Everyday Canvas

Pranks

PROMPT: Saturday was April Fools' Day...tell us about a good prank you've taken part in at some point in time.

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To tell the truth, I don’t like pranks. The only prank I recall is the one my cousin and I pulled on a younger girl when we were fourteen. The other girl was twelve, about to be thirteen, and wanted very much to fit in with us. My cousin and I wrote her a love letter from the mouth of a secret admirer, and since we knew her well, made it look very legitimate and mailed the letter to her home address.

Then, not only the girl but her whole family took it as real. I know this because the girl’s mother and others in her family were friends with my mother. That poor girl wasn’t allowed to go out without a chaperone or do the things that she used to do. Her freedoms were cut short. Although she left us alone for a while after that, I felt very bad for her. Out of guilt and the fear of possible punishment, we never admitted to the prank, and I never again did anything to fool anybody in such a big way.

Shame is a useless feeling, but it was necessary for us to feel it at the time because it cured us, for life, from playing with others’ feelings. I strongly believe that, to experience joy and to feel alive instead of negative feelings, one should be open to others and not make fun of them under the guise of a prank.