82 Tail Wagging the Clown
For March 22: Day 82/366 of the Story-a-Day Challenge
"Would you like some candy, little girl? It's freeeeeeeeee!"
Well versed in "stranger-danger," Macie was still caught off-guard by the one offering: a clown. An evil clown. The type of clown that makes the whole world ask, Who thought children would ever like clowns?
His eyes were black and his painted smile was upside down. He had dark circles where red ones should be. This was a bad clown. A Stephen King clown.
"No, thank you," Macie tried to mumble, frightened. She stammered. She stuttered. She couldn't decline the offer articulately.
The clown, in his van, waved her toward him. She remained inert, so he got out and walked to the back and opened the doors. He beckoned, pretending clown-pretend crying. She may have been terrified, unable to move, but she wasn't falling for that. How many children have passed through those doors, permanently?
He abruptly clown-collected himself and skipped toward her.
She knew she'd never outrun him with the ground she assumed he could cover with those big shoes. She began crying: she had done everything right but still was in danger.
Another van pulled up suddenly. It was the Puppy Van for on-site pet grooming.
Out of it jumped a big puppy-suited man. As everyone knows, puppies are the natural enemies of clowns because they like to lick makeup off faces, clowns' or otherwise.
The clown bristled. The puppy-man growled.
It was on!
Soon the clown lay bloodied, beaten, bitten, and face-licked into the person behind the buffoonery. In a final act of ridicule, the puppy-man raised a leg and marked the crying-on-the-inside clown as his territory.
Macie laughed. Puppy-man smiled at her.
"What's your name, pretty little girl?" Puppy-man asked.
"Macie," she answered.
"Macie," he offered, walking toward the back doors of his Puppy Van, come here and I'll give you some candy.
She didn't fall for that either, even when he upped the ante by promising a puppy. Just when Macie thought it might be vans that were evil instead of clowns or puppy-men, a police one pulled up.
They were very proud of Macie, and the only ones getting into the back of their van were the clown and the puppy-man.
________________
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Word count (excluding notes): 366
Submitted for Friday, March 22, 2024
2024: A Story-a-Day for the whole year. This one is #82.
All pictures are freeeeeeeeeeee AI-generated, but the words are not!
About the Creator
Gerard DiLeo
Retired, not tired. In Life Phase II: Living and writing from a decommissioned Catholic church in Hull, MA. Phase I: was New Orleans (and everything that entails).
https://www.amazon.com/Gerard-DiLeo/e/B00JE6LL2W/
email: [email protected]
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Comments (2)
Brilliant! A great read and good won over obvious evil and disguised evil! So good!😊 Congrats on Day 82 of 366 stories✅
Macie is one smart little girl! Good for her! Also, beaten and bitten, I loved that hehehhe