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Floating umbrellas

The Happiness Machine

"Hey there King, what are you up to?"

"Science project time."

"Oh Boy. I remember those. What are you doing yours on?"

"That's just it... I have no idea. "

"Well you could always build a happiness machine."

"Right."

"No really... I know someone who did..."

***


She was 3 years older than I was so I didn't know her real well. In fact I probably never would have met her except for this snow day back when I was in 3rd grade. You don't get many snow days out here in California but where I come, from there isn't a more exciting day of the year except for your birthday of course

As soon as I found out school was canceled I got all decked up in so many scarves and sweaters and shirts that I looked like one of the Apollo spacemen and headed outside to face the great white.

There are all these things you can do on a snow day Sledding Snowmen, skating, forts. By the end of the afternoon I've usually done all of them. But the first thing... I mean the very first thing I had to do is walk down off the porch into the field behind our house, fall backwards into the snow and make a snow angel. It was something about making contact with the snow. Kind of a celebration.

So There I was, sunk down deep into the drifts, staring at the sky when another astronaut with fur all around its face hovered over me. It stared down for a moment then said, "Is that you Dave?"

It knew my name! "Yea, its me," I answered.

"Well for what its worth I want you to know I don't think jello thickening is such a bad experiment at all."

Violet Henderson. It had to be. Who else would be talking about science experiments on a snow day.

Violet was this major math whiz Kids in school called Her sister Science. When she was in 3rd and 4th grade she won the science fair for the whole school and since then kids didn't even try for first. When Principal Flaherty gave a speech opening the experiment exhibition, he said the experiments ranged from photosynthesis to jello thickening. Of course Violet was the one doing photosynthesis and I was the one with the jello and everyone giggled about it all day long.

Violet's parents were divorced and then her Mom died and she moved in with her Dad last fall in the house right behind ours. Mrs. Kerchek next door told my Mom Mr Henderson was a piano player with a drinking problem. But Mrs Kerchek says lots of stuff. Like I say, I didn't really know her cause she was so much older than me and you know... she was a girl.

Violet plopped down beside me in a puff of snow. "I live right over here you know."

"Yea I know. I hear your Dad playing the piano all the time. He's good."

"He's going to be a concert pianist some day, she said. Right now he plays down at Martinettis restaurant. You know... just until his manager has time to set the concerts up."

"He works real late huh?"

"Yea. How did you know."

"I hear him turn on the TV when he comes home."

"TV?" she said. "We don't even have a TV."

"You must. They sound like army shows or something... lots of screaming and yelling?"

A blanket of silence sat on us until I could hardly breathe.

"Are you happy Dave?"

"Sure," I said, spearing snowflakes with my tongue.

"No I don't mean right now. I mean... like usually."

"Its hard telling really. I think... I'm happy all the time except when I'm not. Aw that sounds stupid doesn't it."

"No. No it doesn't Dave. Not at all. I think that's how it should be. "

"Don't you feel like that, Violet?"

"No way. Not any more. It feels like a hole down here... In my heart When I'm happy now, its like something special... something different. Its gotten so I can't even remember what being happy feels like."

I JUST WANT TO BE HAPPY AGAIN
I JUST WANT THIS LONG TRAIN OF SADNESS TO END
I JUST WANT TO BE HAPPY AGAIN.

The snow felt warm and comfy around my body. "You know Violet, sometimes when bad stuff happens I have to make myself happy."

"Yea. But how do you do that... I cant remember how. "

"You just... well just think of ... of fun things.. You know fishing and marbles and hide and go seek out in the trees when its nice and hot out."

"Dave you're a genius."

I am? Violet Hendesron was calling me a genius. I didn't know this girl but I definitely liked her.

"Hey Violet you wouldn't want to go tobogganing would you?"

I was afraid I shouldn't have asked because she didn't answer but when I sat up and looked over she was gone... all that was left was the impression of a gorgeous white angel.

By the time I came in that day I was so frozen stiff that Mom had to put me in a chair by the heat register to thaw before I could even get my clothes off. While that was happening I started thinking about Violet and how yechy it would be to have that hole in your heart all the time. I started thinking about how I might be able to make her happy again.

