The Smile (Full Text) by Ray Bradbury

The Smile

By Ray Bradbury

   In the town square the queue had formed at five in the morning, while cocks were  crowing  far  out in the rimed country and there were no fires. All about, among  the  ruined  buildings, bits of mist had clung at first, but now with the new  light of seven o’clock it was beginning to disperse. Down the road, in twos
and  threes,  more  people were gathering in for the day of marketing the day of festival.

   The  small bay stood immediately behind two men who had been talking loudly in  the  clear air, and all of the sounds they made seemed twice as loud because of  the cold. The small boy stamped his feet and blew on his red, chapped hands, and  looked  up  at the soiled gunny-sack clothing of the men, and down the long line of men and women ahead. 

   ‘Here, boy, what’re you doing out so early?’ said the man behind him.

   ‘Got my place in line, I have,’ said the boy.

   ‘Whyn’t you run off, give your place to someone who appreciates?’

   ‘Leave the boy alone,’ said the man ahead, suddenly turning.

   ‘I  was  joking.’  The  man  behind put his hand on the boy’s head. The boy shook it away coldly. ‘I just thought it strange, a boy out of bed so early.’ 

   ‘This  boy’s  an  appreciator  of arts, I’ll have you know,’ said the boy’s defender, a man named Grigsby, ‘What’s your name, lad?’ 

   ‘Tom.’

   ‘Tom here is going to spit clean and true, right, Tom?’

   ‘I sure am!’

   Laughter passed down the line.

   A  man  was selling cracked cups of hot coffee up ahead. Tom looked and saw the  little  hot  fire  and  the  brew bubbling in a rusty pan. It wasn’t really coffee.  It  was  made from some berry that grew on the meadowlands beyond town, and  it sold a penny a cup to warm their stomachs; but not many were buying, not many had the wealth. 

   Tom  stared  ahead  to  the place where the line ended, beyond a bombed-out stone wall. 

   ‘They say she _smiles,’ _said the boy.

   ‘Aye, she does,’ said Grigsby.

   ‘They say she’s made of oil and canvas.’

   ‘True.  And  that’s  what  makes  me  think she’s not the original one. The original, now, I’ve heard, was painted on wood a long time ago.’ 

   ‘They say she’s four centuries old.’

   ‘Maybe more. No one knows what year this is, to be sure.’

   ‘It’s 2061’

   ‘That’s what they say, boy, yes. Liars. Could be 3,000 or 5,000, for all we know.  Things  were  in a fearful mess there for a while. All we got now is bits and pieces.’ 

   They shuffled along the cold stones of the street.

   ‘How much longer before we see her?’ asked Tom, uneasily.

   ‘Just  a  few more minutes. They got her set up with four brass poles and a velvet  rope to keep folks back. Now mind, no rocks, Tom; they don’t allow rocks thrown at her.’ 

   ‘Yes, sir.’

   The  sun  rose higher in the heavens, bringing heat which made the men shed their grimy coats and greasy hats. 

   ‘Why’re  we  all  here in line?’ asked Tom, at last. ‘Why’re we all here to spit?’ 

   Grigsby  did  not  glance  clown  at  him,  but judged the sun. ‘Well, Tom, there’s  lots of reasons.’ He reached absently for a pocket that was long gone, for  a  cigarette  that  wasn’t there. Tom had seen the gesture a million times. ‘Tom,  it  has to do with hate. Hate for everything in the Past. I ask you, Tom, how  did  we get in such a state, cities all junk, roads like jigsaws from bombs and half the cornfields glowing with radio-activity at night? Ain’t that a lousy stew, I ask you?’

   ‘Yes, _sir, I guess so.’

   ‘It’s this way, Tom. You hate whatever it was that got you all knocked down and ruined. That’s human nature. Unthinking, maybe, but human nature anyway.’ 

   ‘There’s hardly nobody or nothing we don’t hate,’ said Tom.

   ‘Right!  The  whole  blooming  caboodle of the people in Past who run the world.  So  here  we  are  on  a Thursday morning with our guts plastered to our spines,  cold,  live  in caves and such, don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t nothing except have our festivals, Tom, our festivals.’ 

   And  Tom thought of the festivals in the past few years. The year they tore up  all  the  books  in  the  square  and burned them and everyone was drunk and laughing.  And the festival of science a month ago when they dragged in the last motor-car  and picked lots and each lucky man who won was allowed one smash of a sledge-hammer at the car. 

   ‘Do  I  remember  that,  Tom?  Do  I _remember? Why, I got smash the front window, you hear? My God, it made a lovely sound! Crash!’

   Tom could hear the glass falling in glittering heaps.

