Illustrations: Florian Thouret Under the direction of Romain Lizé, President, Magnificat Editor, Magnificat: Isabelle Galmiche Editor, Ignatius: Vivian Dudro Translator: Kathleen Hollenbeck Proofreader: Samuel Wigutow Cover Designer: Gauthier Delauné Layout: Text’Oh Production: Thierry Dubus, Audrey Bord
Sophie de Mullenheim
1 - Riddles................................................ 7 2 - Little Ones........................................... 15 3 - Loss and Gain...................................... 23 4 - Generous Gifts.................................... 29 5 - Lies...................................................... 37 6 - Gus...................................................... 45 7 - Secrets................................................. 53 8 - Anger................................................... 61 9 - Integrity............................................... 69 10 - Friends............................................... 79 11 - Disappointment................................. 89 12 - Father................................................ 97 13 - Forgiveness....................................... 105 14 - Joy..................................................... 113 15 - Stormy Weather................................. 121 16 - Miracles............................................. 129 17 - Generosity......................................... 137 18 - Family............................................... 145 19 - Revenge............................................. 153 20 - Obedience.......................................... 161 21 - Reunited............................................ 169 Contents
7 1 Riddles There it was! Another message! I slid the piece of paper from under the windshield wiper of the motor home and unfolded it to read this riddle: Their faces are forever frozen in stone. Who are they? For a while now, whenever our circus had settled in a new city, I would discover a message addressed to Grace and me on the windshield of my Aunt Ginnie and Uncle Greg’s motor home. Each note contained a riddle. Solving the riddles together had added excitement to our daily lives and helped us to cope with constantly changing schools as we traveled from city to city, town to town. For us, the biggest riddle remained the identity of the mysterious sender. Who was this person? And what did he or she want? I had barely slipped the message into my pocket when Aunt Ginnie arrived to take us to school. Grace trailed behind her mother, eating a bagel. She gave me a questioning look. I nodded knowingly. On the playground, Grace wanted to see the message. As
8 Mysteries at Gloria Circus I searched my pocket, a boy my age approached us. “Hello,” he said, smiling. “Are you new?” “Yes,” said Grace. “Well, not really. We’re with the Gloria Circus.” “The circus!” the boy repeated with excitement, his eyes sparkling with joy. Then suddenly, his eyes darkened. “You’re not here for very long, then,” he said, disappointed. “My name is Grace, and this is Garrett,” said my cousin. “I’m Jack,” said the boy. He had red hair and freckles and looked eager again. “Are you brother and sister?” “No. We’re cousins,” I replied. “I’m in Mr. Renn’s class,” Jack offered. “And you?” “I’m also in that class,” I said. “Grace, who is a year older, is in Ms. Li’s.” Just then, the bell rang, calling all students to line up right away. Jack looked at Grace. “Let’s meet back here at recess,” he said. I gave Grace a look and followed Jack to the line. “Tell me,” Jack asked curiously. “What’s your circus act?” “I juggle torches, among other things.” Jack could not believe his ears. “I will come to see you!” he said. At recess, I found Grace with a girl from her class. “You’ll see,” the girl was explaining, “Ms. Li is a really tough
9 teacher. She gives only incredibly hard work. But I still prefer her to Mr. Renn. He is ultra tough! And he squints his eyes all the time, so his face looks like a fish! See?” She squished her face into a funny shape and laughed. “It’s funny, right?” When I got near them, Grace introduced us. “This is Garrett, my cousin. Sophia, a girl in my class.” “Garrett!” Sophia said with a giggle. “Is that your clown name?” I ignored her remark. I was used to people making fun of me for being in a circus. Jack asked me to play ball and ran off to get one. “Want to come play?” I asked Grace. “With Jack?” Sophia asked, pointing at the boy. “Jack Hadley?” “Yes, with him,” I said.
10 Mysteries at Gloria Circus “Do not tell me you’re friends with Jack Hadley!” Sophia gasped. “He’s very nice,” I answered, a little surprised. “Just drop him,” Sophia advised. “If you want to make friends, you’d better not hang out with Jack Hadley.” “Why not?” Grace asked. “You don’t know?” Sophia was astonished. “He’s weird!” Sophia went on to say a lot of bad things about Jack. She told us all the rumors about him and his family. Frankly, after hearing all that, I did not want to play with him. Nor did Grace, for that matter. When Jack came back a few minutes later, ball in hand, I pretended as if I didn’t see him. I stayed talking with Grace and Sophia, or rather, listening. Sophia painted a picture of every student in the school. Thanks to her, we learned whom to be friends with and whom to avoid. Among those not to befriend, Jack was at the top of the list. Back in the classroom, Jack looked at me sadly. He smiled anyway and sat down at his desk without saying a word. I sat two rows behind him, but even from the back, I could see he was unhappy. I was not very proud of myself. I was glad when the bell rang at the end of school. I was going to return to the circus and forget all about it! Grace was outside waiting for me. She wanted to see the message.
