Well, it certainly is-shabby looking,” Kevin said as he and Sally walked into the room Mr. Beck had assigned them in the Clown Wing.
If anything, that was an understatement. The walls of the room were painted in stripes of dark, dull colors like flat blue, black, grey, and white in a swirling motion. The ceiling was black, the carpet was grey; the curtains were worn looking and dyed like the walls. Hanging on the walls were various portraits of clowns and circus scenes.
And instead of beds, there were two old worn mattresses laying down on the floor with a couple of threadbare blankets.
"Appropriate, don't you think?" Sally chuckled. "For the kind of clowns we're going to be?"
"Maybe," Kevin muttered. He still wasn't sure about this, especially Sally's choice.
Sally investigated the two closets filled with the various clown clothes provided by the resort. “Well Dad, it looks like you were wrong; we didn’t need all that luggage after all.” Then she looked closer at her own closet. "Looks like it's all boy style-no dresses or anything for a girl clown."
“I’ll talk with Mr. Beck about it; until then you can wear what's already in that closet.” Jason placed the blue satchel he’d been carrying on a mattress, then tossed the pink one to his daughter. “Go ahead and change; Mr. Beck said our transformations start soon after we enter the room.”
Sally nodded and walked into the bathroom. Kevin took off his shoes, socks, pants, briefs, shirt and finally his t-shirt. Opening the blue satchel, he was it was filled with nearly tent sized boxer shorts and tank tops. The shorts were checkered black or brown and the tops were tie-dyed with flat dull colors like the walls of the room.
‘How fitting,’ Kevin thought, ‘they make even our underwear look clown-like.’
He took out a pair of black checkered boxers, and a mostly blue-black tank top. The elastic waistband of the boxers hung loosely about him, and the top was nearly three times too big, yet he could feel the cloth was very elastic.
Sally came old dressed in a leotard that was red on one side and yellow on the other, she had taken her hair out of the ponytail.
She giggled at the sight of her father. “Dad, heheyaha, you look like you’re wearing a circus tent, heheyaha.” She clapped a hand over her mouth; her voice sounded higher, as if she had inhaled helium.
“Sally, he he eh ha,” Kevin’s own voice was now a pitch deeper and with a melancholy lilt. His giggles actually sounded somewhat gloomy. “I think the change is starting, he he eh ha.”
A wave of giddiness unlike anything Sally ever felt before swept over her. “Dad, heheyaha, I feel.... funny, heheyaha.” Kevin felt something too-a strange sense of gloom and cynicism, mixed with wiry amusement.
First to change was their complexions: Sally’s skin became a light peachy orange from head-to-toe while her father became a darker, more reddish orange. White formed in the areas around their mouths and eyes, Sally's mouth stretched into a wide smile; Kevin's formed a more neutral, almost mournful expression.
Next, they gained weight, filling out their underclothes. Sally mostly in the chest and hips, gaining at least size CCC breasts and wide hips that filled her leotard, making her voluptuous if somewhat chubby for a twelve-year-old. Kevin’s waist expanded to at least a size seventy, the elastic waistband now feeling tight against an enormous beer belly, and the formerly loose boxers and top now felt snug on his new girth.
Markings appeared on their faces. Thin black arches appeared over Sally’s eyes replacing her eyebrows and her eyelids were shaded a light blue. Her eyes were outlined in black, her eyelashes became long, thick, and curly, grayish eyeshadow formed on her eyelids. Soft red blushed the apples of her plump cheeks with three freckles, making her look childlike and a bright cupid's bow formed inside her muzzle.
Kevin’s white eye-patches were topped with thick black arches that stretched up to his forehead, giving him a surprised look. His fleshy cheeks became dull red, making it look like he'd been drinking heavily, and his lower lip inside his white muzzle became grey black, exaggerating his sad expression.
And as a final touch, the areas around their muzzles, their cheeks, and chins became pitch black, giving father and daughter both a painted on 'beard.'
Next their hair thickened and turned from soft brown to dark black before curling into a busy 'afro' style. To Sally’s delight, the hair on top of her father’s head retreated into his skull, leaving him with a thick curly black 'half-fro' around an orange bald pate.
And Kevin's shock, the same thing happened to Sally.
Their feet quickly expanded and widened; Kevin had size 20 clown feet with toes about seven inches wide. Sally’s feet were shorter, about size 15, but her toes were wider by at least three inches.
Finally, a loud POP! filled the room. Kevin and Sally blinked, then saw that each now had a big, red clown nose. Kevin’s was a dull flat red and nearly the size of a peach, Sally’s was a lighter almost pink red and more like a tennis ball size.
The newly clowned father and daughter just stared at each other for nearly a minute. Finally, Sally touched her nose and gave a squeeze. Honk!
Gingerly, Kevin touched his own nose; it felt leathery to his fingers and nearly filled his hand. He squeezed it. Honk! it sounded, lower and deeper than Sally’s, almost sad sounding. He felt something else too, a slight giddiness that didn't entirely banish the gloom he felt but did lift it a little. Kevin didn't realize it, but this was part of how his transformation affected his mind; he was to be gloomy and somewhat sad to balance his daughter's playful cheerfulness.
Sally walked over to her father; with her sudden weight gain and big feet she moved with a funny waddle. She reached up and rubbed her father’s bare dome. “Heheyaha, you are bald Dad!” Honk!
Kevin poked Sally in her nose. Honk! "So are you kid, he he eh ha," he giggled cynically.
Sally touched the top of her her to feel bare smooth skin. She waddled over at the doorway mirror and stared at her reflection, still rubbing her head.
"So I am, Dad, heheyaha." Instead of freaking out, she actually seemed trilled. Sally touched her chin. "And I have a 'beard!'" She honked her nose and continued rubbing her bald head. "I thought I was going to be a bag lady, heheyaha, but instead I'm a hobo like you! "Well, a girl hobo, but still a hobo, heheyaha." Honk!
She waddled back up to her father. "See?" Sally poked her father's nose. Honk! "Guess you don't have to get change those clothes in the closet, heheyaha. We look alike! Well, close enough anyway, heheyaha, we can wear matching outfits. I can be your 'Mini-Me!'" She poked Kevin's nose again. Honk!
Kevin poked his daughter’s nose. Honk! She poked him back. Honk! The hobo father and bag lady daughter spent the next several minutes honking each other's noses; Kevin actually felt his gloom lift even more-but it didn't completely go away.
Finally, they stopped. “What are we, going to do now Dad, heheyaha?” Sally asked then honked her nose.
Kevin sighed. Honking his nose had awakened this strange feeling inside him. He waddled over to the mini bar just above one of the mattresses and picked an unmarked bottle of whiskey. He took a swig and tasted a hint of cotton candy underneath the usual sour flavor.
'Not bad, he he ah ha,' he mused, giggling cynically even in his thoughts. He'd have to go to the resort lobby's main bar and see what other kind of drinks they had for clowns.
Kevin quickly banished the thoughts from his head. He’d come here to be with his little girl; he’d have time for that stuff later.
Spying the closets full of ragged and tattered looking clown clothes he said, “He he eh ha, we might as well get dressed, he he eh ha.”
HONK HONK!