The Carnie Clown
Amy, Lindsay, Nick, Chris and the rest of their friends were excited about the carnival coming to town.
Chuckie said, “We can get cotton candy, candied apples and those funnel cakes I love!”
“Maybe you should cut down on some of that fattening stuff,” said Dale. “Remember when you couldn’t get over that fence the time we were being chased all over the place as we were walking down to Nick’s?”
“My pants got caught,” said Chuckie, not laughing with the rest of the group. “That’s why I couldn’t get over.”
Chuckie tried to change the subject. “When do you guys want to go to the carnival? Should we go Saturday afternoon, or would it be better at night?”
“I think we should go at night,” yelled Amy. “The lights are on all the rides and I think it looks pretty. Especially the ferris wheel going around and round.”
“Does that sound okay with everyone?” asked Nick.
All the kids either nodded, gave thumbs up or yelled, “Sweet!”
Okay,” said Nick. “Night it is. How about Friday night after school? There’s nothing else happening, so let’s go then.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” said Lindsay. “Let’s meet at my house and we can all walk down together, okay?”
That Friday night, all the kids met at Lindsay’s and walked to the carnival that was in town for the next few weeks.
“My mom gave me extra money, so I don’t have to use my allowance,” said Amy.
“Do you have any extra money for us?” asked Paul, who was always fond of Amy.
“Oh, I’ll share my cotton candy with you.”
Paul blushed.
In the distance, they could see the colored lights being turned on for the ferris wheel, merry-go-round, sky dipper and bumper cars.The kids held their noses high as they inhaled the smells of corndogs, funnel cakes and popcorn.
“Yummy,” said Chuckie. “I can’t wait to bite into one of those corn dogs with mustard on it. I might get two!”
“I’m going to get some cheese fries,” said Chris. “I love all that grease.”
“Me and Amy are going to get cotton candy first,” said Lindsay. “Then we’re going to ride the ferris wheel.”
The kids got their food and treats and started one ride after another.
“Hey,” said Lindsay. “Let’s take a little break. I think I’m getting nauseous from eating all this food and twirling around.”
“Yeah,” said Chris. “I think that sky dipper turned my stomach upside down too many times.”
Amy and Lindsay stopped at the face painter’s booth and got hearts and stars painted on their cheeks.
“How do we look?” asked the girls.
“Lovely, just lovely,” said Nick as he rolled his eyes at Chris.
Paul asked Amy if she wanted to play a game of ‘Milk Toss’ where you throw balls at bottles and try to knock them down. Paul thought he could score some points with Amy if he won a stuffed animal for her. Amy agreed and let Paul have the first throw. Four bottles got knocked down. “Okay,” he said, handing her a ball. “You try.”
Amy held the ball in front of her face lining it up with the stack of bottles. She wailed it and knocked all the bottles down on the first try. “I won!” she screamed.
Paul hung his head. “Good shot, Amy.” He couldn’t bring himself to look at her.
“Oh, don’t be a sore loser. You know I could always pitch. Remember last summer at the picnic? I was even on your team,” said Amy, laughing.
Amy picked out the biggest stuffed dog she could find. “Come on, Paul, let’s go meet up with the others,” and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.
They met up with the rest of the kids eating their next round of carnival foods. Mustard and drips of ice cream ran down the front of the boys T-shirts, and Chuckie had a partial eaten corn dog in front of him. He let out a big burp. “I don’t think I can eat anymore.”
The kids finished their food and strolled past more rides. They were about to turn around when Lindsay said, “Hey, look down there. I don’t remember seeing that before. It looks like a haunted house. Let’s check it out.”
A dark, shady area on the outskirts of the carnival sat before them. There was a booth nearby with a sign in red letters above that read ‘Tickets’. All at once, a clown jumped out from around the back of the booth, and yelled, “Boo!”
Both Amy and Lindsay screamed and scampered behind the boys.
“I didn’t scare you guys, did I?” laughed the clown, who was jumping up and down, waving his hands and arms. The clown’s face was painted with an evil looking frown. He wore big, black clown shoes, a dirty old polka-dotted suit, a black hat and gloves, and the traditional red rubber ball nose. Jaggy looking teeth were painted in up and down directions all around his mouth. In his hand, he held a small tattered top half of a toy clown that looked like it had been torn in two at the waistline and had no legs. In a deep and commanding voice, the clown said, “If you want to be scared, go into my haunted room. Come on. It’s fun. Go into my haunted room. Here, look at this,” and he pulled a small jack-in-the-box from behind him.
