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diff --git a/59418-0.txt b/59418-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2110621 --- /dev/null +++ b/59418-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,615 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59418 *** + + + + + + + + + + + + + The Happy Clown + + BY ALICE ELEANOR JONES + + _This was a century of peace, plethora and + perfection, and little Steven was a misfit, + a nonconformist, who hated perfection. + He had to learn the hard way...._ + + [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from + Worlds of If Science Fiction, December 1955. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that + the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] + + +Steven Russell was born a misfit, a nonconformist, and for the first +five years of his life he made himself and his parents extremely +unhappy. The twenty-first century was perfect, and this inexplicable +child did not like perfection. + +The first trouble arose over his food. His mother did not nurse +him, since the doctors had proved that Baby-Lac, and the soft +rainbow-colored plastic containers in which it was warmed and offered, +were both a vast improvement on nature. Steven drank the Baby-Lac, but +though it was hard to credit in so young a child, sometimes his face +wore an expression of pure distaste. + +A little later he rejected the Baby Oatsies and Fruitsies and Meatsies, +and his large half-focused eyes wept at the jolly pictures on the +jarsies. He disliked his plastic dish made like a curled-up Jolly +Kitten, and his spoon with the Happy Clown's head on the handle. He +turned his face away determinedly and began to pine, reducing his +mother to tears and his father to frightened anger. + +The doctor said cheerily, "There's nothing the matter with him. He'll +eat when he gets hungry enough," and Steven did, to a degree, but not +as if he enjoyed it. + +One day when he was nearly a year old, his mother carried his Kiddie +Korner with the Dancing Dogsies on the pad into her bedroom, put him in +it, and began to take things out of the bottom bureau drawer. They were +old things, and Harriet Russell was ashamed of them. She had said more +than once to her husband Richard, only half joking, "I couldn't give +them away, and I'd be ashamed for anybody to see them in our trash!" +They were old silver, knives and forks and spoons that looked like what +they were, unadorned, and a child's plain silver dish and cup, and one +small spoon with a useful curly handle. They had belonged to Harriet's +great-grandmother. Once a year Harriet took the things out and polished +them and furtively put them back. + +This year Steven cried, "Ma!" stretching out his hands toward the +silver and uttering a string of determined sounds which were perfectly +clear to his mother. She smiled at him lovingly but shook her head. +"No, Stevie. Mumsie's precious baby doesn't want those nasty old +things, no he doesn't! Play with your Happy Clown, sweetheart." + +Steven's face got red, and he squeezed his eyes shut, opened his mouth +and howled until his mother passed him the dish and cup and curly +spoon to play with. At meal-time he would not be parted from them, and +Harriet had to put away the plastic dish and spoon. Thereafter, for the +sake of the container, he tolerated the thing contained, and thrived +and grew fat. + +Steven did not like his Rockabye Crib, that joggled him gently and sang +him songs about the Happy Clown all night long; and he howled until +they turned it off. He was a clean boy, and to his mother's amazement +trained himself to be dry day and night by the age of fourteen months, +without the aid of the Singing Toidey or the Happy Clown Alarm; so she +bought him a Little Folks Youth Bed, with a built-in joggler, and Happy +Clowns on the corners, and a television set in the footboard. It was a +smaller copy of his parents' bed, even to the Happy Clowns. Steven did +not like that either, and if his parents persisted in turning the bed +on after he had learned to turn it off, he climbed out and slept on the +floor. + +Harriet said worriedly to her husband, "I don't know what could be the +matter with him. Dickie, he's peculiar!" + +Richard tried to comfort her. "Never mind, Harry, he'll outgrow it." + + * * * * * + +Steven did not outgrow it. When he became too big for the curly spoon +and dish and cup he demanded a knife and fork and spoon from the bureau +drawer and ate his meals from the plainest dish he could find. He ate +them with his back stubbornly turned to the television set, away from +the morning cartoons and the noontime Kiddies' Lunch Club and the +evening Happy Clown. + +The Happy Clown had been an American institution for thirty years. He +was on television for an hour every night at dinner time, with puppets +and movies and live singers and dancers and his own inimitable brand +of philosophy and humor. Everybody loved the Happy Clown. He had been +several different actors in thirty years, but his makeup never changed: +the beaming face drawn in vivid colors, the rotund body that shook when +he