Chapter 3 - Senndle

Larry quickly stuck his paw into the bird seed. A large, fat clown came into the room. Larry tried to look as if he had been eating all along.

"Like it?" the clown said in a Cockney accent "I mean, ya' bird seed."

Larry nodded. Not wanting to hurt the clown's feelings, he stuffed the bird seed into his mouth.

"It's homemade out of finely ground tofu." the clown continued. Larry spit it out. He liked roast beef, but not tofu! "Oh! you want a recipe? Never mind. Eat ya' food. It's almost time for ya' act. Eat up, eat up."

Larry then suddenly found he was being forced to gobble down the food by an invisible being.

"So the medicine is kicking in, eh?" the clown said in a scary tone. "Only the special substance can stop it. It's in the front-. Whoops! Almost gave away where we keep it!"

He unlocked the door to the cage and opened it.

"Come on, " the clown beckoned "ya can come out."

Larry toppled out of the cage on to the floor.

"My name is Senndle. I came all the way from the East end of London to do this. I'm to be ya' trainer." Senndle explained. "But as I've 'eard, ya don't need much training. They say ya can tap dance. Is that so?"

Larry nodded. He could tap dance, all right.

"Our audience wants to see ya tap dance. Want to come?"

Larry nodded again.

"Wonderful! Now let me put these Siberian-sized tap dance shoes on ya." Senndle slipped the shoes on Larry's feet. They fit perfectly. "Now come on, " Senndle urged "Ya cain't keep the audience waiting!" Larry squeezed all seven-hundred sixteen pounds of him through the door and Senndle trailed behind him, leading the way to the stage. After a few minutes, Larry was face to face with a door that had a sign on it which said "Don't go here unless it's your turn on stage". "This is it." Senndle whispered into Larry's ear "Some music will come on the loud speaker and ya are to tap dance to it. Unerstand?" Larry nodded. "Okay, 'ere we go! If ya need me, I'll be on stage, too." Larry stepped onto the stage, into the big lights, he could hardly see, but he could hear Senndle's encouraging remarks behind him. . . somewhere.