Can’t Stop Smiling

Lucy’s family lived by one rule. NEVER STOP BEING HAPPY.

The rule was absolute. If you stopped being happy, for whatever reason, you were punished, no exceptions. We all lived under this terror of happiness for far too long.

Just yesterday, I saw a man try to restrain himself from frowning at the mosquito annoying him, but to no avail. He was arrested minutes later. Such arrests were normal, but something felt different about this one. I noticed something red blinking behind his ear, a camera maybe?

I squinted to get a closer look, but in my concentration I failed to realize the unpleasant expression that had fallen over my face. "Oi, got a license for that frown?" I heard from behind. The officer brandished his baton, but a stranger intervened. He wore a camera on his ear.

Wearing a maniacal grin he held one hand up and turned his wrist. I was floating in the air, then rotating. Telekinesis! My feet were up, my crown was down. He laughed, the cop laughed, we all laughed. He had turned my frown upside down!