All Elbows and Knees

For my wife and me, it started with a light rapping at our front door. It was Chase and Landon, both seven.

One child is small for his age, while the other is rather large for his. They wanted to ask my wife if they each could have one of her painted garden rocks.

“Of course,” Mary said.

They each selected one and quickly raced from our porch.

It was less than half an hour later when we heard two blood-curdling screams, “Wwwaaaaaahhhhh!”

Then we saw Landon, head all the way back, mouth open, screaming in terror and crying as he sprinted across our porch. A couple of seconds later, Chase followed.

“What in the hell was that all about?” I asked.

“I hope they didn’t hit each other with those rocks,” Mary said.

The boys disappeared inside their home next door before I could find out. A while later, my wife saw them standing on the sidewalk.

She asked what had happened. They explained, leaving out one small detail.

“Are you going back over there?” Mary asked.

“Yeah,” Chase laughed.

“Are you kidding,” Landon said, “No way!”

She came in laughing and explained the situation to me. I laughed as well.

Still laughing, I went next door to the neighbor on the other side of our home and asked what happened. Instead of telling me, Mike showed me.

He donned a rubber ‘hobo’ mask. I laughed even harder.

Then he explained that the two boys had been ‘doorbell ditching,’ their home for the past few days.

“I saw them coming around the corner and sneaking up the walkway,” Mike said. “And I decided to scare them.”

Boy, did he. And I’m still chuckling.