- Title
- Shelf Life
- Genre
- Comedy
- Premise
- A museum gift-shop assistant is told to remove every unsold novelty pencil before a royal visit, but the only buyer in sight is a man who wants them for a very serious local pencil club.
- Specific job/task
- The assistant must clear three crates of misprinted pencils from the shop floor before the inspection team reaches the till.
- Precise setting detail
- The stockroom is wedged behind a fake Roman wall with a low ceiling and a humming dehumidifier.
- Mundane system complication
- The till system will not process a bulk discount unless each pencil is scanned separately.
- Decision that turns the story
- The assistant chooses to turn the clearance job into an unofficial pencil-club acquisition and lets the inspection team find the shelves empty for the wrong reason.