Buzzzzzzz…Buzzzzzz…Buzzzzzz.  Ben was finishing up his morning rituals.  Shaving was always the next to last step before heading out the door.  He not only had to shave his face, he also had to shave his nose and ear hairs on a daily basis.  He was a hair growing machine on all parts of his body, except on the top of his shiny blue dome.

Passed down from generation to generation, not a single man on his mother’s side of the family had graduated college with anything sticking out from below their cap and tassel.  Most looked old enough to get AARP discounts before they even finished high school.  Exaggerated widow’s peaks, comb overs, wigs and hair pieces were the norm.

As he finished up the nose hairs, he reached out to grab his toupee so he could head to work.  But his hand returned to his head empty.  He turned to look at the handmade stand that his great grandfather had made more than 100 years ago, only to confirm that his toupee was indeed missing.

“JUDE…ALEX!!! Get your buns down here NOW!!!”, he yelled to his kids.   They scampered down the stairs as quickly as possible.  Dad did not yell often, so this must be serious they thought.  Ben’s wife Josephine was right on the kid’s heels, as she too had only heard Ben scream a handful of times since they met.

The whole family was crowded together in the tiny bathroom staring at Ben, when he asked:

“Do you see something missing?”

The kids started darting their eyes around searching the room, while his wife stared straight at him, afraid to break eye contact for fear she would bust out laughing.

Jude was the first to speak up.  “Umm...is it your bone white tiny tie? Cuz, I think it would go better with that blue shirt.

“No, that’s not it.  All my tiny ties are in the right spot,” Ben shot back at his eldest son. “Plus, I like my red power tiny tie. White would not have the same commanding presence.”

His younger son, Alex, chimed in, “I’m so so so sorry dad.  I went through your watch collection and picked out one to wear to school yesterday.  I didn’t think you would miss it since you have 377 more.  I’ll bring it right down.”

“Stay right where you are,” Ben growled.  “I did not notice the missing watch, but I have already picked one to wear to work today.  Try again.”

Turning his gaze to his wife, “Jo, you have been quiet there.  Do you have any guesses what is missing?”  Jo, slowly shook her head no without saying a word, still stifling a smile.

Of course, all three knew exactly what was missing.  The kids had seen that same clump of hair perched on top of dad’s head since they were born.  Plus, they had seen pictures of their grandfather and great-grandfather with that exact same hair.  Dad’s hair was sacred and was not something to mess with. They had never seen their dad jump in a swimming pool and had gotten in trouble more than once for spraying dad with the water hose when they washed the car.

Both boys still had a full head of hair, but they knew that their day would come…sooner rather than later.  Each hoped that the other went bald first to “earn” the right to be the next in line for that ancient toupee.

Josephine had known Ben for almost a year before she saw him without that fuzzy thing on his head.  But she had already fallen head over heels for him and his sexy tiny ties, so even if he had a parrot perched on top of his head 24 hours a day, it would not have changed her feelings for him.

“no! nO! NO!” Ben’s frustration was rising and he started to turn red, no…purple.  He turned around to grab the toupee stand, and that’s when they saw it.  Josephine was the first to lose it.  She was laughing so hard that her eyes watered and she doubled over with her hands covering her face trying not to collapse onto the floor.

Alex and Jude were laughing and pointing at their dad’s butt.  Jude bit his tongue for a second, but then blurted out, “Dad, you got the hairiest bum I’ve ever seen.”  With that, Ben’s family all fell to the floor in fits of laughter.

Embarrassed, he reached back and pulled his family “hairloom” from his backside and perched it back on top of his head, moving it around to get it just right. He had to step over his family, still howling on the floor, to get out of the bathroom.  Through his own sheepish smile, he apologized to his family for accusing them and headed to his car.

Before he closed the door, he heard Jo call out to him “Have a good day sweetie, glad we won’t have to ‘comb’ the house all day for your hair.”  At least, that is what Ben assumed she said. The last few words were unintelligible as she and the kids were laughing hysterically again.

Ben smiled knowing it was all coming from a place of love.  He had the best family, and family was better than any watch, tiny tie, or head full of hair in the whole world.

Hope you enjoyed.

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Storms raged outside the giant translucent dome housing the new, state of the art, bubblegum manufacturing facility.  Electrical storms where not uncommon, but the severity of this storm was shocking.

Danny Bubbel, the KEO (Kid Executive Officer) of Futuristic Gumball Co., floated around the busy production floor surveying that everything was still running well.  More efficient than any of his competitors’ machines, the new factory was filling up with the brightly colored candy covered goodness of the “Best Bubblegum in the Universe”.  Danny may have been a little biased, but he did have a fancy plaque in his office that supported this claim.

Traveling across galaxies for the best ingredients, the Bubbel family had long been the top gum producer in all Bubblegum Land and its floating suburbs. This was Danny’s first shot at running his own factory, and he was awarded the newest location in the growing suburb of Chew York.

The storms outside were menacing, but he was calmed by everything continuing to run smoothly.  Thousands of gumballs running the gumball obstacle course from sifting, to churning, to tumbling, coloring and finally into packaging, all with 100% automation. His gum maker helmet, while not so stylish, excelled at keeping Danny updated with the diagnostic results of every machine in the factory in millisecond increments.  Irregularities were noted immediately.

