the two men, Nick plopped himself next to Mikey, who had his own private talk with the dog.
As for me, London remarked that she had read a couple of my books and praised my ability of combining an intelligent plot with interesting characters. She was especially impressed with Stifle Her Scream and congratulated me on its making the bestseller list in January. I have to admit that I was pleased. I asked her about her ghostwriting and learned that she wrote memoirs for famous people, or just common folks with an interesting story to tell. She gave a few examples of personalities she had met and places visited in the course of her work. She also shared that she was in the process of writing her own novel.
And so we talked shop for a while. London wanted to know if I outlined my mysteries, and I answered that I did not. I explained that when starting to write a new manuscript, I had a general idea of the plot, knew who the villain was, had a motive for the murder, and was familiar with the chosen location. The rest would all fall into place as I wrote the story and immersed myself into the minds of the characters. Naturally, after that first draft, I would write a second, and a third, going over chapter after chapter, revising and editing.
She asked, “Don’t you even take notes?”
“Yes, I will take notes on occasion. I do a lot of plotting in my head while driving, going for walks, during meals, in short, all the time. I’ve been known to exit the freeway, pull over to the side of the road, and write things down when having a sudden clever idea.”
“What did you mean by saying you were familiar with the location?”
“I do all my research in person, traveling to the destinations I choose for my stories.”
She nodded, and asked no more.
I was suddenly aware that all kept quiet for a while, gazing into the flames of the campfire, enjoying the peace and serenity of the moment.
Then, Candie, ever the troublemaker, turned to Derek and Curtis and asked loud enough for all to hear, “So what do you boys bicker about?”
Curtis said, “Derek bosses me around and is a know-it-all.”
“And you never listen,” his brother shot back. “You’re incompetent and let customers run you. You have no idea what stuff is worth, so we often take a loss because of you. The worst part is that you never learn from your mistakes. When I point something out to you, instead of being grateful for the advice, you start a fight. But we both know the real reason you’re always looking for a fight; you can’t stand it that I’m our old man’s favorite.”
Curtis snarled, “That’s a bunch of crap!”
He was about to pounce on his older brother when Jacob intervened and loudly suggested we tell spooky ghost stories. No one took him up on it, but it calmed the brothers down.
Then he had another idea and said, “What’s funny about today’s date?”
We failed to get his meaning.
Todd finally burst out, “Of course, it’s April Fools day! I’m surprised none of you thought of fooling anyone!”
The observation prompted Jacob to propose that we all take turns sharing anecdotes of April Fools pranks we made in the past. Again, no one seemed eager to volunteer a prank tale, so Jacob started with his.
CHAPTER 8
Jacob began, “This happened a long time ago when I was a senior in college. I had a practical joker friend who teased me on a regular basis for never having the guts to play pranks on people. On an April Fools day, there was road construction going on near the campus, with traffic being directed to detours. After the construction workers had left for the day, my pal and I happened to walk by one of the detour signs. On a whim I said, ‘What if I turned the arrow sign around for an April Fools joke?’ He dared me to do it and I went ahead while he stood guard, making sure no one was watching. The task was not without effort - - I had to unscrew the sign from the post it was attached to, turn it around and screw it back on - - but I managed it before anyone was the wiser. Originally, the arrow for the detour pointed left, and after I had turned the sign upside down, it pointed to the right. Obviously, we didn’t stick around to watch, but could picture the traffic confusion this caused.”
He grinned and ended his story with, “The next day, there was an article in the local paper blaming the road workers for the mix-up. So I was home free with the prank.”
He looked around our circle and said, “I’m sure many of you have an April Fools story to tell.”
Hannah said, “I just remembered one. It was in high school. We had this math teacher who always started his class with, ‘Who did not do the homework?’ And then he gave hell to the students who hadn’t done it. Well, on that occasion, we all raised our hands. He got bright red in the face with rage, stamped his foot, and yelled, ‘The entire class didn’t do their homework? What is going on? I’ll hand out detention to each and every one of you!’ In unison, all of us students got to our feet and shouted, ‘April Fool!’”
Marcelo spoke up, “I did a prank, like you call it, but it was not in April and it did not go as planned.”
“Doesn’t matter; we’re ready to hear any good story,” Jacob assured him.
Marcelo became animated, telling his story in a comical way. He recounted, “We were altar boys, Orlando and I, and usually scheduled to serve together. Orlando had this habit of nipping into the altar wine. Just a few sips, so nobody was the wiser. One day, I decided to teach him a lesson and added vinegar to an almost empty bottle. I already pictured him taking a good swig and imagined his expression when swallowing the sour mixture.
“To my horror, his parents called him in sick that Sunday and the adult verger took his place. There was no way I could get rid of the wine laced with vinegar. When the priest drank it during mass, he had a coughing fit and almost choked to death. Of course, I was found out and punished.”
Candie exclaimed, “Oh, I have a good one! This dates back to the time before I was well known, when I had to hustle every step of the way. I auditioned for this part I wanted so badly it hurt. Being only about the tenth person they had interviewed so far, I was confident of getting the part, until I saw the long line of women on my way out. The queue stretched along half the outside of the building. I suddenly had a brainstorm. Pretending to be a person in charge, I announced, ‘Attention, everyone! The auditions are over for today. Try again tomorrow. I repeat: Today’s auditions are cancelled.’ I feigned going back into the building. Then, as the women went away, I made myself get lost in the crowd.”
Min said, “That really wasn’t nice.”
“Well, it’s a cutthroat business.”
Todd asked, “Did you get the part?”
“Actually, no. But I was a close runner up.”
Everyone kept silent for a while. The only sound came from the occasional crackle of the fire as we stared into it.
Todd suddenly laughed and said, “Here is my contribution of antics. This wasn’t all that long ago, two years tops. I spent a weekend with my buddies on the Colorado River. Needless to say that we all had a beer or two. One of the guys went skinny dipping.”
Mikey asked, “What’s skinny dipping?” His mom whispered something to him which made the
