You wake up and look at yourself in the mirror, and you realize you aren't smiling. Not even close to a smile, in fact, you notice a bit of frown. Which is strange, because you feel happy inside. Were you frowning? Do you have a "resting frown face?" You ignore it and go to brush your teeth. But there, unavoidable, is your face again staring back again at you in the mirror. You somehow have managed to be frowning while brushing your teeth. Sure, brushing your teeth wasn't the most exciting thing in the world, but why did your face feel a need to frown while doing it? You check inside yourself. You still feel happy.

   

You go to eat your breakfast. You eat stale toast and watch the even staler news. You finish your meal and can't find the remote so you walk up to turn off the T.V. You struggle to find the power button now that all T.V. buttons are like little touchscreens. Yet another way the world is trying to stop you from feeling anything at all. You find it, and the screen goes black. To your dismay, you can now see a faint reflection of yourself in the T.V. You see the all familiar frown staring back at you. You do another check on your insides, "Still happy," you report back to yourself. So you walk away proud and declare, "Not today, no more frowning."

   

You spend the next few years improving every part of yourself, focused on removing that frown one way or another. You go to school and work hard day and night, which finally leads to a good career. You meet someone with a pretty smile but even prettier pennies. She comes from a good bit of money. “It just makes sense,” She assures you. You start a family and get a nice house and two nice cars, you tell yourself you deserve it.

   

It's been years now, and you wake up one morning. You smile at your wife and she frowns. "You forgot to take out the trash last night. Now we have to wait a whole week and the garage is going to smell." She turns over. Your wife didn't want a mirror in the bedroom, so there's nothing but the back of her head her to look at, and that sure as hell isn't going to reflect anything. You go to the bathroom. You've started brushing your teeth in the shower to save time, so there's no need to check up on yourself. You go to eat breakfast but you end up having to make breakfast for the kids, they are running late for school. "I'll just take an early lunch," you decide. Your kids are angry at you because you made eggs but they wanted French toast. When they are finished they run off for school and leave their dirty dishes. You are running late for work after having to make this unplanned breakfast. You must now decide who it is better to be yelled at: Your boss or your wife? You decide you don't want your wife to yell at you twice in one day so you clean the dishes.

   

Cleaning the white porcelain plate you realize you used your wife's nice set of dishes that were reserved for guests. "Don't you dare use these," her warning echoes through your head. The plate shines clean and you check it, making sure to leave no evidence. As you reach to put it away you lose your grip and it crashes to the ground. You have only a few moments before she comes down and yells at you. You rush to pick up the pieces, but you get cut and red drops fall onto the nice new memory foam mat your wife just put down in front of the sink. It stains something fierce and you just stand there, holding a large shard of the plate as your wife storms in frowning an impossible frown. Judging hands on disappointed hips. You look down at the shard, and you can see a blurry reflection of your aged and tired face. But that face is smiling. You wonder how long it has been that way. Your wife yells at you, “What are you smiling about?” You are confused. You check inside, and you realize you’ve been sad for years.

   

"At least I lost my frown."