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the tank to the floor. Sure enough, a large hole had been chewed in one corner, between the iron
bars. ‘She did this last week,’ said Flavio. ‘She gets cold, I guess – so she goes down to the engine. Then she gets hot, then she gets cold . . . Crazy. Come with
me.’
    He jumped down and crouched by a wheel. Sure enough, when he pointed the torch beam, they could see silver-grey skin. It was wrapped tight around the truck’s undercarriage and the head
appeared to be jammed up in the gearbox.
    ‘Is it hungry?’ said Sam. ‘Shall I put some burger on its back?’
    ‘She’s not hungry. She’s greedy as a pig. Got a dog on Sunday she’s still digesting.’
    The children stared.
    ‘You gave her a dog ?’ said Millie.
    Flavio shook his head.
    ‘No. We parked up in this nice quiet street – no problem, we’re minding our own business. Then this old lady comes by, walking this yappy little thing, and I’m just
chatting away, being friendly . . . Next thing I knew, the dog’s under the truck doing its business, then . . . Pythons move quick when they want to.’
    ‘You seem to have a lot of bad luck,’ said Ruskin.
    ‘Ha!’ snorted Flavio. ‘Everywhere I go, is a problem. I think this is the end of the road, though – I don’t think we can go much further.’
    It had started to snow.
    ‘Shall we get the camel back in?’ said Oli.
    ‘No, he loves it. It’s a change from a desert, I guess. Let’s get in the cab. When’s this man coming to fetch you?’
    ‘Depends what time he left,’ said Millie. She pushed Violetta and managed to force her off the front seats. ‘Flavio . . . why are you driving round England with a truck full of
animals? It doesn’t seem a very normal thing to be doing. I asked you last night, are you some kind of circus?”
    ‘Some kind of nothing,’ said Flavio.
    ‘Another thing,’ said Sam. ‘What you were doing at that hotel place?’
    Flavio sat back in his seat and pulled a face. ‘It’s a long story,’ he said.
    ‘ Are you a zoo?’ said Sam.
    ‘Are you meeting someone?’ said Oli.
    ‘No.’
    ‘Are you part of a . . . fun-fair?’ said Ruskin.
    ‘Hang on,’ said Millie. ‘Why don’t we let him tell us?’
    ‘I will,’ said Flavio. ‘I’ll tell you everything – this is just a big load of trouble and it’s gonna put me in jail. I got all this lot cut-price, friend of a
friend. Just a big problem rip-off, is what it is. It was a zoo, then it was going to be a safari park . . .’
    ‘So you’re an animal trainer?’ said Ruskin.
    ‘I’m nothing, no. No education, no qualifications – nothing. I was at school for two years, OK? Two years, I just about read an’ write. All they do at school is beat me
up. I got out at eight years old, became an acrobat.’
    Millie laughed. ‘You ran away from school? To be an acrobat?’
    Flavio laughed as well. ‘Yeah. I ran away – best thing I ever did. This was a favela in São Paulo, OK? Little stinking place, seven brothers, three sisters. Anything,
man, just to get out! I met these guys doing street work and I was small, so I do the trapeze, high-wire, pyramid stuff. They fire me out a gun, set me on fire up a rope—’
    ‘Out of a gun?’ said Sam. ‘Like a cannonball?’
    ‘Yeah, like a cannonball. They make a gun out of a sewer pipe, put some dynamite in a hole. I’m just a little kid, got a hard head. They shoot me out over the crowd, sometimes into a
net, sometimes into the lake. That age, you just keep bouncing, yeah? We go all over Brazil, make a bit, lose a bit. I do motorbike stuff . . . fire. I been on fire so many times I don’t feel
nothing! We go up to Rio, Brasilia – it’s a life, OK? Then I get to fourteen, some of us make a little show on our own, they bring us to Spain. There, we make proper money. For the
first time.’
    ‘Wow,’ said Ruskin. ‘You were really a circus boy?’
    ‘Circus boy, stuntman for a little bit . . .’
    ‘Stunts!’ cried Sam. ‘Like in the