by Natalie Babbitt

That I should attempt a picture of the man in the yellow suit was Roger Sutton’s idea, and when he first broached it to me, I said no, I was too busy, couldn’t handle it. But almost before the words were out of my mouth, I was struck by what an extraordinary idea it was. I sat down to see what I could do, and it was as if this portrait had been waiting in my pencil for years. It seemed to draw itself. There was even — Heaven help me — a kind of urgency about it. Almost at once, there he was, looking out at me. What is he thinking as he sits there? Whatever it is, I find it chilling. Surely it isn’t possible to be haunted by the ghost of a made-up character slain in a work of fiction. But if it is possible, then the man in the yellow suit is after me, not Mae Tuck. He seems to understand that I am the one who spoiled his plans.

From the March/April 2000 issue of The Horn Book Magazine. For more, click the tag Natalie Babbitt.