The Space Shuttle Fire Truck

 

 

Once upon a time there was a sprawling used-truck yard. It was full of every kind of vehicle. There were rusty tow trucks, long milk tankers, ice cream vans with bells on the hood, lumbering lorries....and a giant space shuttle. The space shuttle was hidden at the back.

Space shuttles don’t usually end up in used car yards. Only one person knew how it got there, and his name was Fred. Fred worked in a fire station, as an assistant to the boss.

One day his boss phoned Fred and said, "We need a new fire truck. I want the biggest, fanciest, most impressive fire truck possible. Go find one."

Fred looked everywhere, but he could only find the same standard-issue red trucks that all the other stations had. So he decided to look on the internet. He searched and searched. Finally, right at the bottom of the classifieds section of Craigslist, he saw an old space shuttle for sale.

"My boss is going to be so pleased," Fred smiled to himself. "It'll get to fires so quickly, and I bet it has the most amazing siren ever."

He decided to buy the firetruck and put all the usual fire truck things on it - a hose and ladder. Maybe he'd even win a prize for having a fire truck that could reach any fire in a matter of seconds.

But when he brought the space shuttle to the fire station, his boss was upset.

"Oh no," he said to Fred. "You bought a truck that costs 25 billion dollars to fuel up every time we run it. And what's more, it has a giant fire streaming out the back. So whenever we’re called to put out a fire, we'll be setting everything else on fire along the way."

"Shucks," said Fred, slapping his forehead. He was disappointed. He'd have to start looking all over again. And now he had a giant space shuttle in his garage that he had to get rid of. Where could he put it, now that his boss didn't want it?

He looked everywhere for a parking space. He checked some storage centres, old garages, the shady areas of supermarket carparks, and in the back rooms of the local gym. But he couldn't find anywhere to store something as big as the space shuttle.·

Finally, he called his friend AJ, and complained that he couldn't find anywhere to store something big. AJ said, "I know a guy that has a used car and truck yard. He's got a big space up the back. I bet he'll be able to help you."

So Fred called the owner of the used car and truck yard.·

"How much to leave a used fire truck there?" he asked.

"About $50," the owner said.

"Great. What hours are you open?"

"The usual, Monday to Friday," the owner said.

Very early Saturday morning, Fred rolled the space shuttle into the used car yard. The yard was closed, so no-one could tell him not to leave it there, amongst the rusty old cars and vans. He parked it right at the back, then he painted parts of it red, and stuck a hose on the side and a ladder on the top. Satisfied, he left it there.

And that's where the space shuttle sits to that day. The owner of the car yard was lazy and short-sighted, and never checked the back of his yard. Sometimes other customers would say to him, "Hey, did you know you have a strange red thing back there? It has a hose and a ladder on the top..." and the owner would wave his hand and say, "Oh that's just the old fire truck."