Saturday's Storyteller: "Russell put the clown make up on to hide the burns."
by Belinda Roddie Russell put the clown make-up on to hide the burns. He had to cake extra white powder on his chin - that was where the scars were the worst. Leave it to his mother to smack him in the face with a still hot frying pan when he was nine. With bubbling egg yolk still around its edges, no less. He had smelled like an omelet the whole time he was in the hospital. He didn't try to convey to anyone the kind of physical and mental pain he endured on a daily basis. People just thought the paint was a quirk. An artistic decision. A way to be himself. Only a select few knew about the kitchen incident - his brother, Joel, was one of them. Joel was two years older. He was also mentally thirty years younger, stuck at a seven-year-old mindset. So he still didn't quite comprehend what had happened, and he never would. He liked the clown make-up, though. It made him laugh and clap his hands with glee. Russell gave Joel warm cereal every morning, just the way he liked it.