Happiness

It was a calm peaceful day in Happiness.

A hummingbird buzzed near the sugar water pot and dipped its beak in the sweet nectar. A mother waved her little daughter goodbye as the girl climbed in a big yellow school bus. Two dogs in the street fought each other with little interest for a piece of bread. People in cars drove to their work places, old men and women sat quietly in the bright sunlight.

The city of Happiness slowly awoke to its last day in history.

The Mayor of Happiness, a fat balding man called Protsini walked into the local radio station. This was going to be the last broadcast on this frequency and well, he had always wanted his own show on radio. He patted his jacket pocket which had the script he wrote the night before. It was oddly comforting for Prostini to know that even if he fucked up at this, he won't be mocked or talked about in town ever again. He smiled a glum smile and walked to the recording studio. The word LIVE written in a white box was glowing red but Prostini pushed in anyway, he was the Mayor after all, even if it was the last day of Happiness.

The RJ scowled when he saw Prostini walk in with an uncharacteristic swagger in his step. He nodded at the chair next to him and then handed the mayor a pair of headphones.

Thus, began the last show on the radios of Happiness.

The mayor talked to his people, those who had chosen to stay, and he told them of his days as a frivolous student at the Happiness High and he played songs that he had grown up listening to. He talked about the girls that he had chased as a young scholar at the university away from the city, and he confessed that there were no girls anywhere like the girls in Happiness, he dedicated song to the girls of Happiness. Sometime in the afternoon the people started to call in and Prostini talked to them all.

He told them that the decision not to abandon town, even if it was the target of a nuclear strike, was taken by the entire town's people and he was but a simple servant to them. He told them how the upper echelons of government had forgotten this small town and well, now they were about to be erased completely from the face of the planet. He told them how it would all be hushed up and termed as just another accident in the papers of their glorious country. He told them that it was all for the oil which could not be mined without displacing the whole city.

As the sun went down and darkness crept like a wraith on an already doomed city the sirens were sounded. The sound roared through the empty streets. The children were all already put to sleep, so were all the animals. The small town pub was full and everything was on the house. Somewhere in a dark alley a couple was fucking for the first and the last time in their lives.

The big bomb carrier rode the airwaves with the gentleness of an eagle, in its unseen belly it held the egg of destruction. The pilot received a 'go' from his chief and he pressed the red button in the cockpit.

The city below was washed out in a cloud of white blinding light. The pilot flew the big bird away as a giant mushroom cloud rose above the city like an ashen flower rising from a grave. The pilot switched opened his communication channel and spoke to the chief, "Captain, Happiness is a warm gun."

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IN movies and other happy crappy places these things do not happen, in my head they do. Many details sacrificed for the sake of length. Oh and there are nuclear bombs which can kill humans without destroying infrastructure. Next story, something up close and violent.