It happened when Tabitha was nine. Actually she was pretty close to ten. It happened at her cousin Samantha’s party. Their birthdays were three weeks apart. When they were little they shared their parties, then Samantha developed her gluten allergy. There were always extra details to make up for the cookies that crumbled to sawdust and the cake that kids left abandoned all over the Rec room. At Samantha’s tenth birthday, there was a mime. After he got unstuck from his box and tug roped his way across the room, he robot walked through the party interacting with the kids. He robot stalled in front of Tabitha just staring at her with his greasy white face uncomfortably close. She could see little black stubble under the grease paint and his eyes were black and unflinching. That was when it happened – a very real, very rational fear of clowns. It’s a real thing and there are others like her. They don’t always share the same hatred for stripes and Berets.
8 min @ the desk. 4.16.13; inspired by a striped shirt and beret wearing female at The Garrison on Dundas St W
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