When I think of a string of laughter I think of a 1920's laundry line; strung up high in a New York apartment building.
I think of a chubby sweaty woman jerking thick cotton rope along a pulley system and a mix pot of lips and laughter coming out of a deep wooden basket and out on the line. I imagine thick red lips, gapped front teeth and a loud husky laugh. I imagine thin lips and a moustache with a high pitched soft chuckle. I imagine wide mouths with gasping laughter, half smiles and giggles. The line is hung amongst underwear and petticoats, but the laughing is constant. I wonder who would be willing to give up their laugh for a good laundering? I wonder if an occasional washing keeps the laugh fresh. Once the laughs are all out on the line the rope makes an abrupt stop, and the laughs begin to swing which creates a wave of laughs; the laughs and their echoes travel from one apartment wall to another. The wind picks up and the laughs become more like wind chimes, the laughter settles into a gentle lull, more than a roaring chaos. When the wind hits a group of smiles, the laugh picks up. Clean clothes drip on the smiles , and white sheets stick to some of the mouths; that makes them laugh harder.
At the end of the day the chubby woman comes back to the window, sweatier than before, and begins jerking on the pulley system again, and the smiles start rolling back in. The movement excites them and the laughter picks back up to a ruckus. One by one the plump laughs fall into a clean basket. One of the evil laughs tries to bite her hand as she removes the clothes pin. She smacks it into the basket, and continues. She arrives to the last smile and pauses to look at it with great affection. She holds it with caution and her eyes light up. She opens her mouth and puts the smile on like dentures, and laughs until she has to brace herself on the window sil.l
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