Just Another Day
A picture says a thousand words and a smile says a thousand more.
"Good day to you, Sunny."
"Morning, Sunny!"
"Have a great day at work, Sunny."
People talk a lot. Sunny learned all of this as he grew up, running errands for his father and the bakery, meeting more people as a result. People liked to greet him, a young boy who didn't talk much and didn't smile much. They liked to tell him to smile. They liked it when other people smile, especially when they're the reason. They liked to believe they could change him.
Good day to you. Morning. Have a great day at work.
Sunny repeats all these things like he repeats many things people say to him.
He never understood it, impressions and fake politeness. What does it mean to say the right thing? When is the appropriate place and time for the right words to come out? How do you know when it's correct? How do you know you didn't make a mistake? The people in the TV say the right things all the time, he thinks, so he repeats their words. If they said it and it's correct, then he must be doing it correctly too, right? The old lady at the spice shop smiles at him, the couple at the grocery wave to him in passing, he reacts accordingly like he's seen other people do.
People are tiring though and they expect too many things just because other people do it too. Why does he have to wave, why does he have to smile? You don't make him happy. You don't make him feeling anything. He's doing it because he has to, because it's a nice thing to do it. If you're nice to him, he's nice to you, it's simple math and he can do simple math, he learned that in school.
1 + 1 = 2
Nice plus nice equals nice, equals people like you, people smile at you, people accept you, people don't frown upon your lack of gestures and understanding of social cues, don't tease you or bully you, call you names, tell you you're a mistake, momma why did you say it was a mistake.
"Good morning, Sunny!"
"See you later, Sunny."
"How do you do, Sunny?"
Sunny repeats all these without missing a beat, returning waves, answering and smiling back, it's all an act. He thinks he's tired even though the day hasn't even started. The dreams he gets nearly every night don't help but he can't do anything about them. It's just the morning blues, he supposes, it'll get better later anyway, he's used to it.
It's just another day he needs to get by.