Tale 2 – Nothing but Smiles
Life is miserable for me. College is stressful and useless because there’s no job that I want to get with my degree, but since my parents are adamant about me going to it, I have to go. It’s not like any of my job applications have been accepted or an alternative that they would approve of. I’m not like my outgoing friends who managed to land a decent job who have connections that let them get a job without going through college. My parents won’t let me forget it either because of how many times they talk about how other people are doing better than I am. It feels like I’m being disowned when they say it over and over again.
I’m at a loss in what to do with my life and I want it all to end. Sure, you could say that I have it better than most people who have no home, no job, and no family, but that doesn’t make it any better. Not when you feel like you’re a disappointment of a child and that it would be better if anyone else is in your place. This thinking is tearing me apart from the inside, so I go to my quiet place, a river down by the woods. It’s the place that I go to where I know no one will judge me or think less of me. I mean God is less judgmental than most people, myself included-I have to stop thinking about what other people think and just clear my head.
The sound of echoing distant laughing catches my ear and startles me a little. Since I have little concern for my own wellbeing, I follow the sound of the noise to a small cave that I didn’t know was over here. The river flows from the cave, and it looks like I can go into it if I head into the water. Of course, I’m not going to do that since I do have some concern for my wellbeing and not none.
“Whatcha see down there?” I hear someone say behind me that makes me fall into the river.
Once I get out of it, I see a creepy clown looking at me. He’s all black and white as if he walked out of an old cartoon and has hundreds of smiles on his clothes. Even the scars around his eyes and mouth look like they’re separate mouths that smile.
“Who are you?” I ask him.
“Me? My name is not important because I’m not but smiles. What’s your name?”
“That’s not important. I’m glad you’re always happy, but I have to go. Bye!”
I try to walk away from Smiles but he just appears from behind a tree in front of me as if he teleported.
“I’m glad to hear that you’re happy about my happiness. Most people today only care about their own happiness like your family and friends.”
“How do you even know that?”
“Since you’re not going to tell me your name, I’m not going to tell you how. All I’ll tell you is that it has something to do with all my smiles.”
“Okay, but I really have to go.”
Again, I try to get away from Smiles, and again, he teleports in front of me behind a tree.
“Go back to what? A life that you don’t enjoy living? I know what you’re going through. I lived through it myself before I got my smiles.”
“What do you want with me?”
“I want to make your life and the lives of many more happy through you. You want to impress people and make them happy, right?”
“Right…”
“Then embrace the smiles.”
“Why me though?”
“Because you remind me of myself and fate would have it that we met. So, what do you say? You don’t have many if any options in your life that will make you happy.”
“…fine. As long as it doesn’t hurt.”
“Oh, it doesn’t.”
I begin to feel my face uncontrollably smile and every part of my body starts growing mouths that smile and start to laugh. This can’t be real! This has to be a dream, and thankfully I wake up in my bed, though I still feel my face and skill twitch as if it’s still trying to smile. When I wake up and go downstairs to eat breakfast, I see some good news for once on the news channel, but my family doesn’t seem to be happy about it.
“Haven’t you been waiting for this to happen? I’m surprised that you’re not talking to the TV about how you were right this whole time,” I ask them.
“It’s great that we finally get a victory, but the media will play it down and plan to regain power somehow. Just you wait.”
“I know it’s disappointing but that’s just how politics is.”
Always so disappointed with everything. Why can’t you see the bright side of things? Why can’t you smile for once? Oh, I know what might get them to smile.
“I got my final grades this morning,” I mention.
“Did you make the Dean’s List?”
“N-no, but I got all As and four point GPA.”
“What about a job? Did you hear anything back from them?”
“No, not yet even though I keep emailing and calling them.”
“Eh, keep trying.”
You’re not happy even for that? But school is what you keep talking about and me getting good grades is a step forward for me to get into honors classes and the job that I’m aiming for. Now I see that making any effort to get this job will not make them happy. Instead making them smile and happy will make them happy. It’s so obvious that I’m surprised that I was so blind to it. The only question is how I’m supposed to do this.
There is getting them what they want, but what they want doesn’t always seem to make them happy and even if they do seem happy, they don’t stay happy for long. I need to make them feel happy for a long time possibly forever. Oh, I know what I can do. I still feel happy from that dream with Smiles. I smiled and felt happy for the first time in a while. I go to the bathroom so I can look at my smile in the mirror.
Yes! That smile on my face is new, genuine, and most of all, a face that will inspire happiness in others. The more that I smile the more smiles appear on my hands, face, eyes, and all over my body. What a blessing it was to meet Smiles! I touch every member of my family with my smiling hands to make them feel happy as I do. Though one or two try to run away, the power of my smiles and happiness gets my family to help me get them to see the goodness of the happiness that I offer. I’m actually glad that they ran away because it’s made me remember how I felt when I first saw Smiles.
I have to be careful with how I spread my smiles so I start small with comedy clubs. While talking and joking around, I touch one person and then another until the whole club is affected. Just like Smiles, I can teleport in front of people and keep them in the space around me. My audience grows until I get the opportunity to appear on a late night show where I’m interviewed by a big name and watched by a big audience.
“My, my! That smile is something else. It’s no wonder why you got so famous after a month of being in the business,” the show host says.
“What can I say? People like being happy and that what’s I aim to do,” I say.
My smile is already infecting people with lots of people in the audience smiling thanks to my followers that spread the joy.
“I’ve seen videos of you, and I do laugh, but I’m not sure what I find so funny. Can you explain your flavor of comedy to us?”
“It’s quite simple. If a person strives with every fiber of their being to achieve their goal, they’ll do it especially when they do it with a cheerful heart.”
“Haha, I like the idea, however, that’s not exactly true for everyone.”
“It’s true for me and I aim to inspire people to achieve the same.”
“I hope you do for their sake. Oh, and where's my manners. I forgot to ask your name since you don’t have a stage name and you didn’t give the show announcers your name either.”
“My name is not important because, heh, I’m nothing but Smiles.”
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