squishiest socks, too.* And shiniest of all—a gold strap was peeking out of the pile! My sandals! Now I knew without a doubt that Tarot had been following me and taking my things.
“I guess it’s true what they say,” I told him. “Monkey see, monkey do.”
Tarot nodded. “Eeh-aah-ooh!” he said.
“You’re pretty cute,” I told Tarot. “Even though you actually made a really big mess for me. Let’s go tell Mama and Daddy that we know where my shoes are!”
“Not just your shoes, Louise,” Stella said. She peeked behind a big box and pulled out something large and round. That large, round thing flicked on and off like a disco ball.
“My light-up hula hoop!” I shouted. Tarot had my hula hoop all along, too! “Now I can do my special act for the carnival.”
As I was talking, I felt a little twinge of pain in my mouth again, where my loose tooth had fallen out. But I wasn’t scared anymore. Everything was right-side-up-happy for me again.
I smiled wide and poked my tongue near the tooth hole. I was curious—and also super proud. The tooth hole felt empty and very mature.
“Hey—you finally lost a tooth, Louise!”
It was Fernando! He was back on his stilts, smirking down at me. “It’s about time.” He laughed. “And you know what?”
I rolled my eyes at him. “What?”
“This means you lost our bet for real.” He snickered. “So, you lost two things today.”
But this time, his mean teasing didn’t bother me! Instead, I just gave a shrug. My fingers closed around my precious, priceless tooth in my pocket. It turned out some things were worth losing!
(And some things were never really lost at all!)
“So what?” I said. “Actually, I lost lots of things. Not just the bet. But also my favorite shoes, the light-up hula hoop, and all the stuff Tarot got his tiny monkey paws on!” I pointed at the pile.
“But here it is. And anyway, I’m not the only one. Look at that blue bandanna—isn’t that yours? The one you give to Linus to wear when he’s feeling fancy?”
Fernando looked embarrassed. “I guess. I haven’t seen that in a few days,” he admitted.
“Everyone loses things sometimes,” I went on. “Even Frankie the Tattooed Marvel started his tattooing so that he’d remember important stuff. And now he’s a grown-up with an amazing job at a carnival and everything!”
Stella and I laughed like craziness. Even Tarot gave his own monkeyish eeh-aah-ooh.
“I make lots of mistakes,” I told Fernando. “Everyone does. But I have lots of superb eureka! ideas, too.”
I turned to Stella. “Like as a for-instance, when I saw that barrette with the ribbons, it made me think of something else we could put ribbons on: nose plugs!”
Stella nodded. “For when I work at the dunk tank! So water won’t go up my nose if I get dunked!”
“Excellent idea, Louise,” Katrina said. “I can find a pair of nose plugs in Stella’s size, no problem. We can decorate them so they look like a part of your costume.”
Stella and I grabbed hands and squeezed. I poked my tongue at my empty tooth hole again. My heart went all squeezy (in a good way).
I didn’t get everything right every day. Not hardly! But I was trying my best. Sometimes losing things was actually okay.
And there was one thing I’d never, ever lose:
My BFF, Stella!
MICOL OSTOW is a notorious loser of things, including (but not limited to) hair ties, running socks, and fancy pens with sparkly ink. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, her two daughters, and a very forgetful French bulldog. Micol is the author of numerous acclaimed books for young adults and children, but Louise Trapeze is her first chapter book series. Learn more about Micol and Louise at micolostow.com.
BRIGETTE BARRAGER is an artist, illustrator, designer, and writer of children’s books. She recently illustrated the New York Times bestseller Uni the Unicorn by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. She resides in Los Angeles with her handsome husband, cute doggy, and terrible cat. Visit Brigette at brigetteb.com.
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