laughed like a bowlful of Jellsies, and the chuckling infectious +laugh. The Happy Clown was always so cheerful and folksy and sincere. +He believed passionately in all the products he instructed his viewers +to buy, and one was entirely certain that he used them all himself. + +He gave one much more than advertising, though. Some of his nightly +gems of wisdom (he called them nuggets) were really wonderful; they +made one think. A favorite nugget, which people were always writing +in and asking him to repeat, went like this: "We're all alike inside, +folks, and we ought to be all alike outside." The Happy Clown's +viewers were not children and adults, they were kiddies and folks. + +After the Happy Clown went off the air the happy kiddies went to bed, +to lie for a while looking at the Jolly Kitten and the Dancing Dogsie, +until, lulled by the joggler, they went gently to sleep. After that +came the cowboys and spacemen, carryovers for any happy kiddies with +insomnia. For really meaty programs one had to stay up past ten. +Then the spectaculars began, and the quiz shows, and the boxing and +wrestling. + +Steven did not like the Happy Clown or the Jolly Kitten or the +Dancing Dogsie. Sometimes he began to grow interested in the cowboys +or spacemen, but when they stopped in the middle of an adventure to +talk about how they could not possibly rope the steers or shoot the +asteroids without a good breakfast of Cornsies and Choko-Milko, which +everybody ate, just everybody, Steven climbed out of bed and slept on +the floor. + +Steven did not like the records or the talking books, and when he went +to kiddie-garden he viewed the televised lessons with a cold eye. For +some reason which he could not have explained, he wanted to learn to +read, but they would not teach him till he was seven, and so he taught +himself, from the letters on the jarsies. But then there was nothing +to read except the newspapers and the magazines, which he puzzled over +patiently, getting most of the words right after a while. The many +advertisements were easiest; they used pictures and the simplest of +language. + +His parents thought it was very cunning of him to look at the printing +like that, so wisely, as if he could read it! He said once to Harriet, +"I can read it," but she said, "Oh, Stevie, you're teasing Mumsie!" +and looked so frightened at this fresh peculiarity that the child said +gravely, "Yes, teasing." He wished he had a silent book. He knew there +were such things, but there were none at home. There were few silent +books anywhere. There were none in kiddie-garden. + +Steven was not happy in kiddie-garden. The enthusiasm the other kiddies +showed for the lessons appalled him. The kiddies themselves appalled +him. They joined so passionately in the group play, clutching each +other with their hot moist hands, panting and grinning into each +others' faces. They were always clutching and panting and grinning, in +large noisy groups, with large community smiles. They confused him; he +could not tell them apart. Steven retired to a corner and turned his +back, and when they clutched and panted and grinned at him he hit them. + +The kiddie-garden monitor had to report of him to his unhappy parents +that he was uncooperative and anti-social. He would not merge with +the group, he would not acquire the proper attitudes for successful +community living, he would not adjust. Most shocking of all, when the +lesson about the birdsies and beesies was telecast, he not only refused +to participate in the ensuing period of group experimentation, but lost +color and disgraced himself by being sick in his corner. It was a +painful interview. At the end of it the monitor recommended the clinic. +Richard appreciated her delicacy. The clinic would be less expensive +than private psychiatry, and after all, the manager of a supermarket +was no millionaire. + +Harriet said to Richard when they were alone, "Dickie, he isn't +outgrowing it, he's getting worse! What are we going to do?" It was a +special tragedy, since Harriet was unable to have any more kiddies, and +if this one turned out wrong ... + +Richard said firmly, "We'll take him to the clinic. They'll know what +to do." + + * * * * * + +The first thing they did to Steven was to talk to him. The psychiatrist +made him lie down on a foam rubber couch, kiddies' model, with the +Happy Clown motif on the slip-cover, and said with a beaming face, +"Now, Stevie, what seems to be the trouble?" + +The boy turned his head away from the psychiatrist's shining teeth and +said, "My name's not Stevie. It's Steven." He was a thin little boy, +rather undersized. The baby fat had melted away fast when he began +to be exposed to kiddie-garden. He had dark hair and big eyes and an +uncommonly precise way of speaking for a child of five. + +The psychiatrist said, "Oh, but we're going to be friends, Stevie, +and friends always use nicknames, don't they? My name's William, but +everybody calls me Willie. You can call me Uncle Willie." + +The boy said politely, "I'd rather not, please." + +The doctor was undismayed. "I want to help you. You believe