Pranks

Story prompt

Did you ever play a prank or had one played on you? Do you have any ongoing pranks? I am not a fan of mean-spirited pranks, but I’m fine with the occasional funny one.

When I was in school, I went away for the weekend. As I approached the dorm on my return, something looked odd about the window. Living/Learning Center at the University of Vermont had suites organized by interest group—I lived in Russian “House”. When I walked into the living room of the suite, quite a few people were hanging around not so nonchalantly.

I opened the door to my room and was confronted with floor-to-ceiling crumpled newspaper. My friends had spent hours filling my room with it while I was away (Lesley, was this your idea?). That was a successful prank! Nobody was harmed and we all had a laugh.

I’ve been part of an ongoing prank for over 30 years. When I was a librarian, my boss and I would hide a little doll called Marsha (Marsha Mallow, to be complete) on each other. We disliked her immensely—as you can see from the picture, she had a smug look on her little plastic face.

Once I put Marsha in Judy’s sneaker, which she had worn to the library and then exchanged for her work shoes. She discovered it after the work day was over. Once I wrapped Marsha inside Judy’s Christmas present, so the little doll appeared at Judy’s family Christmas present opening. I’ve mailed her to Judy from other parts of the world. I left her in Judy’s freezer behind the ice cream when I was visiting. Once I submerged Marsha in Jell-o, put the container in a paper bag with Judy’s name on it in the staff refrigerator. I didn’t even work at the library, but was visiting. The custodian told Judy that there was something of hers in the refrigerator that had been there for ages. Could she clean it out?

When I moved to Kansas, Judy had custody of Marsha. She asked my sister for help on the next move. Judy sent the doll to Mary, who put her in my car, inside an umbrella. It was a dry spell, so I didn’t open the umbrella. Then one day I got a message on my answering machine, in a voice I didn’t recognize: “Look in the umbrella in your car.” I thought it was a crank call. Then I listened again. I recognized the background noise of my brother-in-law’s bicycle shop. I went out to the car and discovered Marsha in my umbrella.

Marsha has picked up a couple of buddies: Muffy, who looks like Marsha except she has a clerical collar, and Sparky, the firefighter. They disappear for long periods of time, only to re-emerge. We suspect they have had multiple run-ins with the law. They’re currently infesting my house, but may move on soon.

Tell me about pranks or on-going hiding of silly things!