The two Masks

Every evening down in the little town of Eze, kids gathered around the fountain. Mime brought curiosity among everyone. His soft movements of quietness and silence called people without actually speaking. Mime wore a thick pair of black gloves and stripes all over his clothing, with makeup to never show his true skin. He never missed an evening by the fountain. Nobody knew where he came from or if he had a family to come home to. 

“Mr? Do you have a home here in Eze?” the kids would say.

He would look, without a word, without a smile. You would never know. 

The kids gathered around the fountain just as they always had, when the sun began to set. 

It was dark. Mime didn’t come. The children waited wondering where he could be. They sat until their parents cried out

“Come in! It is past your bedtime.” 

The sun had rolled back up and the town gathered by the fountain frantically asking many questions.

“Where was our Mime?” said a young lady.

“I couldn't sleep all night without seeing his stripes and sad face of sorrow.” said another little boy.

“Listen up everyone!” It was Mayor Milton. “Mime was gone yesterday, yes, and I apologize to all of you for the inconvenience! Our police are locating where he could possibly be so we can give our little ones the show they deserve everyday.”

“Is he hurt? Is he okay? He never told us anything?” cried out the same little boy. 

“We can’t be sure I’m-” Mayor Milton was cut off by a honk. A big red balloon shot by everyone and back towards a large figure coming down the hill towards the fountain. Clown was his name, with a cute big nose and colorful pantaloons with a big grin across his white pasted face. 

“Hello town of Eze! I am Clown!”

he said.

With looks of confusion shooting across everyone they slowly surrounded him by the fountain.

“Take a seat little ones, have a seat.” he said as the children yet again sat on their bottoms, in the rise of sunrise.

Balloons, baboons, bananas, birds, bubbles and butterflies spruced from Clown’s sack. The children were puzzled, this was new to them. Color spread and laughter came out of Clown. Clown could talk.

To the children, this wasn’t right. 

“Clown, where do you live?”, cried the kids pausing the show. They didn’t expect an answer.

“Just up the green glittering hills, at the peak in a small red house!” he exclaimed “Come visit anytime to see just what other tricks up my sleeve I have!”

“And a family?” a little girl chimed in.

The clown paused, but then spoke again “Yes, my wife!” 

He continued on his show. Clown answered every little boy's and girl's questions, with many words, with a great big smile. And when the sun began to set, no children came out, and Mime never came. 

And when the sun began to set, no children came out, and Mime never came. 

Again, morning after morning, Clown continued his shows. Rounding all the children up, singing songs while making them dance and laugh. All the kids after their schooling ran up the green glittering hills to see Clown at his house.

Colorful tweeties and song birds would fly around his house. The air of the cozy home smelt of lavenders and mint leaves. Creatures of all sorts walked the floors. The children of Eze enjoyed Clown's house very much. They came almost everyday. The children could play around the whole house except the purple door that hid a magical rose garden that no one could walk through except Clown and his wife. 

Clown always came to perform and the kids of Eze seemed to not even peep a thought in their brain about where Mime was. Nobody ever found out. Not the mayor, not the police, not the fortune lady, nobody.

The month of December sprung in and all the children couldn’t wait for Christmas to come by. Decorations came about and snow would fall each morning when Clown performed. The town adored Clown. They always made sure he was fed and had a nice warm coat and meals to take home each and every day. 

On the 12th of December, Clown performed one more show. That evening of the 12th, the sun began to set.

 Mime came to the fountain. 

No children came to see him perform. No children came to hear, nothing. None. 

Mime looked around. All the homes were dimly lit, and all the children were sound asleep. He waited until the moon went down. A street sweeper came by.

“Heyo! Mime, It's been a minute.” said the scrobby streetcleaner.

“The kids? Where is everyone? I am back? Where are they?” questioned Mime.

“Listen, they forgot about you. Clown keeps them satisfied. Eze doesn’t need you here anymore. Sorry bud.” he said while cackling.“Sounds like a cheapshow, where is this Clown anyways?” muttered Mime.

“He comes every morning, you can check him out if you want. Pretty kind man if I do say so myself.” his words faded as he continued on the road. 

Mime couldn't comprehend what was happening. Why hadn’t the kids waited for him to come back? He needed to leave, but he came back, oh yes he came back. 

