April fools on me?...
I waited more than 10 years to pay back my brother, Scott, for an April fools joke he played on me. I remember very clearly having been interrupted during an important meeting in my office by a phone call from the police department. The officer said that my brother, Steve (not pictured), had been arrested on an outstanding bench warrant for an unpaid traffic violation and asked that I come and bail him out. (I knew what day it was but I could hear the police dispatcher in the background so I wasn't the least bit concerned that it could be a joke... I also knew my brother Steve.) I excused myself from the meeting and immediately departed for the police station. Just before I arrived, Steve (who was supposedly in jail) called and asked if I could pick him up an April-fools shake while I was out. What?!My payback plan was perfect (but I'd need to involve my father and other brothers for it to be believable). I wrote an email to my father and copied my four brothers (including Scott) telling them that Trevor didn't come home the night before and that we thought he'd run off to a girl whose father worked at the American naval base in Naples. A few hours later (since we were eight hours ahead), I sent another email saying that we'd visited the family in Naples and that the fictitious girl was also missing. The plan worked. Scott called me on my cell phone and said that he was on his way to the airport and had booked a flight to Rome (he'd lived in Italy for two years) and would use his contacts in the Naples area to help us find Trevor. I told Scott that we had found Trevor and put him on the phone. Trevor had no idea why his uncle was asking him if he wanted to come live at his house for a while... April fools!
Regrettably, my father (who never checks his email on Sunday) had awoken early that morning and read the original message before he received my "it's an April fools joke on Scott" explanation, and a flurry of emails and telephone calls ensued. Fortunately, my father and brothers all have a good sense of humor... unfortunately, I'm now the black sheep of the family.
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