Willow Wing Night Shift

The wind blew slightly as the autumn leaves swirled in circles. The moon hung high as the hoot of an owl echoed through the night. The gated town of Willow Wing was silent and still, except for the five night shift security guards and two dogs in the security building.

Willow Wing is an unincorporated town in Oklahoma. It was officially recognized on the maps in 1998, but the houses and businesses were there long before. Residents in Willow Wing wanted to keep crime out of their town as much as possible, and adding the gate around the developed and inhabited part of Willow Wing made them feel much safer. Since Willow Wing is close to Guthrie, Edmond and Stillwater, it got a lot of visitors from those three towns.

The five security guards were very close, and have been for four years. There was Caleb “Cal” Mercer, a country boy from Shawnee. He had short sandy blond hair with blue eyes and his age of thirty-seven earned him the nickname “Old Man" from the youngest of the group.

Darius “Dare” Coleman was the second oldest at thirty-five years old. He's a handsome black male who was born and raised in Midwest City. His short curly black hair and brown eyes got many compliments of admiration from the elderly women in Willow Wing.

Then there was Mason “Kid” Reed, at thirty-two years old, he still loved pulling pranks on his friends. He had short brown hair with green eyes and a scar above his left eye. He was born in Purcell, and raised in Muskogee by his grandparents.

Mateo “Teo” Ramirez moved to Guthrie from California when he was four. At twenty-nine years old, with short slick black hair, brown eyes, mustache, small stubble beard and tattoo on his right hand, he was the eye candy of the group.

Finally, there was Jolene “Jo” McAllister. She was the youngest at twenty-four. She had shoulder length wavy brown hair, that was always in a ponytail, brown eyes, and freckles on her cheeks. She was born and raised in Guthrie and was the biggest animal lover of the group.

The five of them became security guards at Willow Wing within days of each other when they were ages 33, 31, 28, 25 and 20 respectively. They also had their four legged coworkers, Boone, a Giant Schnauzer and Randy, a Beauceron, and they had been their partners since the start of their career. And tonight was their first night shift.

“Man, the look on Rufus’s face when we all demanded to be moved to the night shift will be a local legend around here.” Caleb said, cracking open a can of root beer.

“Well, duh. He wanted to move me to the night shift only. We all made him realize that we wouldn't settle for that and that if one of us was moved, then all of us had to be moved.” Jolene replied, stealing a bite from Mateo’s sandwich.

“Awwww!” Darius teased.

Jolene rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out as Mateo took back his sandwich.

“You're so adorable Jolene.” Mateo said, a goofy smile on his face.

“Jolene and Mateo sitting in a tree…” Mason began singing.

Before he could finish, he was knocked off his feet by Boone, who was chasing after a fly, his nails tapping against the floor. He landed on the tile floor with a thud and a grunt, waking Randy from a nap. Meanwhile, the fly escaped into the vent and Boone pawed sadly at the grate. Caleb, Darius, Mateo and Jolene stared at Mason in silence.

“See, that's what you get. The fly decided to get payback for me and just used Boone to do it.”. Jolene said, in a complete deadpan voice.

The guys started laughing uncontrollably, with Mateo falling out of his chair and Jolene doing a mock bow. Suddenly, the motion detector alarm for the “Ida’s Pizza Shop” went off. The laughing stopped quickly and everyone huddled around the monitors.

“All visitors should have left hours ago, unless one hid pretty damn well in the pizza shop.” Darius said, going through each camera in the shop.

“Okay, since the pizza shop is one of the bigger buildings, we'll all go.” Caleb replied, grabbing the leashes off the desk.

As they threw their jackets on, they were unaware that this would be an experience where they couldn't agree about what happened.