Lurking In The Moonlight

Chapter One: Send In The Clowns

I bolted down the hallway, my heels clicking loudly against the surface of the floor as I try not to trip and wipe myself out. I was late. I accidentally fell asleep on my lunch break and was 5 minutes late. They must be here already. I could see the elevator closing at the end of the hallway.

"NO!" I shouted but it was too late, the doors closed. I tried pushing the button, but it was gone. "Damn it." I mumbled as I took off my shoes and nearly ripped off the door to the emergency stairway next to the stupid elevator. I ran up two flights of stairs at full speed, nearly taking out a few nurses on my way up. I pulled open the door, and took another sharp turn, speeding down the colorful hallway. Some doctors and nurses called out to me to slow down, but I was late. 

I was almost there, I could hear fun music and the sound of the children laughing from the other end of the hallway. My shoes in hand, I was out of breath and tried coming to stop as I entered the common room of the children's wing of the hospital,  but I couldn't stop. My socks slid on the linoleum floor as I floundered trying to get my body to stop them moving. 

As I slid in, I see a clown in the center of the room dancing as all the children and a few staff members circled around, cheering and laughing watching him. I panicked as I felt my body go up into the air and come crashing down onto the very, very hard floor. I heard the staff gasp and the children laugh at me as I groaned from impact. I closed my eyes in agony. Not only was I late, but I also made one hell of an entrance. 

"Ms. Daniels! She made it!" One child exclaimed with excitement.

"Ms. Daniels!" A nurse called out.

"Hey, are you okay?" A new voice, a man's voice, said above me. I opened my eyes to see the party clown standing over me. He looked concerned under his painted-on smile. I couldn't help but smile. He wore a very obvious fake green wig, his face was covered in white makeup with blue diamond eyes, big red lips, and a red foam nose. He had on a suit that was too big for him, along with one of the doctor's coats. It was kinda funny.

I smiled up at him as a look of confusion came onto his face as I started to laugh. I grabbed the back of my head as I sat up. "I'm sorry to steal the spotlight." I looked into his eyes. "I just couldn't miss the show." I looked around at the children, putting on a big silly sad face. "Everyone would have been so sad if I missed all this." I laughed at myself as I got onto my feet as quickly as I could, wiping my hands on my black pants. "But I'm here!" I jumped up, doing a power pose as I did, making the kids laugh at my silly noise. "So the show can go on!"

He just awkwardly stared at me for a few seconds, almost frozen, probably not expecting someone to blast in during his show. 

"Ms. Daniels!" I heard one of the kids say behind me, I turned around to see a little girl, Sally, was holding one of my shoes. I gasped excitingly, "Oh thank you!" I gently took the shoe from her and put it back on my foot. I pretended to scratch my head, looking around the room for my other shoe. "Now where is my other shoe?" I hopped around dramatically, as I looked for my 'lost' shoe. The children all jumped, pointing and shouting that my shoe was on the other side of the clown. "I just can't find it."

"Cinderella!" I heard from my side, as I turned to see the clown kneeing on the floor on one knee, with my shoe in his hand. "I believe you lost your shoe." His smiled widen, as the little girls in the room swooned and awed over the gesture.

I gasped loudly and turned to one of the other children, Robert, and loudly whispered to him. "Do you think that's my shoe?" He was shy and nodded at me. I hopped over to the clown and tried to reach for my shoe, but he pulled it back from me. He motioned with his hands that he wanted my foot to put it on. I blushed for real, something I didn't embellish. I raised my foot up to him, as he grabbed my ankle and slipped my shoe on for me. 

The children and staffed clapped and wooed, and I held my face, mostly hiding my blush. I heard a song come on over the speakers of the room.

♪You are my sunshine, my only sunshine~♪

"You make me happy! When skies are gray!" I loudly sang and clapped as the clown started to dance around the room. I danced my way over to an open chair and pulled one of the children, Billy, onto my lap. We watched, clapped and sang along with the clown as he did a wonderful job. 

After the program had come to an end, the staff and I helped all the children make to their rooms as the clown hung around and made some of the children remaining laugh a bit more. I smiled at him, as the children ran away giggling. I walked up to him, as he stood up to greet me.

"Thank you for coming today. The children really enjoy laughing with someone who isn't me for a change." I laughed at myself, thinking what I said was funny. He chuckled a bit, looking awkward once it was just to two of us. 

"Anytime. I-I...um...love working with children." He stuttered, rubbing his hands together.

"You're not just saying that, are you?" I teased him, but it backfired when his eyes grew wide and a panicked look came onto his face. 

"NO! No, I mean it!" He yelled out before lowering his voice, to a room appropriate tone. "It's the best part of the job." He went back to be awkwardly nervous again. "Making them laugh."

"They're so easy, too." I joked, starting to feel awkward myself. I shifted from leg to leg, looking anywhere but him. "Well, I better get back to work." I pointed behind me, even though the door I need to leave through was behind him. 

I turned and walked away, "COFFEE!" He shouted out as I was a few feet away from him. I jumped at the volume, spinning back around to face him. He looked like he was holding himself together, his hand over his mouth, to which I almost heard the sounds of giggles come from him.

"E-excuse me?" I asked as I held my place, watching the clown having a self struggle with himself. After a few moments of tense silence between us, he finally let go of his mouth. 

"Would you like to go get coffee?" He said it so fast, I almost missed what he said. I looked around, looking to see if anyone else was around. Surely he wasn't asking me. I finally turned back to him and pointed at myself. He nodded, reassuring he did ask me.

"Ummm.... right now?" I lifted up my arm, pulling back my long white sleeve to check the time. 4:52, I should have left work an hour ago, but I still had some budgets I needed to figure out. "I can't right now, but maybe in an hour. How about 6?"

He looked dumbfounded at my response, surprised with my answer. "Y-Yeah, t-that's fine. That's great. 6 o'clock. Gives me time to ...." He pulled at his clothes, before nervously chuckling. 

"OK. I'll meet you in the lobby in an hour." I smiled and turned back around to walk away but I remember an important piece of important I forgot to get from him. I spin back around again. "My name is Sandra by the way."

"Arthur."

"See you in an hour....Arthur." I smiled, testing out his name as I continued walking away from him, but decided to turn back around and walk past him. "I need to go this way," I whispered and hurried out the doorway, trying not to show him my flushed face. He chuckled as I made my way down the corridor.