11 Riddles “I wonder who this person might be?” she said, rereading the riddle for the third time. Before long, we found ourselves mucking out the enclosure for the horses, working quickly to complete our chore. At last the area was clean, and we were free to go. “It’s time to be explorers!” I said excitedly. Solving the previous riddles had required our searching for the answer in the city around us, and this new message about stone faces was no exception. We suspected our mysterious messenger wanted us to enjoy every city or town we visited. So, off we went to look for clues and to discover new places along the way. Aunt Ginnie and Uncle Greg were used to our escapades. They watched us go with encouragement in their eyes. Sometimes their enthusiasm was so great that we suspected Grace’s parents of being the authors of the messages! We walked into the old walled city of Saint Malo in search of faces carved in stone. Before long, we passed a sports bar. The door was open, and we heard the noisy laughter of people inside. “Look,” I observed. “This is the bar Sophia told us about. The one Jack’s parents own.” “Let’s look inside,” said Grace, pulling my sleeve.
12 Mysteries at Gloria Circus “Let’s not,” I said. I did not want to see Jack, and I didn’t want him to see me. Above the sports bar were the windows of the apartment where Sophia had told us Jack lived. “You know, Jack seemed really nice,” I remarked as we walked on. Grace looked at me. “Forget it,” she said. “You heard what Sophia told us.” “She used awful language!” I said crossly. “It did seem wrong,” confessed Grace. “She said bad things about everyone.” “Do you really think what she told us about Jack is true? “I don’t know,” Grace replied. “Anyway, it’s not our problem.” “Why should we let what people say prevent us from being friends with Jack?” I asked. My cousin stopped and thought for a moment. “Because…,” she stammered, “Sophia said that no one will play with us if we spend time with Jack.” “So what?” I asked. “Who cares? We will play with Jack if we want!” Grace hesitated a moment. Then she exclaimed, “You are right! It could be that Sophia isn’t telling the truth! She could be spreading vicious lies! We are here in this city for too short a time to waste our days listening to gossip!” I gave Grace a big smile, and we continued to explore the
13 Riddles streets of the city in hopes of finding some clues. By nighttime, we had to face the obvious: We were empty-handed. When we arrived at school the next morning, we walked right up to Jack. “Hi, Jack!” Grace shouted. “We passed your home last night!” Jack stared at us in amazement. “We toured the city,” continued Grace. “We were looking for faces made of stone.” “Ah! The Sculptured Rocks!” Jack said immediately. Grace gave me a wink. “The Sculptured Rocks?” she asked. “They are frightful faces carved on the sides of the cliffs,” Jack continued. “There are more than two hundred of them! The place is about an hour’s walk from here. I can take you there right after school if you want.” It was late when we returned from our expedition to the Sculptured Rocks. Just before climbing into the motor home, I slipped our response to the puzzle under the windshield wiper. I hoped the writer would come just once more because I was looking forward to the reward we would get from our mysterious correspondent. I was not disappointed. When I got out of the motor home the next morning, I found a locket beneath the wiper. Inside, it contained a wisp of blond hair and a tiny picture. “You look like her,” said Grace, who quietly joined me.
Mysteries at Gloria Circus 14 I looked at the woman in the photo. Grace was right. I had the same curly blond hair and very similar blue eyes. “Mom!” I whispered, stroking the portrait with my fingertips. As with the other riddles, our messenger had sent me a fragment from my past. I treasured each one, hoping that one day I would succeed in reconstructing the history of my parents and understand who I am.
Original French edition: Mystères au cirque Gloria © Mame, Paris, 2010 © 2024 by Magnificat, New York • Ignatius Press, San Francisco All rights reserved ISBN Magnificat 978-1-63967-085-7 • ISBN Ignatius Press 978-1-62164-715-7 Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63967-096-3 Printed in May 2024 by Rotolito, Italy Job number 24L0247 Printed in compliance with the Consumer Protection Safety Act, 2008
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