Mo had to stuff his human body into what the man told him was a “uniform.” It was a light blue shirt, with dark blue pants, and an uncomfortable noose around his neck, also dark blue. There was also a hat that wobbled against Mo’s uneven haircut.
“Perfect!” The man said. He grabbed Mo’s elbow and used it to drag him to somewhere else in the studio. The space was full of interesting people, animals, and objects. One minute the man led Mo through a room that looked like a jungle, with someone wearing a tiger skin. The other minute, Mo was being dragged through space, although they had gotten the sky all wrong. Mo shook his head as the man continued to pull him along by his elbow, which started to hurt now, but Mo didn’t want to upset the man and lose his job. So far, his job was easy; wear uncomfortable clothes and get dragged around.
“Here we are!” The man finally said. They were standing in front of a door, in front of a wall, nowhere near the interesting rooms Mo had seen earlier. There weren’t even any people around. It was just the wall and a chair that came up to Mo’s torso.
“What is this?” Mo asked.
The man, who Mo realized had never told him his name, pulled up the chair. Mo decided to call him Timex, because he had seen it on his watch earlier. Timex responded. “This,” he gestured around, “Is your new office.”
Mo wasn’t sure he had an old office, or if this was even an office. Timex continued talking. “You will sit in this chair, and keep bad people from coming through that door.” He pointed to the door, with the big red ‘EXIT’ painted on it. “Make sure the only people who come through there, are supposed to come through there. Got it?”
“How will I know if they are supposed to be here?” Mo asked.
Timex reached into his suit and pulled out a slip of paper, attached to a rope around his neck. “They have this,” Timex said. “It’s a studio pass, and everyone has one.” He tucked his pass back into his suit and reached into another pocket. “Speaking of,” he said, pulling out another one and handing it to Mo. “Here’s yours.”
Mo took the paper and inspected it. “Security Guard” was his new job.
“Take this too,” Timex said, his hand now held a key. Mo took it. “It’s a key to this door. I want you here every morning at 4 AM, and to stay until the last person leaves. Could be 2 in the afternoon, could be midnight. Depends.”
“How will I know?”
“When they start shutting everything down, and people start to leave. This place is usually packed, like now.” He looked behind him at the crowds working in the studio. Mo followed his gaze.
The one thing Mo appreciate so far about humans was their uniqueness. Not a single person in the studio was the same. Tall, short, skinny, wide, young, old, hair, no hair. His species didn’t have quite the diversity, and in the studio, Mo presumed he would see a lot of it. A lot of the people here seemed to wear different costumes, too, which only added to the list of ‘things to look at’ that Mo had started to compile.
“See that? Swarming with people,” Timex said. “So when that starts shutting down, you just wait for the last person to leave, and then you go home. Ok?”
Mo nodded.
“And, every now and then, step outside. This door here,” Timex pointed. “Just to make sure nothing is brewing outside, got it?
Mo nodded again. Timex used strange language, but Mo had started to pick up on some of it, after staying up most nights listening to his neighbors.
“Anything else you need, you just see me in the office. Where we started this morning, remember?”
Mo remembered, so he nodded again.
“But, and this is really important, try not to leave this area, okay? I mean, you can get up and walk around, check outside like we talked about. You don’t have to sit in this chair all day, but if you leave, nobody’s here to make sure people stay out, got that?”
Mo did indeed “got that,” and nodded.
“Excellent,” Timex said. He patted Mo’s shoulders. “I can tell you’re going to do great. See ya around.” He did a weird thing where one of his eyes closed, and then pointed at Mo. Mo pointed back, awkwardly bending his fingers in the same way that Timex had done.
There was a big clock on the wall behind Mo’s chair. It currently said 8:30. Mo settled in for a long day of watching the diversity of the human race.
Conspiracy - 12 - Security
I love that he called him Timex. 🤣