April Fools Day!

It was a sunny Hawaiian morning. The house was rustling with the sounds of a family getting ready for the day ahead of them. A little girl woke up with sleepies in her eyes, got out of bed, brushed her hair, put on her school uniform which consisted of khaki shorts and a navy blue polo shirt. As the blonde haired, blue eyed tween started styling her hair, the home phone rang interrupting the quietness that engulfs a house when people are in the throws of waking up and getting ready to take on the day. Wondering who could be calling, but figuring it would be her dad who was already at work, the young lady answered the phone.

“Shaws, Missy Shaw speaking,” the words ran together like it was one, big, long word because Missy had been speaking that phrase since she was bestowed the honor of being able to answer the home phone. Of course, being the imaginative and creative child that she was, when Missy was ill with the chicken pox, she would answer the home telephone saying, “Shaws, chicken pox Missy speaking”!

What Missy heard on the other end of the line on that sunny week day morning was a nice lady’s voice. “Hi Missy, this is the school secretary at Holy Family Catholic School, I am calling to let you know that a water line broke at the school and the school is flooded; so, school is cancelled for today!”

With the excitement that a child normally only feels on Christmas morning as they run out to the living room to see if the present of their dreams is proudly displayed, bright and shining, under the Christmas tree, Missy exclaimed, “OK! Thank you so much!” and with that, she hung up the phone. She couldn't believe this good news!

Running as fast as she could down the hallway to the kitchen where her mom was dutifully preparing lunch and breakfast, Missy excitedly told her mom the good news.

Mom was skeptical, though.

“What did she have to be skeptical about,” Missy wondered just as the phone started ringing again.

Missy ran to the phone and answered it again. This time it was her Grandma calling from California. “Oh, hi, Grandma!,” Missy said into the receiver, thinking what a great morning this was, finding out that school had been cancelled AND getting a phone call from her Grandma.
Her Grandma asked her, “Did you get a phone call from your school secretary telling you school was cancelled?”

This totally perplexed Missy. How did she know that, Missy wondered, she lives an ocean away from us! Did it make the news, Missy wondered! “Yea,” Missy answered slowly, "How did you know?"

“APRIL FOOLS!” said the Grandmother into the phone.

“WHAT? WHAT?! NO WAY!” Missy exclaimed! She only heard the ringing of her Grandma’s laughter on the other end of the phone. “Sorry Sweetie, school isn’t really cancelled, that was me who called you earlier” her Grandma stated apologetically. “Ahhh, man!” Missy replied, deflated of all the excitement she felt earlier, looking at her mom who was standing before her, laughing at the practical joke that had just been successfully pulled off!

That, my friends, is the best April Fools Day joke that has ever been played on me. Grandma has never even tried to top that one!