What the doctors told Joey about his condition giving him boundless energy he was finding out was certainly true. The dorm building he’d been assigned to had five stories and no elevator; Joey had walked up all five flights of stairs carrying both his suitcases and while they felt heavy Joey wasn’t the least bit tired.
He stepped into the hallway and walked down to the towards the room he’d been assigned room 506. If anything, the walls of the hallway were even more colorful than those of the main building.
There was no one else in the hall but as he waddled past the doors, Joey could hear inside boys talking in goofy voices, punctuating their sentences with chuckles or giggles, and honking their noses.
Joey finally stopped in front of room 506 and put down his suitcases. To his surprise, there was a doorbell. Feeling amused, Joey pressed the button.
And seltzer water squirted into his face.
Spluttering in shock, Joey pressed the doorbell button again-and again got squirted in the face.
After spluttering a couple of seconds, Joey pushed the doorbell button again-and got squirted a second time.
“The door’s unlocked, heheyaha,” a high goofy voice came from inside. “If you want to come in, honk your nose.” Honk Honk!
Joey honked his nose. “Come in, heheyaha.” Honk!
Joey opened the door and stepped inside.
If anything, the dorm room inside was even more garish the hallway with walls painted in swirls, stripes, and polka dots of various colors.
And in the middle of the room, were three clowns roughly about his age, all of them augustes.
The shortest of them stepped forward and held out his hand. “I’m Kenzo Yakhamito, heheyaha.” He had a pale yellowish complexion, with eye patches shaped in a way that gave him a quizzical look behind his circular glasses. His black lips inside his white muzzle made his mouth look open even when shut, while he had orange fluffy hair with the sides and back of his head bare and smooth. “You’ve probably met my mom, heheyaha,” and Joey could now make out the Asian features underneath Ken’s ‘makeup.’ “I’m gonna be your roommate, heheyaha, we’re gonna have a lotta fun. And although my name’s Kenzo, heheyaha, I also go by Kozo. Bozo, Zozo, get it?” Honk Honk! Despite himself, Joey laughed for real as he shook Kenzo’s hand.
“We commonly go by these clown nicknames, heheyaha,” said the clown furthest from Joey. He was nearly six feet tall and almost looked like he was walking on stilts, with thick green hair in a rather ‘afro’ style. Joey wasn’t sure, but his hairstyle, dark orange complexion, and rather deep bass voice made him wonder if this clown was African American, possibly Jamaican from his accent.
In contrast the clown between the tall one and Kenzo had pink based skin, fluffy shoulder length yellow hair, was between the two in height, and visibly fat. Joey himself had become rather rotund, but this one looked just shy of obese.
The tall one went on, “I’m Rajah Townsend, heheyaha; call me Roto.” He jerked his thumb at the fat clown. “And this is Tim McDougal, heheyaha, or Tibtub. ” Honk Honk!
Joey shook hands with the two of them. “Joey Gregory heheyaha,” he said and honked his nose.
Tim, or ‘Tibtub,’ stepped closer to Joey. “So, heheyaha, what do we call you? Joey? Jo-jo? Jozo? Bojo?”
Ken squeezed his nose. Honk! “Jozo and Kozo! I love it!” He giggled and honked his nose again.
“Please, heheyaha, just Joey for now.” Joey honked his nose and to his mind it sounded extra loud, as if to emphasize his point.
“Well, heheyaha, we don’t normally wear our hats inside,” Tim said and with speed that belied his girth, reached and snatched the cap off Joey’s head.
The three Augustes burst into laughter at the sight of Joey’s bare scalp. “You’re bald!” roared ‘Tibtub.’
“You’re one to talk, heheyaha.” Ken or ‘Kozo’ grabbed at the fat auguste’s hair-and it came off, revealing Tibtub to be bald like Joey.
Tibtub grabbed the toupee from Kozo, then after placing it on his head, produced a seltzer water bottle. He wrapped his red lips around it, squeezed-and seltzer squirted out of his ears into Kozo and Roto’s faces. Then Roto picked up a wastebasket, pulled at the waist of Tibtub’s baggy checkered pants, and dumped the contents down the waistline.
Tibtub waddled around the dorm room, the trash falling out of the hems off his pant legs. All the other clowns, Joey included, fell to the floor laughing.
As Joey laughed, something occurred to him. While he was compelled to behave like a clown, he had been observing everything happening in a serious and analytical manner. Was it the same with these three? Did any of their old selves remain? Or were they lost inside the clowns they had become?