We were laughing so hard we were nearly crying.
Sometimes, Noel and I get into some really immature moods. And, to be honest, having Jamie here doesn’t help!
So, while James, Jacqui, Charlotte and Nicole — collectively known as “The Andersons” (or “The JAndersons”) — our neighbours across the street were out on what we thought was James taking in a flying lesson, a prime opportunity came up for playing a prank.
Now, years ago, Noel bought some walkie-talkies. I’m not really sure why to this day, but he bought them nonetheless. So Noel and Jamie got this idea that we should put one walkie-talkie into the Andersons’ mailbox and then scare the daylights out of them when they went to check their mail.
Only one problem with that plan, Jamie said. It’s Sunday.
With no mail delivery leading to no Anderson checking the mailbox, we decided hiding it in the bushes would be best. So Jamie (God bless him) decided, being the youngest and probably most agile of all of us, would plant the walkie-talkie near their front door.
(This didn’t work so well, so Noel and Jamie went back over and planted it in some tall grasses near the garage.)
Their return seemed to take forever, so we took turns shouting over the walkie-talking to people passing buy.
A teenage boy running by on his paper run: “Don’t run around the pool!”
A trio of Asian ladies: “Hey! Hey you! Don’t walk away from me!”
A middle aged woman: “Wow, baby, you are sexy!”
Another middle aged woman speed walking: “Walk faster! WALK FASTER!” (to which she started laughing)
So, finally, the Andersons got home. Two kids were riding their scooters down the footpath, so James though they were saying something to him, but, it was my voice coming from the great bunch of long grasses, saying (in the darkest, most evil, Cobra Commander raspy like voice I could), “James. Jaaaaaames.”
But James is brighter than he appears. Mind you, he would have to be; he is breathing. (Just kidding James. No, really, I am.) And so he told the girls (Charlotte, 7 going on 17, and Nicole, 5) to find the walkie-talkie in the grasses.
Now, Charlotte says she wasn’t scared but I started to say her name and she backed off a bit. Mind you, I would too with a Cobra Commander raspy voice coming from the grass. Nicole, on the other hand, charged in, stuck her hand in and found the walkie-talkie.
Jacqui’s turn to get in on the fun. She started throwing abuse (that nice, proper English abuse though) down her end of the walkie-talkie. And she showed Charlotte (still not very trusting) the walkie-talkie, holding it face out towards Charlotte.
Charlotte regained her trust, obviously, and wasn’t too scared of it, so approached cautiously. She got right up near it, put her hand out to take it from her mum…
“Charloooooottte…. this is the devil speaking!” I was trying so hard not to laugh as Charlotte backed up about 20 feet in 3 steps. Yeah, kinda mean scaring the crap out of a 7 year old, but it was fun.
Jamie and James continued to see who could make the grosser noise on the walkie-talkies — and by this point, if any of our other neighbours were on this channel, they’d think we were nuts (if they didn’t think that already) — with Jamie making a noise like a boy peeing in a toilet and James making a noise that cannot be described in this blog without it going R18. Let’s just say we call him this all the time and he proved he knows how to make the sounds to confirm he is one LOL.
Anyway… it was a great bit of fun that we all enjoyed and thank God James and Jacqui took the practical joke so well!
Beam Me Up, Scotty 