Honestly I Witnessed the Making of a Monster

. . . this is just a little costume I whipped up. Ya know, make the
character in the play seem more believable, and all."

I watched in horror as he pulled out a black Dracula cape, a white shirt
with glitter on the collar, and a wide red belt that had obviously been
tailored with scissors to fit him.

"Isn't this shirt great?" he said as he held it up for me to examine. "I dug
it out of the rag bag. Then I put glue on the collar and sprinkled some
silver and gold glitter over the glue. Isn't it just great?" He glanced at his
Batman watch. "Gosh, I'd better hurry or I'll be late for auditions.
Come on. Let's hurry down to the reatroom and I'll change."

Minutes later he was admiring himself in the bathroom mirror. "Isn't this
just great, Andy? Honest. Tell me the truth. Don't you think this was a
great idea for me to audition for a part in the play? You've been such a
good friend since I moved here. Really, I'm not kidding. You're already
my best friend."

My lips kind of stuck to my teeth as I tried to move them into
something that might resemble a smile. But it was the best I could
manage, considering my whole body was nearly paralyzed by what I
was looking at.

"You know you probably should have auditioned too," he continued.
"Mrs. Clayton would have liked that." Without waiting for a reply to his
earlier questions, he grabbed the brown bag that had held his clothes,
and then let out a sigh. "Oh, thank goodness, I thought I forgot to put
the thumb tacks in the sack this morning."

My heart nearly stopped beating. I was afraid to ask what the thumb
tacks were for, so I just watched in horror as Henry carefully removed
them from the sack and started sticking them in the toe and heal of each
shoe..

"Clever, don't you think?" he asked as he started shuffling around the
bathroom floor. "Instant tap shoes." He was acting like he had just
swallowed a gallon of Coke with caffeine. Or maybe he was acting like
a kindergartner on the first day of school. Either way he was acting
hyper and talking almost as fast as Doreen.

I couldn't believe that I had witnessed the making of a monster, right
there in the boys' bathroom.