A blinding flash from the storm outside was followed by a loud *POP* inside that rang throughout the busy production facility.  Sirens began to blare.  Louder and louder, until Danny realized it was his gum maker helmet signaling that not one, but all machines were offline.  Just as he yanked the helmet off his head and threw it across the room to stop the sirens in his ears…silence. The wailing was replaced by the gentle hum of the machines as instantly the factory was back to full production.

The gum maker went to grab his helmet and jam it back on his head to check the factory status.  As he checked the displays and listened to the initial reports, he shut his eyes and breathed a huge sigh of relief.  Everything was running as if it had never stopped. Standing there with his eyes closed, taking deep breathes and imagining what would have happened if he had to holochat his dad to tell him that the factory had melted down.  His dad would have teleported into the arrival zone, taken his helmet, changed the quantumeteric pass codes, and sent Danny back to Bubblegum Land proper so fast that it would create a time warp.

The calming beeps and soft voice of the status updates pushed the thoughts of his furious dad out of his head and he returned to a state of zen before he slowly reopened his eyes.  But he quickly shut them again.  Opened! Closed! Opened…Closed! He gave his head a good shake and took one more peak towards the production floor.

WHAT WAS GOING ON?!?

Did he ruin the helmet when he threw it across the room?  How could it be reporting that everything was running perfectly…but there was NO GUM coming off the line?

A quick survey and everything looked normal.  The mixers churned, tumblers tumbled, and the conveyor fields were moving exactly as they should be. Danny checked the end of the line and saw the packages drop into place, lids were opened then closed and sealed, followed by the packages being whisked away to the inventory vaults.  But there were NO gumballs.

Danny frantically hit the thruster on his boost suit, zooming across the facility to the production starting zone.  Ingredients were being measured and mixed in exact proportions as expected. Out of habit, he checked his helmet’s displays to ensure no issues. He had watched this mixing process since before he could float without a bubble suit, so he instinctively knew everything was running perfectly even without the displays.

Thrusting over a couple of zones to the tumblers, he could see the gum entering one side and blasts of flavored colors entering from the other.  Again, status displays read everything in sync.  This had always been Danny’s favorite process.  When he was younger, he would sneak into the old tumbler rooms, put his face in front of the color jets and trigger the auto spray.  His dad always knew what Danny had done, as there was more spray on young Danny’s face than in his mouth.  Dad never called him out, but special sensors were added to stop Danny’s face painting adventures.  Even these newest versions of the tumblers included the sensors, just in case Danny got any ideas.

With everything looking normal, he floated into the Rainbow Zone where the gumballs would appear from the tumblers in the many awesome colors and flavors that made Futuristic Gumball Co. the best in the universe.  But there was nothing arriving in the conveyor field.  The gum should be dropping from the tumblers into the hazy field of particles that moved the gumballs from machine to machine.  But there was nothing there.

Danny peeked back around the corner at the tumblers and there was still gum and sprays of color filling and refilling the tumblers.  The gum had to be going somewhere because the tumblers were not overflowing…But where?  It certainly wasn’t going into the Rainbow Room.

Oh no! That feeling crept back in as Danny realized he may have to holochat his dad after all.

He gave his boost suit some extra thrust as he rushed to the end of the production line. But despite reversing thrust, he couldn’t stop when he got there.  He slid right past the end of the line, crashing into some nearby empty packages.  Well…the packages looked empty, but they sure hurt when they fell on his head.  It felt like the time he played hide-n-seek in the inventory vault and knocked over a whole cabinet full of gumballs on his head.

That was it!  He couldn’t take it anymore.  He needed help.  The holoscreen appeared from his helmet and his dad was immediately on screen.

“That was quite the storm…” Mr. Bubbel stopped short seeing his son sprawled on the floor with empty boxes and packages surrounding him. Danny tried to hold it together, jumping straight into what had happened giving a technical step-by-step analysis of product lost and expected financial effects. But his story soon turned into sobs and unintelligible words that were more snot than sound.

His dad couldn’t make out everything, but he caught enough.  Mr. Bubbel cracked a smile, then a full on fit of laughter.  Danny was not amused. No…he was confused.

Why wasn’t his dad yelling?

Why was his dad still on the holochat?

Why wasn’t he in the teleport arrival zone ready to take back control of the factory?

Waaaaaait…

Why did his dad laugh like a little girl?!?

No longer crying, Danny mustered the courage to ask his dad what the heck was going on. “Do you remember when you used to stick your head in the tumblers to drink the flavored colors?” his dad asked.  Danny nodded.  Of course, he remembered.

Dad went into storyteller mode:

The nano-technology created to keep you out, in rare instances, can make the molecular components of the spray unstable.  The combination of the unstable spray with the gum’s ingredients can temporarily turn the gum invisible.  Tonight’s storms must have destabilized the molecules. It happened once before when you were much younger.  Don’t worry.  The effects will reverse in about an hour.  The only product lost are those gumballs under your booty right now.

After another giggle, Mr. Bubbel gave his son a quick pep talk to let him know everything was OK. Then the holoscreen, his dad, and the stress from the missing gumballs disappeared.

Relieved, and a little embarrassed, Danny stood up, dusted himself off and promptly slid across the floor on the invisible gumballs that he had already forgotten surrounded him. At least this time Danny smiled and let out a little laugh.  He then found himself a good spot to watch as all the invisible gumballs began to reveal themselves.

Never a boring day at the Futuristic Gumball Co.

Hope you enjoyed.

Need help on how to collect this Mirror post, here is a tutorial from GregYounger.Eth

For more stories follow me on Twitter:

Main account - BTDwayne.eth|NFT_Dee

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