Grupo AMANUENSE - INFECTIOUS LAUGHTER

Jaime Gamboa / MarĂ­a Elena Valdez

Jaime Gamboa / MarĂ­a Elena Valdez Translated by Eliot Greenspan

There was no place more beautiful than Silent Country...

Sshhhhhh. . .Â

If someone from a neighboring nation wanted to enter Silent Country, she had to do it in silence. This was particularly hard for those from Echoville, who, no matter how hard they tried, couldn’t quiet the thump of their steps.

Silent Country was beautiful for two reasons. For one, since nobody could shout out orders, commands were given through signs and signals.

For example, when the President of Silent Country wanted biscuits and butter, she would open her mouth as wide as possible, twirl around twice with her tongue in the air, and squint three times.

With that, her secretary knew to heat up two biscuits, flip them, spread three spoonfuls of butter on top, and be back before the President passed out from hunger.

Complicated?

Just imagine trying to order troops into battle. Impossible!

The second reason Silent Country was so beautiful was that —unable to speak— the people learned to express themselves through drawing and painting.

In school, the meaning of colors was taught in place of the alphabet: yellow exclaimed: “what a pretty day!”, blue was used to imitate the sound of birds, white meant: “we come in peace”, and red said... Well, I’ll tell you that shortly...

Step by step, the people of Silent Country could use colors to say anything. They could share news, argue about philosophy, and even laugh uncontrollably, all without opening their mouths.

To say something, they just drew some lines with the colored chalk or pencils they carried around with them all the time.

The houses of Silent Country —as you might expect— were all painted in the most creative ways. The paint changed to match the mood of those living inside. If a young wife gave birth to a baby girl, the father would paint the house red.

So, now I can tell you: red was used to declare,“I’m happy!”

Everything was going great in Silent Country until the colors ran out...

When the people went to paint one day, there was no more colored chalk.

Everything was used up!

That day, the rainbow was black and white‌ a sad grimace in the sky.

There was no color in trees, and none in rocks. The morning dew had lost its silver shine, and even squid had lost its ink.

“How is this possible?!” people cried. And to do this, they stuck their lower lips very, very, very far out, making the biggest pout ever seen.

“Now what do we do?” others asked, raising their shoulders ten times in a row.

And, with great sadness, they sat and watched as their beautiful country was drained of color, becoming the greyest of nations.

Then, something amazing happened‌ In the midst of complete silence, someone laughed!

At first, the people of Silent Country were very scared. They didn’t know what laughter was.

Ever alert, the police began to search for the source of such noise, the first sound in the history of Silent Country.

After searching for a long time, following the trail left in the air by the burst of laughter, the police discovered its source, which startled them even more. Hidden in a closet of the Government Building was the President herself, unable to contain her laughter.

One of the policemen opened his eyes wide and drew circles in the air next to his ear with one finger, so as to say: “she’s gone crazy!�

Still laughing, the President tried to explain: “It’s just that when the colo… hohohoho… colors ran out I was very saahahaha... sad.

And without mehehehe... meaning to, I looked in the mirrohohoho... mirror, and I looked so ugly, that it made me laugh!”

As they listened to their President speak, they began to feel something strange. At first, it felt like butterflies in the stomach, or as if a mouse was running around under their clothes. One had the urge to cough, but instead of a cough, a strange “ha!� come out.

Other policemen covered their mouths, trying to keep quiet.

Just then, one of the cops fell to the floor grasping his belly and rolling around as if in great pain, but it was a laughter attack.

When the Chief of Police arrived he found his officers and the President in a fit of laughter, grasping their bellies and rolling around the floor. He wanted to be angry, but began laughing along with them all.

One hour later, the whole country was infected.

And that was how Silent Country became the Land of Infectious Laughter. From that time on, bitter people, those walking around with furrowed brows and the fool who cannot stand the laughter of children get sent there to be cured.

And what happened to the colors? Were they gone for good?

Luckily, no. The people of nearby Color Country sent them tons of new paints and colored chalk, in exchange for the secret of laughter, particularly when the world seems grey.

Jaime Gamboa Goldenberg Is a Costa Rican communicator, a writer, and musician. He is well known in Central America as a member of the music band Malpais, for which he has written over 30 songs.

As a writer he has published stories for grownups (The Impossible Orchestra), and a book dedicated to the conservation of nature (Magic Trees).

Infectious Laughter is his first children book. As expected, the text is full of colors and images, which the author has used in his creations.

For Amanuense he also write The ghost story.

María Elena Valdez Published by: Grupo Amanuense® Address: 3ra. Avenida, Tronco 2, Sección A, Lote 5, El Encinal. Zona 7 Mixco.

GUATEMALA, CENTROAMÉRICA Phone: (502) 2434-7831 / (502) 2431-8243 editorial@grupo-amanuense.com www.grupo-amanuense.com ISBN: 978-9929-8058-5-9 First Edition 2012 D.R. © This edition, Grupo Amanuense, S.A. 2012 © 2011 Jaime Gamboa © 2011 María Elena Valdez All rights reserved. Not including the right to reproduce this book or keep it in any storage device. This book cannot be reproduced partially or in any form whatsoever.

For information regarding copyright, please contact literaria@grupo-amanuense.com

Is a Venezuelan illustrator and graphic designer. She studied at the School of Visual Arts Cristobal Rojas in Caracas.

In 2006, she founded “Guanábana Mecánica - Nanqka Group” a graphic design studio specializing in digital retouching and illustration. María Elena defined this experience as “research, dedication, experimentation, dream, magic, smells, textures, sounds, music, tastes ... is the one’s look combined with the word of others”.

For Amanuense, María Elena also illustrated Learningalphabet (written by Héctor Cruz Corzo).

In a country where the spoken word does not exist, the people learn to say everything by drawing! They use the color yellow to say: what a beautiful day!; color blue to imitate birds and color white to express, “we come in peace�. Everything was going great, until one day the unthinkable happened: they ran out of colored ink! How would they communicate? Faced with this dilemma, was the solution hidden in a laugh?