The Smiling People

A perfect smile is flat across the width of the face, never stretching the cheeks. It is taut, as if keeping a long breath from escaping. This is the world in which 032Wilkes, Carter lives, a world in which emotion has been suppressed into an ultra-feeling regulated by a daily dosage of smiley. But when 032Wilkes goes on his Beach Pass with his colleague, 033Richmond, he soon learns that not all is perfect in the city under the dome. 032Wilkes becomes a conspirator, a frowney, determined to upset the dome in order to free the smiling people from their false emotions. The truth, however, of their world is outside the dome. (21,339 words)