The Man in the
Paper Mache Hat
by
Tor Richardson
Copyright 2012 © Tor Richardson
Published by Grey Cat Press
Smashwords Edition
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Table of Contents
The Man in the Paper Mache Hat
Other Titles by Tor Richardson
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Paper Mache Hat
by
Tor Richardson
The slow ticks of a grandfather clock echoed across the bank lobby as Percival Jones knelt down on the hard marble floor and clasped his hands behind his head. He didn't mind that the floor hadn't been recently polished. He didn't mind that the knees of his blue pinstripe suit would never again be the same. He didn't even mind that the frustrated man in the grubby clothes and the black ski mask standing with his back to the teller windows was seriously thinking about shooting him in the head.
In the last moments of his very long life, Percival's one regret was that he would die wearing a paper mache hat that nobody else could possibly see or understand.
Tick.
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Paper mache hats didn't just come in any old dime store—not real paper mache hats. Each was hand crafted in the early days of elementary school by a student just learning not to eat the paste... long before doting parents would ever conceive that their precious Johnny or Sally had been exposed to the harsh realities of life.
Percival was in fine creative form on the morning he made his. He'd worked diligently to create something truly special. He'd poured himself into his task, minding his own business while dragging strips of newspaper though the thin white paste in the cracked ceramic bowl and then draping the damp strips across the top of a yellow balloon at a table in the back of his classroom.
Percival Jones had made many things in art class. He liked art the best. It wasn't that he liked working with his hands, though. Rather, he enjoyed the way that art class let him get up from his desk and migrate to the back of the room, where there was never any trace of Billy Brown, the classroom bully.
Until the day he made his hat, Percival had no idea how Billy Brown spent his time during art class. Billy always teamed up with Tom Henderson and built projects in the front of the room. Percival had no idea what those projects might have been, but he didn't really care. As long as they were up front and he was out back, he could make his hats in peace and relax for a full hour before Mrs. Smith would call them back to their seats.
That was one full hour of happiness—one full hour away from Billy's mocking whispers.
On the day that Percival made his hat, however, Mrs. Smith changed the rules of Percival's peaceful little hour away from the class bully. On that particular day, she taken it upon herself to turn Billy into Percival's art partner. Percival Jones suddenly found himself alone with his least favorite person in the entire school way at the back of the classroom, far from any form of adult supervision.
Things couldn't have been worse if he'd forgotten to wear his pants to school, unless perhaps he'd forgotten to wear his underwear, too.
Percival did his best to ignore Billy's gleeful grin, just as he did his best to ignore Billy's spiteful little slurs. In the back of the room, Billy didn't have to be careful. He had no fear of being overheard. Like Percival, he was in fine form. During the first few minutes of their time together, he laughed at Percival's nose, he smirked at the shape of Percival's ears, and he even compared Percival's teeth to those he'd once seen on the north end of a donkey (although he'd used a less polite term for the beast).
After that, he got down to business and started in on Percival's name.
Billy Brown loved to tease everyone about their name.
No kid on the playground could help but become angry when someone started teasing them about their name.
That one endless hour of art class stretched out into an eternity of clicks from the clock ticking on the wall. As he weaved the paper hat together, Percival wished that he could be invisible. As he shaped the contour of its brim, he wondered what someone like Billy Brown might fear. As he continued working, he continued his wondering and his wishing.
It took time, but the hat was eventually done. He set it aside and sat down. The next day when it was dry, Percival tried on his new hat. Not only could nobody see that he was wearing it, but Percival Jones was pleasantly surprised to find that he somehow knew Billy Brown's darkest secret, as well—the one that the school bully truly feared might some day come out.
Billy Brown wasn't really a Billy, after all.
Billy Brown was technically a William.