Penny Does a Runner: Part X

If Penny was to avoid being recognised by Miss Harper she would need a good disguise, she knew. But what? A clown, perhaps... no, that was no good: the clowns had already performed, and she would stick out like a sore thumb wandering around the stalls by herself. She needed some kind of exotic costume... something that would allow her to wear a headdress or suchlike and not seem out of keeping. Conscious that her absence might soon be noticed she wandered round the circus in an anxious daze, racking her brain.

“Oh, of course!” she suddenly cried, startling a couple at a nearby hoopla stall. She would dress as an acrobat! No-one would think it strange to see a girl in a leotard and headdress serving snacks at a circus; they would just assume she was dressed that way to add to the general gaiety.

Penny dashed to a caravan she knew was home to a pair of female acrobats and, her knock on the door going unanswered, let herself in. The girls she had met earlier were both about her size, and they were bound to have spare costumes somewhere... with this hope at the front of her frantic thoughts she rifled through drawers as if her life depended on it. With a yelp of delight she came upon a leotard, and she wasted no time in taking her usherette dress off and pulling her new outfit on. It fitted like a glove: she smiled in satisfaction, twirling in front of the mirror. But oh, she thought, putting a hand to her head – what about a headdress?

She searched and searched but none was to be found. She would just have to find one somewhere else, and quickly: she had been gone for some time and would have to get back to her station. She took up her snack tray and headed back outside, glancing around herself once more, wondering which caravan might contain her salvation.

The next moment she was startled by a man’s voice, and a hand upon her shoulder. “Come along, you!” the man cried. “You’re due on in a minute!”

PART IX