Smile*

Smile

Jun. 10, 2012

She couldn't smile. She was a cashier in a supermarket. A customer complained to the manager that she had glared at him. She didn't glare at the customer but she didn't smile at him either. The manager called her and said in front of the customer. "You should apologize to him." She intended to apologize. "I'm sor... I'm sor... " She was stuck somehow. The customer thought she was making fun of him and said looking at the manager. "What do you teach your workers? You must have said to them that we customers are idiots or something. I'll never come here again." The manager said sorry to him many times.
After the customer left, the manager said to her. "This is about the 10th complaint about you. Why can't you do this simple thing smiling? Just smile. The next time you get a complaint from a customer you'll be fired.
On her way home, she was thinking why she didn't smile. When did she stop

smiling? When she was young she smiled as often as other young women. But after starting work, gradually her chances to smile were getting fewer and fewer. And maybe after starting this job she never smiled at anybody. Why? Maybe there was nothing fun in her life. Maybe nobody loved her. Maybe her parents died young. Maybe her manager was mean. Maybe... She talked to herself. "I don't have any reasons to smile."
Suddenly she heard the voice from the sky. "You don't need a reason to smile." She was surprised at it but said angrily to the sky. "People need a reason to smile." The voice said, "If people need a reason for smiling, who was the first person who smiled?" She said, "Maybe the first person was smiling at flowers or something." "So why don't you smile at flowers or something?" Said the voice. "I don't like flowers very much."She said. The voice said, "You can smile at anything you like." She said, "Maybe if somebody loved me, I would smile." The voice said, "I love you." She said, "You love everybody. I'm not special for you." "Why do you want to be special?"Asked the voice. She said, "People want to be special." The voice said, "The first person couldn't be special because they couldn't be compared with others. I can say you are special." She said in a weak voice. "You say to everyone that they are special." The voice said. "You are special in the same way that everyone is special."
She said, "Ok. Ok. I like that you've tried as hard as you could for me. For you, I'll smile." She smiled. That was not a bad smile at all.

(The End)