Night Shift at the ACME Warehouse



“Wow, Uncle Morton, this is going to be so great!  I’ve been wanting to come with you to work for like, forever!  I can’t believe I’m finally doing it,” exclaimed Jeremy.

“Well, don’t get yourself too excited now.  I told you this wasn’t going to be a good night for you to be here - I will be too busy tonight.  I’ve put this off until the eleventh hour, and now I don’t have much time at all,” said Morton as he unlocked the warehouse door.

“Yeah, I know, you’ll be busy inventing!” exclaimed Jeremy proudly.

Morton chuckled.  “No, Jeremy, I’ll be doing inventory,” he explained again as he opened the door.

“Even better!  Then I’ll be able to see all the cool stuff here!” Jeremy’s eyes widened to saucer proportion as his uncle flicked on the light switch.

“Just be careful and do as I say,” cautioned Morton as he grabbed his clipboard and pen.  “Remember there are a lot of dangerous things here.”

“Yeah, I know.  I’m a big boy now, remember?  I’m ten, in case you forgot,” boasted Jeremy.

“Then you’ll be a big help,” said Morton as he browsed through his inventory checklist.  “Ok, let’s start at this corner and work our way through the warehouse.  How many anvils do we have?”

 

 

Jeremy quickly counted the anvils on the shelf.  “Eleven,” he replied as Morton made note on his checklist.

“Ok, how many bottles of earthquake pills do we have?” asked Morton. 

 

 

 

Jeremy intently counted the bottles and reported the number to his uncle, proud to be such a big help.  They worked their way through the warehouse in such a fashion, and Morton had to admit that Jeremy was a big help.  He would have never made such progress on his own.

“We’re just about half-way through.  Let’s finish this row and stop for a snack.  How’s that sound?” Morton asked Jeremy.

“Sounds great!  I’m starving,” said Jeremy as he eyed something on the shelf.  “What’s this?” he asked as he picked it up.

Morton glanced up.  “It’s a disintegrating pistol, and it’s not a toy.  Put that thing down before you disintegrate something,” warned Morton.  “How many rolls of instant road do we have?” he asked.

 

 

Jeremy shifted the disintegrating pistol in his hand as he reached up to count the rolls.

“Uh, let’s see.  1, 2, 3, 4 - ” Jeremy accidentally jostled the pistol.  KA-PLOW!

 

 

“Uh, 4.  And one less pistol,” he replied, looking sheepishly up at his uncle.

“I told you that pistol was not a toy!  Now don’t touch anything else, I can’t afford to have any more inventory disintegrated,” ordered Morton sternly.  Jeremy backed away from the shelves and scurried over to the next aisle. 

“I’ll just wait for you over here,” Jeremy said as he rounded the corner.

“That’s fine,” replied Morton absently.  But just as he was about to check off the next item on his list, he realized what was on the next aisle.

“Jeremy!” he called as he ran after him. “Whatever you do, just stay away from the - ” he stopped abruptly as he turned the corner. 

“ - portable holes,” he finished lamely.

 

 

“Great,” he fretted as he looked around the empty aisle. “Now how am I going to explain that to his mother.”

 

©  Dahlia Ramone:  March 10, 2008/March 11, 2018

This was originally written for LFB on March 10, 2008, and modified for Blogophilia today.

Blogophilia Week 2, 11^th Year Topic:  Eleventh Hour

I used all the prompts last week and can’t get points for any now, but I’m still referring to one of them:

·      Mention Mars and a Looney Tune (I didn’t specifically do this, but I did incorporate AMCE products from the Looney Tunes cartoons - and Marvin does have a cameo ;) )

·      I am also reposting a favorite blog, but it was for Loaded for Blog, before Blogophilia existed.  Topic:  Write a story about the night-shift at the ACME warehouse.