ZEPHYRHILLS — In a few weeks, Charlie Bartlett will become someone else.
At Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights, makeup and a costume will transform Charlie, an outgoing, talkative 20-year-old, into a spooky character named Pit.
Rehearsal starts this week, so Charlie isn't sure of Pit's story line or costume just yet.
But he knows he'll be able to tap into a tragic part of his past that will help him make the role believable.
In 2003, Charlie was in a near-fatal accident.
Now, he'll put on a face of misery to help others enjoy Halloween, and to allow himself to escape his own reality.
"I'm living in my own world by being a character that gets to scare people," said Charlie. "They won't say, 'Oh, he's the one with the brain injury.'"
• • •
Since he was a little boy, Charlie wanted to be an actor. Once, he was an extra in a commercial for the TV show with Barney, the purple dinosaur. He also got involved in community productions, working bit parts in a few plays at Center Stage Theater in New Port Richey.
"You can be in a different world than what you're usually in," said Charlie. "I like the ability to do that."
Then a car accident in April 2003 put him in his toughest role: teen fighting for his life.
Charlie was a seventh-grade student at East Pasco Adventist Educational Center when his mother, Mary Jane Bartlett, picked him up from school about 3:30 p.m. April 8.
As she began turning across U.S. 301 from Centennial Road, a few blocks from school, a semitrailer truck going north on U.S. 301 struck the side of her 1994 Ford F-150 pickup.
Charlie flew through the back window of the truck, according to witnesses. Paramedics found him unconscious in the truck bed.
The semitrailer truck driver wasn't injured. Neither Charlie nor his mother wore seat belts, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Charlie was placed on life support and slipped into a coma.
He stayed in the hospital for a month. Administrators and teachers like Pam Knight, who had Charlie for English and geography, stopped by Tampa General Hospital to see him.
"He was in a coma, and once his mother told the principal to say 'Open your eyes!' in a teacher's voice," she said. "He did, and it was amazing. There was a lot of rejoicing."
Rehabilitative therapy helped Charlie relearn walking and talking over the summer.
When he returned to school in the fall, Knight said, he could only come for half the day because he had trouble remembering things.
"He came back much farther than anyone thought he would be able to," Knight said. "I am sure he will always have challenges. But he really has a sweet spirit to him that draws people to him."
• • •
Charlie's accident happened less than a year before the state installed a traffic signal that might have prevented it.
Back in 2002, the state Department of Transportation approved a signal at U.S. 301 and Centennial Road, a crossing that handles traffic for four schools: the Adventist center, Grace Christian Academy, Centennial Elementary and Centennial Middle School. But the signal wasn't erected until January 2004, nine months after Charlie's crash.
As is often the case, the number of crashes — especially the rear-end type — increased once the traffic signal went up, said Kris Carson, spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation. But those crashes were less severe than the one that Charlie was involved in, Carson said.
Charlie's mother is still haunted by her son's crash.
"It wasn't my fault, but I carry a lot of guilt," she said. "I am so overprotective of him now. I feel like I should've protected him."
• • •
Charlie tried to regain normalcy, but when he returned to the Adventist school, he couldn't remember anything he learned. He would sit in the wrong seat in the classroom, or forget which room to go to. Once, he fainted in the gym between classes.
Charlie went to live with his father in Hudson, taking special classes at Hudson High.
But kids were cruel. Some of them teased Charlie and beat him up.
"They treated me like an outcast," he said.
He transferred schools a few more times, ending up at Moore-Mickens Education Center.
His mother nudged him toward a backstage role, doing stage makeup and hair for theatrical productions.
"He would be getting an income for the rest of his life, meet people and have a life," she figured. But, she added, "it didn't work out that way."
Charlie lasted just a few weeks at a cosmetology school. The kinks in his motor skills surfaced when it was time to do things like put hair in rollers. He rolled them in the wrong direction.
Charlie tried to get his GED, but struggled with the math portion. He wants to get it before year's end. But he obtained another badge of maturity: A few years after the accident, Charlie got his driver's license.
"Driver's ed wasn't hard," he said, explaining that the mental and motor skills he needs behind the wheel are still intact. "I'm a good driver."
• • •
A settlement from the trucking company from the accident allowed Charlie to build a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home behind his mother's, a few miles from County Road 54 in Zephyrhills.
He still spends much of his time at his mother's house, but is inching toward independence.
He's excited about driving to Orlando to start working on his role for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal. He stood in line for two hours last month before trying out for the part. He starts Sept. 25, and will be paid for the role.
His mother wants him to consider speaking to kids about his accident, about putting his life back together.
But Charlie is taking things slowly, concentrating on acting first. He knows his memory isn't always what is could be.
"I really don't remember much," said Charlie, smiling. "But, I remember my lines."
Camille C. Spencer can be reached at cspencer@sptimes.com or (813) 909-4609.
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