Happy Smilers

Aubrey Shepard plans to see a movie with her friend Cassidy, but her father needs her help at the Timothy Center after Connie becomes ill. Aubrey has already lost much of her free time since the family moved there, and she fears she is losing her friendships too. She reluctantly cancels the outing and prepares refreshments for a gathering of the Society for Mental Improvement and Living Enthusiastically, better known as SMILE.

The convention fills the center with people who sing cheerful songs, repeat positive slogans, and answer nearly every problem with another forced smile. Aubrey finds their relentless happiness irritating and artificial. Even when one woman mentions that her husband has died, the group quickly covers the sadness with instructions to think positively.

The local chapter is celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary with a huge yellow cake. Guy Shaeffer, the national founder and president, is supposed to hide inside and leap out as a surprise. When Guy arrives, Aubrey tells him that he seems too old to jump from a cake and admits that the whole idea looks silly. He is annoyed by her bluntness but accepts her help climbing inside.

After a long introduction and the national SMILE song, Guy pops through the top of the cake. He barely begins his speech before collapsing from a heart attack. Aubrey, who once trained in CPR because she hoped to become a lifeguard, reacts immediately. Her quick response keeps him alive until medical help arrives.

At the hospital, the doctors believe the first attack is mild but still need tests to determine how badly Guy's heart has been damaged. He asks to meet the girl who rescued him and thanks Aubrey for saving his life. He also appreciates the honesty she displayed before his collapse. The convention delegates constantly perform happiness around him, but Aubrey says exactly what she thinks.

Guy asks whether Aubrey is truly as unhappy as she acts. She explains that her family once lived comfortably while her father earned good money. After her parents became Christians, they gave up their success to simplify their lives and serve at the Timothy Center. Aubrey resents trading her former home, friends, and opportunities for woods, plain clothes, and endless work making coffee for strangers.

Her parents, however, possess a happiness she admits is different from the club's behavior. They do not pretend that every difficulty is pleasant. Even when life is hard, they retain something deeper. Guy suggests that Aubrey may have made misery into a habit just as easily as SMILE members can make happiness into a performance. Aubrey counters that their cheerfulness can be fake. Each leaves the other with an uncomfortable truth to consider.

The convention continues while Guy recovers. Its local leader praises him publicly as endlessly positive and brings a six-foot greeting card to his hospital room. Guy finally orders him to leave. The heart attack has forced him to examine the life he built around slogans, conventions, and applause. Although positive thinking may have helped people, Guy now sees that repeating the proper words without inner truth turns them into parrots. His successful career has produced what he calls a poor life, with no solid foundation beneath its happiness.

When Aubrey visits again, Guy admits that he no longer knows what he believes. For the first time, he is willing to say so rather than cover his uncertainty with another slogan. He asks Aubrey about her own beliefs, and she cannot answer either. Guy urges them both to seek the truth. His failing heart has shown him that he may have little time left, while Aubrey still has a lifetime in which to change. He encourages her to begin by talking with her parents.

The SMILE delegates react badly to Guy's doubts. They cancel the remainder of the convention because of its negativity and begin a petition to remove their founder as president. Their refusal to face his honest questions exposes the weakness Guy has recognized in the movement.

Tom Riley invites Aubrey to accompany him on another hospital visit because Guy wants to tell her something. When they arrive, his room is empty. A nurse explains that Guy suffered a second, severe heart attack early that morning and died. Aubrey is shocked because he had seemed to be improving, and she grieves that she never said goodbye.

Tom then shares Guy's final news. During their last conversation, Guy asked questions about Jesus after reflecting on what Aubrey had said about her parents. Tom answered as well as he could, and the two prayed together as Guy accepted Jesus. Aubrey's honesty helped him stop pretending long enough to search for a faith that could support him at the end of his life.

That night, Aubrey asks her father whether he regrets everything the family surrendered. Ben does not. He believes they are following God's direction, and that is enough. He also distinguishes temporary happiness from lasting joy. When he asks what their changed life and Guy's death are doing inside her, Aubrey still cannot provide an answer. She does not claim a faith or decision she has not yet made, but she finally decides it is time to find out what she truly believes.