Work Order
A Thursday Prompt story
© 2024 by Walter Reimer

Prompt: filing



“Mister Ricker?” The beagle turned away from looking out of the business’ front window as the representative entered the room. “Sorry about the wait.”

“It’s only been two hours,” Fred Ricker said, trying hard to keep the asperity out of his voice. “So you found it?”

The representative, an anteater, nodded and flourished the sheet of paper in one paw. “It was in the cabinet under Flicker.”

The canine’s ears rose briefly in concert with his eyebrows. “My name’s Ricker. There’s no Fs in it.” He allowed himself a wry smile. “You might say I have no Fs to give.” His grin widened slightly when the anteater chuckled. “What beats me is why you couldn’t do anything when I called you.”

“Look, to be straight with you, I don’t take a dump without a work order,” and the anteater consulted the paper in his paws. “Says here you need an emergency shutoff of your natural gas.”

“Yeah, there’s a lea – “ Both furs flinched at an earthshaking roar of sound that cracked the plate glass window. The beagle turned in time to see a huge fireball loft its way skyward, trailing debris and a dirty grayish-black pall of smoke.

He turned to glare at the anteater, who said, “Okay, okay, I’ll shut your gas off.”

“Thanks.” The beagle dug out his phone and started calling his insurance company.



end