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Shanon was starting to get really worried. It had been almost half an hour since she clocked in and she still hadn’t seen Shelly.
Usually Shelly would have been waiting on the train platform for her to arrive, waving excitedly from the moment the train pulled into view.
On the off chance Shelly wasn’t waiting for Shanon on the platform, she could usually be found in her room either oversleeping or distracted by flipping through dinosaur magazines.
On incredibly rare occasions, Shelly would be hanging out with another toon. Finding her was a tad more difficult then, but asking the toons if they knew where she was would lead Shanon straight to her.
That hadn’t happened this time. Shelly wasn’t waiting on the platform, she wasn’t in her room, and not a single toon seemed to know where she was. Shanon radioed the other handlers to see if one of them knew. None of them did.
The last thing Shanon wanted to do was go to Arthur about it. While he wouldn’t blame her, he was well known for overlooking mistakes of good workers, he would start a full on manhunt for her. Everyone would have to drop what they were doing to look for Shelly until she was found, which might delay opening if it took long enough. It had happened with Astro a few times before, and if Shelly caused one, the poor thing would probably never forgive herself.
After all of her immediate options were ruled out, Shanon decided to check some of the other floors in the hopes Shelly would be there. Her first choice was the one themed after the little ammonite shell. It felt like the elevator was moving slower than usual and Shanon practically sprang out when it reached the floor.
“Shells?” Shanon called.
She glanced to her left and right. Nothing.
“Shells? Are you here?” Shanon called again as she started to move further into the room.
Distant and slightly weak, a familiar voice called back, “Shanon?”
Shanon breathed a small sigh of relief while moving towards the voice. “Where have you been, Shelly? I’ve been looking all over for you!”
When Shanon rounded the corner, she still didn’t see anyone. There were the raptors Shelly had glued feathers onto and the brachiosaurus model, but no ammonite.
“I’ve been stuck up here!” Shelly sounded like she was somewhere above Shanon.
Shanon slowly lifted her gaze upwards. Perched on the brachiosaurus’ head, peeking over the side with a clearly terrified expression, was Shelly.
For a moment all Shanon could do was stare up at Shelly in shock. And then the panic set in.
“Shelly!”
Shanon ran over, anxiously pacing back and forth at the base of the model. This was bad. Really bad. Getting anything tall enough down here and set up would take a while and potentially delay opening, but forcing Shelly to jump down was out of the question.
“How did you even get up there?” Shanon asked while trying to figure out if dragging over a metal shelf would help any.
Shelly sniffled. “Yatta told me that the view was really good from up here so we climbed up together. Then she remembered that she had to do something else and left me up here. She promised she’d come back but she hasn’t yet.”
“It’s gonna be okay Shells, we’ll get you down!” Shanon looked around trying to think of anything that could help. “I’m going to go check in the staff area for a ladder!”
“You’ll come back, right?” Shelly asked.
“Of course I will! Wait there!”
Shanon ran to the Staff Only door, frantically flipping through her keys to find the one that’d unlock it. She almost dropped her key ring more than once but she ultimately made it back into the staff area without incident.
It was dark, and Shanon made sure to flick on the lights as she passed the switch to get a better look at all of the shelves and boxes lining the walls. There were some small stepladders— child and toon sized— tucked into a corner, but one large enough to help remained unseen. While dragging out one of the box stacks came to mind, Shanon decided Shelly really didn’t need any more bad influences today and let them be. Maybe a large beanbag would be enough to cushion Shelly if she jumped, but the mere thought of that made Shanon’s heart skip. Every minute that passed without a good solution was a minute closer to this becoming a worse problem than it already was.
Shanon reached around and unclipped her radio from her belt, pressing down the button and speaking into it. “This is Shanon. Is anyone there?”
The silence that followed was agonizing. Eventually Sam’s voice crackled through the speaker. “10-4. This better be important, Shanon.”
“I found Shelly!”
“I don’t see why you needed to tell us that over the radio.”
“Well, I didn’t, I was actually trying to see if you remembered where a ladder might be? Specifically on Shelly’s floor?”
There was another pause. “Did you check the staff area?” Sam’s voice was full of judgement.
“I did! But all the ones back here are too short.”
“There’s a few in warehouse 1,” Austin’s voice joined the conversation, “Real easy to find if you walk around a bit.”
“Oh, thank you, Austin! Could one of you go get one for me?”
Sam’s judgement came right back. “Why can’t you get it yourself?”
“There’s a bit of a… situation.”
“What kind of situation?”
“One I need to keep an eye on before anything gets worse.”
Silence filled the air yet again. Then Sam sighed, making sure it could be heard over the radio.
“I’ll be there soon.”
Shanon smiled, even though they couldn’t see it. “Thank you so much, Sam! We’ll be waiting for you.”
When there wasn’t any sort of response from anyone for the next minute or so, Shanon figured the conversation was over. She went back out to where Shelly was, locking the door behind herself on the way there.
“Sam’s coming with a ladder!”
Shelly looked visibly relieved. “It won’t be that long before they come, right?”
“It shouldn’t be!”