that, don't +you, Stevie?" + +The child said, "Steven. Do I have to lie down?" + +The doctor said agreeably, "It's more usual to lie down, but you may +sit up if you want to. Why don't you like kiddie-garden, Steven?" + +The boy sat up and regarded him warily. The doctor had a kind face, a +really kind face in spite of all those shining teeth, and Steven was +only five years old, after all, and there was nobody to talk to, and he +was desperately unhappy. Perhaps.... He said, "You'll tell them." + +The doctor shook his head. "Nothing goes farther than this room, +Stevie--Steven." + +The child leaned forward, pressing his knees together, hugging himself +with his arms, bowing his head. His position was almost foetal. He +said, "I'm never by myself. They never let me be by myself." + +The psychiatrist said reasonably, "But nobody can live by himself, +Stevie." He had apparently forgotten Steven, and the boy did not +correct him again. "You have to learn to live with other people, to +work and play with them, to know them, and the only way you can learn +is by being with them. When you can't be with them personally, there's +always television. That's how you learn, Stevie. You can't be by +yourself." + +The boy looked up and said starkly, "Never?" + +The gleaming teeth showed. "But why should you want to?" + +Steven said, "I don't know." + +The doctor said, slowly and with emphasis, "Stevie, long before you +were born the world was a very bad place. There were wars all the time. +Do you know why?" + +The boy shook his head. + +"It was because people were different from each other, and didn't +understand each other, and didn't know each other. They had to learn +how to be alike, and understand, and know, so that they would be able +to live together. They learned in many ways, Stevie. One way was by +visiting each other--you've heard about the visitors who come from--" + +Steven said, "You mean the Happy Tours." + +"Yes. When you're twelve years old you can go on a Happy Tour. Won't +that be fun?" + +Steven said, "If I could go alone." + +The doctor looked at him sharply. "But you can't. Try to understand, +Stevie, you can't. Now tell me--why don't you like to be with other +people?" + +Steven said, "All the time--not all the _time_." + +The doctor repeated patiently, "Why?" + +Steven looked at the doctor and said a very strange thing. "They touch +me." He seemed to shrink into himself. "Not just with their hands." + +The doctor shook his head sadly. "Of course they do, that's just--well, +maybe you're too young to understand." + +The interview went on for quite a while, and at the end of it Steven +was given a series of tests which took a week. The psychiatrist had +not told the truth; what the boy said, during the first interview and +all the tests, was fully recorded on concealed machines. The complete +transcript made a fat dossier in the office of the Clinic Director. + +At the end of the tests the Director said seriously to Steven's +parents, "I'll be frank with you. You have a brilliant kiddie +here--right now he has the intelligence of a twelve-year-old--but +brilliance has to be channeled in the right direction. Just now--well, +frankly, it's channeled in the wrong direction. We'll give it a year or +so, and then if things don't clear up I'm afraid we'll have to correct +him." + +Richard said through dry lips, "You mean a Steyner?" + +The Director nodded. "The only thing." + +Harriet shuddered and began to cry. "But there's never been anything +like that in our family! The disgrace--oh, Dickie, it would kill me!" + +The Director said kindly, "There's no disgrace, Mrs. Russell. +That's a mistaken idea many people have. These things happen +occasionally--nobody knows why--and there's absolutely no disgrace in a +Steyner. Nothing is altered but the personality, and afterward you have +a happy normal kiddie who hardly remembers that anything was ever wrong +with him. Naturally nobody ever mentions it.... But there's no hurry; +in the case of a kiddie we can wait a while. Bring Stevie in once a +week; we'll try therapy first." + +Being, as the Director had said, a brilliant kiddie, Steven soon +understood much of what was kept from him. It did not take him long +to learn what was making his Dadsie look stern and white and what was +making his Mumsie cry. He loved his parents and did not want them to be +unhappy, and he certainly did not want to have his head cut open, and +so he began to act. Even at five, Steven discovered in himself a fine +talent for acting. He began to conform, to adjust, to merge. He became +social and cooperative and acquired the proper attitudes for successful +community living. He gave up the old silver voluntarily, he accepted +the Youth Bed, he looked at the Happy Clown, and he did much better in +kiddie-garden. He even joined in the group experimentation and was not +sick any more, though he could not keep himself from losing color. + +They were pleased with him at the clinic and after a few months +discharged him. By the time Steven was twelve and had made the Happy +Tour and joined the Happy Scouts and had a happy affair, involving +experimentation, with a neighbor's daughter, Harriet and Richard ceased +to worry about him. If sometimes he felt so tightly strung-up that a +storm of tears was his only relief, he kept the tears quiet. + + * * * * * + +He was graduated from high school at sixteen and from college at +twenty, having read all he could of the silent books in the scant high +school library and the more ample university one, and having wisely +elected to appear more stupid than he was. Even his I.Q. was now +judged to be only slightly above normal. He left college with honors, +popularity and a reputation as an actor. He took the lead in all the +dramatic club plays, having particular success in the reproduction +of a Happy Clown program. Steven, of course, was the Happy Clown. He +enrolled at once in the New York School of Television Arts, and his +mother cried when he left home to live in the School dormitory. + +Steven did well at Television Arts, soon taking more leads than was +customary in School productions, which were organized on a strictly +repertory basis. He did not stay to graduate, being snatched away in +his first year by a talent scout for a popular daytime serial, "The +Happy Life." + +"The Happy Life" recounted the trials of a young physician, too +beautiful for his own good, who became involved in endless romantic +complications. Steven was given the lead, the preceding actor having +moved up to a job as understudy for the Jolly Kitten, and was an +immediate success. For one thing he looked the part. He was singularly +handsome in a lean dark-browed way and did not need flattering makeup +or special camera angles. He had a deep vibrant voice and perfect +timing. He could say, "Darling, this is tearing me to pieces!" with +precisely the right intonation, and let tears come into his magnificent +eyes, and make his jaw muscles jump appealingly, and hold the pose +easily for the five minutes between the ten-minute pitch for Marquis +cigarettes which constituted one episode of "The Happy Life." His fan +mail was prodigious. + +If Steven had moments of bewilderment, of self-loathing, of despair, +when the tears were real and the jaw muscles jumped to keep the mouth +from screaming, no one in the Happy Young Men's dormitory where he +slept ever knew it. + +He managed his life well enough. He had a few affairs with girls, it +was expected of one, and he did not have to work very hard at it since +they always threw themselves at him; and he got along well with other +young men, who forgave him for being so handsome because he did not +work at it except on camera; but he was lonely. Surrounded by people, +intruded and trespassed upon, continually touched in ways other than +physical, he was yet lonely. + + * * * * * + +During his life he had met a few other nonconformists, shy, like him, +wary of revealing themselves, but something always seemed to happen +to them. Some were miserable being nonconformists and asked pitifully +for the Steyner, some were detected, as Steven had been, and some +were unfortunately surprised in hospitals. Under the anesthetic they +sometimes talked, and then, if they were adults, they were immediately +corrected by means of Steyner's lobotomy. It had been learned that +adults did not respond to therapy. + +There was never any organization, any underground, of misfits. An +underground presupposes injustice to be fought, cruelty to be resisted, +and there was no injustice and no cruelty. The mass of people were +kind, and their leaders, duly and fairly elected, were kind. They +all sincerely believed in the gospel of efficiency and conformity +and kindness. It had made the world a wonderful place to live in, +full of wonderful things to make and buy and consume (all wonderfully +advertised), and if one were a misfit and the doctors found it out and +gave one a Steyner, it was only to make one happy, so that one could +appreciate what a wonderful world it was. + +Steven met no nonconformists at the School of Television Arts, and none +while he was acting in "The Happy Life" until Denise Cottrell joined +the cast. Denise--called Denny, of course--was a pleasantly plain young +woman with a whimsical face which photographed pretty, and remarkable +dark blue eyes. It was her eyes which first made Steven wonder. They +mirrored his own hope, and longing, and the desperate loneliness of the +exile. + +For two months they were together as often as they could be, talking +intellectual treason in public under cover of conventional faces, +and talking intellectual treason in private with excitement and +laughter and sometimes tears--falling in love. They planned, after +much discussion, to be married and to bring up a dozen clever rebel +children. Denise said soberly, "They'd better be clever, because +they'll have to learn to hide." + +They made love in Denise's apartment when her roommate +Pauline--Polly--was out, as awkwardly as if there had never been any +group experimentation or happy affairs. Denise said wonderingly, "When +you really love someone it's all new. Isn't that strange?" and Steven +said, kissing her, "No, not strange at all." + +He took her to