LJ Idol Wheel of Chaos — Prompt 13 — Happiness pump

[flipflop_diva]

The alarm started going off at exactly two thirty-five in the afternoon.

Em was immediately on her feet, her iced venti caramel macchiato with extra caramel and non-fat milk to keep it healthy crashing to the floor. But for once, Em didn’t care about that. All she cared about was the ringing that was in her ears and all around her and what that meant.

In her entire life, Em had only heard the alarm one other time. She had been four years old, much too small to have had a job yet, but her father had been the head of the department back then. They had been sitting at their small table in their small kitchen in their small house tucked away where most people would never see them when it sounded.

She still remembered the way her father’s face turned the color of ash and the sound he made, as if all air had left his body.

“I need to go!” he’d told her, and at the time, she hadn’t understood why.

“What’s wrong, Daddy?”

He had paused for just a second and then forced a smile on to his lips. The first time she had ever seen him force a smile that was usually just there. “Nothing to worry about, Sweetie. But I need you to stay here, okay? No matter what happens, don’t go out there.”

He glanced furtively at the windows, and she did too, but there had been nothing out of place.

“Okay,” she had said, because she had always been a good kid who followed orders without question. Her father had taken another few seconds to ruffle her hair, and then he was gone. Moving so fast out the door he could have been flying.

She was never sure how long he had been gone that day, but it had felt like a lifetime. She remembered hiding in that small house as the screams began, then the sobs, then the curses spoken in such anger it made her shake in fear.

Somewhere during the long moments that she hid in her bed, the covers over her head, the sounds outside faded away and the warm contentment that she usually felt returned to her chest. By the time her father returned, with a hug and an ice cream in the shape of the boy she was named after’s face, they were both happy and relieved.

“I’m so glad you fixed it,” she told her father, and he kissed her forehead.

“Me too, Sweetie.”

And now that very same alarm was going off. Except this time her father wasn’t here. Em was, and she was in charge.

She looked around the room. There were five of them here. It would have to be enough.

“Kay! Cee! Em number 2! Ess! This way!”

None of them needed to be told twice. They all raced as one down the hall, through the door marked “Emergency Access Only,” and then along the access tunnel that led deep underground, beneath the heart of the world above. No one spoke as they ran. Em concentrated on the path in front of her, on the pounding of shoes behind her, and on the crackling of the walkie-talkies they all had belted to their waists.

The first cries for help came when they were about halfway through the tunnel.

“Emergency at the Mansion! There’s a stampede in the elevator!”

“Emergency on Main Street. Strollers versus wheelchairs!”

“Princess down! Princess down! Near the castle!”

Em heard one of the others reach for her walkie-talkie.

“Leave it!” she commanded. There was nothing they could do about any of the pleas now. But what they could do was fix the situation that had led to them.

They kept running, deeper and deeper, until finally they arrived at the red steel door. By then, the walkie-talkie pleas were almost non-stop.

Em stepped up to a keypad in the middle of the door. She put her finger on the scanner, looked into the little mirror so it could examine her retina and then typed a code she had never had to use before.

The door slowly opened.

And a cloud of misery and devastation hit them all.

It was overwhelming. Em wanted to drop to the ground and sob, then roll around and scream. She could feel the others — her coworkers, her friends, her family — tensing up as well.

“We have to push through!” she said. “We have to find the leak! We have to restore the happiness!”

Em raced inside, the others behind her, all of them spreading out. Before them stretched a red, yellow and black pipe, twisting and turning through the earth, opening up in thousands of spots to the world above, filled with the most glorious magic of all — happiness.

And somewhere, in the hundreds of miles of pipe, there was a leak. A hole that was letting oxygen in to the heart of the elixir. Oxygen that was contaminating the pure happiness inside and turning it instead of misery, to depression, to fear, to anger, to all the negative emotions that were supposed to disappear when a person stepped through the turnstiles above.

The thought of having to find that tiny leak was almost too much. Em clapped a hand to her mouth, the sobs rising up inside her. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that she was tasked with having to fix this problem. Hell, it wasn’t fair that this was her job at all! She had never asked for it. She had been born into it. Never given a choice.

She could have had a life outside of here! She could have been something else! Like an accountant or a garbage man. Or maybe she could be up in that world, checking the rides and handing pretzels to guests.

It wasn’t fair!

The rage was so powerful it almost knocked her over.

And then something happened. Through the rage and the uncontrollable sadness, she felt her mind sharpen, her wits return, and suddenly she was more focused than ever.

She began to search the pipe, going as fast as she could, not worrying about anything except what was in front of her. And then, there, just below the screams of the walkie-talkies and the noises of the others, she heard it. The sound of air being released.

She began to run, following the sound, searching, searching, searching.

And then there. On the bottom of the pipe, where the metal began to curve, the tiniest of holes.

“Over here!” Em shouted, and the others appeared almost instantly, tools in hand. They patched, welded, painted, focused on their work. And as they worked, Em began to feel calmer, more relaxed.

Happier.

The panicked noises on the walkie-talkies began to subside.

“Done.” Kay’s announcement as she stepped back to show Em her work came with a sign of relief from everyone.

“We did it,” Em said, stepping close and touching the pipe almost reverently. She looked around at the others, so very proud of all of them. “We restored the happiness.”

The walk back was celebratory, joyous. Over the walkie-talkie, reports came in of everything returning to normal.

“Make sure they all get free lightning lanes and Mickey pretzels,” Em heard someone say. “And Em,” said that same voice “We’ll bring some for you too.”

That night, Em laid in her small bed in the small house that was now hers, clutching her churro and her pretzel, and remembering everything that had happened today. Remembering everything she had done.

She had asked her father once, when she was about to be a teenager, why everyone wasn’t perfectly happy in the world above, even with the happiness pump. Why they fought or cried or tried to bump other people out of line.

“It’s the happiest place on earth,” she had said. “Isn’t it?”

“It is.”

“But why do we protect it if we can’t make people completely happy even with it?”

He had smiled then and ruffled her hair. “Because, sweetie,” he’d said. “Think how miserable they would be without it.”

She hadn’t really understood that back then, but now she had seen it firsthand, and now she knew — really knew — just how important her job really was.

And that was worth all the happiness in the world.





Fiction. Or is it?



This was written for the new season of therealljidol, Wheel of Chaos! If you liked my entry, please consider voting for me or any of the other amazing contestants. You can find all the entries here. Looking for the voting post on Tuesday night!

Comments

[roina_arwen]

This was very sweet!

[legalpad819]

Aww, I love this!

[halfshellvenus]

I liked that this was tied to Disneyworld at its heart. The names of the other helpers (Em2!) suddenly gained context. And I liked that we don't usually think about how something like all the happiness leaking away would affect the people who are supposed to fix that problem!

[muchtooarrogant]

Very creative, and I liked the idea that the happiness pump was a huge machine, and of course Disney owned it. LOL

Dan

[mollywheezy]

Very creative! Great job!

[drippedonpaper]

This made me think of Disneyworld, though I have never been.

Maybe someday, eh?

I identify with Em. I would love to know that I make other people happy. I hope I do, anyways.

I enjoyed your story :)