“There you go heheyaha,” Janice rubbed a moist towelette over Chris’s pate; the effect made his smooth scalp almost look buffed. She placed a tiny blue derby with a yellow band at a jaunty angle on her son.
“Thanks mom, heheyaha,” Chris giggled back as he looked at himself in the mirror. The 12-year-old auguste clown was wearing knee-length blue shorts wide enough to fit his rotund frame held up by a rainbow suspenders over a yellow short-sleeved collared shirt with a puffy rainbow bowtie. Underneath the shirt was a long-sleeved t-shirt with red and white stripes and on his legs were matching socks that reached up past the hem of his shorts. Chris had on his enormous feet a pair of pancake-toed clown shoes with yellow saddles and blue wingtips. The outfit along with his ‘make-up' and chubby features made Chris look younger than twelve despite being bald.
Janice herself was wearing a long sleeve white blouse with pink polka dots and matching bloomers underneath a dark blue apron dress with white polka-dots. The skirt of her dress was knee-length and fluffed up with pink petticoats; on her feet were pink bubble-toed mary-janes. On top of her red/pink ‘fro, Janice wore a lace granny style nightcap that matched her dress; on her hands were immaculate white gloves. She looked like a plump, motherly clown.
On the table right underneath the mirror was a metal case labeled ‘Touch Ups.’ Opening it, Janice saw eyeliner pencils, brushes and glosses. She used one of the pencils to outline her eyes and then Chris’s; she next used a makeup marker to paint vertical black bars over her son’s eyes, making them look like exclamation points. Finding what looked like a lipstick tube marked ‘glitter glaze,’ she applied it over her clown smile then her nose, making them both sparkle with glitter.
Chris honked his nose in approval. “You look great mom, heheyaha.” He honked his nose again.
“Thanks, heheyaha.” She leaned down and gave her son a peck on his chubby cheek. “Now, let’s go out, heheyaha, and see the rest of this resort.” Honk!
Less than an hour ago, Janice would have broken down in fear stepping into the hallway. The walls floor, and ceilings in the Clown Wing were as garishly colored as those in their room with similar portraits. Circus calliope music was playing in the background, and all around them, clowns of various ages and sizes were talking, laughing and giggling, honking their noses, juggling, and behaving well, like clowns.
Yet Janice felt no fear at all; instead, she felt joyful and happy.
Because now she WAS a clown herself.
Despite how fat he’d become Chris was surprisingly energetic and agile; he kept cartwheeling and making back flips as they made their way down the hall. Janice followed behind at a slower pace; her own weight gain and enlarged feet made her move in a funny waddle.
As they approached the elevator, Janice honked her sparkling nose as she greeted the other clowns and handful of normal humans going to their rooms to be clowned.
When the elevator stopped, and they stepped inside with three other pairs of clowns already waiting: a whiteface couple with the woman very visibly pregnant wearing an apron that said Clown Baby on Board, a grossly overweight auguste with a smaller yet voluptuous female auguste, and a sad looking adult hobo accompanied by a more cheerful child hobo who looked about Chris’s age.
The clowns all introduced themselves; to Janice’s surprise despite being bald with the same ‘half-fro’ style hair as the men, the smaller hobo’s ‘beard,’ and the masculine style of clothes they wore, the fat auguste and child hobo were both females. As she looked closer Janice could see long eyelashes, cupid’s bow mouths, and outlines of feminine figures hinting at their true gender. Toni and Gabrielle, the augustes were lesbian girlfriends and the hobos Kevin and Sally were father and daughter. The male whiteface ironically was also named Kevin; he and his wife Claire were expecting their first child.
The elevator bell dinged; the eight clowns all stepped out into the main lobby and...