The lure of a summer job-- and with it, the sparkle of money-- is enough to bring out the shine in the eyes of any 15 year-old girl with a "work permit". Even if it be the funeral, morbid-spirited Lydia Deetz from the movie "Beetlejuice". More gothic jewelry and clothing! More books about vampires and werewolves! If she saved up enough, she might even be able to afford a velvet-lined coffin to sleep in!

So wouldn't it put a cloud over her already-morbid existence, when the only position open down at the local mega-mall was working at "Build-a-Bear"? Yes, the robotic ursine sentries that waved their paws back and forth in a teddy bear manufacturing store! Mandatory sunniness, enforced cheeriness, her supervisor scowling after Lydia's perpetual moodiness like a member of the East German Statsi police jamming lovin'-dovin' up her ass like cupcakes, "My Little Pony", and death! This, as she took out the sad sack of an unstuffed bear and had it filled at the fluffing machine. She wondered if her supervisor couldn't have made more money fluffin' grown bears of construction workers toiling amongst the excrescence of bonded exurban sprawl while carrying their jugs of coffee and sacks of "Sausage Egg McMuffins". They'd get "blown up" alright, and would be perhaps a bit more cheerful. Lydia, of course, would count the money as her supervisor came crawling on her knees.