I've been going to the circus a lot lately. I have friends there now, and they let me in for free whenever I want to go. That's because I'm practically a circus performer myself. It all happened on account of a boy.

I was on my way home from the store a while ago. We've moved to a new apartment that's near the circus and there's a big food store on the corner. Anyway, I was on my way home from the store, carrying a bag of tomatoes and a small container of sour cream. That's when I saw Aunt Dusya. She'd been our neighbor in our old house. She's a very kind lady. Last year she gave Misha and me tickets to a children's play. I was very glad to see her, and she was very glad to see me.

"Where are you going, Dennis?"

"Home. I just bought some tomatoes. Hello, Aunt Dusya!"

She was amazed. "You mean you go shopping all by yourself now? How time flies!"

What was there to be so surprised about? Wasn't it natural for me to be growing up? Anyway, I said goodbye and started off, but she shouted after me,

"Wait! Stop! Would you like to go to a matinee at the circus?

What a question! How could she even ask?

"Sure I do!"

She took my hand and we climbed the steps to the entrance. Aunt Dusya went over to the usher and said,

"This is a dear old friend of mine, Maria. Do you mind if he watches the performance?"

The lady smiled and let me in. The two of them followed me. I walked down the dark outside corridor thinking of the beautiful smell of a circus. It's a very special kind of smell. The minute it hit me it made me scared and excited. I could hear the music and was in a hurry to get where it was. We finally reached a side entrance. Somebody gave me a little shove. Then the lady named Maria whispered,

"Go sit over there. See the empty seat in the first row?" I went straight to the seat and sat down next to a boy my age. He had on his school uniform, too. He glared at me, because I was late and was distracting him, and so on, but I didn't pay any attention to him.

I looked straight at the performer in the middle of the ring. He had on a huge turban and was holding a giant needle threaded with a long, narrow ribbon. There was a lady on either side of him. The ladies were just standing there. All of a sudden the man turned to one of them and-wow!-he stuck the needle right through her middle, and it came out of her back! I thought she'd begin to scream, but she just stood there, smiling. It just couldn't be happening. Then he turned to the other one and sewed right through her, too! But she didn't scream, either. She just stood there, smiling, too. I stared at them. They were attached to each other by the ribbon that was threaded through them, and they were both smiling as if they didn't mind it a bit. Imagine!

"How can they just stand there? They didn't even scream!"

"Why should they? It doesn't hurt," the boy sitting next to me said.

"I'd like to see you have a ribbon pulled through you. You'd sure yell your head off!"

He laughed. You'd think he was years older than me. Then he said, "I thought you were a circus boy, because Aunt Maria brought you in. But you're not. You're not one of us."

"What difference does it make whether I'm circus boy or not? What's so special about circus boys? They're just the same as everybody else."

"They are not. Circus people are different."

"Do they have three legs or something?"

"No, but they're quicker than other people and stronger, and smarter."

This made me mad. "Don't be so stuck up! You think other people are worse than you? Are you a circus boy?"

He looked down and said, "No, I'm Mama's little darling." And he smiled a real sneaky smile, but I didn't understand what it was all about, then. Now I know that he was teasing me, but then I laughed out loud at him.

"Watch the performance! Next is the bareback rider," he said.

The band began to play louder and faster. A white horse trotted into the ring. It was as big as a couch. There was a lady standing on its flat back. She began hopping up and down, first on one foot with her arms straight out and then on both feet, as if she were jumping rope. It looked easy as pie, what with the horse being so flat-backed. It was probably like jumping up and down on a desk. I was sure I could do it.

The lady kept on jumping up and down, while a man in a black suit who was the ringmaster, kept cracking a whip to make the horse go faster, and the horse clumped along: clump, clump. The ringmaster shouted at the horse and kept cracking his whip, but the horse didn't pay any attention to him. What a bore. The lady finally got tired of jumping up and down and trotted off behind the curtain, but the horse kept on walking around the ring anyway.

Just then Karandash, the famous clown, entered the ring. The boy sitting next to me looked at me quickly, then looked away and said in a sort of off-handed way, "Ever see this act before?"

"No."

"Let's change seats. You'll have a better view from here. Come on, I've seen it before." He smiled. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing yet. Wait'll you see what Karandash is going to do. You'll die laughing. Come on, let's change."

If he was being so big-hearted, there was no reason why we couldn't. So we changed seats. His really was a better seat.

Karandash went into his act. "Can I ride this horsie?" he asked the ringmaster.

"Of course. Go right ahead."

Karandash tried to climb onto the horse's back. He was huffing and puffing, but his legs were too short, so he kept falling off, because the horse really was very big and fat. Finally, he said, "Give me a hand up, will you?"

An assistant came over and bent down. Karandash climbed up onto the man's back and from there onto the horse, but he had got on front to back. He was facing the horse's tail. Everybody laughed.

