something sour

STREET

011619

1:05pm

something sour gathers in the township. up in the north, the trees look angrier, more gangling. there are no more birds. they've all left for okinawa. somewhere slower. a few journalists choose to stay, remaining loyal to the township. they've each reported similar cases—"behavioral phenomena".

"mothing," they call it. only last month, it was "mouthing". they also say occurs most at night, and more often with the young. a slew of videos are flooding the internet, showing multiple peoples—young graduates, mostly. these videos are long because nobody has edited them, and because they stand for up to two hours, facing light sources. in all of the videos, they seem to be grinning. what's puzzling is that, in the mornings, they go back to work. when asked about their activity, or even confronted with the video, the reply is always the same: "it was pretty". 

this goes on for months. nobody is affected, yet nobody can stop thinking about it. inside, families begin to interrupt each other by saying "i love you", usually when the speaker is talking about themselves. outside, policemen have started seem genuinely curious about whether or not you're having a good time. they ask if you know what's "the way to go". they close their eyes thoughtfully as they ask. then they tell you to take it easy, to keep on the keeping on. they smile as they do this. 

slowly the sour grows. it tastes like air, after fireworks.