Short Bedtime Stories Presents: Ben Ventor's New BB Gun Invention

A Story For Kids Presents: Ben Ventor's New BB Gun Invention

     “Mom, why do we need to knock down this old barn?”  Ben asked, annoyed that he was spending his summer vacation doing chores that he did not find necessary.

     “Yeah,” added Fran with a look of disgust all over her face. “It is full of cow poop.  We are gonna get some disease.”

     “You are not going to get a disease,” their mom said, becoming a little annoyed.  “We have to tear this down because it is an ugly scar on our lawn.”

     The old barn had been sitting on their property since they had bought the house several years ago.  The kids used to play “farm” in the barn but eventually stopped when they saw the mice running around in it.  Their dad had told them about diseases they could catch from mice, and the barn became more of a setting for a zombie horror movie than a fun hide out.

“Besides,” their dad added between swings of the sledge hammer.  “Don’t you want the room to put something else better back here?”

     “Yes, dad,” answered Ben. But then he asked what everyone had been thinking. “Dad, with all of the money we have now, why don’t we just hire someone to knock this down for us?”

     “Yeah, let them die from diseases,” added Fran, as she covered her mouth and nose from toxic smells.

     “Kids,” his dad explained, “if we let everyone do all of our work for us, your mom and I wouldn’t be doing our job as parents to teach you to work hard.”

     “But, we are never going to have to work hard,” said Fran, well aware of how much money they now had. “Ever,” she continued.  “Like never in our whole life.”

     “True,” said Ben’s mom, but hard work builds character, and character builds solid relationships.  You would be rich and very unhappy if you didn’t have any solid relationships.”

     Ben knew his mom was right, but that did not stop his mind from wondering about a better way to knock down a building. Then the idea hit him.

     Overnight was all the time Ben needed to be able to come down to the barn the next morning ready to demolish.

     “Did you bring that hammer I asked you to bring,” his dad asked, already seeing that Ben did not have the hammer.

     “No,” answered Ben, holding up what looked like a bb gun. 

     “We don’t need a bb gun, Ben.  We are demolishing today,” answered his mom.

     “But, these are special bb’s,” Ben said, holding up what appeared to be red, yellow, blue, and white bb’s.  “They are called elemental bb’s.”

     “Here we go,” said Fran, rolling her eyes.  “What do we do, eat one, and then we can burp down the walls?”

    “Gross,” said Ben.  “No, I’ll show you what they do.”

     Ben put a yellow bb into the gun, took aim at a can on the far end of the barn.  He pulled the trigger.  The bb connected with the can making a “ping” sound as it usually did.  Except this time, the can turned into sand and crumbled to the ground.

     “You turned that can into sand,” his dad said, looking at Ben like he was a modern day magician.

     “Well, the bb did,” corrected Ben.  “The yellow ones are sand bb’s.”

    “What are the red ones?” asked his mom.

     “Whatever you shoot with those catches on fire,” answered Ben, a little sheepishly, knowing his mom did not like him playing with fire.

     “I’ll take those,” his mom said, holding her hand out to Ben.  “Don’t need you accidentally catching the house or Peter on fire.”

    “What are the blue ones for?” asked his dad, becoming fascinated with the new invention.

     “Come here and I’ll show you,” Ben said, loading his gun and walking to the center of the Barn.

     The family all lined up in the middle of the Barn.  It used to be that the Ventor’s might wonder if standing in a dark dusty barn was worth it to see their child’s latest invention, but with Ben they had found that waiting was well worth it.

     “Just watch the ceiling,” Ben said, raising the bb gun up to shoot the ceiling of the barn.  He then pulled the trigger.  Again, the barn made the usual sound of a bb hitting a wooden barn.  And, that is when the crazy event happened.  All at once, the Barn turned into a barn completely made of water.  It held for a moment in the air before gravity took hold.  The Barn then collapsed into a puddle on the ground, completely soaking the Ventors in the process.

     “Not Cool, Ben,” said Fran, scowling at Ben.

     “Rain?” said Peter, looking to the sky above to see if the clouds would drop any more.

How are the elemental bb’s used today:  The army uses the bb’s to turn enemy tanks, planes, and boats into sand.  Demolition experts drop buildings into a puddle with one shot.  Sisters turn their brother’s baseball mitts into ice so their brothers can watch it slowly melt in the hot sun.

Elemental bb’s sale price:  247 million dollars

What did Ben buy with the Money?  Ben made a fantastical soft playground for the elderly next to the local nursing home.




Don't forget to check out part 1 of Dr. Shaw's children's book series of inventions and craziness called Best. Theme Park. Ever. for just $.99 on Amazon. Please leave a positive review on Amazon if you will!  It helps get Dr. Shaw's work discovered by others.  Also, when you buy it on Amazon, you can choose which iPod, iPhone, iPad or other device to send it to, as long as you have the free kindle app installed on that device.