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One day, Reed and Johnny were very hungry. They walked into the kitchen and saw that Sue was trying to open a jar for some reason.
“Babe, why haven’t you started cooking yet? You know it’s your turn tonight!” Reed nagged.
“Yeah, and Johnny is starving!” Johnny said, rubbing his tummy.
“Because!” Sue whined. “I can’t get this jar open!”
“Let me open it,” Reed said. “I’m strong.”
He tried to open the jar, but his hand became floppy and rubbery.
“Ha!” She laughed. “Guess you’re not so strong after all!”
“No, I am! The lid is just… really stuck.”
“I bet Ben could open it,” Sue said. “Where is he, anyways?”
“Probably polishing his stalagmite,” Johnny grinned.
Sue and Reed stared at him in disgust.
“I’ll go get him,” Johnny said.
He barged into Ben’s room, where Ben was lying down with his eyes closed.
“Rise and shine!” Johnny sang.
Ben didn’t move or make any sounds.
“Ben, wake up! We need you…”
“I am awake,” Ben grunted.
“Then why won’t you open your eyes?” Johnny asked.
“I… I can’t.”
“What do you mean, you can’t?”
“Well… just take a look at me.”
Johnny stepped closer and saw that Ben’s eyes were crusted shut with a layer of rock.
“Oh! I…”
“Don’t laugh at me.”
“I’m not laughing!” Johnny said. “I just… how did this happen?”
“I don’t know. But I guess I’m blind now…” Ben said, mildly disappointed.
“No! I can fix this! I’ll be right back!”
Johnny ran out of the room and returned with a chisel.
“Alright, I hope this doesn’t hurt. Don’t move.”
After several minutes of chiseling away, he smiled.
“There ya go! Can you see now?”
Ben slowly blinked. “Yes. Uh… thank you.”
“No problem!”
“You won’t tell anyone about this, will you?”
“I won’t! I just hope it doesn’t happen again…”
A few days later, Johnny was staring longingly out the window.
“I wanna go on the rocket ship.”
He pressed his face against the glass.
“Rockaship.”
After waiting alone in the silence for several seconds, he couldn’t stand the boredom any longer.
“It’s too bad that I woke up so early. Now I have nobody to play with. I’m soooo bored. I have to wake everyone up!”
Johnny flamed on to set off the fire alarm.
The sound causes Reed and Sue sprung awake. Ben also woke up, but he couldn’t see because his eyes were crusted shut again.
“Oh, no!” Sue said. “There’s a fire?!”
She couldn’t believe it. How could a fire possibly happen in their home?
“We must locate it and extinguish it!”’ Reed said.
As they hurried out of their room, Reed’s legs started bending and twisting. He became tangled up and fell down the stairs.
“Babe! No!” Sue cried. She rushed downstairs to untangle him, instead of trying to evacuate and save herself from the alleged fire. What an idiot.
Meanwhile, Ben was stumbling around and crashing into things.
“So… where’s the fire?” Reed asked, after he was untangled.
Johnny approached him, fully ignited.
“Hi! It’s me! I’m the fire! It’s me!”
“JOHNNY STORM! WE WERE TRYING TO SLEEP! HOW DARE YOU—”
“I’m sorry!” Johnny cried. “I was just bored and wanted someone to wake up so we could play!”
“Oh, no! I’m so sorry, Johnny. We’ll all play with you now!” Sue said.
“No, we won’t!” Reed said.
“And then later, we’ll all get ice cream!” Sue continued.
“NO, WE WON’T!” Reed shouted.
Ben tumbled down the stairs. “Ow.”
“And what happened to you?” Reed asked.
Sue gasped. “What’s wrong with your eyes?”
“I… I need to be chiseled.”