As Nick fell to the ground, he fired the last round from his gun. But he didn’t hit Pinky with it. He shot the love of his life.
When Pinky turned to Taffy, he saw her muscles go slack, then tears pooled in her big clown eyes. He could sense the sadness radiating off her. Seeing her in such a state, it was almost enough to push Pinky into succumbing to his own artificially induced depression.
Taffy fought against her restraints with all her might. She wanted to free herself from her bonds, then free herself from the miserable world. She was looking at the rooftop. Then Pinky realized that she wasn’t firmly bound anymore. Shrapnel from Mr. Pogo’s explosives had hit her and cut into her ropes. She was nearly free. And Pinky was too wounded to reach her in time.
As Pinky tried to pick up his pace, a bloody form fell out of the sky and landed in front of him, blocking his path. It was Mr. Pogo. He looked beaten and bruised. Hats was lying wounded on the other side of the rooftop. The stubby clown had held him back for as long as he could, but the hit man finally got the best of him.
“Time’s up,” Mr. Pogo said. He had a surprisingly high voice for such an intimidating figure.
But before Pogo opened fire and finished him off, the hit man stopped in his tracks. Something got his attention over Pinky’s shoulder. Smiles looked back and saw a clown car pull up to the restaurant. Three clowns stepped out. Vinnie Blue Nose, Jackie the Grump, and Beano Moretti.
Beano Moretti had a black eye and a bloody lip. One of his massive plate-sized ears also looked bruised and swollen. When Beano Moretti made eye contact with Mr. Pogo, he shook his head. Pogo got the message. He looked back at Pinky Smiles only once. Then he hopped away, bouncing from rooftop to rooftop on his springing legs.
Once Pogo was gone, Taffy cried out in despair as she pulled her gag out of her mouth. She had gotten free of her bonds, and the depressant in her bloodstream was now overwhelming her system.
“Taffy…,” Pinky said, staggering toward her.
She looked back at him. Her tears had melted her green mascara down her white cheeks. Her bright-red lips were dry and cracked. Snot dripped from her tiny purple nose.
“Just wait there,” he said, trying to reach her in time. “Fight the depression. Don’t do anything stupid.”
But as she looked Pinky in the eyes, Taffy couldn’t help but remember all the bad things she’d ever done to him. The times she’d ditched him so that she could go dancing at clubs. The times she’d slept with other men. The times she’d made fun of him to her friends behind his back in order to save face for dating a half clown. She felt like such a horrible person.
“I love you,” Pinky said as he arrived in front of her.
Those words only made Taffy hate herself even more. She knew she didn’t deserve anyone as loving and faithful as Pinky. She didn’t deserve anyone. She was a spoiled brat and she knew it. Pinky was better off without her.
Taffy turned around to run for the ledge. She had to end it. She thought it was the only thing she could do to escape her overwhelming guilt. But before she even made it one step, Pinky Smiles grabbed her by the arm. He got down on one knee and held out the ring that he’d been dying to give her since the day they first met.
“And I want to spend the rest of my life with you,” Pinky said.
As Pinky Smiles proposed, the depression in Taffy’s mind drained as happiness poured into her.
She said, “Yes,” and then helped him balance his trembling hand as he put the ring on her finger.
When the two clowns embraced, not a soul in Little Bigtop would’ve been able to guess that they’d just been shot up with a bunch of depression bullets. The both of them looked as if they’d never been happier in all their lives.