“I’ll let each of you take a turn to play for tickets from the box. Some tickets say ‘free’. That means you get to go into my haunted room for free. But some tickets say you need to pay to get in. You don’t want to get one of those. Come on, try it.” He held the box in front of Nick.
“Go into my haunted room,” he repeated in a booming voice.
Very slowly, Nick turned the crank on the box that was decorated with happy looking clowns. It played a tune that reminded him of when he was a small boy. At the end of the song, the lid popped open, and a small evil looking clown popped its head out, and in its hand was a ticket that said ‘Free Pass to the Haunted Room’.
“Hey, I won!” yelled Nick.
“It’s your lucky day,” said the clown. “You try next,” he said, looking at Paul. “Maybe you’ll be lucky too.”
Paul held the box and turned the crank. At the end of the music, the same evil looking clown popped holding a free pass to the haunted room. Each time, the clown would push the small toy clown back in the box and each of the kids took turns turning the crank. Every time, the jack-in-the-box clown appeared with free tickets for the group.
“It looks like you all get to go into the haunted room for free!” screamed the clown. “But first, I have to tell you the rule. You each have to go in one at a time. You can’t go in as a group.”
“I’m not doing that!” screamed Lindsay.
“Me neither!” shrieked Amy.
The boys didn’t want to say anything, but none of them wanted to go in alone either.
“If our friends don’t want to go in alone, then none of us are going in. Thanks anyway,” said Nick, and the kids started to walk away.
“No, stop!” said the clown.”Okay. You can all go in together, but no holding hands.”
“What if someone gets scared and wants out?” asked Amy.
“Say the code word ‘tightrope’ and I will come in and get you out. But then you have to pay me for entering the haunted room. Deal?”
“Deal,” said the kids in unison, feeling better knowing they had a way out if needed.
The kids looked at each other and eyed the haunted room. It didn’t look that big, so they thought they’d be out in no time.
“How about it?” asked Nick. “Are we all in? It should only be less than a couple minutes to go through.”
Everyone had a hesitant look. Chris spoke up first, “Come on, it can’t be that scary.”
“Okay,” said Lindsay, “but put me and Amy in the middle of you guys. We don’t want to be first, and we don’t want to be last.”
“Okay,” said Chris. “Since this was my idea, we’ll go in like this. I’ll go first, then Dale, Chuckie, Lindsay, Amy, Paul and Nick will bring up the rear. Let’s go. It won’t be that bad.”
The kids marched up the steps into the haunted room. When they got inside, musty smells and dampness filled the air. A spray of water came down upon them and the girls screamed. Nick yelled, “Okay, everybody hold hands with the person in front of you and the person in back of you.”
“But he said we couldn’t hold hands,” said Amy.
“He’s outside. He doesn’t know what we’re doing in here,” said Chris. “He won’t know. Hold the person’s hand in front and back of you.”
“I’m not holding Dale’s hand,” said Chuckie. “Who knows where those fingers have been? Maybe up his nose or something like that.”
“It’s not like you’re getting married or something. Hold hands since it’s dark in here. We don’t want to lose track of anyone.”
Everyone joined hands and started walking through the darkness. Paul gently held Amy’s hand, but felt her tension and tightened his grip. The kids started walking in the darkness and “Yuck!” and “What was that?” were heard from everyone.
“Watch out!” hollered Dale. “The ground seems to be moving.”
The kids screamed as the floor moved beneath them, tilting back and forth. No one could walk steady. As they continued, the floor turned squishy, their feet sinking as if in quicksand.
“Walk faster,” yelled Lindsay. “Let’s get out of here. I don’t want to get stuck.”
“We can’t go faster,” said Chuckie. “The floor is wobbling and this squishy ground is making it hard to move.”
Then, the floor stopped moving, and the kids were back on solid ground. Wet, slimy pieces of goo started falling from the ceiling onto their heads. “Get it off! Get it off me!” they all yelled.
“Shake your head from side to side, and it’ll fall off you. Don’t let go of your hands,” shouted Nick.
