From the March 6, 2023 writer's prompt on the JE FF page on Facebook - use the words "I gave you one job to do" in a one-shot.

All familiar characters belong to Janet. I am not making any money from this. Mistakes are mine.

I Gave You One Job To Do by Debra8652

"SANTOS! My office! Yesterday!" Ranger barked in the general direction of the control room. Lester Santos entered and took a guest chair across from his cousin's desk.

"Your assignment was to arrange the participants' booths at Saturday's Meet the Animals Fair in Mercer County Park." Ranger valiantly tried to control the twitch in his left eye. "What happened? You're lucky that Stephanie just happened to be there with Valerie, Mary Lou, and all their kids to prevent chaos from breaking out."

"Ok, this is how it went down," a fidgeting Santos immediately started examining a paperweight on Ranger's desk. "The balloon guy, Andy, had to be in the first booth to hand out balloons to the kids as they arrived. Turns out he has a crush on the woman, Penny, from the Department of Natural Resources wildlife exhibit, and he offered me $50 to put her exhibit next to his. In the spirit of community involvement, I declined his offer, but put their booths side by side. I couldn't stand in the way of true love."

"Why did Eddie Gazarra, who was enjoying a day off with his family at the Fair, feel that it was necessary to give me a heads up about the noise disturbance?" Ranger ran his hands through his hair.

"See, this is the funny part. There are houses that back onto the park." Santos stated as if that explained everything.

"And this is funny, why?" Ranger pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Penny set up the DNR cages next to the display of inflated balloons. Who knew that a strong breeze would blow the inflated balloons so close to the cage containing a family of porcupines." Santos grabbed Ranger's stapler to fiddle with it.

Ranger honest-to-God sighed before continuing. "All the callers to 9-1-1 assumed the noise was fireworks and wondered why they were being set off in broad daylight instead of after dark. Eddie told me that things were calmly being handled, thanks to my Babe. Brett and Binkie were on crowd control and reported that her quick thinking prevented any possible mass hysteria. Babe heard the balloons popping and knew the noise might cause people to panic. She grabbed Val and Mary Lou and they broke into what Eddie described as "a stirring rendition of 'God Bless America' " to accompany the fake fireworks noise. The Fair was ending at 4:00pm, Santos - there were no scheduled fireworks! I gave you one job to do!"

~ A/N Just a one-shot from a 2023 JE FF writers prompt. Be sure to read Guatedina's one-shot using this prompt.