>>> Item number 31006 from WRITERS LOG9406A --- (42 records) ----- <<<
Date:         Fri, 3 Jun 1994 18:35:02 JST
Reply-To:     WRITERS <WRITERS@NDSUVM1.BITNET>
Sender:       WRITERS <WRITERS@NDSUVM1.BITNET>
From:         Mike Barker <barker@AEGIS.OR.JP>
Subject:      SUB:  The Anecdote Punchline Game

Hi, Kathy (KHANSEN@SUVAX1.STETSON.EDU (Kathy Hansen))

Good exercise.  Here's one attempt...

1) ". . . and if you have any more problems, we'll just be in your closet."

    Some mornings you really should turn over, pull the covers up, and
go back to sleep.
    That's what I should have done at the beginning.
    Instead, when I heard the screatch, screatch, screatch from the
closet door, I got up and opened it.  Then I went back and flopped on
the bed.
    Too many years with dogs.  They might never have been trained well,
but I certainly was.
    So I missed the invasion.
    It could have happened to anyone.
    I slept through the whole thing.  I guess once I had opened the
door, they thought I deserved my sleep.
    As they were leaving, I woke up again.  Probably the hinges on the
closet needed oiling.  I turned over and managed to get one eyelid up
just in time to see a purple face grinning at me from the darkness while
a tastefully green-tinted arm pulled the closet door shut again.
    Obviously it saw me, for it paused just long enough to tell me,
gently, "and if you have any more problems, we'll just be in your
closet."
    I thought about it.
    Then I listened to the silence outside.  Monday morning, the middle
of the city, I'd overslept, and it was completely silent outside.
    So I turned over, pulled the covers up, and went back to sleep.
    It seemed like the right thing to do.
    When I wake up, I'm going to nail that door shut.

[okay, okay, it's more than a paragraph.  the end of the world deserves
a few extra words, don't you think?]

tink