meet his family--Denise's family lived three thousand +miles away--and she behaved with such perfect decorum and charm that +Richard and Harriet were delighted and as eager as Steven for the +wedding. Steven had agreed reluctantly to put it off until Denise +had a chance to introduce him to her parents; they were coming East +at Christmas. She laughed over it and said, "I'm being terribly +conventional, darling, but that's one convention I like." + + * * * * * + +While they waited, Steven's agent secured a really unprecedented +opportunity for so young and relatively untried an actor. The current +Happy Clown was unhappily retiring, by reason of age and infirmity, and +Steven's agent arranged a tryout for the part. He said, "Give it all +you got, kid; it's the chance of the century." + +Steven said, "Sure, Joey," and allowed his sensitive face to register +all the proper emotions. Actually his emotions were, in the vernacular +of a previous century, mixed. He loathed the whole concept of the Happy +Clown--but there was money in it, and Steven was not rebel enough to +despise money. With money he could retire early, go away somewhere with +Denise, to some country place where they could be relatively free of +pressure. + +Over staggering competition he got the part. He called Denise up at +once from a booth at the studio to tell her. Polly answered the phone, +looking pale and frightened over the viewer, and said rapidly, "Oh, +Stevie, I've been trying to get you for an hour. Denny's sick. They +took her to the hospital!" + +Steven sat back against the hard wall of the booth, feeling cold, the +receiver slack in his hand. He said, "What's the matter with her? Which +hospital?" + +"Ap-pendicitis. Happy Hour." Polly began to cry. "Oh, Stevie, I feel +so--" + +"I'll go right over." He cut her off abruptly and went. + +The doctors caught Denise's appendix in time to avoid the necessary but +rarely fatal complications ... but under the anesthetic she talked, +revealing enough about her opinion of television, and the Happy Clown +cult, and the state of society in general, to cause her doctors to +raise their eyebrows pityingly and perform the Steyner at once. While +Steven sat unknowing in the waiting room, smoking a full pack of +Marquis cigarettes, the thing was done. + +At last the doctor came out to him and said what was always said in +such cases. "It was necessary to do something--you understand, no +mention--" and for a moment Steven felt so ill that he was grateful +for the little ampoule the doctor broke and held under his nose. They +always carried those when they had to give news of a Steyner to +relatives or sweethearts or friends. + +The doctor said, "All right now? Good .... You'll be careful, of +course. She may be conscious for a minute; there's no harm in it yet, +she won't move or touch the--" + +Steven said, "I'll be careful." + +He was still feeling ill when they let him in to see Denise. He sat +down beside her bed and spoke to her urgently. "Denise, talk to me. +Please, Denise!" + +She opened her eyes, looked at him drowsily and smiled. "Oh, Stevie, +I'm so glad you came. I've been wanting you, darling." + +Steven said, "Denise--" + +She frowned. "Why do you call me that? Call me Denny. Did you get the +part, darling?" + +He drew back a little. "Yes, I got it." + +She gave him a radiant smile. "That's wonderful! I'm so proud of you, +Stevie." She slept again. + +That night in the HYM dormitory Steven did not sleep. He lay quiet, +tense, hoping for the relief of tears, but it did not come. + + * * * * * + +Steven went to see Denise every day though after the first time she +was not awake to know him. The doctors were keeping her under sedation +until the head bandage could be removed. So far as Denise was to +know, she had gone to the hospital simply for a rather protracted +appendectomy. Looking at her, Steven knew that he could never leave +her. He had loved her completely; he would love her now with as much of +himself as she would need or understand. + +For a while he waited to be kindly questioned, to be thoroughly +examined, to be tenderly given the shot in the arm and to awake like +her, but nobody came. Denise had apparently said nothing about him. +Some censor or other--perhaps it was the censor of love--had kept her +from even saying his name. + +For a while Steven considered confessing to somebody that he was +a--what?