Girl Clown Hatchet: A Novel (Girl Clown Hatchet Suspense Series Book 1)

by Mav Skye

  CHLOE KNEW SHE WAS IN TROUBLE as soon as Shirley opened the door. There were dark circles under her eyes, and she was smoking a cigarette.

  The twins shrieked and wrapped their arms about Chloe, and she hugged them back and asked them about Seattle. They talked so loud and fast, that Chloe couldn’t figure out a single word they were saying.

  Shirley interrupted them. “Girls, get to your room. I need to talk to Chloe alone for a second.”

  “Aw, mom, Chloe just got hereeeee.”

  Shirley shooed them down the hall and into their room. She shut the door firmly.

  Chloe stood in the doorway, fidgeting, touching Godzilla on her earlobe, trying not to cry. Shirley and the girls were her family. If she didn’t have them…?

  Shirley emerged from the hallway looking like a ghost. She sucked on the cigarette. The ash at the end was about ready to fall off. “I’ll talk to you outside.” She brushed by Chloe, down the porch steps and around the end of the trailer where the girls couldn’t hear them.

  Chloe followed her, earnest to explain everything.

  Shirley pressed a palm to her temple, then flicked the ash off the cigarette.

  Chloe watched it blow away in the wind. “What I should do young lady, is have you turn around and walk your way back home.”

  “Shirley, I can explain—”

  “Ah, ah, ah.” Shirley shook her head and pointed at her with the hand holding the cigarette. “Your behavior the other night. What you did to that poor girl.” Tears came to Shirley’s eyes. She shook her head. “We stayed at the hospital all day yesterday, waiting for her to come out of surgery. Something went wrong.” Shirley dropped the cigarette and stepped on it.

  This revelation shocked Chloe, but not in the way it would have surprised her before. Before she would have been angry, and claimed that Kara Leigh was trying to steal away the people that Chloe loved. Now, she knew better. What surprised her was this self-revelation: Chloe was a monster. She did monstrous things to people and then blamed her behavior on them. She touched the beloved monster on her earlobe. Godzilla didn’t know any better, in fact, he was trying to help, which meant he wasn’t a monster at all. She was the monster. “Kara Leigh. She’s not…dead?”

  “No, she’s not dead.” Shirley lit up a new cigarette. “But, I bet she wished she was.”

  Tears came to Chloe’s eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  Shirley shook her head. “What you did to that girl? It’s not like you.”

  Chloe said, “I thought she was a clown.”

  Shirley laughed suddenly. “A clown, huh? I believe you, Chloe.”

  “You do?” Chloe’s mouth dropped. “But before—after what happened with Erin—I told you about the clown giving Sharon the balloon. You laughed it off.”

  “That was then.” Shirley shook her head and sucked on the cigarette, then swept her unkempt hair behind her ear. “Sharon’s told me that she’s seen him at other times. And then I saw him myself outside the living room window. It looked like something straight out of one of those Tales from the Crypt shows. It had these bunny ears. And it’s face?” she paused, “It was half black, half white face with a lightning bolt down the middle.”

  “Did it have a hatchet?”

  “Uh huh, that’s why I called the police.”

  “You did?” This was the first time anyone, other than Sharon, had acknowledged Mr. Jingles. Chloe wanted to throw her arms around Shirley and tell her ‘Thank you.’

  “Damn right I did. Whoever is dressing up like that and haunting the Misty Goose isn’t right in the head and, well, I swear it disappears like mist. All I could do is report what it looked like. I’ve told Dan about it, and he said he’s seen it, too. I was going to tell you all this, Chloe, but I didn’t want to scare you. I wanted to have proof. I wanted them to catch this guy.”

  “Kara Leigh…”

  Shirley’s voice grew stern. “That poor girl isn’t that clown.”

  “How do you—?”

  Shirley interrupted her again. “Even makeup can’t hide a face like that. And even if she was, is that a good reason to kick a girl in the face? Ruin her life? Hell, sweetheart, I feel like I don’t even know you.”

