Heavenly wasn’t sure how she got through the school day. She was so distracted and she couldn’t stop herself from thinking about the creepy clown. Her eyes would often wonder to the nearest window and she would look out over the large grounds of the school. She wrote down only a few notes and as the last class ended instead of rushing to the library, she hurried to the school gates.
She caught the bus home, something she hadn’t done in years. However, she had to get off before the park as the bus route didn’t go down to her street. Luckily, a few other students got off and she could pretend for a few minutes that she was walking with them. Their voices, laughing and carefree filled her ears, but their words were so distant.
Heavenly trailed them as the entered the park; three young boys looking for mischief and two girls a year or two below her. The boys ran off to the playground. She watched them go, half expecting to the clown to be there, but there was only more children and two or three parents. The girls carried on walking and chatting about a boy in their class they both liked and a teacher who always give them too much homework.
Keeping her distance from them, Heavenly glanced around the park as they walked through the full length of it. Nothing seemed out of place. The wind was blowing the multi-colored leaves from the trees, the grass was getting a carpet of those leaves now and the sky was still looking just as grey as this morning. A promise of more rain to come and an early night for sure.
At the end of the park the girls turned and walked in the opposite direction Heavenly wanted to go in. She paused by the gates and watched them carrying on, totally unaware of her. Looking down the long, lonely road she now had to face, Heavenly felt glad of the daylight and quicken her pace home.
She let herself in and went up to her bedroom. It was Friday and her mum wasn’t working tonight, but she might still be in bed. Heavenly swung her bag off and changed out of her school uniform. Dressed in P.J bottoms and a loose jumper, she went to the window and pushed the curtains aside. The back garden, alleyway and neighbors’ back gardens all looked the same.
Closing the curtains again, she began emptying her bag and getting ready to do some school work. She pulled out a few things then her fingers closed on something soft and damp. Confused, she removed her hand and saw the soft clown doll in her palm. She dropped it on her bed in disgust.
The clown was dirty and was wearing a red and yellow stars jumpsuit with a matching hat. His feet, hands and face were white and his features looked painted on. He had a grinning slash of yellow for a mouth, a round red nose and hard black dotted eyes.
Heavenly picked him up in a pinch and went to take him to the bin. Then she thought better about it and took the soft toy downstairs to the kitchen. There she dug out a sealable sandwich bag and shoved the clown in. Maybe it would be evidence, maybe not. She took it back to her room and placed it in the bottom draw of her desk.
Then turning on her computer and putting some music on, she got down to finishing her homework. A couple of hours later, her mum arrived home with some shopping, fish and chips for tea and a never ending stream of questions. Heavenly did her best to eat and talk at the same time. She left nothing out of last nights events and concluded with her coming home early and re-finding the clown doll.
‘He better not come back tonight. I’ll give him a piece of mind,’ her mum jumped in as Heavenly finished speaking, ‘has everyone gone mad or something?’
‘I don’t know,’ Heavenly mumbled around a chip.
‘Don’t worry, it’ll be fine,’ her mum added.
Heavenly nodded, but somehow she didn’t feel it.
To Be Continued…
The Story Files 