--an unacceptable member of society. Then they would make him +like Denise. He shuddered. Did he really want to be like Denise? Some +stubborn pride in him refused it. + +When Denise left the hospital for the hotel where she would stay until +the wedding, Steven was more gentle with her than ever, kinder and +more loving. He made her very happy. He made love to her again, and it +was like loving a ghost--no, it was like loving a fine beautiful body +without the ghost, without the spirit. He returned to the HYM to lie +sleepless amid the breathings and mutterings of the other young men, +turning restlessly in his bed, feeling oppressed, tormented, strung on +wires. + +He rehearsed feverishly for the part of the Happy Clown, and because he +was a fine craftsman and a conscientious artist he continued to give +it all he had. The sponsors were pleased. A week before Christmas the +current Happy Clown retired and hobbled off to a nursing home. There +was no fanfare--the public was not to realize that the Happy Clown was +mortal--and Steven took over with no visible change. For five days he +played the part to perfection. + +On the sixth day he performed as usual, perhaps a little better. His +commercials had a special fervor, and the sponsors exchanged happy +glances. Denise was sitting in the booth with them; she smiled at +Steven lovingly through the glass. + +Steven was running a little fast tonight. The engineer made stretching +motions with his hands to slow him down, but he used up all his +material, even the nugget, with three minutes to spare. Then he said, +"All right, folks, now I have a special treat for you," and moved +quickly to the center mike. Before the sponsors, or the engineers, or +the studio audience, or anybody in the whole American nation knew what +was happening, he began rapidly to talk. + +He said, "Are you all happy? You are, aren't you?--everybody's happy, +because you're all sheep! All sheep, in a nice safe pasture. All +alike--you eat alike and dress alike and think alike. If any of you has +an original thought you'd better suppress it, or they'll cut it out of +you with a knife." He leaned forward and made a horrible face at the +camera. Under the jolly makeup and the artful padding, his mouth was +shockingly twisted, and tears were running out of his eyes. "A long +sharp knife, folks!" He paused momentarily to recover his voice, which +had begun to shake. "Go on being happy, go on being sheep. Wear the +clothesies, and eat the foodsies, and don't dare think! Me--I'd rather +be dead, and damned, and in hell!" + +Fortunately nobody heard the last three sentences. The paralyzed +engineer had recovered in time to cut him off during the pause, and +had signalled the stagehand to draw the curtain and the sound man to +play the Happy Clown sign-off record--loud. Steven finished himself +thoroughly, however, by repeating the same sentiments, with some others +he happened to think of, to Denise and the sponsors, when they all came +pouring out of the booth. Then he collapsed. + + * * * * * + +Steven's Steyner was a complete success. He recovered from it a +subdued, agreeable and thoroughly conventional young man, who had the +impression that he had suffered a nervous breakdown. He was discharged +from the Happy Hour at the end of January, innocently leaving behind +him the broken hearts of three nurses and one female physician, and +went home to his parents. During his convalescence they were patient +with him and passionately kind. In spite of the disgrace they felt, a +disgrace that would never be mentioned, they loved him even better than +before, because now he was irrevocably like them. + +Denise was lost to him. The outburst in the studio, and the Steyner, +and the loss of the Happy Clown part were cumulatively too much for +her. She broke the engagement and was heard to say that Stevie Russell +had proved himself an absolute fool. He was miserable over it, though +he had only a hazy idea of what he had done or why Denny should +suddenly be so unkind to him. + +The Happy Clown incident had passed off well--immediately after +it occurred, a powerful battery of comedians, including the Jolly +Kitten and the Dancing Dogsie, forgetting rivalries to rally 'round +in a crisis, went on the air to insure that it passed off well. They +made certain that every viewer should regard the whole thing as a +tremendously funny if rather mystifying joke. The viewers fell in with +this opinion easily and laughed about the sheep joke a good deal, +admiring the Happy Clown's sense of humor--a little sharp, to be sure, +not so folksy and down-to-earth as usual, but the Happy Clown could do +no wrong. They said to each other, "He laughed till he cried, did you +notice? So did I!" For a while teenagers addressed each other as, "Hi, +sheep!" (girls were, "Hi, lamb!"), and a novelty company in Des Moines +made a quick killing with scatter pins fashioned like sheep and/or +lambs. + +But, around the studios Steven was dead. Steyner or no Steyner--and +of course that part of it was never openly discussed--sponsors had +long memories, and the consensus seemed to be that it was best to +let sleeping sheep lie. Steven did not care. He no longer had any +particular desire to be an actor. + +Steven went to work in his father's supermarket and was happy among +the shelves of Oatsies and Cornsies and Jellsies. He got over Denise +after a while and met a girl named Frances--Franny--whom he loved and +who loved him. They were married in the summer and had a little house +with as much furniture in it as they could afford. The first thing they +bought was a television set. After all, as Stevie said, he would not +want to miss the Happy Clown. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Happy Clown, by Alice Eleanor Jones + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59418 *** |