The Boy Who Couldn't Laugh

Once upon a time, there was a little boy who couldn't laugh. The people in his village pitied him, but the boy had magical powers. When people laughed at him, he would scowl and release a flash of magic from his fingertips that would shut off their laughter.

After many years, the village was cloaked in an aura of sadness. The people pleaded with the boy to break his spells, but he refused.

One day, a stranger entered the village. The stranger was a young girl of seventeen years who carried a mirror in her hand. Upon realizing that something was eerily different about this village, she asked a woman what was wrong.

“There is a young man that has silenced our laughter with magic,” she said. The young girl cocked her head in befuddlement.

“But why?”

“Because he cannot laugh himself,” was the reply. Then, the young girl began to laugh. She couldn’t stop.

“How ridiculous and impossible,” she thought.

From the window of his cottage, the young sorcerer saw the girl laughing. In a rage, he stormed out of his home and approached her. In an instant, his hand was raised to the girl, ready to cast his spell. Sparks shot out of his hand and through the air. From behind her back, the girl pulled out her mirror and faced it towards the man.

Suddenly, there was a brilliant flash.

The young girl, still laughing, stood there and watched the sorcerer as he came near. Hesitantly, he peered into the mirror. It was then when he began to laugh. In the mirror, he saw a man with milk-white skin, a bright, red nose, and blue ellipses over his eyelids.

And Now Here I Am, The Fool

Well, "I knew you were trouble." God, did I know. I even wrote about it on here a couple times (those posts are unavailable). I even said that you're friends with the ex-girlfriend so that had to be bad news. And guess what? It was. It is. I don't even know what to make of you.

You make me wanna set a stampede of buffalo on you
Like in The Lion King, you'd stumble as they'd hustle you
And you'd scream, but the stomping would muffle you
And I'd be sitting in a bungalow eating a chocolate truffle, ohhhhh

Zero

He had a smile that never failed him. Even after many years of use, it maintained its ability to mend a broken heart or to heal grief-stricken eyes. It spoke in such a loud but comforting voice. It spoke to those afraid to die and those afraid to live.

He brushed his teeth three times a day, every day. He used to count his brushstrokes. Now, he starts to count, then forgets what he is counting. Sometimes he keeps counting because he thinks it will lead him back to where he started. But most times he stops. When he stops, he looks in the mirror. Then, he starts to cry.

Today, he doesn’t stop. One, two, three… broken vase, then small, triangular darkness, footsteps above… seven, eight, nine… spinning, then hard, cold, flat… thirteen, fourteen, fifteen… first, kiss, scream… nineteen, twenty, twenty-one… wet, cold, deafening, corpses… twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven… a woman, ring, sobbing, asking, wanting, wondering… thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three… black, dirt, stone… thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine… bedtime, stories, teddy… forty-three, forty-four, forty-five… lost, police, worry… forty-nine, fifty, fifty-one… cap, diploma… fifty-five, fifty-six, fifty-seven… breath, gasp, sweat, chest… sixty-one, sixty-two, sixty-three… humidity, hot, ocean… sixty-seven, sixty-eight, sixty-nine… visit, greeting cards, toys… seventy-three, seventy-four, seventy-five… stranger, intruder… seventy-nine, eighty, eighty-one… “Who are you and where am I…?”

...seventy-eight, seventy-seven, seventy-six… tree, car, thunderstorm, typewriter… seventy-two, seventy-one, seventy… white, bed, gala, garden… sixty-six, sixty-five, sixty-four… Bingo, Olympics, walking… sixty, fifty-nine, fifty-eight… dinner, evening, girlfriend… fifty-four, fifty-three, fifty-two… wedding, family, spring… forty-eight, forty-seven, forty-six… bottle, then spinning, skidding, crash, court, help… forty-two, forty-one, forty… late, coffee, office, meeting, fired… thirty-six, thirty-five, thirty-four… flowers, then nightmares, brave, tissue, smile, diaper… thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight… therapy, past, cleanse, anniversary, hesitation, comfort, conception… twenty-four, twenty-three, twenty-two… interview, schedule, hired, productive, city… eighteen, seventeen, sixteen… test, then failure, a want to escape, a lie, the army… twelve, eleven, ten… a mother, mine, gone, alone, defenseless… six, five, four… a man in white, hands, covering my mouth, kicking, touching, crying… zero.