Johnny’s Easter Tale

By Purry

It started out as such a beautiful day, the sun was shining , the temperature was in the high seventies, and I was invited to Roy’s house for Easter dinner. Now for the rest of the story.

Upon arriving at the DeSoto’s, Jennifer and Chris came running out to greet me. Before I could get myself out of my Rover, the kids grabbed my hands and started pulling me toward the house. Their excitement was contagious. When we got inside, five year old Jennifer and seven year old Chris started begging Roy and Joanne to let them go outside and hunt for the eggs the Easter Bunny had hidden.

Unfortunately, as was the tradition in the DeSoto household, egg hunting was an after dinner event. It was soon clear to both kids that no amount of begging was going to change that fact, much to the their dismay.

Once a dinner of ham, rolls, potato salad, pickled eggs and dessert of banana pudding had been consumed, we all went out back to sit and enjoy the rest of the afternoon.

Only a few minutes had passed before Jennifer asked if it was time to hunt eggs. Not able to say no any longer, Joanne gave the go ahead for the hunt to begin.

Both kids came over to me, and pulled me to a standing position, willing me to help with the search. Unbeknownst to them, I was the Easter Bunny. I had came over earlier, while the family was still at church, and hid two dozen colored eggs. So to help in the search, would take away the joy of watching the kids run around looking for the treasures. Not wanting to let on that I knew anything, I got up and joined them in the back yard.

After forty-five minutes of searching, both kids brought there eggs to show us. Chris had found fourteen and Jenny had nine in her basket. I knew that I had hidden twenty-four, the number always hidden, but only twenty-three had been recovered. Roy pointed out that there still was an egg missing. Both kids ran back out to the yard to resume the search for the elusive egg.

After another twenty minutes of hunting, both kids gave up, exclaiming the Easter Bunny had only brought twenty-three eggs this year because if there were another egg out there they would have found it. With this years egg hunt over, Chris followed Jennifer into the house to watch television.

Knowing there was still one egg out there, I just had to find it. If I had only listened to Roy, and forgot about the stupid egg, I wouldn’t have to go through what I’m going through right now. But no, I had to look for that missing egg.

So out into the yard I go, retracing my steps of earlier in the day when I had hidden the eggs. All the places that I remembered placing eggs, were now egg free. As I approached the tree near the fence, I saw it. It being a small hole in the ground. I recalled placing an egg into the hole that was no more that three inches deep. Peering into the opening, no egg was in sight, and it looked like the hole had gotten deeper.

Wanting to know if the missing egg was in the hole, I stuck my hand in, hoping to find it. What I found was no colored hard boiled egg, what I found had teeth and it bit me. I squelched as I pulled my hand back out. Whatever had taken a bite out of me did a good job, I was bleeding from the puncture wounds to my right hand.

Roy ran up to me and grabbed my hand to examine the damage that had been done, all the while lecturing me about putting my hand down the hole. The kids knew what I didn’t, not to mess with the hole. Roy had seen a ground squirrel going in and out thinking it may have its nest down in it.

After cleaning my wound, Roy insisted he take me to Rampart to have it looked at. Not wanting to get into a argument, I agreed. Dr. Morton was on duty this Easter and I had to tolerate his bedside manner. The news he delivered was what I had suspected, I was going to be subjected to rabies shots.

Well, I just had my eighth shot, only thirteen to go. Those shots hurt like the dickens, but I have learned a valuable lessen from this whole experience. Easter egg hunting can dangerous.

The End

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