Shanon looked up at Shelly and wondered if the ladder would even reach up that high. The answer was probably not. Which meant that Sam might go through all that work for nothing and they’d both have to call Arthur and definitely cause opening to be delayed. There was only one thing that’d prevent that from happening: Shelly would need to move lower down on the model.
“Hey, Shells?” Shanon started hesitantly.
“Yes, Shanon?”
“Do you think you could climb down?”
Shelly laughed nervously. “I don’t think so…”
“Not the whole way! Just down the neck?”
Carefully Shelly scooted over on the head until she could get a good look at the neck. “Maybe? The vertebrae are a little like a ladder!”
Shanon walked to be right underneath Shelly and stuck her arms out. “Try climbing down, I’ll be here if you fall!”
“Are you sure?” The worry in Shelly’s voice was clear.
“I promise.”
Shelly hesitated, then slowly began to maneuver herself so she could climb down. Internally, Shanon was screaming the whole time. A single misplaced step could send Shelly straight to the ground and despite her promise, Shanon wasn’t sure if she could actually catch her. The process was slow, overly cautious in a way that made Shanon feel both pride and prolonged terror.
When Shelly finally reached the base of the neck, she lowered herself to sit on the shoulder blade and let out a big exhale. Shanon could see her shaking from fright now that she was closer.
“You did amazing, Shells!” Shanon climbed up onto the platform, raising her arms up towards Shelly. It was too far for her to slide off into them, but she was at least reachable by a normal ladder now.
Shelly gave Shanon a wobbly smile. “Really?”
“Really! You were so brave for doing that, I know it was scary. I don’t think I could be that brave!”
Shelly’s smile transformed into something more real and self assured. Her moment was cut short by the sound of Sam shouting across the floor.
“SHANON! I got that ladder you wanted!”
“We’re by the brachiosaurus!” Shanon yelled back.
It wasn’t long before Sam came into view, stepladder in hand, with Sprout and Cosmo in tow. All three of them stopped when they saw Shelly.
Sam spoke first.
“How the he…ck did she get up there?”
“Shelly!” Sprout and Cosmo yelled at the same time, rushing over to where their friend was and talking over one another the whole time.
Shanon went over to take the ladder from Sam.
“Seriously, how the hell did she get up there?”
“She said Yatta helped her. Would you believe me if I said it was worse when I came in?”
“Yes, unfortunately.”
Once the ladder was handed off, Sam clapped their hands together. “Sprout! Cosmo! Come on, we have to finish getting ready!”
“But Shelly’s stuck! We have to help her!” Sprout argued, Cosmo nodding furiously in agreement.
“Shelly will be okay, Shanon’s helping her.”
“But what if she falls?”
“She’s not going to fall.” Sam sighed and pinched the bridge of their nose. “Look, we can stay so you can make sure she gets down, but then we have to go.”
Both Sprout and Cosmo nodded, watching while Shanon set the ladder up on the platform as close to the model as she dared. It was just high enough for Shanon to reach Shelly if she ignored all of the warning stickers about standing on the top step.
“Scoot a little closer to me, Shells.”
Shelly did as asked, scooting over until Shanon could properly scoop her up with one arm. Immediately Shelly threw her arms around Shanon’s neck. The poor shell was still shaking slightly, clinging like a burr to Shanon.
“Hold on tight, okay?”
Shelly nodded into Shanon’s shoulder as she carefully climbed back down the ladder, only breathing out in relief once her feet were on the floor.
“Never do anything like that ever again.” Shanon said softly, squeezing Shelly tight.
“I won’t Shanon, I promise.”
Shanon gave her another reassuring squeeze, then set her down on the ground. Sprout and Cosmo were by her side in a second, hugging Shelly while making sure she was okay.
Shanon folded up the ladder and stepped past the group of toons.
“I’m putting this in the staff area, I’ll be right back!” she announced, already dragging off the ladder to add it to storage.
When she came back, all of the toons were around Sam, trying to convince them of something. Shelly rushed over to Shanon, tugging on her shirt.
“Would it be okay if we helped Sam, Sprout, and Cosmo get ready for opening?” She asked excitedly.
Shanon looked between Sam and the toons. “Well, if Sam agrees, I don’t see why not!”
Sam made an expression like they were holding back a number of swears, but motioned for everyone to head towards the elevator. “Let’s go, we’ve lost enough time already.”
The toons all made some noise of agreement, rushing ahead to fight over who would press the button.
“Thank you Sam, I really don’t know how I could ever repay you!” Shanon smiled at them.
“You could give me ten dollars.”
Shanon laughed at first, but the dead eyed expression and flat delivery implied Sam was dead serious. Shanon coughed awkwardly.
“I’ll give you the money on our break.”
“I’ll be waiting for it.”
The elevator was already there by the time the handlers arrived, the toons standing by the buttons expectantly. Once everyone was inside and the proper button was pressed, Shanon turned to Sam.
“So, how much work is there for us to do?”
Sam barked out a laugh. “Oh, I’ll make sure it was worth it for me to come down here.”
Shanon laughed weakly at the threat. She was going to regret offering to help, wasn’t she?