Pru forgot to mail the letter. She put it in Boomerang’s saddlebag, meaning to mail it later, but she forgot. The next day, when she went to find it and put on the postage, the letter was gone.

She didn’t have time to write it over again, so she decided that the photo in the newspaper would have to be a surprise for her parents—and she focused on clowning around.

“Hiya, Pru.” Lucky came into the practice tent. Everything was ready for the circus now; the entire caravan was unpacked and Pru had signed up for “tent time,” since she wasn’t the only one who needed to get prepared for a show.

Pru grunted at Lucky. Her time in the tent was running out, and she’d barely done anything.

“You look frustrated,” Lucky said. “Can I help?”

“I’m here,” Abigail said, popping her head into the tent. “I was going to help Solana with her practice tightrope, but I got tangled in the rope.” The practice tightrope was a long cord tied between two raised ladders. Not as high as the real one above the audience, but if you fell in practice, it wasn’t very far to the ground.

Abigail went on. “Solana told me to take a break while she untangled it.” Abigail shrugged. “She said she’d come get me when she’s ready for my help…. ” Pinching her lips together, Abigail said, “The rope was pretty tangled, and I kind of knocked over one of the ladders, too. It might be a while.”

“Or never,” Lucky whispered to Pru, who struggled not to laugh.

“Oh, she’ll come,” Abigail said confidently, having overheard them.

Boomerang was standing nearby, waiting for Pru to tell him what to do.

Pru thought about home. When she was learning to ride, her dad would laugh when she fell—as long as she wasn’t hurt—and that would make her laugh, too. Giggling about mistakes made learning fun. She missed her dad’s deep and heavy laughter.

“I haven’t fallen off a horse in a while, but maybe I should add that to the act,” Pru suggested.

“Sounds painful,” Lucky said. “There must be something else you can do for the show.” She rubbed her chin as she struggled for ideas.

The girls were standing quietly in a circle in the center of the tent when the flap opened.

“Chica Linda!” Pru exclaimed. “How’d you get here?”

“She must have jumped the corral fence,” Abigail said. And just then Spirit entered the tent. “It was a breakout!”

Lucky giggled and ran to hug her horse. “Okay,” she told Pru. “We’re all here. Give us your best idea.”

Pru opened her diary to where she’d written her brainstorming list.

“No, no, no.” She didn’t even read the bad ones out loud. “The only half-decent idea here is to teach Boomerang to play an instrument.”

“A one-horse band? That’s easy, since he can already sing,” Abigail said.

“Huh?” Pru and Lucky both asked at the same time.

“Go on, Boomerang. Show them how you sing,” Abigail told her horse.

The girls waited.

The tent was silent.

“He’s shy,” Abigail assured them. “Let’s try the instrument idea instead.”

“Maybe he can play drums with his tail?” Lucky suggested. She ran to the storage area and brought back two plastic buckets, a small yellow one and a bigger gray one.

“If he can play, I’ll paint them,” Abigail said. “Fancy buckets for my fancy horse!”

Boomerang nickered and Abigail kissed his nose.

“Okay, you majestic steed,” she said. “Let’s hear your beat.”

Abigail tried to turn Boomerang backward so his tail would swish the bucket, but he refused to budge. She moved the buckets around near his backside, and he turned around to face them. “This isn’t working,” she complained.

“Let me try,” Pru told her. “He’s gotta do it with me anyway.” She showed Boomerang how to swish his tail down onto the bucket by grabbing hold of his tail and thumping it on the bucket bottom. It made a banging sound that reverberated through the tent. But once she set down the bucket, Boomerang wandered away, uninterested.

“We’re gonna need a new idea,” Lucky said. The girls huddled to think of something else, but they couldn’t come up with anything.

Estrella poked her head in the tent. “Girls, time’s up. The acrobats need to prepare their act.”

Pru nodded sadly. “What am I going to do?” she moaned. “No new ideas!”

“Your old ideas are working perfectly,” Abigail reminded her. “You get more laughs than any other performer.”

Pru stared at her. “I’m the clown.”

“I’m just saying,” Abigail said. “Your act is fine just the way it is.”

“Fine?” Pru’s frustration was rising. “If I’m going to be in the newspaper, where all Miradero will see me, I have to be better than fine!” She took a deep breath and apologized to Abigail. “I don’t mean to yell; it’s just that Catalina is in my head. It’s as if we are competing, even though I know the circus isn’t a competition.”

“I get that—” Lucky began, when suddenly a boom-boom drum sound filled the tent.

The girls looked over to find that Chica Linda was playing the bucket drums. She wasn’t using her tail to make the sound, but rather her hooves. She’d hit one drum with her hoof, then turn slightly to hit the other one.

As Chica Linda figured out how to beat the drums, her rhythms got faster.

Pru rushed over to her. “Chica Linda! You’re amazing! Can you do that in the circus?”

Chica Linda quickly backed away from the drums and moved toward the tent flap, leaving the same way she’d entered.

“No, wait!” Pru hurried after her.

“That horse does not want to be in a circus,” Lucky told Abigail as they both got their own horses. “She might be the best drumming horse in the frontier, but there’s no way she’ll perform.”

“Can Spirit drum?” suggested Abigail.

“I’m not even going to ask,” said Lucky. “Clowning around is not really Spirit’s thing. We’ve gotta get Boomerang to do it.”

Abigail swung up on Boomerang’s back. “I think I’d have better luck convincing him to sing.”

“Looks as if we need something else for Pru and Boomerang to do,” Lucky said. “Let’s go for a ride and we can think more about it.”

They went to get Pru and found her, with Chica Linda, hiding behind a large painted wagon from the Mexicali Circus.

“Why are you hid—” Lucky started.

“Shhhh!” Pru whispered.

Lucky and Abigail smushed next to Pru. The horses tried to tuck in, too, but it was crowded and they bumped one another.

Pru peeked out of the hiding spot. “It’s Catalina,” she whispered.

The girls and their horses all glanced around the wagon. Abigail and Boomerang bent to see from underneath in the gap between the wheels.

“Who’s she talking to?” Abigail asked.

Catalina was standing with a tall woman. Dark skin. Brown hair. She had a pencil tucked behind an ear and was holding a notebook. Catalina leaned forward and laughed at whatever the woman was saying.

“It’s gotta be Lydia Sebastian,” Pru said. She grunted. “Catalina said she knew her.”

“Looks as if they’re friends,” Lucky said.

“I know!” Pru blurted that a little loud, drawing Catalina’s attention. They all quickly pulled back tighter into the hiding space. Pru whispered, “Catalina has an advantage because she already knows Lydia and has been in the paper before.” She put her hands on her hips. “That’s why I have to do the best show I’ve ever done!” Pru handed Abigail Chica Linda’s reins and took Boomerang’s. “Come on, Boomerang, there’s no time to lose. We need to practice—something.”

Pru began to walk away.

“We were going to go for a ride,” Lucky called after her.

“You’ll have to go without me,” Pru said to her friends. “Boomerang and I have too much to do to get ready.”