This blog post was originally going to be about how the little, everyday moments are what make life at Maggie’s Place wonderful. Nice, simple and a glimpse into daily life—done. However, while working on my post, it was getting late so I decided to head to bed before putting the finishing touches on it. I walked into my room and my fellow Corps member and roommate start asking me questions about the different skirts I have. Slightly confused, I answer her questions; finally she gets me to open my closet door and to my surprise one of the moms was hiding in there waiting to scare me! And she was quite successful. My roommate was obviously in on the prank as well, and after a little bit of screaming, and some laughter I told her and the mom that was going in my blog post. Their little prank made me remember that it was most definitely not an isolated incident.
One of the “hobbies” at The Zechariah House currently, is pulling pranks and jokes on each other. Most of the time it’s something simple and quick such as hiding in an unexpected place to startle someone. However, from time to time we manage to pull off some more complex jokes. On April Fool’s Day, the Corps managed to do just that. Our plan was to trick the moms into thinking that we had a “new mom” coming to live in our house. At the time we had an empty room, but the bed and everything else was made up and ready. We used some rolled up towels and a sweatshirt to make it look like there was someone asleep in the bed. We decided that her name was “Charlynn”, she was 23 years-old, and due in about a month with a boy. We put up the welcome signs just as we normally would for a new mom and at dinner we announced a new mom had moved in, but she wasn’t joining us because she was exhausted. Much to our surprise the moms bought it! They asked a few questions and then let it drop, even though we were certain they would see through it immediately.
Buoyed by this success though, we decided to let it go on a bit until the moms caught on. The next morning the moms asked again about our new guest, and we just explained that “Charlynn” was still tired and sleeping. It was hard keeping a straight face when the moms would ask about her. Later in the afternoon we put up a small sign next to her welcome sign that said “April Fools”, and waited for the moms to notice. One by one they saw the sign and got the joke, and we all had a good laugh. None of them believed we were actually able to pull such a prank! The best part was about a week later when we actually had a new mom move in, but a few of the current moms wouldn’t believe us until they saw her. “Charlynn” has become infamous at The Z House now!
By Hannah Rafle, MissionCorps member at The Zechariah House
