My Favorite Prank

John:

My dear friend Amy Sue Loveless loves cruises and traveling. She referred us to the WorldMark vacation company to get a free trip to Reno just for listening to their come-on. They got some fancy gift for referring their friends. Well, we bit. We actually joined the program and got the coupon for the free 3-day trip to Reno after spending about $7,000 with cash and card. A year later we decided to go on the Reno trip before the deadline. Well Amy had lost her coupon. We got our coupon extended and a new coupon for Amy and Jack. We tried and tried to find a time we both could go and were getting close to the next deadline.

The deal was pretty phony. You could only leave on a Tuesday and return on a Thursday. This meant, basically, a one day trip and two days of travelling because our plane might leave late Tuesday and early Thursday. For a few hundred extra we stayed 5 or 6 days and could choose when we travelled. Our fun trip with the Lovelesses cost us thousands of dollars and never happened. We had a good time, though. We would walk through our hotel lobby which was a full blown casino and ride the elevator up and enjoyed telling other riders that we had not lost a penny and have had no hangovers (we don't drink or gamble). They would look at us incredulously.

A year or so later I called Amy and informed her that I had won a free cruise - I think to Hawaii. The best thing was that we could take another couple and we had chosen the Lovelesses. She was so excited. Furthermore, "we get $500 spending money." She was ecstatic. I said that the trouble was that it was $500 per couple not $500 each. "Oh, that's OK," she said, a little disappointed, but keeping her spirits up to comfort me after I delivered the sad news. Her husband came in the room at that moment and she relayed everything about the contest and the cruise and added the part about only one $500 per couple. He also said that that was all right, the cruise itself was plenty. I then wished them a happy April First. After a long pause she asked me if this was an April Fools joke. I said yes and that she had reacted better than I could have possibly asked for.

I tried once or twice to get her again on April 1, but they don't usually answer their v0ice mails or their phone. You can't leave a message because when they would call back days or weeks later the surprise was over. You can't say, "April Fools" on July 17th! I will get Amy again, but I'll have to wait a long time because she is very suspicious on April 1st if I call.