Chapter Fifteen - The Underdressed Clown

In the world beyond Frank’s mum’s house a man walked down the road where she lived.
He had a balaclava on, the man.
It was cold and maybe this could be expected, but to Frank, Lorrie, and Frank’s mum, balaclavas always seemed unexpected.

In another unexpected turn, when the balaclava’d man reached the place where the gate should be at Frank’s mum’s house, he walked past the spot where the barrier should be, advancing onwards towards the house itself.

There he saw a bell and a brass knocker, but he used none.

Instead he tapped on the window pane, with drumming fingertips that were noticeable but discreet.

Frank approached the figure, remaining still on the safe side of the glass.

He knew this man.

It was his dad; a balaclava couldn’t disguise that close family tie.

His dad had chapped lips and a pair of headphones around his neck.
The balaclava was ribbed.

He didn’t say hello to Frank.

He looked at him through the cut outs where his eyes were, and in the cut out where his mouth was, he opened it to say the big words,

‘A clown is trying to kill me’

He said it three times, and as is often expected with the third time of saying something, it was definitely heard clearly by then.

And there where the gate should be, at the house where Frank grew up, was a clown dressed as a normal person, with a sword held in their hands.

The clown wore high heels. Frank's mother noticed that, while Lorrie asked Frank,
'Is that sword real?'

It was hard to tell from inside, and so Frank went to the rescue of his dad, which incidentally was also the first time he'd seen his dad in a balaclava, and aside from that, the first time he'd seen his dad, in years.