Randy first noticed the clown when he looked out his window and saw him standing under the street light in front of his house, leaning against the pole. He was talking on his cell phone, laughing and pointing at Randy. If that wasn’t strange enough, the clown wasn’t wearing pants, only a red and white polka-dotted shirt that hung down to his knees, and a tall, bright red, pointed hat.
Randy felt threatened and immediately called the police, “I’d like to report a clown, standing in front of my house.”
“Ok sir, what is the clown doing?” the policeman asked.
“Well, he’s talking on his cell phone and laughing at me,” Randy replied.
“Right, but what is he doing that’s against the law, sir? It’s not illegal to stand outside and talk on the phone, or to laugh.” The officer was trying not to laugh, and before he covered the phone Randy heard him say, “Sergeant, come here, you’ve got to hear this!” Then to Randy he said, “Sir, I’m going to have you talk to my Sergeant, one second please.”
“This is Sergeant McIntire, what seems to be the problem?”
This was getting embarrassing, so Randy changed tactics and said, “Sergeant, I know this sounds strange, but I like to report a clown that is threatening me.”
“Ok sir, please try to calm down, now tell me your name and address so we can get someone over there right away,” he said.
That was more like it, and after giving him the information Randy felt better, until the officer said, “So what is the clown doing now?”
He’d been looking out the window while talking to the police, watching the clown, and said, “He was on the phone but he just put it in his pocket, now he’s reading a newspaper.”
“Sir, I don’t understand, what is the problem, don’t you like clowns?” Now he was laughing! Randy hung up the phone and realized that he wasn’t going to get any help from the police. He decided to confront the clown and find out what was going on. While getting dressed, he thought about what he would say to him. ‘Ok buddy, it’s time to stop clowning around,’ or ‘go back to the circus where you came from,’ or how about, ‘are you trying to be funny or something?’ It was kind of funny, and Randy could just imagine what they were saying at the police station. With funny remarks going through his head, he felt a little better until he opened the door and saw that there were now two clowns standing there! The second clown evidently had on the rest of the clown suit, he was wearing a pair of red and white polka-dotted pants, a pair of red pointed shoes that had to be two feet long, and no shirt. They were facing Randy, laughing, and pointing at him.
“What the hell is so funny?” He yelled as he quickly went back inside and slammed the door. “Should I call the police again? I can just hear it, ‘let me get this straight sir, now there are two clowns laughing at you?’ No, I have to figure out how to handle this without their help.” Now he was talking to himself! Why did he feel so threatened by the clowns? They weren’t really doing anything, except laughing, but something was very familiar about them, he couldn’t quite place it.
“I know, It’s some kind of new reality show where they watch people’s reaction to funny situations! That makes more sense, instead of sitting here freaking out, I’ve got to do something funny that will make me look good on TV.” He thought about the old adage, ‘If you can’t lick em, join em,’ and searched through his closet for the wildest clothing that he could find. Putting on a pair of green and white checkered shorts and a red striped shirt, he headed back outside. Opening the door, he saw that there were now three clowns! Of course there were, and if he closed the door and came back again there would be four. This is great, he thought, what a funny idea someone had! Well, he’ll show them how funny he could be. He had a sudden inspiration and grabbed three shoes lying by the door before he headed out. “I knew my juggling skill would come in handy someday!”
Walking up to the clowns, wearing his checkered shorts and striped shirt while juggling his shoes, he noticed that they weren’t laughing anymore. Didn’t expect this, did you, he thought, and was pleased to see that he could actually do a little dance while juggling. Looking around for the TV crew, he noticed that there were three more clowns standing across the street, in front of a little clown car, but they weren’t laughing, they were waving at him, with sad looks on their faces. Suddenly, Randy realized that he knew their names, Barney, Dizzy Dave, and Hugo, and the two standing in front of him were Peppy and Rooster. How did he know their names? It all became clear to him when Peppy said, “Hi Jocko, it’s time to go, the circus is leaving.” He was one of them, he was a clown, and it was time to go home.
I would love to hear you’re thoughts on this story. Why did Randy (Jocko) forget that he was a clown? Why did the clowns have sad faces as they waved at him?
Thanks for stopping by,
Jim
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