"You're on backwards," the ringmaster said.

"How d'you know? You don't know which way I want to go."

Then the ringmaster patted the horse's neck and said, "Its head is over here."

Karandash got hold of the horse's tail and said, "But its beard is over here!"

Then the assistant attached a rope to Karandash's belt. The other end was strung through a ring high up under the big top. The ringmaster was holding the loose end. He shouted, alley-oop! The band began to play, and the horse set off at a trot. Karandash began jiggling up and down, sliding off one side and then off the other. All of a sudden the horse began moving away from under him and he hollered, "Help! The horse is ending!"

Soon it was trotting along behind. Karandash would've probably fallen, but just then the ringmaster pulled in the rope and Karandash dangled in the air. I could hardly breathe from laughing so hard. I turned to the boy in the next seat. He was gone. Meanwhile, Karandash was moving his arms like he was swimming. The ringmaster lowerd him, but the minute he touched ground and took a few running steps he was jerked into the air again. It was like a swing, and everyone was laughing.

He kept on flying, up and down, up and down and nearly lost his pants. Then, when he touched ground the next time, he looked at me and winked. He really did! I winked right back. What was so special about that? And why shouldn't I have? Here was this funny clown winking at me.

Then he winked at me again, rubbed his hands, got a running start, headed straight for me, grabbed hold of me, and the ringmaster yanked his end of the rope hard. Karandash and I both flew up into the air. Together! He had my head locked under his arm in a steel grip. His other arm was around my middle, clutching me tightly, because by then it was a long way down to the arena floor. I couldn't see the audience below, nothing but black and white stripes, because we were circling so fast. I had a funny tickling feeling in my throat. As we were flying over the band I was sure we'd crash into the big tuba and screamed, "Mommy!"

I heard a roar. It was everybody laughing. Karandash mimicked me.

"Oh, Mommy!" he piped in a happy voice.

There was crashing and thunder below, but we just kept on flying. I was finally getting used to it when all of a sudden my paper bag burst and my tomatoes began dropping like bombs. A whole kilo of tomatoes! They were probably hitting people in the audience, because the noise they were making was like nothing before. I kept thinking that if the container of sour cream, 300 grams of it, dropped out also, Mommy would never let me hear the end of it. Just then Karandash began spinning like a top, and me along with him, but he never should've done it, because I got scared again and began kicking and scratching.

"What's the matter, Tolya?" Karandash said very softly, but his voice was stern.

"I'm not Tolya! I'm Dennis! Leggo!"

I tried to break away, but he clutched me so hard he nearly choked me. We began slowing down. I could see everything clearly below now, the people and the ringmaster who was looking up at us and smiling. Just then the sour cream slipped out of my torn bag. I could've known it. It landed on the ringmaster's head. He yelped and we landed with a bang.

The minute we touched ground Karandash let go of me. I made a dash for it, but I didn't know which way to run, so I spun around, because I was still feeling dizzy. Then I spotted Aunt Dusya and her friend the usher in an aisle. They were as pale as ghosts. I ran towards them. Everyone was clapping.

"Are you all right? Let's go home," Aunt Dusya said.

"What about the tomatoes?"

"I'll get you some."

She took my hand and led me out to the dim foyer. We saw a boy leaning against the wall there. It was the boy who had been sitting next to me.

"Where were you, Tolya?" the usher asked.

He didn't say anything.

"Where'd you disappear to?" I asked. "The minute we changed seats all kinds of things started happening! Karandash dragged me straight up to the ceiling!"

"Why'd you take his seat?" the usher asked me.

"He said, 'Let's change seats.' He said I'd have a better view from his seat. So we changed. And then he disappeared."

"I see. I'm going to tell the director, Tolya, and he'll give your part to someone else."

"Don't! Please don't!" he begged.

Then she shouted at him in a whisper, "Shame on you! You're a circus boy. You've rehearsed. How could you've put an outside boy in your seat? What if he'd fallen and gotten killed? He hasn't been in training like you!"

"That's all right," I said. "I'm trained enough. As good as circus people. Didn't I fly good?"

"You were great! Take my word for it," Tolya said. "And that stunt with tomatoes flying out of a bag was terrific. I'd never thought of it."

"That clown has no sense! Grabbing anyone he can lay his hands on!" Aunt Dusya raged.

"Karandash was in the middle of his act," the usher replied. "He was up in the air. He's no mind-reader. He knew that was a special seat and that the boy in it was a circus boy. They've done it so many times. But you two boys are like peas in a pod. Even your clothes are the same. So he didn't notice the difference."

"I should say he didn't! He snatched Dennis up like a hawk'll snatch a chick," Aunt Dusya said.

"Well? Are we going home?" I asked.

"Listen, come back around two o'clock on Sunday," Tolya said to me. "I'll be waiting for you by the box office."

"All right. I might as well."