   ‘And  Bill  Henderson, he got to bash the engine. Oh, he did a smart job of it, with great efficiency. Wham!’ 

   But  the  best  of all, recalled Grigsby, there was the time they smashed a factory that was still trying to turn out aeroplanes. 

   ‘Lord,  did  we  feel good blowing it up!’ said Grigsby. ‘And then we found that newspaper plant and the munitions depot. and exploded them together. Do you understand, Tom?’ 

   Tom puzzled over it. ‘I guess.’

     It  was  high noon. Now the odors of the ruined city stank on the hot air and things crawled among the tumbled buildings. 

    ‘Won’t it ever come back, mister?’

   ‘What, civilization? Nobody wants it. Not me!’ ‘I could stand a bit of it,’ said the man behind another . ‘There were a few spots of beauty in it.’

   ‘Don’t  worry  your  heads,’  shouted  Grigsby.  ‘There’s no room for that, either.’ 

   ‘Ah,’  said  the  man  behind the man. ‘Someone’ll come along some day with imagination and patch it up. Mark my words. someone with a heart.’ 

   ‘No,’ said Grigsby.

   ‘I  say  yes.  Someone  with a soul for pretty things. Might give us back a kind of limited sort of civilization, the kind we could live in in peace.’

   ‘First thing you know there’s war!’

   ‘But maybe next time it’d be different,’

   At  last  they stood in the main square. A man on horseback was riding from the  distance  into the town. He had a peace of paper in his hand. In the centre of  the  square  was  the  roped-off  area.  Tom,  Grigsby,  and the others were collecting  their  spittle and moving forward moving forward prepared and ready, eyes wide. Tom felt his heart beating very strongly and excitedly, and the earth was hot under his bare feet. 

   ‘Here we go, Tom, let fly!’

   Four  policemen  stood at the corners of the roped area, four men with bits of  yellow  twine  on  their wrists to show thcir authority over other men. They were there to prevent rocks being hurled. 

   ‘This  way,’ said Grigsby at the last moment, ‘everyone. feels he’s had his chance at her, you see, Tom? Go on, now!’ 

   Tom stood before the painting and looked at it for a it for a long time.

   ‘Tom, spit!’

   His mouth was dry.

   ‘Get on, Tom! Move!’

   ‘But,’ said Tom, slowly, ‘she’s _beautiful.’

   ‘Here,  I’ll  spit  for  you!’  Grigsby  spat  and  the missile flew in the sunlight.  The  woman  in the portrait smiled serenely, secretly, at Tom, and he looked  back  at  her,  his  heart  beating, a kind of music in his ears. ‘She’s beautiful,’ he said. 

   The  line  fell  silent.  One  moment they were berating Tom for not moving forward, now they were turning to the man on horseback. 

   ‘What do they call it, sir?’ asked Tom, quietly.

   ‘The picture? ‘Mona Lisa’, Tom, I think. Yes, the ‘Mona Lisa’.

   ‘I  have an announcement,’ said the man on horseback. ‘The authorities have decreed  that  as  of  high noon today tin portrait in the square is to be given over  into  the  hands  of  the  populace  there, so they may participate in the destruction of —‘ 

   Tom  hadn’t  even  time  to  scream before the crowd bore him, shouting and pummelling  about,  stampeding  toward  the  portrait. There was a sharp ripping sound.  The police ran to escape. The crowd was in full cry, their hands like so man,  hungry  birds pecking away at the portrait. Tom felt himself thrust almost through  the  broken  thing.  Reaching  out in blind imitation of the others, he snatched  a  scrap  of oily canvas, yanked, felt the canvas give, then fell, was kicked,  sent  rolling  to  the outer rim of the mob. Bloody, his clothing torn, watched  old  women  chew pieces of canvas, men break the frame, kick the ragged cloth, and rip it into confetti. 

   Only  Tom  stood  apart, silent in the moving square. He looked down at his hand. It clutched the piece of canvas close his chest, hidden. 

   ‘Hey there, Tom!’ cried Grigsby.

   Without a word, sobbing, Tom ran. He ran out and the down bomb-pitted road, into  a  field,  across  a  shallow  stream, not looking back, his hand clenched tightly, tucked under his coat. 

   At  sunset  he  reached  the  small  village and passed on through. By nine o’clock he came to the ruined farm dwelling. Around back, in the part that still remained  upright,  he  heard  the  sounds of sleeping, the family — his mother, father,  and  brother.  He slipped quickly, silently, through the small door and
lay down, panting. 

   ‘Tom?’ called his mother in the dark.

   ‘Yes.’

   ‘Where’ve you been?’ snapped his father. ‘I’ll beat you the morning.’