So the Mime waited behind the big brown building around the corner of the fountain till morning. The sun rose, and so did Mime’s eyes. He saw a side of Eze that he had never seen before. The bells that rang each morning, how the children ran out of their houses before school, and instead of going straight there, they came to the round fountain and sat down just as they had done in the evening for him. 

“Goodmorning everyone!”, Clown proclaimed with a big fat smile on his face. Mime could feel his fury and anger bury over him. Clown took his spot and he needed it back.

“Gather around every little and big!” 

His show went on just as it always had, with the bees, and butterflies, baboons and balloons! 

Pop, goes a ballon. The kids turn around. They spot the white painted face with stripes. 

The children squint their eyes to look, and just before they can see him, he rushes behind the wall. The show went on and yet, Mime still stayed for every minute of it. As the school bells rang, and the rush of kids went off to school, Clown packed up his sack, and headed on up toward the green glittering hill. Mime followed just 10 feet behind, hovering the light grass so he wouldn't startle Clown. When the sun began to set, they had finally reached Clowns house. Mime watched Clown enter his home.  Just as Clown began to settle down in his house, a loud ding from the doorbell ran across the home.

“Well, if it isn’t the Clown himself?” said Mime as he approached the doorsteps. 

“Indeed it is, is there anything I can help you with?” asked Clown.

“Sure is. See, the kids of Eze used to come to my shows, and always want me. But then I leave for just a tad, and you decide to bring ur big nose here and take my visitation away. So how about a couple hundred dollars so I could get my crowd going again and you can leave.” said Mime.

“No- I don’t think its a really big deal you know,” said Clown as he saw the glittering eyes of the children approaching the house, “the kids are coming, quick, come into here and lets just discuss this later can we?” Clown then yanked Mimes slim body through the doorway into the room where the purple door was and shut it behind him as he went to greet the kids.

Mime sat in the dimly lit room as he could hear the running of children pass by begging to go into the rose garden. But this was no rose garden. Mime walked closer toward a lady with skin as pale as the moon and a body as thin as a noodle. She looked weak, sick and tired. With lavender oils surrounding her bed, and many, many paintings of roses around her. Mime just sat there and stared as she slept, wondering just who it could be.

Mime knew that him becoming jealous wasn't the key to his answer. So Mime just sat and smiled, with tears rolling down his eyes telling Clown, “I didn't mean harm. I just miss my kids. I was separated out here from war, and after it ended, I was so ready to come home. Until I got a letter from my eldest daughter telling me that my wife had been remarried and left our hometown and brought the kids with her. I lost all communication with anyone of them. And to this day I don't know where to start to look. I am just at a loss of words.” They sat there for a moment, both reflecting on what just happened. Clown then asked, 

“So where did you go?”

“I finally got the thought to reach out to my daughter once again. Maybe hoping I'd get some sort of mail back. So to my home below the green glittering hills I went. And I wrote and waited. A month went by, and then two. Nothing. So that's when I came back up the hill, knowing that I would have to entertain kids for the rest of my life, who weren't my own.” said Mime. Again they sat there for a moment until Clown looked at Mime and said, 

“I think we just have to accept our struggles, and go on with the show.”

So they did, and Mime was welcome to stay with Clown at his house. The children that coming morning sat at the fountain. But Clown never came. Mime helped Clown around the house with his wife, and they would practice their grand performance for many days just before the Christmas afternoon. 

Christmas came, and the pair was ready. Clown collected his sack, and Mime rolled on his gloves and they opened the purple door which led them out of the house. 

When they arrived, all the little kids had finished opening gifts and were drinking loads of eggnogs and plates of roast beef. As they came outside to play with their new toys, they spotted Clown and Mime, together. The town's bell rang, marking the beginning of PM. In unison the pair said,

“Town, it is time for our show! We have been preparing for this big moment so we hope you enjoy it!”

“NO,” cried out a boy, “You left us, we missed our shows. First Mime, now you. I say, your shows are about to end!” The town collectively agreed and the adults brought out weapons of their own.

“You betrayed our children, they couldn't sleep. Besides, what better was there to do in your lives? It's time for you two to go.” said the Mayor as the town surrounded them in a circle.

Everyone yelled, the children charged by the hundreds, and the families ran out too.Mime and Clown knew nothing but to run, so they tried but fate took the best of them. 

The town was still, a mess was left everywhere. 

And Mime and Clown were kept right at the top of the town’s Christmas tree, just behind the fountain.