I knew how to get my sister unscared, and I could make my Mom laugh, but I wasn't really sure how to plug up a hole in a heart. Luckily Aunt Olive did. I remember Uncle Dean saying something about having to stay away from her chocolate fudge because the doctor said it would plug up his heart. Well, as soon as I was able to peel off my wet clothes, I called her up and made a batch right from her recipe. I could hear Violet banging away in her workshop, so I figured it was safe and snuck the candy up to her door in a pillowcase...
The next day I camped out about 10 feet away from her locker... but she didn't look any better. I mean not at all. My fudge had a way of not exactly setting right so I figured she didn't like it and decided to get her some candy bars instead. Course I didn't know which kind she liked so I bought her a Snickers, a Milky Way and a Peanut Butter Cup. That ought to plug up a heart big time.
The day after that she still looked kind of sad and lost.
Finally it hit me. How stupid can you get? Thinking that you can plug a hole in a 6th grader's heart with candy. 6th graders were into stuff like, I don't know -- clothes and stuff. Course there was no way I was gonna be caught buying girl clothes at the department store, so I kind of borrowed one of Cheryl's silky scarfs that she had hanging forever in her closet. And when that didn't work I made a pretty card with a heart on it and signed it "from a secret admirer."

But none of it helped. And as I lay in bed at night, all I could think of was that day in the snow

I JUST WANT TO BE HAPPY AGAIN
I JUST WANT THIS LONG TRAIN OF SADNESS TO END
I JUST WANT TO BE HAPPY AGAIN.

Ever since the snow day Violet seemed to be spending all of her time in the toolshed. I could hear her banging away late into the night. What could she be working on, I wondered ... the science fair was over . Finally I couldn't stand the suspense any longer. There was a little ventilation hole at the peak of the tool shed . I figured if I piled all of my Mom's tomato crates on top of one another I might be able to peek down into the shed. So it tried it, but was still about 2 inches short even on tip toes. I took off my jacket and bunched it up and stood on that too. Now I was only an inch short I was so close now I ripped off my shirt and bunched it up too.
Finally I was able to peer over the top. It was a bicycle. Well not exactly a bicycle. I mean it started out as a bicycle but, it had all sorts of other weird stuff attached. I shifted my weight to get a better look when the crate tipped and I went crashing down into the snow.

Violet came running outside.

"Dave. What 're you doing out here without your coat on?"

"Uh. A science experiment."

"Science fair is over."

"Yea well this is isn't for a fair or anything. Its just ... part of my research."

"Really? About what?"

"Uhhh, I'm doing it on the conflagulations of goose bumps in cold air."

Violet looked at me as if I had a grapefruit growing out of my neck.

"Oh," she said. "Well, why don't you come on in here and get out of the cold. Its freezing out here."

I couldn't believe it. All this worrying and wondering and she invites me into her secret laboratory just like that.

As soon as I got a closer look I I could see Sister Science wasn't building any bicycle. This contraption made Jim Joosten's linear accelerator look like a tinker toy model.

The bicycle was welded to some kind of stand that lifted the wheels off the ground. Coming off the seat was a long bar attached to a lampshade.

"Wow Violet, what is this thing?"

"Aw nothing, really."

"No, this is something Violet. I mean this is really something, but what is it?"

"Well its..."

Before she could answer, the outside door to her house slammed shut and a voice roared out. "Violet! Violet where are you!"

I ducked down behind a big drum of oil and her Dad barged into the shed.

"What are you doing out here so late?"

Before she could answer, he bellowed out again. "Oh what do we have here? Isn't this great! That's what we need around this house another piece of scientific junk. And what does this machine do Violet. Measure ultraviolet rays?"

"No."

"Tell me. Tell me what you've been wasting your time on now. "

"Its a happiness machine."

Mr. Henderson's mouth twisted into this sick kind of half smile. "A happiness machine. What's wrong... Cant wait to get your hands on some $200 shoes like Janie Adams, eh? Or maybe you want to be able to stay out until midnight like Lisa, or lets see maybe you want to live in a big fancy house."

He climbed up on the happiness machine. Oh yea I feel happy already. Then he started pedaling and the lampshade lifted up to reveal an umbrella. Well. Or what used to be an umbrella anyway. All that was left now were the metal spokes sticking out all round. There were little pieces of ribbon dangling down from each one of these. Attached to the ends of the ribbon was a bunch of weird stuff. Baseball cards, a donut, a dollar bill, an angel from a the top of a Christmas tree, a sand dollar, a harmonica, an old 45 record.

Violet had the bike geared up so the stuff moved around real slowly right at eye level, Mr Atkinson's eyes followed each item for a little then spun back to catch the next one. He started to pedal faster, and when he did, an an old movie projector mounted to the handlebars turned on and showed movies against the wall. At first it was too dim to really see. But the faster he pedaled the brighter the light got. It looked old family movies. There was Mr. Atkinson and a little girl that looked like Violet and there was a woman all playing at the beach and mugging at the camera. Suddenly a spray filled the air, a spray that smelled like.. well like dirty gym sox.