   Someone  kicked  him.  His  brother, who had been left behind to work their little patch of ground. 

   ‘Go to sleep,’ cried his mother, faintly.

   Another kick.

   Tom  lay  getting  his  breath.  All  was quiet. His hand was pushed to his chest, tight, tight. He lay for half an hour this way, eyes closed. 

   Then  he  felt  something, and it was a cold white light. Th moon rose very high and the little square of light crept slowly over Tom’s body. Then, and only then,  did his hand relax. Slowly, carefully, listening to those who slept about him,  Tom  drew  his  hand  forth. He hesitated, sucked in his breath, and then,
waiting, opened his hand and uncrumpled the fragment of painted canvas. 

   All the world was asleep in the moonlight.

   And there on his hand was the Smile.

   He  looked  at  it  in the white illumination from the midnight sky. And he thought, over to himself, quietly, the Smile, the lovely Smile.

   An  hour later he could still see it, even after he had folded it carefully and  hidden it. He shut his eyes and the Smile was there in the darkness. And it was still there, warm and gentle, when he went to sleep and the world was silent and the moon sailed up and then down the cold sky towards morning. 

Conclusion

Can you believe that I went to college with people who took classes that offered this story, and they never read it? Seriously. Instead, they studied the Cliff Notes and took the tests to get the grades. They completely bypassed the learning process.

Not that they needed to learn. Many of whom were much wealthier than I was. They somehow got into university… somehow. Their parents were rich, or bankers, or had connections. They would run their BMW’s in pot-holes to splash icy water on me as I made my way to study in the Engineering Hall.

I find out about where they are now, by checking the University alumni rosters that are published yearly. Indeed, they are mostly doing well. Either stock brokers, bankers, or have major roles on the board of directors of companies. many obtained these role when they were in their middle 20’s.

It’s truly amazing to me. Because I knew these ding-bats in university. They had the intelligence of a potato, and yet they somehow passed their SAT and got into university easily. Then during the entire time while I toiled and studied, they were just partying and having a great old time.

It didn’t seem fair then, and it isn’t fair now.

But you know, these stories of Ray Bradbury take us to places… strange places where our imagination can roam. They take us to places that stretch our emotions and tax our comprehension. To this, I must say to Mr. Bradbury; Thank you.

Because life is the sum total of our experiences. This is the width and the depth of our experiences. Mr. Bradbury has added color to mine. His stores made the air a little bit sweeter, the weather a little bit nicer, and my friends a little bit more important.

Those who have never experienced the stories of Ray Bradbury are denied this pleasure.

Attribution

This story was written by Ray Bradbury, and presented here under Article 22 of China’s Copyright Law. The Smile is a short story written in 1952, a year before Fahrenheit 451, which it shares a few ideas with. This story is set in the post-apocalyptic future (year 2061), where the last “bits and pieces” of civilization are destroyed by humanity itself.

I have found this version of the story on the Ray Bradbury library portal in Russia, and I have copied it here exactly as found. Credit to the wonderful people at the Ray Bradbury Library for posting it where a smuck like myself can read it within China. (Рэй Брэдбери .RU found at http://www.raybradbury.ru ) And, of course, credit to the great master; Ray Bradbury for providing this work of art for our inspiration and pleasure.

Ray Bradbury is one of my personal heroes and his writings greatly influenced me in ways that I am only just now beginning to understand.

I love the way that Ray Bradbury brings advanced concepts to the masses though his very (seemingly) simplistic stories.

Background

“There was this fence where we pressed our faces and felt the wind turn warm and held to the fence and forgot who we were or where we came from but dreamed of who we might be and where we might go…” 
-R is for Rocket Ray Bradbury

For years I had amassed a well worn, and dusty collection of Ray Bradbury paperbacks that I would pick up and read for pleasure and inspiration.  Later, when I left the United States, and moved to China, I had to leave my treasured books behind. Sigh.

It is very difficult to come across Ray Bradbury books in China. When ever I find one, I certainly snatch it up. Cost is no object when it comes to these masterpieces. At one time, I must have had five books containing this story.

Posts Regarding Life and Contentment

Here are some other similar posts on this venue. If you enjoyed this post, you might like these posts as well. These posts tend to discuss growing up in America. Often, I like to compare my life in America with the society within communist China. As there are some really stark differences between the two.

More Posts about Life

I have broken apart some other posts. They can best be classified about ones actions as they contribute to happiness and life. They are a little different, in subtle ways.

Stories that Inspired Me

Here are reprints in full text of stories that inspired me, but that are nearly impossible to find in China. I place them here as sort of a personal library that I can use for inspiration. The reader is welcome to come and enjoy a read or two as well.

Articles & Links

• You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
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