"Mellifluous" Beeped the Laundry machine as it spewed freshly dried, warm clothing across the small room.
This was the tenth time today that articles of clothing had been ejected in this manner. All the machines had been modified for maximum efficiency so when one load of laundry was finished it would be neatly tipped into a basket and moved away to wait for the arrival of the laundries' owner. The thought was that it would greatly reduce backup in laundromats from people not coming to claim their clothing out of machines for long periods of time. The problem was that some of the machines had been malfunctioning and shooting the clothing out like a colorful blast of a canon.
That's where Ian came in, the building's superintendent had called after the first incident. Ian had arrived from the laundry company's maintenance team an hour later. He had just sat observing the machines for a few hours, taking notes from time to time. The dryer's had been programmed to say things like "Have a good day!" or "Enjoy the warm clothing!" or "We delight in a job well done!" yet they seemed to have just started to beep randomly sophisticated bits of this and that. Ian's notebook read as follows of the words and phrases the dryers had been emitting:
"The Orangutan's Orange Exterior!"
"Lava flowed down the apex of the mountain during the equinox!"
"Cornucopia!"
"Salutations!"
"Rifles ripple upon the rumpus!"
"The gravy boat poured fresh gravy unto the heaps of mashed potatoes"
"Red-haired Rebels befuddle anarchy"
"Fibonacci numbers undo"
And with each succeeding quotation more clothing flew yards across the room. It didn't make the least bit of sense, the wiring all seemed sound, the clothing was all suitably warm. Where were these machines learning new words and phrases from? It was curious and befuddling for sure but there was really nothing that Ian could do for now. He decided to make up a sign telling patrons to stand at the ready to catch their laundry in midair until a solution came about.
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