Happiness Epidemic WIthout any warning, the disease sweeps across the country like a traveling circus. People who were once blue, who slouched from carrying a bag of misery over one shoulder are now clinically cheerful. Symptoms include kind gestures, a bouncy stride, a smile bigger than a slice of canteloupe. You pray that you will be infected, hope a happy germ invades your body and multiplies, spreading merriment to all your major organs like door-to-door Christmas carolers until the virus finally reaches your heart: that red house at the end of the block where your deepest wishes reside, where a dog howls behind a gate every time that sorrow pulls his hearse up the driveway. David Hernandez Published in Free Lunch #23