"Charlotte, did
you send Jinx to get Ford, tell him the news? Or would you like me to run up to
the old fishing hole and get him?" Mr. Zephyr said, when they came down
after the final trip, hauling the last set of bookshelves.
"Oh, you'd
better believe it," Gram said. "That boy wasn't in so much a hurry to
get out of town that he'd overlook something like that." She chuckled and
gestured with her tray of lemonade and fresh sugar cookies, out onto the porch.
We all settled down. Doni curled up next to Gram on the three-seater swing with
one of her new books.
"Get out of
town?"
"Senior Prank
Night." I took my usual spot on the steps with my back against the big
support pillar Uncle Jinx had carved to look like dragons had wrapped around
it. The other pillar had unicorns chasing each other around and around up to
the top.
"Oh, joy."
He shared grins with Mr. Carr. “Forgot about that.”
"What's Senior
Prank Night?" Doni asked, and sprayed a few crumbs from her mouthful of
sugar cookie.
It was kind of nice
to see she was a normal little kid in some aspects.
We explained about
the long-standing tradition in Neighborlee for graduating seniors, on the first
Wednesday of June, to play some extravagant prank. Sort of to leave their mark
on the town before they headed off into adulthood. If they survived. Some
members of the police and fire departments, and teachers spent Senior Prank
Night on patrol. They tried to head off any pranks that got out of control, and
prevent expensive or long-term damage to people, places, and things.
"Lanie swears
some of these kids don't want to attend their own graduation ceremony,"
Mr. Zephyr said with a chuckle.
"We're still
trying to figure out how she and her friends threaded those tires on the
flagpoles in front of the schools, the board of education office and the police
department," Mr. Carr said. "No ladder in this town tall enough to
get to the top of those flagpoles. I tend to think that friend of hers, the one
with the gift for gizmos--" He looked around, stumped for a moment.
"Kurt
Hanson," I supplied.
"That's
right." He nodded. "I think he rigged some elaborate pulley system to
lift those tires up and over. At least Lanie’s prank didn't get anyone
hurt." He chuckled. "And they used ordinary, worn-out tires that
could be cut off easily. As I recall, the year that idiot Grandstone and his
friends tried to blow up Blackwater Pool, some other fool in their graduating
class put steel-belted radials on the shorter flagpoles in front of the bank
and the post office. Brand new ones. That's what got them caught, as I
recall."
"How?" Doni
sat up, eyes wide, her fourth cookie in her hand.
"They tracked
the tires back to the store where they were stolen and the fools were caught on
the security tape. Had to get a special saw to cut those tires off the
flagpole." He nodded to Mr. Zephyr. "Nobody was hurt or upset, and
didn't cost the town or the schools a penny to remove those tires, the year
Lanie graduated."
"Yeah, Rainbow
and I raised our kids right, I think," Mr. Zephyr said.
"I suppose Lanie
is on patrol tonight," Gram said.
"You can bet on
it."
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