By now Mr Atkinson was pedaling like he was chasing after an ice cream truck, tears streaming down his face like he wasn't able to catch it.

I felt so badly for Violet. Here she spends all this time making a happiness machine and it does the exactly opposite... But the strangest thing was Violet started to smile. She didn't just smile like "smile for the picture" smile. She smiled a "here's $20 bucks run down and get a wagonful of cotton candy" smile.

Violet was happy.

Her Dad hopped off the bike and knelt down next to her, hugging her like crazy. Now he was smiling too through these buckets of tears. Man I'll never figure grown-ups out. I slipped out the door and ran screaming into my house. "Violet's happy! Violet's happy!'

Course no one knew what I was talking about, but I didn't care because, well because Violet was happy and for a few hours that's all that mattered

The next day she brought a gift over to my house. I got all blushed up as Mom let her in and we sat on the sofa together. "I don't have to open this now do I?"

She shook her head. "No I just wanted to thank you... for everything."

"Aw I'm sorry about leaving all that junk at your house Violet..." I said all embarrassed.

"No Dave, that was really sweet. It made me feel good that someone cared so much about me. Its just there were so many layers of hurt. But out there in the snow you reminded me that you can't wait around for someone to make you happy, you have to do that for yourself.

That's when I realized Violet didn't build the happiness machine for herself. She built it for her Dad. But the thing was... the happiness machine didn't really didn't make her Dad happy. It just showed him all the happiness he has had, all the happiness that was still out here to get yet. But there was something I still couldn't figure.

"Violet,I understand all those things hanging down from the umbrella were probably things your Dad liked. But the spray stuff, it smelled kind of like..."

"Dirty gym sox. Dad used to be a great basketball player, that's the only thing I could think of to make him remember those days."

Violet moved away with her Father the next summer. She still sends me letters from time to time. When she moved, she left me the happiness machine. I've still got it. Its all rusted up down my basement. But it works. Whenever I feel badly, I just hop on and take it for a ride.
***

"Good luck with your science project... are you going to build a happiness machine?"

"No way.. I'm gonna do the one about jello."

© David Strohm

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Floating umbrellas

The Happiness Machine

"Hey there King, what are you up to?"

"Science project time."

"Oh Boy. I remember those. What are you doing yours on?"

"That's just it... I have no idea. "

"Well you could always build a happiness machine."

"Right."

"No really... I know someone who did..."

***


She was 3 years older than I was so I didn't know her real well. In fact I probably never would have met her except for this snow day back when I was in 3rd grade. You don't get many snow days out here in California but where I come, from there isn't a more exciting day of the year except for your birthday of course

As soon as I found out school was canceled I got all decked up in so many scarves and sweaters and shirts that I looked like one of the Apollo spacemen and headed outside to face the great white.

There are all these things you can do on a snow day Sledding Snowmen, skating, forts. By the end of the afternoon I've usually done all of them. But the first thing... I mean the very first thing I had to do is walk down off the porch into the field behind our house, fall backwards into the snow and make a snow angel. It was something about making contact with the snow. Kind of a celebration.

So There I was, sunk down deep into the drifts, staring at the sky when another astronaut with fur all around its face hovered over me. It stared down for a moment then said, "Is that you Dave?"

It knew my name! "Yea, its me," I answered.

"Well for what its worth I want you to know I don't think jello thickening is such a bad experiment at all."

Violet Henderson. It had to be. Who else would be talking about science experiments on a snow day.

Violet was this major math whiz Kids in school called Her sister Science. When she was in 3rd and 4th grade she won the science fair for the whole school and since then kids didn't even try for first. When Principal Flaherty gave a speech opening the experiment exhibition, he said the experiments ranged from photosynthesis to jello thickening. Of course Violet was the one doing photosynthesis and I was the one with the jello and everyone giggled about it all day long.

Violet's parents were divorced and then her Mom died and she moved in with her Dad last fall in the house right behind ours. Mrs. Kerchek next door told my Mom Mr Henderson was a piano player with a drinking problem. But Mrs Kerchek says lots of stuff. Like I say, I didn't really know her cause she was so much older than me and you know... she was a girl.

Violet plopped down beside me in a puff of snow. "I live right over here you know."

"Yea I know. I hear your Dad playing the piano all the time. He's good."

"He's going to be a concert pianist some day, she said. Right now he plays down at Martinettis restaurant. You know... just until his manager has time to set the concerts up."

"He works real late huh?"

"Yea. How did you know."

"I hear him turn on the TV when he comes home."

"TV?" she said. "We don't even have a TV."