Vigorously, each kid shook their head, ridding themselves of the slimy creatures. Then, all was quiet and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
“I don’t have anything on my head, do I?” asked Lindsay frantically.
“I can’t tell, Lindsay. It’s too dark in here. Does it feel like anything’s on your head?” asked Amy.
“No, I guess not. That’s all I need is to find some kind of bug or something nesting in my hair. The first thing I’m going to do when I get home is take a shower.”
“Let’s keep moving,” said Chris. “We should be out of here soon.”
The group came into another hallway that was eerily quiet. Then moans, groans, and gurgling throat noises emanated from the walls. There was enough light that the kids saw a half-wall. In the dimness, zombie creatures moved towards them in a slow, hobbling motion. Reaching the half-wall, the creatures arms extended forward and heads turned towards the group. Pushing themselves to the opposite wall, the kids desperately tried to avoid the outreached hands and drooling mouths full of rotting teeth.
“Run!” yelled Amy. “They’re trying to bite us!”
Their escape was halted when they came to a large mirror at the end of the hallway. Instead of seeing their reflections, each saw a creature that had similar facial features but not an exact duplicate of themselves. The zombie creatures all stared back at them in the same order as the kids. Lindsay moved her head to the left, and the zombie creature resembling Lindsay with the long blond hair moved her head in the same direction. Chuckie nodded his head, and zombie Chuckie nodded his head. Nick stuck out his tongue and zombie Nick responded back with a forked tongue. The kids relaxed a bit, and started having fun making gestures, and seeing the zombies making the same motions.
“Geez,” said Lindsay. “They look so real. They’re not real, are they? How are they doing that?”
“They’re not real,” said Chuckie. “They must be some kind of special effects or animation.”
Drool and fake blood dripped from the ceiling and thick ooze seeped through the walls. The sound of a chain saw seemed to be moving towards them.
“Don’t touch anything,” yelled Paul. “Keep holding hands until we get through. We should be out soon.”
Just when they thought the worst was over, the realization came that they were boxed in by four walls and had nowhere to run. A loud crack came from above and a small clown dropped from the ceiling in front of the group. It was the same evil clown from the jack-in-the-box that held the tickets for the haunted room. Its little face smiled a sinister grin. The kids stood paralyzed.
“I want out!” yelled Lindsay.
“Me too!” screamed Amy.
“Tightrope! Tightrope!” they hollered, but the lights didn’t come on and no one came to help. Panic quickly set in.
Chris yelled, “I feel an opening! Everyone stay close and follow me.”
Within seconds, they burst through a door and onto the street.
The kids stared at each other in amazement. They now stood in a completely different order from how they entered. First was Lindsay, then Paul, Chris, Nick, Amy, Chuckie, and Dale was last. They were all still holding hands.
“How did we get this way?” asked Chris. Puzzled expressions were painted on all their faces.
“I never let go of anyone’s hand,” said Dale. “Not for one second.”
Everyone did ‘pinky swears’ that they did not let go of their hands when going through the haunted room.
“Well, at least we’re out of there now,” said Nick.
“Yeah,” said Chris. “Geez, it’s much larger on the inside than the outside. I thought we would have been out of there in a couple of minutes, but it seemed like forever.”
Laying on the ground near the kids, was the clown jack-in-the-box. Nick picked it up and turned the crank. The music played, but when the lid popped open, the box was empty. The small clown was gone.
“Let’s get out of here,” said Chuckie. “I’ve had enough of this carnival.”
All agreed and started walking towards the exit. When they got to the gate, the guard looked at them and asked, “Well, did you kids have fun tonight?”
“Yeah,” said Nick. “All except for that evil clown that had us go into the haunted room. That was too scary.”
“Haunted room?” asked the guard. “We haven’t had the haunted room as part of this carnival for years. They took it out when a kid was scared to death. He came out yelling, crying and screaming about a clown. He ran over to a jack-in-the-box laying on the ground, ripped the toy clown out of the box, and dropped dead. Over the years, there have been reports of a ghost walking the fairgrounds trying to lure kids into his haunted room.
“Legend has it that he won’t rest until someone is scared to death like he was.
“He’s still seen walking the grounds in an old clown suit with black shoes, gloves, hat, pointed teeth, a red rubber ball nose and a sinister evil grin.”