187 - Easter

187 - Easter
Eliza, I have an idea. But I need your skills of not getting caught to pull this off. First, we need to find out how many plastic eggs we have. Then we need to get them. And we need the addresses of all the kids in the club and at the Clubhouse. We’re going to egg houses in a sweet way. - Priscilla

April 2020

The first Easter after the nation locked down because of Covid, the annual city Easter Egg Hunt was cancelled. All three clubhouses, various businesses, and the occasional house had dozens of plastic eggs, candy, and filler. In the weeks before Easter, the boxes and bags started disappearing.

No one thought much of it at first. Everyone seemed to assume that someone else had moved them out of the way. Certainly, no one questioned the candy going missing. That had a very easy and understandable explanation. Especially anywhere that Ink was.

On Saturday night, Priscilla and Eliza left the compound as the eleven o’clock news was coming on. Because of the family rule that all the kids were in bed at the same time, no one realized that they were gone. At least no one at the compound.

The alarm notified the Wolf Pack Security, and it did not take long for the owner to know that his niece was sneaking out. Priscilla’s phone rang and Werewolf appeared on the screen. As the two sisters sat in the new black Jeep, she answered it through the handsfree built into the radio.

“Hello?” Priscilla whispered.

“Why are you whispering?” Eliza demanded, also whispering.

“Because I don’t want to get caught,” the older sister hissed at her as she turned down the road heading to Werewolf’s house.

Remaining silent, Werewolf let the two sisters quietly argue over why they were whispering. He was amused that they were doing this since he assumed that it was just the two of them in the Jeep. Yet he was on the phone listening to them whisper and hiss and tell each other to be quiet. Years later he would describe it as one of the most interesting and entertaining conversations that he had never been a part of.

Priscilla turned into the driveway and punched in her code to open the rolling gate to Werewolf’s property. Just like the other driveways, and one cul-de-sac where the Trio and their families lived, the double gate had a modified Lowery coat of arms. An attacking falcon was on a shield topped with a motorcycle helmet instead of a knight’s helmet. The only exception was Chance’s gate that had the Lowery and Lynch crests since he had taken his wife’s last name.

As the sisters continued to quietly argue about getting caught, the backdoor to the Jeep opened and Colton climbed in. Unlike his cousins, he was not worried about getting caught. Although he did quietly shut the door where he would usually just slam the door because, as his mother and grandmother phrased it, “It’s a Jeep, it can take it.”

“Holy shit,” the fifteen-year-old declared as he pulled on his seatbelt. “I don’t know how the hell I got out of the house without dad hearing the alarm go off.”

“I did hear it,” Werewolf declared over the radio. “I’m just trying to decide if I should continue to ignore it.”

“Well, shit,” Colton muttered.

“I promise, we’re not doing anything bad,” Priscilla assured him.

“Tell me what you are doing,” Werewolf demanded, “and I’ll decide if it’s bad or not.”

Priscilla took a deep breath and looked at her sister and then cousin.

“It was your idea,” Eliza pointed out, “you explain it.”

“So, you know all those plastic eggs and everything to go in them?”

“Yes,” he replied, they could all hear the strained patience in his voice.

“We took them, we’re going to go, umm, egg houses so that the Easter Bunny still comes for all the kids of the club.”

The line was silent for a moment. They heard him take and release a deep breath. “How are you three going to hit all those houses?”

“It’s not just us,” Eliza admitted quietly.

The sound of him typing on his keyboard filled the silent Jeep. “Holy hell,” Werewolf finally said. “You have almost every teen in the club, that’s of driving age, moving around the Tri-City area.”

“Yeah,” Priscilla smiled and gave her sister and cousin a fist bump. If they could get Werewolf on board, they could actually pull this off.

“I’ve unlocked the gate,” Werewolf finally said and the gate slowly rolled open behind the Jeep. “Let everyone else know that if anyone gets in trouble or stopped by the police, they need to call me. Do you have a list of all the addresses that you’re going to hit?”

Eliza grabbed her tablet and pulled up her very organized spreadsheet. “I’m emailing it to you. Each tab is assigned to a group of two or three and there’s about twenty houses per tab. We divided it out by section in the towns and tried to group them together by location.”

“Go have fun,” Werewolf said just before he ended the call.

Several times through the night, he called Priscilla to let her know that there was a house that was missed in a certain section. She would then call whoever was covering that section and provide them with the new address. It was just after two the following morning when they dropped Colton off and headed home themselves.

The following morning, they were woken by their excited younger siblings who had discovered the eggs in their own yard. Social media was filled with pictures and videos of yards and happy kids. Someone anonymously created a Facebook page, The Tri City Easter Bunny Bandit, and it was quickly filled with feel good stories.

“Are we doing this again next year?” Eliza asked as the two oldest sisters fought yawns.

“Hell yeah, we are,” Priscilla assured her.

Easter Morning, March 2024

The sun had crested the horizon, slowly dissipating the chill from overnight. If they were lucky, they would make it to the mid-50s today. Although it was going to be cool, it looked like it would be a pleasant day. Priscilla and her family planned to enjoy it before the nor’easter hit later in the week.

Camille and her new family were home, living in the house next to Priscilla and her family. Just as she had always wanted, they had their own cul-de-sac with the musketeers, the two of them, and Cookie and his family. It was better than she could have ever imagined.

Porthos stood behind her with his hands resting protectively over the small baby bump that she was still trying to hide. Geo had been recruited by his Go-Go to help her and her little brother to find eggs. Denver was walking with their daughter, JR, as she toddled through the grass.

Standing between her parents on her porch, she said, “This is the first year that I’ve got to see kids wake up and find eggs in their yards. Is this what it was like that first Easter? Back in 2020?”