The Soup Kitchen By Luke Buster_mb@yahoo.com It was wintertime in Acme Acres. Snow slowly covered the ground. Everybody was getting ready for Christmas. Colored lights and other decorations neatly covered each building. Even Buster had his burrow entrance strung up with lights. Shelby's burrow entrance wasn't decorated, but inside, he had a few things placed in the living room. He had just put his decorations out. He was sitting on his couch watching television. Shelby looked up at the wall where a clock hung. It said 6:30. He hopped off of his couch and went to his coat rack, grabbed his coat and went outside. The snow still fell on the ground as Shelby walked towards town. He looked at all the lights and decorations on each house. Shelby looked down the street and saw some shadows run across the street. He wondered what the shadows were and kept walking. Shelby soon came to a white perimeter fence, and there was a hole in it, where Shelby guessed animals got through. Shelby: Boy, their owner is gonna be real upset… Shelby looked through the hole to see Elmyra scurrying around the yard trying to find her pets. She lifted up the bushes, looked under rocks, and even took a look under her house! Finally, she noticed the hole in her fence… and Shelby's head right in the middle of it. Shelby knew what was about to happen. He heard about Elmyra's escapades in school. Elmyra gave Shelby that "loving glare." Elmyra: Oooooooh! A cute bunny – wunny head to replace all of my other animals! Shelby: Oh, no… Elmyra: Come here and let me squeeze you to pieces! Shelby: Uhh, maybe some other time, bye! Shelby streaked down the street and around the corner before Elmyra even reached the fence. He looked around the corner to see Elmyra scanning the street, hoping to find him. Shelby tip-toed off down another street. Shelby: (thinking to himself) That was close! He wanted to find the soup kitchen he had volunteered to work at. Shelby wondered around the downtown area for a bit, then he found it. There was a sign on the front door that said "Kitchen" with an arrow pointing to the left. Shelby walked down the left side of the building and found a door that was cracked open. There was a welcoming aroma that leaked out of the doorway. It smelled like all kinds of soup. Shelby walked in to see a few other people standing at the pots. He looked around a little more, only to see one other pot in the corner, which had some light bulbs on it. Shelby peeked around the pot only to see Calamity Coyote hunched over looking around to see if what the pot was supposed to do did it's job. The boy genius twisted two wires together. He smiled, signifying that his invention was complete. Calamity looked behind himself to see Shelby curiously eyeing the cooking pot. Shelby: Hi, Calamity. I didn't know you did charity work. Calamity held up a sign. Calamity: First time. Shelby: Really?? And that cooking pot…? Calamity: Exactly. Shelby thought for a minute about Calamity's reply. Shelby: You mean it's your first time trying out that cooking pot, isn't it? Calamity: Yes. Shelby: Oh. Well, I hope it works. Calamity: Me too. Calamity looked over his invention while Shelby went and asked the cook what his job would be. He got an assignment, then went to work. He would be helping in the kitchen. Outside, Dizzy Devil was spinning around. He whirled down street after street until he sucked up an aromatic trail. He sniffed at it. Dizzy: Mmmmm. *slurp* Dizzy smell soup. It dinnertime! Dizzy started whirling around again following the scent to the soup kitchen. Dizzy looked at the sign on the front door of the building and spun towards the kitchen door. He peeked in to see all of the cooks standing at the cooking pots. He waited until they left. After a few minutes, the cooks went out to the dining hall. Dizzy had the whole kitchen to himself. Shelby walked back to the kitchen to find Dizzy about to pick up one of the soup pots. Shelby: Dizzy! Dizzy: What do you want? Dizzy want soup! Shelby: That's for the people in the dining hall, Dizzy. Dizzy: Ohhhhh… With that, Dizzy put the pot back on the stove. Dizzy: Dizzy hungry. Dizzy want to eat something. Shelby: Well, I'll see if I can't get some for you after we close up. Dizzy: No, Dizzy want to eat now! Dizzy started to whirl around. He moved over to the pots and sucked them up in mere seconds! Shelby watched in both amazement and shock as the purple devil cleaned out the whole area around him. Dizzy: *UUUULLLLPPPP* Dizzy still hungry. He started spinning around again but this time he headed towards the dining hall! Everyone seated at the tables looked in shock as Dizzy spun into the room. Shelby ran after Dizzy as table after table was being decimated. Before anyone knew it, there were only people sitting in neat rows without tables or plates in front of them. Dizzy sat on the floor nearby with his stomach bulging. He ate everything in the whole soup kitchen. There was nothing left for anybody else. The people get angry. Someone: Get him!! Dizzy: Uh oh! Dizzy spun away from the crowd and out the front door, and down the street. Shelby walked up to the hole in the front door and looked through it. Everybody was looong gone. He decided to clean up Dizzy's mess. He was, after all, a volunteer there. The End