Owen Painter

            On Wednesday after midnight I added some more carpet tape to the edges of my mattress where it had gotten less sticky. I lint rolled the curtains between the bedroom and the living room and picked up a few babies. I lint rolled the top of my bed and my pillow, then I shook out my sheet and comforter on the deck. I went to bed at around 2:00 and slept fairly well. I got up at 3:00 to pee and went back to sleep until 5:00. After yoga I only found a couple of bedbugs stuck to the floor tape at the head of my bed. 

            I memorized the fifth verse of “Elle voulait toucher du pognon” (She Wanted A Little Money) by Boris Vian. There are three verses left to learn. 

             I ran through singing and playing “La fille aux claquettes” by Serge Gainsbourg and then my translation “The Lucky Tap Dance”. Tomorrow I’ll upload them to my Christian’s Translations blog to prepare them for publication. 

            I weighed 92 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since August 20. 

            I removed some of my guitar cases and some other items from the upper storage shelf in my bedroom. I didn’t find any bedbugs nesting in those things. 

            I weighed 93.25 kilos before lunch. That’s a record high for the early afternoon since I’ve been recording my weight. I haven’t had a bowel movement for several days so maybe that’s why I’m so heavy. I had peanut butter and five-year-old cheddar on saltines with a glass of lemonade. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. While riding, since this was the Day of Reconciliation I counted the number of orange shirts. There were about a hundred on my trip to Yonge and Bloor and 55 on the way home. On Bloor there was a stand selling them. Most of the people wearing them were school kids. The 155 I counted were just during my bike trip. I saw more all day long outside my window. 

            I weighed 91.75 kilos at 18:10. 

            I was still four days behind in my journal and worked on catching up. 

            I made pizza on a slice of 7 grain sandwich bread with marinara, tomato pesto, a chopped slice of ham and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore while watching season 2, episode 7 of Wednesday on Discord with my daughter Astrid. 

            The story opens with a flashback to 15 years ago. The current Principal Dort was then starting an organization called Morning Song for Outcasts and he recruits Outcast and actor Arnold Hunt to be the face of the organization. On the surface, Morning Song is there to give a sense of belonging to Outcasts but its real purpose is to take criminal advantage of people with special abilities. 

            In the present day Principal Dort finds Bianca hiding her mother in the tunnels under Nevermore. He reveals that he is Morning Song and forces them to work for him. Agnes continues to devotedly serve Wednesday and now she is even wearing Wednesday’s clothes and a black braided wig. She gives Wednesday the student file on the zombie genius Isaac Night. Wednesday learns that Isaac and her father were roommates at Nevermore and confronts him about it. He says he and Isaac were best friends. Wednesday informs her parents that Isaac has now teamed up with his sister Francoise and her son Tyler. 

            Wednesday reveals that her premonition has changed and that now an Addams is destined to die. She tells her mother she would like to sacrifice her brother Pugsley. 

            Professor Capri warns Enid that she has to keep herself locked up during the full moon because if she transforms into an Alpha Werewolf at that time while still young she could become trapped in that form for the rest of her life. 

            Because Isaac has yet to cure his sister, Francoise is still dying and coughing blood. She needs medicine and so Isaac, Francoise, and Tyler go to steal some from the animal hospital. 

            With the help of Eugene, Wednesday uses moths that nested in Isaac’s body to track him as they return to their host. 

            Dort has been seeking a donation from Wednesday’s Grandmama Hester. She meets with Dort in his office with the intention of crushing his hopes. But Dort has arranged for Bianca to Siren Hester and compel her to donate her entire fortune to Nevermore. 

            At the animal hospital Tyler tricks the vet into letting him come in to use his phone. Isaac feasts on the vet’s brains. Francoise starts to get worse and so Isaac gives her a transfusion of Tyler’s Hyde blood. 

            When Wednesday learns Grandmama is donating her fortune to Nevermore she is suspicious. Bianca is practicing her fencing when Wednesday challenges her to a duel. While they fight Wednesday says she knows Bianca sirened her Grandmama. Wednesday defeats Bianca who admits she was forced by Dort to manipulate Hester. But then Bianca sirens Wednesday and tells her to forget everything, then she leaves. But Wednesday anticipated this and arranged for Agnes to invisibly watch and record the encounter. Agnes tells Wednesday everything Bianca made her forget. 

            Once Hester has transferred her fortune to the Nevermore account, Dort plans on taking the money and escaping to Venezuela. 

            Enid has broken up with Bruno. Agnes has been rejected by Wednesday. Enid tells Agnes to stop imitating Wednesday and find her own psycho. Enid had been scheduled to perform a dance at the gala with Bruno. Agnes has been spying on the routine and offers to dance with Enid. Wednesday arrives and Agnes tells her she’s no longer her mindless servant. Wednesday is glad to hear it and so now they can all just work together. Wednesday details her plan. 

            Enid and Agnes do their dance, during which Agnes sometimes makes herself invisible. During one of those times Agnes sneaks up on Dort and removes his anti-Siren amulet from his vest. Bianca, Hester and Dort take the stage. She sirens him into confessing all of his schemes to the crowd and Hester learns that she has been manipulated. Dort grabs Bianca and threatens to burn her with his pyro powers as he tries to escape. Ajax uses his Medusa power to turn Dort to stone. The effect would have been temporary but the chandelier falls on Dort and breaks him into pieces. 

            Pugsley is alone in the graveyard feeling sorry for himself when he is confronted by Isaac. Glad to see his pet zombie he is not prepared when Isaac uses chloroform to take him captive. 

            Isaac is played by Owen Painter, who earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Screen Acting from Chapman University. He made his film debut in the short movie Soup in 2021. He co-starred in Tiny Beautiful Things.