Chapter I

Date: August 1st, 1992; Time: 7:00pm; Location: Nursery of Tommy and Dil Pickles

Tommy was glaring at himself through the mirror on his closet door. He could see little black studs on the sides of his head. Finally, he was getting hair. Although he was hoping that it would turn out purple like his father's, he was still grateful to be getting any hair to begin with. Besides, he knew he could eventually dye it later on in his life.

Didi knelt down to Tommy's level. "What are you smiling about?" she asked him playfully.

"Heh- hewrrrr," he babbled back, pointing to his head.

"Yes!" said Didi in an over exaggerated tone, "You are getting hair! Someone's getting bigger by the minute!"

Tommy felt accomplished. Not only was he getting hair, but he was also getting better at talking to adults.

Didi then lifted him up into his bed. "Just ten more days," she told him, "And you'll be two years old!" She tucked him in and gave him a kiss on the forehead, "Goodnight."

The baby soon drifted off to sleep. He had gotten so used to the sound of Dil's snoring over the past few months that it actually became something he could not fall asleep without. Tommy had a dream about clowns. He loved clowns, and could never understand what Chuckie saw in them that was so frightening. They were bright and colorful, and did funny tricks with bowling pins and unicycles. There was nothing about clowns to be afraid of.

That night, however, Tommy became able to see things from a completely different perspective.

He suddenly woke up. The sound of popcorn popping downstairs always disturbed his sleep. After the noise had stopped, Tommy tried to fall back asleep, but with no luck. His gums were aching in pain from teething, his diaper was wet, and he wanted some of that popcorn.

So he got up out of his bed and left the nursery. Although the hallway was dark, Tommy could make his way through from the light coming up from the first floor. He went down the stairs at a fairly normal pace and decided to jump off of the last few steps. That was always fun.

As he did that, however, the television happened to be showing one of the most horrific sights Tommy had ever seen. He let out an ear-piercing scream upon seeing this. Stu and Didi heard this scream, and immediately jumped off of the couch. Stu turned off the TV while Didi switched the lights on. Didi picked up her sobbing mess of a child in an attempt to calm him down.

"Maybe 'IT' wasn't the best choice," laughed Stu, "You were right, Deed; we should've rented that chick flick you wanted."

"Yeah," she replied, patting Tommy on the back, "I'm pretty sure 'Love Story' was lacking evil clowns."

The baby was emotionally scarred from this experience. From that day forward, clowns were the bane of his existence. Even in his older years, though he would not show it, would get horribly nervous around them with palms soaked from sweat.