"You must. They sound like army shows or something... lots of screaming and yelling?"

A blanket of silence sat on us until I could hardly breathe.

"Are you happy Dave?"

"Sure," I said, spearing snowflakes with my tongue.

"No I don't mean right now. I mean... like usually."

"Its hard telling really. I think... I'm happy all the time except when I'm not. Aw that sounds stupid doesn't it."

"No. No it doesn't Dave. Not at all. I think that's how it should be. "

"Don't you feel like that, Violet?"

"No way. Not any more. It feels like a hole down here... In my heart When I'm happy now, its like something special... something different. Its gotten so I can't even remember what being happy feels like."

I JUST WANT TO BE HAPPY AGAIN
I JUST WANT THIS LONG TRAIN OF SADNESS TO END
I JUST WANT TO BE HAPPY AGAIN.

The snow felt warm and comfy around my body. "You know Violet, sometimes when bad stuff happens I have to make myself happy."

"Yea. But how do you do that... I cant remember how. "

"You just... well just think of ... of fun things.. You know fishing and marbles and hide and go seek out in the trees when its nice and hot out."

"Dave you're a genius."

I am? Violet Hendesron was calling me a genius. I didn't know this girl but I definitely liked her.

"Hey Violet you wouldn't want to go tobogganing would you?"

I was afraid I shouldn't have asked because she didn't answer but when I sat up and looked over she was gone... all that was left was the impression of a gorgeous white angel.

By the time I came in that day I was so frozen stiff that Mom had to put me in a chair by the heat register to thaw before I could even get my clothes off. While that was happening I started thinking about Violet and how yechy it would be to have that hole in your heart all the time. I started thinking about how I might be able to make her happy again.

I knew how to get my sister unscared, and I could make my Mom laugh, but I wasn't really sure how to plug up a hole in a heart. Luckily Aunt Olive did. I remember Uncle Dean saying something about having to stay away from her chocolate fudge because the doctor said it would plug up his heart. Well, as soon as I was able to peel off my wet clothes, I called her up and made a batch right from her recipe. I could hear Violet banging away in her workshop, so I figured it was safe and snuck the candy up to her door in a pillowcase...
The next day I camped out about 10 feet away from her locker... but she didn't look any better. I mean not at all. My fudge had a way of not exactly setting right so I figured she didn't like it and decided to get her some candy bars instead. Course I didn't know which kind she liked so I bought her a Snickers, a Milky Way and a Peanut Butter Cup. That ought to plug up a heart big time.
The day after that she still looked kind of sad and lost.
Finally it hit me. How stupid can you get? Thinking that you can plug a hole in a 6th grader's heart with candy. 6th graders were into stuff like, I don't know -- clothes and stuff. Course there was no way I was gonna be caught buying girl clothes at the department store, so I kind of borrowed one of Cheryl's silky scarfs that she had hanging forever in her closet. And when that didn't work I made a pretty card with a heart on it and signed it "from a secret admirer."

But none of it helped. And as I lay in bed at night, all I could think of was that day in the snow

I JUST WANT TO BE HAPPY AGAIN
I JUST WANT THIS LONG TRAIN OF SADNESS TO END
I JUST WANT TO BE HAPPY AGAIN.

Ever since the snow day Violet seemed to be spending all of her time in the toolshed. I could hear her banging away late into the night. What could she be working on, I wondered ... the science fair was over . Finally I couldn't stand the suspense any longer. There was a little ventilation hole at the peak of the tool shed . I figured if I piled all of my Mom's tomato crates on top of one another I might be able to peek down into the shed. So it tried it, but was still about 2 inches short even on tip toes. I took off my jacket and bunched it up and stood on that too. Now I was only an inch short I was so close now I ripped off my shirt and bunched it up too.
Finally I was able to peer over the top. It was a bicycle. Well not exactly a bicycle. I mean it started out as a bicycle but, it had all sorts of other weird stuff attached. I shifted my weight to get a better look when the crate tipped and I went crashing down into the snow.

Violet came running outside.

"Dave. What 're you doing out here without your coat on?"

"Uh. A science experiment."

"Science fair is over."

"Yea well this is isn't for a fair or anything. Its just ... part of my research."

"Really? About what?"

"Uhhh, I'm doing it on the conflagulations of goose bumps in cold air."

Violet looked at me as if I had a grapefruit growing out of my neck.

"Oh," she said. "Well, why don't you come on in here and get out of the cold. Its freezing out here."

I couldn't believe it. All this worrying and wondering and she invites me into her secret laboratory just like that.

