Bentley Hardwick was called Bentley by his family and to his face. To everyone else, he was called Psycho Man, but only behind his back. He used to be called Psycho Boy. If people had known he would have been called Psycho Baby. Bentley was non-violent but nuts just the same.

“Look, Chief, we both know Psycho Man did it”, one irate neighbor told the police.

“Well, yea, we know it but not in a legal sense”, the Chief replied.

“Good God, he still has purple and green paint on his clothes. You know he painted my house while I was gone!”.

“Yea, it looks that way. Whatja do to him?, the Chief asked.

“Well, I did tell him he needed to grow up. He painted my house purple and green!”.

“Well can’t prove it so you’re going to have to repaint it.”

Bentley was taken to a therapist once by the threat of being cut out of the will. He told the therapist that his car looked odd with no tires on it. The therapist called the Chief and, well...

Bentley refused to go back after he realized his parents didn’t have any money to leave him. He was slow but not too stupid. Just psychotic.

Bentley started school as a very poor student earning very poor grades. In the third grade his report cards started showing A’s and B’s. His teacher’s lawn started growing back soon after that. Bentley never owned up to it but the grass died from kerosene and Bentley used kerosene as a cologne. The Chief said it could be a coincidence.

In high school he was remembered by his teachers as being polite and courteous, if somewhat slow on the uptake. The students remembered him as being different in school compared to out of school. There was a reason for this.

Bentley showed up the first day of high school naked. The girls all screamed except for Sue Allen. The principal. Gomer Edwards, called for the police.

“Jeez, Bentley, you gotta wear clothes!”, the Chief yelled.

“Chief, are you yelling at me?”, Bentley asked.

“Umm, no, I, ah-”

“Okay, Chief, I’ll handle this”, Gomer told him.

“Yea, well, good luck”.

After the Chief left Gomer told Bentley, “Listen, you psycho. I’m three years from retirement. I took this school to avoid this kind of crap. You think you’re a psycho? I know psycho stuff that would make your head spin, which I might do. Got it? We going to have any more problems?”

Bentley was a model student after that.

Bentley latest thing was mime. He decided that people didn’t understand him when he spoke. He stopped speaking. He mimed everything. He also stopped listening. You had to mime back. Had to or he would do some psycho thing to you.

People no longer played charade as a game. They did it for survival