  Chloe felt so ashamed. She didn’t know what to say, so she looked down at her feet instead. Finally, after all these years, she knew she wasn’t crazy, someone believed her and had even called the police about Mr. Jingles. And yet the very fear that had driven Chloe to violence had changed her into something worse than the clown, a monster. A monster that was more monstrous than Godzilla.

  Shirley said, “I may not know who that clown is, but I’d guess it was you just as much as anyone else.”

  Startled, Chloe’s mouth fell open a second time. “What! Me?”

  “You’re the light in my life, Chloe, I love you as much as the twins. But just like that clown’s face, you’ve got a dark side. You beat that girl to a bloody pulp.”

  Chloe was speechless. She thought of what Joey had said just moments before. There’s always been this struggle inside, you know, the dark and the light. But lately, I feel chained in this darkness where there is no light.

  Shirley shook her head and sucked at the cigarette butt. The weight of the world was on her shoulders, and unlike Atlas, there was nothing but smoke and mirrors holding her up.

  “What am I supposed to tell the girls?”

  Chloe met her eyes.

  “They love you so much, Chloe. I love you. But,” Shirley shook her head and blew out smoke. “You need help. You and your mother need serious help.”

  “I’m not the clown, Shirley. You’ve got to believe me.”

  Shirley didn’t hear her, but continued on as if she was trying to work it out in her head. “What happened with Chris last night…?” Shirley’s hand trembled when she brought the cigarette to her mouth. “Mama Nola taught him that.”

  Chloe felt instantly defensive. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  Shirley pointed to one side of her face, then the other. “Dark and light, Chloe, dark and light. Good versus evil. We all have it inside of us. But sometimes, one side or the other is drawn out by influences.” She sounded like a crazy woman, and yet she made sense. Chloe thought in another life, in another world, Shirley would have made quite the detective. Her mind turned to Joey again, There’s always been this struggle inside, you know, the dark and the light.

  Shirley said, “Mama Nola influenced Chris. She’s such a dear, sweet woman. How could such a woman bring out the dark?”

  Chloe said quietly, “I can see why you may think that, but he’s only been over a couple of times.”

  “He visits when you’re not there, Chloe, when you’re here babysitting or in town. Dan says he sneaks over there all the time, especially the last two weeks. She taught him.”

  “She’s an old woman.”

  “And she’s sick.”

  Chloe insisted, “She tells stories; that’s all.”

  “And goes to the circus.”

  This hushed Chloe, then she pressed, “What would that have to do with him swinging that hatchet at me? He wanted to split me into two. Are you saying Mama Nola told him to do that?”

  Shirley said gently, “Honey, kids don’t come up with that on their own.”

  “My mother would never—” but Chloe couldn’t finish the sentence.

  There was an edge to Shirley’s voice when she spoke next. Her eyes grew darker. “I’m not saying she told him to do that, but maybe you can answer this for me. Where are all the hatchets from Dan’s shed?”

  Chloe froze. “What are you talking about?”

  “Where are they, Chloe?”

  She scrambled for words. “Dan said the one Chris had last night was taken from the shed.”

  “Uh huh,” Shirley took a long drag, “that was one of them. What about the other two?”

  “Other two?” Chloe’s mind mulled over this new information. It made sense, of course there was more than the one. Chloe gulped, and she though
t of the hatchet under her mattress. Chris must have hidden it there.

  Another puzzle piece fell into place.

  A slight whisper from the dark recesses of Chloe’s mind whispered, Dance! Dance! Dance!

  “Where’s the other two, Chloe?”

  “I…I…” Dan had told her just yesterday morning that Chris wanted to go to the circus, that he wanted to be a dancing clown. Chloe thought of the hatchet she’d found on her Etsi’s dresser after Mama Nola had gone to the circus. Chloe realized, then, how everything must look to Shirley. Chloe had no words left to defend herself or Mama Nola. Like Joey, she felt trapped in the dark with no light to see her way out of this mess.

  Shirley said, “That’s what I thought.”

  Chloe said, “You must think of me as a monster.”

