When José joined the circus as a clown three years ago it was the last thing he wanted to do. He found it humiliating walking round in oversized shoes squirting water through a fake rose on his lapel and distributing balloons to children. Ha! Ha! Ha! He knew he wasn’t very good at it, but a job is a job.
It was almost inevitable that something calamitous could happen, and it did. He was giving out balloons to little kiddies and squirting water on the rude ones.
Sitting there slap-bang in the front was a widow with her three children. José couldn’t avoid giving the children a balloon each. But would the widow see through his clown disguise? Would she recognize him as the guy who three years earlier had murdered her husband?
Weave a Web 
Ooo, la, la. Maybe he did her a favor? Did he do it for hire? BRW, I hate clowns.
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I agree – I find clowns rather scary.
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Well, obviously she would. She was the one who hired José…
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You literary types are all the same – murder murder murder…
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I learn from the best!
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I guess that is called the Murderer’s Dilemma! It is a chilling story that raises a storm of questions, but that is probably intended.
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Yes, sort of intended Uma. These days I’m not feeling to be much of a bright spark! I’m dragging myself to 2500 stories and this time (I think) that has to be it!
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But Bruce…as Gary Lewis said: Everybody Loves a Clown… well except her husband.
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Well Max – I hate them!! I don’t believe I’ve seen many but… there’s a picture of me with one in Boston – it’s somewhere but I can’t seem to find it or post it.
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You would not like the movie IT…lol it would reinforce your hatred.
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I shall not watch IT!
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Only in one of your stories would a hitman become a clown. It’s crazy, these journeys you’ve taken us on over the years, Bruce. Aliens, geeks, clowns, gardeners, professors, clergymen. You’ve done it all. Well almost all. I’ve read science fiction with murderous twists by you, but never a dark fantasy featuring a doomed chosen one and a dark lord. A page out of a Robert Jordan book with Goodman’s macabre humour.
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Thank you Nitin. Every time I write a story with a clown I think of you! Not because I think you’re a clown but because of our previous conversations about certain clown activities!
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Yes I remember those conversations. It was about the hard realities of these balloon blowing, depressed fellows. I wrote a few pieces about a masochistic clown that you commented on too lol.
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