Emotion, Inc.

             Mel hung up the phone and stared straight ahead, replaying the conversation in his head. He knew he had to tell his boss what had happened, but how?

There was a knock on his door and a tan face with a grin of shiny white teeth stepped into his office. “Ready for the meeting, Choly?” He laughed at an untold joke.

“Yup,” said Mel, taking a deep breath.

“I’m excited, we’ll get to hear how well we worked! And if not, boss always gives the best advice.” As Mel walked past him he gave him a forceful pat on the back. Mel just ignored him. “What’s wrong, friend?”

“It’s nothing, Smiley.” The two walked down the hallway and towards the conference room.

“Well whatever it is, I’m sure this meeting will cheer you up!”

Mel suspected the exact opposite would happen, but he simply sighed. The two stepped into a room where a man and a woman sat at a long table. He and Smiley took seats next to each other, and as they sat down everyone’s eyes were on the seat across from Mel. It was empty until a few seconds later when a young woman rushed in. As she sat down she set her bag on the table and knocked over a mug belonging to the man next to her, spilling hot coffee onto the papers spread out in front of him. Her cheeks turned bright red as she helped him clean up. “Oh my,” she said, “That’s so—”

“Embarrassing, we know,” said the man to her right, his nostrils flaring with each breath. He stood up as he attempted to save the pieces of paper in front of him.

Everyone else was silent, except for Smiley. “Don’t worry about your papers, now they smell like coffee!” He nodded to himself.

When the coffee was finally sopped up with paper towels, the woman at the head of the table spoke. “As we all know, the start of summer brings plenty of change, especially in our business. Now that we’re all here, I suppose we should start off with quarterly reports, see how we deal with this change. Let’s start with you, Mr. Fuming.”

Fuming clenched his teeth and examined the soggy files that hung in his fingers, still dripping with coffee. “Vacation traffic, damn vacation traffic, has taken a hold of this country. So, we had hundreds more traffic lights installed, and now not a street in America is without the blare of car horns. They’re angry.”

“Very good,” said the boss nodding as she took notes. Mel felt like there was a rock in the pit of his stomach. If he heard any more good news he was sure the rock would make it to his throat. “Ashley, how has your department been?”

The girl across from Mel turned pink, and spoke without looking up. “I – well – it’s beach season, which means people are starting to – you know, wear less clothes. That’s why we made swimsuits smaller. People are showing way more skin, and now the beaches are full of pale, out of shape people. It’s really – it’s quite embarrassing.”

The rock had indeed left Mel’s stomach and was now inching up the back of his throat.

The boss nodded and moved to the man to her right, who spoke with a stutter. “Roller coasters…” Terry shuddered at the thought of them, “…have become twice as terrifying.” He placed a white poster board on a stand behind him. It showed a line graph that sloped exponentially upward, like the first hill of an amusement park ride.

Mel felt a burning behind his eyes, as though the tears would burst through any moment.

It was finally Smiley’s turn to report, and Mel knew what to expect even before he opened his mouth. Smiley laughed as he talked about the rising sweetness of ice cream and the increasing coolness of swimming pools. Then, grinning even more, Smiley added, “We also launched my newest idea: The Tail Wagging Cruise. Imagine a boat full of puppies sent all over the world to visit orphanages and nursing homes. By my estimates, smiling and laughter will reach a record high.” The boss was ecstatic as well, giving him the biggest grin she had given anyone, but not bigger than Smiley’s, of course. It looked as though his smirk would tear holes through his cheeks.

It was finally Mel’s turn, and he couldn’t blink with the fear of sending tears down his cheeks. Everyone was staring at him, and he had to give them the news.

“DryNose called me several minutes ago,” he said, his voice cracking.

“The tissue company?” asked Ashley.

All Mel could do was nod.

“What did they say?” asked the Boss.

“They – they’re terminating business with us.” Mel placed his clasped hands in front of his mouth.

Fuming slammed the table with his fist. “What do you mean terminating? They’re our biggest client!”

Tears finally snuck past Mel’s eyelids.

“What about our reputation?” asked Ashley. “Who will do business with us when they hear we’ve lost DryNose?”

Mel put his head in his hands and allowed the tears to soak his palms.

Terry’s voice trembled when he spoke. “What does that mean for the company? Are we going to go under?”

Mel whimpered quietly.

Smiley, for once, had nothing to say.

The boss didn’t respond to any of them, placing all of her attention on Mel. “How could you let this happen? What have you done to increase Sadness? What have you been working on for three months?”

Mel was now sobbing into his hands. “I – I tried my best. We published millions of poetry books this year, some of the poems were heart-breaking. There was one really sad one about an old widow, and another about a dying tree…”

“Mr. Choly, people just don’t find poetry sad anymore. What were you thinking?” His boss’s voice just made Mel’s tears just come out faster. “I’m afraid we won’t be able to maintain business without DryNose. At this point, it will take an act of God to –”

Before she could finish, the intercom buzzed.

 “I’m sorry to interrupt,” said the voice on the other end, “But there’s breaking news. A boat has capsized.”

Mel’s crying stopped. He wiped his tears and listened.

“It was the Tail Wagging Cruise. Something went horribly wrong mechanically. The boat sank. It was horrible, I’m afraid none of the puppies survived.”

“You mean –”

“Yes. No one got to play with the puppies. All that could be heard were their tiny barks before each one of them drowned.”

“Did a lot of people see this happen?”

“Yes. The cruise was just about to dock and it was being televised live. The boat was too far away when it sunk, though. No one could do a thing. And the puppies’ bodies are still washing ashore hours later.”

Smiley’s grin drooped. His lips quivered.

Mel slid a box labeled "DryNose" in front of Smiley. "Do you need a tissue?"