The Bravest of Them All

Even though the sun was gleaming its pride, for many years, the whole world has been buried in darkness - especially in London. Narrow streets were crowded, all people looking either directly on the ground or strictly at their form of work. If it wasn't for the picturesque brick houses, someone could easily mistake the busy scenario for a factory. People preferred to work in silence because of the internalised fear. No conversation about politics, nor any thought-provoking topics were allowed.

As it goes with every political (dis)order, there is always at least one group of people who are against it. In this case, there was a whole underground community all around the world. In a small town in America, there was a group called "Renideo". They had gatherings in the basement of one of the members every Monday, sitting by a wooden table. Apart from discussing the forbidden there, they were also committing the greatest crime of the age.

"Stop making jokes already, I'm sure my laughter must've been heard upstairs!" insisted one of the rebels; Reagan. She joined the small group of four after she had met them at a secret rock concert earlier that year.

"Sorry, Reagan," a boy named Ryan replied. "This has been just a really rough week for me and I wanted to hear some joy of yours."

"Oh well, hasn't it been for everyone?" His older brother Ted remarked while reading an underground newspaper.

"I'm glad that apart from this time of a week, I'm constantly angry," Tamara jumped into their conversation. "At least I have no worry about me accidentally smiling in public."

The fifth member of the group frowned. "Well, I spent a night in prison when I was eight because I laughed near a police officer. I bet that if I did it now, they would imprison me for life."

"I think it's forbidden to imprison a camel as well," Ted grinned. He always liked the reciprocity between Kameel's name and his look.

"Shut up! You know I don't like that joke. And give me the newspaper already," said Kameel, ripping the list out of Ted's hands. Then he began to read out loud. "So there's "One More Topic Added to the Forbidden List"? Would you look at that, another day, another reason to keep your mouth shut on the streets and another reason to either kill yourself or leave to search for another planet."

"Turn to the title page," Ted suggested and Kameel did what he had been told.

There was a large blurry photograph of a man. Right next to it, there was another picture of a large canvas painting, which was standing right in the middle of Trafalgar Square in London, surrounded by horrified faces. The painting was a self-portrait of the man, smiling widely.

"He's the first person brave enough to do this," Kameel was astonished. "I want to meet this guy so badly."

He handed the newspaper to Reagan, who was curious about what has happened as well.

"Read it out loud," Ryan said.

An Outrageous Artist Runs From Justice

Finally, we found a person among us brave enough to make a move against the strict rules. What is even better, he managed to escape from the police, who were called by multiple witnesses after the painting was uncovered. Some of the people of underground started calling him "De To". No one has an idea about how so-called De To replaced "The Memorial of Worthy" with his painting, but the community is sure this is the start of a revolution.

There was a short silence after Reagan read it. Then Ryan asked: "Where do you think he's hiding?"

"No idea, but it might be a sign," Ted rubbed his neck nervously. "As it says, this may be a start of some revolution. Imagine if it happened and we won, that would be so-"

"Yeah," Tamara interrupted his thought. "But that's not happening. I don't believe that some guy who draws a smiley face can become a leader of a change."

"But what if there were multiple people drawing smiley faces? Like a hundred? Or hundred thousand? Or even hundred million?" Kameel thought out loud.

Tamara kept feeling skeptical. "Then they would kill us all."

Everybody went silent.

After that, the meeting was over for that week. Everyone returned to their miserable lives of political slaves, most of the "Renideo" members working in the streets wide apart from each other, only Ryan going to the only high school in the town. With all the things happening, school was only for extremely wealthy families who also respected every little rule of the New World Order. If anyone found out about Ryan being a part of a secret community, he would be charged extra time in prison for lying to the government, perhaps he would even receive a death penalty.

As the week went by, the group of friends had another meeting.

Ted was the only one who came late and as soon as he walked through the door, he started speaking.

"This week's newspaper says that they found De To and now they have him in prison. He's waiting for his verdict, which will probably be death. What shall we do?"

Everyone stared at Ted, thinking about what he just told them. Kameel clapped his hands as he stood up, smiling broadly. "I suggest smiley faces."

Ryan daintily nodded. "Yeah, why not. We have nothing to lose."

"Are you kidding?" Tamara stood up, her eyes wide at the image. "So our lives are nothing? I understand that you are unhappy with all of this, but it's not on us to do something about it."

"Then who will do it instead of us?" Kameel frowned at Tamara. "Everyone thinks that it's not about them and that others will solve it for them, but who are "others" then? We are all born as "others", we are the ones who should help make a change. If not for us, then for the future."

"What other thing do you suggest, Tamara?" Ryan asked.

"Keep living as we do now."

Ryan put on a sarcastic tone. "Yeah, because I absolutely love going through every minute of every day with knowledge that I will be executed if I accidentally say something intriguing."

The atmosphere kept getting thicker with every word. Only Reagan looked as if she wasn't even there, staring into nothing with her head supported by her hand.

Tamara's level of anger kept rising. "Reagan? What is your opinion on this?"

After a long pause, Reagan looked at Tamara. "I'm for smiley faces. You should be too, if you do not want your kids to live in constant state of despair."

The conversation kept going for another two hours. The outcome of it was screaming Tamara who left the basement and the rest of the team heading to buy some large black markers. It was already evening when they stood outside the paper shop for about an hour after buying those, frozen with fear. Then Kameel walked to the nearest railing and drew a smiley face on it. Everybody started running and after a couple of smileys, they noticed a smile on each of their faces as well. That was really dangerous.

They passed one policeman, who started shouting at them and running after them, but they managed to escape behind a corner.

The next week, they were the ones who were in the newspapers. The title was "De To Gained Followers, Closer to the Freedom".

The week after that, they read another article about people drawing smiley faces all around the world. It was like a miracle. Few of them were unfortunately imprisoned, but that made many more to join this movement.

Few weeks of the ongoing "Smiley Revolution" and the (not so) secret community settled a date for the final strike. Everyone was welcome to join, so the rebels ran into the streets, posting promotion posters, urging people to wake up.

Then it came. De To was given a death sentence, which was supposed to come on that day. There were approximately about three million people gathered in Trafalgar Square, where the execution should have been done. Everyone was holding signs, smiling, laughing, screaming words of joy and much more. Then De To appeared with a group of policemen around him. The whole crowd started moving towards them, which consequently saved De To from his unfair fate.

This event started the great change.

Everything begins with action.

And so it goes.