The Ugly and Laughing Clown

This took place in the late 1950's. The basement of my aunt and uncle's house was where they lived until they built a house onto the top of the basement. It was large but had very little lighting in it. Which most of the bulbs to the lighting in the ceiling were taken out. And only three worked, one by the steps, the bathroom and the largest room. The lights were turned on by pull strings.

As children we were too short to be able to pull the string to turn on the light. The basement had many small windows around it, but none of them open. The day time playing in the basement one could see okay, with the many windows around it. At night time was very dark.

My younger sister and I had to spend all our summers, when out of school at my aunts house. My cousin Maxie (not her real name) had a nice size big bedroom. In it was lots of stuffed animals and these ugly clowns. I would often beg her to put them away while my sister and I, was staying in her room to sleep at night. She would tell me I was a cry baby just wanting to go home before I was suppose to. No matter how much I ask my mom "why we had to be there every summer?" I never did get an answer to those many questions.

One night shortly after my sister and I were there at my aunts house, my sister woke up and had to go to the bathroom. We had to get up and walk past the shelf, where the clowns were. Down many steps to the dark basement, where the bathroom was. I held onto my sister's hand as we went down the stairs, only a light to show us down the steps. We had to cross over to the other side of the basement, to the bathroom in the dark.

We made it to the bathroom, but while in the bathroom we could hear laughing. My sister is hanging onto my hand really tight. I am trying to be brave. I left the light on in the bathroom, as it showed us to the steps, instead of walking in total darkness. We climbed all the steps and ran back to our cousin's bedroom. On her shelf where the clowns were, one was looking right at us and laughing. We got into bed and covered our heads.

My cousin Maxie woke up and wonder why, the bedroom light was on. "We told her that ugly clown was looking at us and was laughing". She got up and went to that ugly clown, took it off the shelf and threw it onto my sister and I. Making us scream so loudly, our aunt came into the room, to see what was the matter. We told her of the laughing, ugly clown.

So our aunt took the clown out of the room, turned off the light. I am looking at that shelf in the semi darkness and I can hear that clown laughing again. I just covered my head up and got close to my sleeping little sister.

Some days went by and nothing happen. Maxie and my sister and I went to the basement to play, one rainy day. I said "Did you hear that?". Maxie tells me she heard nothing. I said "it's that ugly clown again laughing". She told me I was lying. I asked her what her mom did with the clown? Maxie said she didn't know. She said she has had those clowns, in her room for years and she never seen or heard them laugh.

Awhile later we were outside playing, Maxie, my sister and I. We went to go around the corner of the house, when I stopped abruptly! I came face to face with that clown. My scream was heard across the street. The lady from across the street came over, and so did our aunt from inside the house. Maxie ran into the house. I told my aunt and the lady across the street about the ugly, laughing clown. They made me think I was hearing and seeing things, and all would be fine.

Some time later I was in the basement going to the bathroom, with my little sister. We had the door closed to the bathroom. We could hear Maxie screaming and banging on the door to get in. We let her in and the lights went out. I could hear Maxie scream, my little sister crying for mama and the laughing of the clown. It got nearer and nearer to us. It drowned out the crying and the screaming in the bathroom.

My uncle came into the basement, to see what was going on. He turned on the light by the stairs. His daughter flung herself into, her daddies arms still screaming. Then she said "I was going to come down here and scare the cry babies". "When I got down here near them, I seen the clown off my shelf looking mean and laughing". Our uncle took us all upstairs to their room. "See he said the clown is still there", pointing towards a closet in his bedroom. We all looked and didn't see, any clown in there.

We went to Maxie's room and there sat that ugly, laughing clown. Our uncle ask his wife if she put it back in Maxie's room. She had not. Yet it was there. My aunt took all the clowns off the shelf and burnt them. Told us we have no more problems with them again. My sister and I went home. We told our mom we were not going back to that house again, something was wrong in that house. We never did have to go back again.

I seen Maxie about three years ago at a wedding. I asked "Do you remember those clowns, you use to have when you were young?". Her face turned white, she dropped her glass, which held her drink in it onto the floor. She told me "NEVER to mention about those clowns, or any clown to her again". I learned from Maxie's sister that Maxie's room was closed up and locked. That Maxie and her shared a bedroom. When they moved from that house, Maxie's stuff that was in the room stayed with the house, still with the lock on the door. I am now in my 50's, and to this day still afraid of clowns.