Egg-napped

The contenders

Lynette, I'm soo glad you has brought it up. Now I can freely publish the story without, hopefully, you disowning me. ; )

This is what I witnessed on the day of that largely debated battle for the Easter egg which happened between Lynette and Laurie years ago.

I do not recall exactly when this happened. I only remember that this was a year or so after the turnover period.

For years and years, much longer than was necessary, the two "generations" of children in our household, (the elder...Jo Ann, me , and Eric, and the younger, composed of Lynette and Laurie) all participated in the Easter egg hunt.

Sometime in our late (and I mean really late) teens, Mom started weaning the three eldest from joining the hunt.

She did this by "disqualifying" the elders by "allowing" them to hide the Easter eggs. The ones who hid it obviously cannot find it. They would have had an unfair advantage after all.

This was the point when only Lynette and Laurie were included in the egg hunt.

To appreciate this story, you have to remember that Lynette is three years older than Laurie.

These days the age difference is not significant. But as children, the age difference was tremendous. The older one, even if only one year senior, can and is bound by pride, to be taller, run faster, and be stronger than the junior. The competition involves not only the usual competition between peers but more importantly, the need to show the superiority of age.

Anyway, that day, Lynette being the older of the two, accumulated a lot more eggs than the other. This, inspite of all the outside help Laurie was getting in finding the eggs.

Near the end of the hunt, only the Jackpot remained.

Lynette was and always has been a very strong competitor. At this point in the game, especially in the absence of the elder group, she could almost taste the sweet smell success over her younger sibling.

When only the Jackpot egg was missing, people began to crowd around the garage, and the three elder siblings started to hint at the location of the jackpot.

"It's near!! Very near!!! Warmer....warmer!! You're Hot!! Hot!!!"

Lynette was at the Grotto...Laurie runs as fast as her little legs could carry her, but when she gets there she is not able to climb up... she's still too small.

She looks longingly as Lynette, who suspects that the egg is on the very top of the stone grotto, proceeds to scamper upwards to reach it.

She is midway up the grotto...and in an effort to climb up higher, she steadies herself on a nearby tree branch.

The branch bends...and something...hidden within its leaves... falls from it.

It's the Jackpot egg....which tumbles straight to where Laurie is standing, still wistfully gazing upon the grotto.

We all start yelling.

Laurie, in a flash of surprise... delightedly picks up the egg from the ground, places it in her basket, and waves in triumph as Lynette yells "...................!!!!"

(I think you get the picture. )

And today is the first time Lynette has ever admitted that Laurie won the Jackpot that year.


Is that the Jackpot?