The Day Shrek Took Off His Mask

Now your average fellow might panic, throw something and perhaps call the cops. You might ask a question like “who are you?” “what are you doing here?”. Taiki and I stood there, Shrek stood there, we stared at him, him at us and with no time to think a woman stormed onto the set cutting through the air, her voice sharp, screaming at her boyfriend right into the car. The screams migrated with her. The mushrooms were hitting hard, there really isn't much time to think in a situation like this, you just observe because Shrek is a man of peace and onions. A hero celebrated among generations, if anything we were safe in his presence. We might have to worry about the paparazzi though, once they find out the husband of the princess is my backyard. I’d probably have to move, change my address. Would my mailbox overflow with fan mail? Love letters? Hate mail? The screaming continued and the affluent movie star was actually enjoying the argument it seemed, like he was tired of entertaining. His posture, subtle but relieved, like the chaos isn't pointed at him for once, it was out of his manage. Shrek was off duty. For now, he is a person, and under that mask? A hero, a story of love. He looked at me. And at that moment I couldn’t help but wonder if this Shrek, the Shrek in my backyard, wearing the face of a hero, was tired of being the hero. This Shrek seemed dulled from too many wars. The look he gave me, the look of defeat, like he was the one getting yelled at, it drapes over my spine. Shrek, an empath, soaking in the sadness of the world around him, and I felt as if that night, I were to open my phone and read “Shrek Dead” on instagram, a nation at unrest. Out of nowhere, after a secret signal the hero removes his mask deliberately exposing his identity. And there he was: a boy. No older than 25. Curly hair, glasses, a plaid shirt that looked a size too big for him. I can’t really describe the face, but he was average. Completely ordinary. Shrek? This is shrek? A curly haired man in glasses and a plaid shirt, has this always been Shrek? We stood there, frozen. I wanted to say something to taiki, to myself, to shrek. What was there to say? The green mask lay limp in his hand, staring at me. Mocking me, this was not the Shrek I grew up with, the unmasked stranger probably worked at the grocery store around the corner. This in fact was a boy who put on a Shrek mask and walked into my backyard.