As soon as I got a closer look I I could see Sister Science wasn't building any bicycle. This contraption made Jim Joosten's linear accelerator look like a tinker toy model.

The bicycle was welded to some kind of stand that lifted the wheels off the ground. Coming off the seat was a long bar attached to a lampshade.

"Wow Violet, what is this thing?"

"Aw nothing, really."

"No, this is something Violet. I mean this is really something, but what is it?"

"Well its..."

Before she could answer, the outside door to her house slammed shut and a voice roared out. "Violet! Violet where are you!"

I ducked down behind a big drum of oil and her Dad barged into the shed.

"What are you doing out here so late?"

Before she could answer, he bellowed out again. "Oh what do we have here? Isn't this great! That's what we need around this house another piece of scientific junk. And what does this machine do Violet. Measure ultraviolet rays?"

"No."

"Tell me. Tell me what you've been wasting your time on now. "

"Its a happiness machine."

Mr. Henderson's mouth twisted into this sick kind of half smile. "A happiness machine. What's wrong... Cant wait to get your hands on some $200 shoes like Janie Adams, eh? Or maybe you want to be able to stay out until midnight like Lisa, or lets see maybe you want to live in a big fancy house."

He climbed up on the happiness machine. Oh yea I feel happy already. Then he started pedaling and the lampshade lifted up to reveal an umbrella. Well. Or what used to be an umbrella anyway. All that was left now were the metal spokes sticking out all round. There were little pieces of ribbon dangling down from each one of these. Attached to the ends of the ribbon was a bunch of weird stuff. Baseball cards, a donut, a dollar bill, an angel from a the top of a Christmas tree, a sand dollar, a harmonica, an old 45 record.

Violet had the bike geared up so the stuff moved around real slowly right at eye level, Mr Atkinson's eyes followed each item for a little then spun back to catch the next one. He started to pedal faster, and when he did, an an old movie projector mounted to the handlebars turned on and showed movies against the wall. At first it was too dim to really see. But the faster he pedaled the brighter the light got. It looked old family movies. There was Mr. Atkinson and a little girl that looked like Violet and there was a woman all playing at the beach and mugging at the camera. Suddenly a spray filled the air, a spray that smelled like.. well like dirty gym sox.

By now Mr Atkinson was pedaling like he was chasing after an ice cream truck, tears streaming down his face like he wasn't able to catch it.

I felt so badly for Violet. Here she spends all this time making a happiness machine and it does the exactly opposite... But the strangest thing was Violet started to smile. She didn't just smile like "smile for the picture" smile. She smiled a "here's $20 bucks run down and get a wagonful of cotton candy" smile.

Violet was happy.

Her Dad hopped off the bike and knelt down next to her, hugging her like crazy. Now he was smiling too through these buckets of tears. Man I'll never figure grown-ups out. I slipped out the door and ran screaming into my house. "Violet's happy! Violet's happy!'

Course no one knew what I was talking about, but I didn't care because, well because Violet was happy and for a few hours that's all that mattered

The next day she brought a gift over to my house. I got all blushed up as Mom let her in and we sat on the sofa together. "I don't have to open this now do I?"

She shook her head. "No I just wanted to thank you... for everything."

"Aw I'm sorry about leaving all that junk at your house Violet..." I said all embarrassed.

"No Dave, that was really sweet. It made me feel good that someone cared so much about me. Its just there were so many layers of hurt. But out there in the snow you reminded me that you can't wait around for someone to make you happy, you have to do that for yourself.

That's when I realized Violet didn't build the happiness machine for herself. She built it for her Dad. But the thing was... the happiness machine didn't really didn't make her Dad happy. It just showed him all the happiness he has had, all the happiness that was still out here to get yet. But there was something I still couldn't figure.

"Violet,I understand all those things hanging down from the umbrella were probably things your Dad liked. But the spray stuff, it smelled kind of like..."

"Dirty gym sox. Dad used to be a great basketball player, that's the only thing I could think of to make him remember those days."

Violet moved away with her Father the next summer. She still sends me letters from time to time. When she moved, she left me the happiness machine. I've still got it. Its all rusted up down my basement. But it works. Whenever I feel badly, I just hop on and take it for a ride.
***

"Good luck with your science project... are you going to build a happiness machine?"

"No way.. I'm gonna do the one about jello."

© David Strohm
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David Strohm, when he isn't looking for his lost car keys or checkbook, uses his active imagination to produce Boomerang, an audio magazine for, well, it's supposed to be for children. but it's really about big ideas. You can send for information to:
Boomerang
PO Box 261 W         or call 1-800-333-7858
La Honda CA 94020

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