rotten easter eggs

the easter bunny likes to play naughty tricks on little girls sometimes. he's really not as nice as you would think him to be. many years ago, i was all dolled up in my easter dress for our block's annual easter egg hunt, when the easter bunny played a trick on me. i lived [and still live] in suburbia; where neighbours wave hello to each other and borrow rakes and sugar and things, so naturally, we had neighbourhood easter egg hunts.

i was dimpled and jolly and clothed in one pale spring shade or another. it was sunny outside i was excited to be out looking for sugary treasures with the other kids from my block. when the grownups said it was okay to start, all of us kids bolted towards spots that looked as though they were hiding eggs. i gathered up a lot of eggs and i could barely contain my glee. i figured that everyone was on their own mission and that no one would notice if i opened one of the plastic eggs and munched on a little piece of candy.

i decided to find one more egg and that it would be the lucky one; the chosen one! i looked really hard for it, because everything else had been picked over for the most part. i stood on my tiptoes and saw a bit of pink peeking out at me from inside a tall bush. i reached my hand back and pulled out a pink plastic egg. i twisted it open; very ready to consume whatever treat was inside, and i discovered a dead bug. i ate it because i decided that it was my just dessert for sneaking candy ahead of the other kids.

sike! i threw it down to the ground and screamed like the little girl that i was for my mommy. she told me that the egg had probably been in that bush for a few years and that over time, it had cracked and that the bug had crawled inside and died. i was the lucky one to find it and through the sobs, i heard laughter from behind the tall bush.