  “Think of it as a snowball effect, Chloe. That darkness inside of you has put an innocent young woman in the hospital twice, and ruined her life. And Chris? Same thing, at least for Dan. He’s the whole reason Dan turned sober. Chris is the sweetest damn kid there ever was. Now he’s trying to murder people? What do you think that is going to do to Dan, huh? I found him drunk as a skunk last night when I swung by to check on him. How is Chris going to get the help he needs if his Daddy turns back to drinking and snorting coke?” Shirley shook her head, and pointed at Chloe. “Dark and light, that’s the both of you, and the only tie I can make goes back to Mama Nola and that clown.”

  Shirley was right. There was a connection between her Etsi, Chris, and the clown. Mama Nola’s words filled her mind. We trixied the eyes, but not the heart.

  Shirley flicked the ash from her cigarette, only this time, it fell like a stone to the ground instead of blowing away in the wind. The next words she said fell just as heavy as the ash. “What’s happened, what will happen? That’s on you and your mother.”

  “But I told you,” Chloe clutched at words, not to excuse herself, but to explain. “I told you at the beginning of summer what was going on with Mama.”

  Shirley sucked in smoke and let it out. “I know. I had a hand in it, too, because, I should have had her evaluated. Got some real help for her. I fooled myself into believing that company and helping out with groceries was going to help. Like a fool, I thought love would win the day.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Too often, we get caught up in the concept of the word love. That it’s this entity like Cupid that swoops out of the clouds and performs miracles while we watch and wait and pray, but Cupid is just a fanciful dream for laziness, cowardice, and ignorance.”

  Chloe shook her head. “You are neither of those things.”

  “I was all three, and I was wrong. Love doesn’t let things slide, love acts. And that’s what I should have done—acted. And because I didn’t, the dark half has won.”

  Silence, save the sound of Shirley sucking on the cigarette, filled the gap between them. The dark half has won, the words repeated over and over in Chloe’s mind. Love acts.

  Then Joey’s words, I feel chained in this darkness where there is no light.

  The dark half has won.

  Love acts.

  Chloe thought running away with Joey wasn’t such a bad idea anymore. Her mother needed professional help and care. She needed to be in a hospital. And it was selfish of her to think she could have provided everything Mama needed, all because Chloe was afraid of change, afraid of not having Etsi and Joey by her side, and now it was all falling apart. One brick at a time. And the worst part? It was all Chloe’s fault, not Shirley’s. Not Mama Nola’s. Not Kara Leigh’s. The fault was all hers because she was coward enough to believe in a dream instead of reality.

  The dark half has won.

  Her mother whispered, Become the beast.

  Love acts.

  I feel chained in this darkness where there is no light.

  I am a monster.

  Love acts.

  Kelly’s voice interrupted. Be here. Be in the now. Trust yourself.

  Chloe cleared her mind. “Do you want me to leave?”

  Shirley finished her cigarette and flicked it on the ground. “No. No, I need you to stay today. Work needs me. I need the money.”

  “Okay.”

  “I know you love the girls, but I need to know you’re not going to hurt them.”

  “Never.”

  “And you keep them away from your mother.”

  Chloe nodded, tears in her eyes.

  “I need to find a replacement for you, but that’s going to take a while. You were the best.”

  Love acts.

  Chloe looked down at the ground and sniffed, then said, “I need to call my aunt.”

  Shirley said, “You do that. You do what you need to do, because if you don’t, I will.”

  Chloe nodded.

  “I’ve got to go to work. Don’t let the girls watch that Tales from the Crypt.”

  “I won’t.”

  “And you watch them. They’ll turn it on the second you go into the bathroom.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “Okay, then.”

  Chloe followed Shirley back up to the trailer where she released the twins and grabbed her purse. Before heading out the door, she wrapped her arms about Chloe, hugging her fiercely.

  Chloe hugged her back.

  Shirley cupped Chloe’s face in her hand, wiped the tears from her eyes, and left.

  The girls were full of energy and trouble, and it was all Chloe could do to look at the phone, much less touch it. Her priority was to the girls, to keeping her promise to Shirley. Chloe hoped that Joey had looked in on Mama.

  It was afternoon and after toweling down the twins from playing in the sprinkler, Chloe set the girls in front of the TV with hotdogs and carrots sticks to watch Care Bears.

