The Lord had lost his love and his caring parents in one swift injustice. The Lord couldn’t understand why kids were allowed to laugh with their parents and lovers were allowed to embrace while he grieved. People, servants and his people would notice him and they would suddenly stop. The mother would shush the child and the couples would break apart.

The Lord hated this feeling like people were hiding their happiness just because he was there. He did actually hate them for being happy without him. He still had money. He still had power. And so he decreed that anyone discovered in a state of happiness whether it is constant or brief would be fined on the spot. Those who could not pay would be made to kneel for long periods of time. Those who still would not obey would be placed in prison. Furthermore, if they still dared to smile or to laugh or have openly curved eyebrows, the light would be turned off. Beating of the prisoner was at the discretion of the guards. The final punishment if all else failed was death. A corpse couldn’t laugh. He also made it a law that corpses were deliberately made to look as if they were frowning or sad.

It is true that happiness left this place. Only the innocence of a baby brought this back to balance. Only briefly.