No More Pranks!

The alarm sounded. A sleepy Tara stretched, smiled, and then her heart sank. Most unpleasant things Tara was able to tolerate, but there was one day a year that filled her with absolute dread – April 1^st, the day of pranks. Too conscientious to “call in sick” and avoid any possible pranks, she mustered enough strength to drag herself to the breakfast table. After some deep breaths and a few mouthfuls of her favorite cereal she had an ‘aha’ moment. She would turn this day into a positive one and go out of her way to do as many random acts of kindness as was possible to fit into her day. Brilliant! With a light heart she jotted down some ideas in her ever present journal.

           First, the grocery store. Tara looked in her purse and saw that she had seven $5 bills. She would wait till no one was around, then place them in random egg cartons for people to find. On each of the notes she had inscribed ‘God bless you’. She wished she had more than seven. Before leaving the house, she made some of her delicious (at least that’s what the recipients of them said) peanut butter and oatmeal cookies to share with anyone she thought could use some. This day was going to be fun!

           Tara walked through the park to get to the grocery store. The homeless people were still sleeping. With a swift, silent motion she placed bags of the cookies next to each sleeping person. Then she approached the grocery where another two were sleeping – each of them got cookies too. The egg area was busy for a while but after fifteen minutes she was able to sneak in and put the funds in random cartons. Part of Tara wanted to wait to see the faces of the recipients, but she trusted that those who most needed the money would be drawn to the special cartons. It was important to her that she remain anonymous. What could she do next?

           Parking meters – yes! Tara went up and down the main road putting extra quarters in the meters where early morning shoppers had parked. No chance of a ticket now for them. Three had expired already so that brought her extra joy. At the coffee shop she gave the clerk a $10 bill and said “the next five people get coffee free of charge. This should cover it, have a blessed day.” Both smiled. The busy clerk was looking forward to telling her regular customers that their coffee would be free. Tara’s good deed had a ripple effect. Each of the recipients did the same thing for others. By the end of the day the clerk had more than enough left over to treat her two young children and herself to burgers and fries for dinner – a far cry from the tomato soup with stale bread that she thought they would have to have.

           Before work, Tara stopped at the flower stall and bought one carnation for each person at the office. She included herself so no one would suspect she was the benefactor. Always the first one in, she made a pot of special coffee for the coffee drinkers and special tea for the tea drinkers. Then she put the flowers on each of the keyboards and sat down at her own desk. She worked in the Meeting and Travel department of the Federal Reserve, so her days were filled with organizing meetings and making travel arrangements for busy executives. She always got the best deal she could with travel arrangements and maintained a catalog of each executive’s preferences – window or aisle seat, mode of transport, snacks they liked, anything she could think of. At the end of each day Tara knew she had done her level best and that pleased her. She got along well with her two coworkers Nancy and Gwen as well. For an extra random act of kindness for them she had purchased lunch certificates in their cafeteria. Again, one for herself too so they wouldn’t suspect she was the giver. There were plenty of little vases in the office to put the flowers in. One by one Tara saw tired, down-hearted faces light up when they saw the flower on their keyboards. She made a mental note there and then to save up and get little anonymous treats whenever she could. It seemed to make a real difference in everyone’s life. There was a chill in the air that morning, so several people had their cold fingers wrapped around mugs of the steaming brews she had prepared.

           All day she sent silent blessings to anyone she could think of. As a team the staff arranged a weeklong conference out of state – that took a lot of planning since all the executives wanted to stay in the same place. In a fortunate turn of events there had been a recent cancellation at one of the preferred hotels, so the team were able to accommodate everyone. Tickets and itineraries were printed and handed to either the executives or their assistants. High fives all around and the girls went on to their next task.

           Nancy almost broke down in tears when she spotted the certificate. She had no money in her purse for lunch and was too shy to ask for help. Gwen had given her lunch money to her daughter that day so was in the same boat. That gift was inspired thought Tara. She said:

“I brought a salad but have a real taste for their chicken wings so with this certificate I can have them. Yay!”

Perfect, she thought to herself, they don’t suspect me.

           After work she went to the library and put random acts of kindness cards in books that read God bless you, pass it on. She had printed several up at home one winter evening knowing that she would find a use for them one day. After paying a patron’s overdue book fine she then made her way to the Tender Heart Soup Kitchen three blocks away to volunteer her time. She served up bowls of steaming chicken noodle soup to hungry customers and gave each a fresh baked roll. She still had twenty peanut butter and oatmeal cookies left so they went to children in the line. Smiles all around again. After two hours all had been fed so she made her way home.

           Tara swept her neighbor’s porch and her own before entering her flat. Changing into her comfortable shoes she took her faithful Chihuahua for a walk in the park. The two of them went over to the children’s play area where Tara placed various Dollar Store toys that she had bought the previous month for children to find the next day. Then it was home to a cheese and spinach pizza for tea. She wrote some cards of cheer for nursing home residents who never had visitors or mail and left them on the table to mail on the way to work the next day.

           A sigh of content – the dreaded day had turned out good after all. She fell into a sound sleep with a happy little dog curled up next to her. 

           The alarm sounded. A sleepy Tara stretched, smiled, then her heart sank. It had all been a dream! No matter, she thought. She knew exactly what she was going to do and smiled. She would make this a random act of kindness day – no more pranks!