  She went to the kitchen and picked up the handset of the phone, breathing deeply before dialing the operator.

  When the operator asked who she’d like to call, she gave her aunt’s name and the state she lived. Chloe crossed her fingers that her aunt was publicly listed and played with the telephone cord, whirling it about her fingers before letting her fingers fall to her earlobe upon a kind Godzilla. There was a long, silent pause. Chloe was about to hang up when the operator came back on and said, “You’re connected.”

  “Uh, thank you.”

  Chloe listened to the phone ring on the other end of the line: two times, three times, and then a clear, feminine voice answered. “Tanya Sevenstars.”

  Tanya? Chloe hesitated on the phone.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi. I’m looking for a Tayanita?”

  The woman’s voice turned quiet. “How do you know that name? Who is this?”

  Chloe took a breath and said a little too quickly. “My name is Ayita Sevenstars and I think you’re my aunt.”

  This time it was her aunt who took too long to answer. “How did you get this number?”

  “I…I called the operator and gave them your name.”

  “Damn, I thought I had it delisted.”

  Chloe felt herself close to tears. This was a bad idea. Her aunt didn’t want to talk to her. She didn’t want anything to do with her.

  “I—I’m sorry I called you. I’ll hang up.”

  “Wait.” At that very moment, her aunt’s voice changed, softened. “No, no I don’t want you to hang up. It’s just that. I wasn’t expecting—there’s a big case I’m dealing with and—”

  Chloe blurted it out before her aunt could say anything else. “Something’s wrong with Mama. It’s bad, or I wouldn’t be calling you.”

  Another long pause. “Can you hold on a moment?”

  “Sure,” said Chloe, trying to keep the tears out of her voice.

  Her aunt murmured to someone about going into her office to take a very important phone call and not to be interrupted. There was a click, then another one and her aunt was back on the line. She said, “I’m sorry about that before, Ayita. This is a surprise.”

  “I can imagine.”
>
  “Is Nola in the hospital? Was it a heart attack?”

  “No, no, nothing like that. It’s just that…she’s been acting strange.”

  The panic went out of her aunt’s voice and Chloe could hear her take a breath.

  Chloe said, “She’s always asking to go to the circus. And then, she cries and cries. She says she’s afraid she’ll hurt someone. And, the worst part is that I think she will.”

  Her aunt was silent on the other line, then she said, “How much do you know about your Etsi’s past?”

  “I know that she moved a lot with her family.”

  “Do you know why?”

  Chloe bit her lip, and tugged on the phone cord. “No.”

  There was a long pause. “In the early 1900’s, the carnivals, midways, and freak shows became popular. There was another kind of show, one that the Europeans paid a lot of money to watch. They were called wild west shows.”

  Chloe said, “Like Buffalo Bill’s?”

  “Yes, uh huh, exactly. Wild West shows were completely fictional. They were made for Europeans to come and experience how Americans won the wild west. At first, the shows were cowboys and Indians hunting buffalo together, then it grew into standoffs between two gunslingers, bar fights, sharp shooting, stagecoach robberies, then battles between cowboys and Indians. There was barely any truth in the shows, but the public was so romanticized that it’s still a part of the American culture today. It was entertainment for the masses.”

  “Like the circus?”

  “Yes, like the circus.”

  Chloe said, “I don’t understand what this has to do with Mama Nola.”

  Her aunt paused. “This is something difficult to talk about, even for me, and I was born after our parents were freed.”

  “Freed?”

  “Yes, Ayita. You see, after several years, other shows that imitated the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show popped up around the United States, many of them were quite dark and the actors acted out atrocities on our people.”

  “Oh.”

  “Your grandparents were stolen in the dead of night and forced to work for one of these shows. Your mother was born into slavery and forced to perform for the audience from the time she could walk. Many of our people died in these shows. Eventually, the authorities acknowledged the problem and started taking it seriously. They began tracking down the traveling shows and shutting them down. But… Buckskin Henry’s Curious Traveling Circus was one of the last to be found. They had many horses and moved through Texas and New Mexico.”