Law #97531

It used to be said that a smile could earn you points. Fast forward to today and now a smile will loose you points. In fact, it could get you a hefty fine or worse. You don’t want to know about “worse”.

Smiling was outlawed the year I turned 10 years old. It was a confusing time. I didn’t understand why you could be happy but couldn’t show it on your face.

Every day at school we had to recite the rule of law #97531, “A great law was passed in 1975. The law calls for the absence of smiles and high-fives. No person living in the sector governed by FROWN is permitted to display happiness in any manner or form. Anyone in violation of law #97531 will be required to pay fines imposed by the courts of FROWN. In the case of multiple offenses, will result in the removal of a tooth or teeth.”

We lived in fear of being caught with a smile or smirk on our face. I would have nightmares of having a mouth full of empty spaces where my teeth once stood. If you had any or all of your teeth removed you wouldn’t want to smile out of embarrassment and humiliation anyway.

My parents constantly reminded us to never smile or high-five. They couldn’t afford for any of us to be fined, as we were struggling now to pay for all of our expenses.

Some families were fined $10,000 just for a slight up-turn of their mouth. Even babies that smiled were fined! At least they didn’t have any teeth yet to be removed.

I was terrified that I would accidentally smile that when I was 12 years old, one day I taped my mouth in place. That didn’t last long because I couldn’t talk or eat without removing the tape.

I would hide under my covers at night smiling and silently laughing about things that were funny during the day or that made me feel happy. My sister realized what I was doing and scared me by lying and saying that FROWN had devices that could measure the happiness factor in the area and could track it to anyone violating law #97531. When she told me this I lived in fear of the authorities knocking on the door and removing all my teeth. After a few weeks of suffering in fear my sister admitted she lied. For the first time in weeks I could finally relax and not jump every time someone knocked on our door or when I would see the officers of FROWN walking down the road.

I asked grandma once why they made such an awful law. She explained that so many people were living in difficult times and didn’t have much to smile about. When someone had good things happen to them and they would smile or laugh it was considered poor manners to behave in such a way when others suffered so much. Smiling created a lot of jealousy and anger from those not smiling. Protest marches were organized to prohibit displaying forms of happiness. There were riots in the streets, clashes of extreme violence in certain areas. This is when FROWN passed law #97531. They suppressed smiling and high-fives in honor of those suffering and had no reason to smile and be happy.

I still smile and high-five in my head. No one can take that away. Sometimes you have to find your happiness and display it on the inside where it means the most anyway.