The Adventures of Stunt Boy and His Amazing Wonder Dog Blindfold by Lollie Barr

shouldn’t be here if you’ve got the flu,’ he admonished.
    â€˜Sorry, right, Stunt Boy I’ll wait outside,’ said Pikelet, slinging the bag over his shoulder and backing out of the room.
    â€˜Hey, Dad,’ I said, giving him a kiss on the cheek above the respirator mask, which was filled with the condensation from his breath. His face was pale and slightly grey.
    â€˜Do you think he can understand me when I speak to him?’ I asked Mr Barnstable.
    â€˜Some patients report they heard everything despite being unconscious, but we really don’t know. But it’s really good to talk to your dad and, just as importantly, it will make you feel better to be speaking to him,’ he said, illegibly scribbling on the chart at the end of the bed before leaving.
    I gently smoothed down Dad’s eyebrows as they were sticking up at weird angles. I suddenly felt really upset and my lip started trembling. Like there was a cry stuck just behind my eyes, waiting to come out. I’m almost a teenager and I still cry, but it’s beyond devastating when your dad is in hospital, your circus is going broke and you’re missing your best friend.
    I walked to the end of the bed and put my hand on my dad’s good leg and let it rest there, feeling the heat of his body radiating up my arm. I missed him so much.
    â€˜Da–’ I began, but I started to cry before I could even choke out the ‘d’. I clutched his leg and then in fits and starts through my tears, I told him about Chesterley, the police car, Ginger Styles, Lefty Blue Eye, his brothers wanting us to leave our family and friends and live on the other side of the country, the bankers wanting to take our motorbikes, not being able to even visit my bikes or my best friend Benny, and that if we didn’t get more people to Stoked then we wouldn’t have a circus left by the time he woke up.
    â€˜I’m frightened, Dad. Please get better so you can sort everything out.’
    Jem came into the room then and caught me crying. ‘Oh, poor little Stunty,’ she said, cuddling me from behind as I buried my face against my Dad’s leg, my tears and snot making his blanket wet. ‘It’s going to be okay.’
    â€˜Is it, Jem? Is it really? I don’t want Dad to come out of the coma to find there’s no Stoked Stunt Circus any more,’ I said as I turned to face her, all red-faced and snotty-nosed. ‘We’ve got to do something. We’re the ones who have the circus in our blood, not Ginger Styles! We’ve got to find a way to save Stoked.’
    Since Dad’s accident Biker Pete had taken over the headlining. His act was okay but it wasn’t a patch on my dad’s. Whilst Biker Pete was an excellent rider, he wasn’t a showman like Dad. Showmen are the people who make audiences want to come and see your show in the first place. We needed a big name.
    â€˜I know, Stunt, I know. I just wish I knew what to do,’ said Jem, her green eyes looking watery.
    She looked really pretty at that moment, probably because she wasn’t being bossy towards me for once. Her face was shaped like a heart. Not like a heart in your body, more like a love heart, with a pointy chin and cheekbones like apples. No wonder Caleb liked her. Then it came to me in a flash of inspiration, my mouth opening wide as a fragment of a plan formulated in my head.
    â€˜Are you okay, Stunt?’ asked Jem. ‘You look kind of weird.’
    I had one idea and then lots of thoughts started jumping on the bandwagon and then suddenly it was a freight train. ‘I’ve got it, Jem! I know how to save Stoked! Caleb Calloway! If he were our headline act, kids from everywhere would come to see him,’ I said. ‘He’s back in the country next week.’
    â€˜What makes you think he’d come to Stoked though?’ she said sceptically. ‘He’s a big star. He performs all over the