Ethel woke up and felt dangerous. Well, as dangerous as an 88 year old woman can feel. The legs didn’t quite work the way she wanted them to anymore, nor did the back. But she was insanely good at scrabble. And she was really good at trash talking Terry because Terry was truly awful at the game.

She slowly got up out of bed and got ready for the day. Today was going to be an exciting day, she could just feel it in her old brittle bones. She finally made it out of the house an hour later to (slowly) walk over to the town’s only cafe that happened to be at the end of the block where she lived. It was just like any other Thursday morning, meeting with the old geezer crew of the small town in which they lived. But she could feel that this wouldn’t be like just any other Thursday, she just wasn’t sure why yet.

She walked in and waved to Darren, the barista. “The usual, Ethel?” he said as he started prepping the drink he knew that Ethel would want.

“You’re a saint,” Ethel said as she sat down at the table that Mark and Terry already occupied.

Before she could speak a word to the table, Terry said, “Ethel, it is wonderful to see you. Did you wake up this morning feeling extra mischievous?”

Ethel’s jaw dropped. “Don’t tell me that you are feeling the same?”

Mark looked at Ethel with a twinkle in his eye. “The very same, Ethel. Once Bruce gets here, we need to have a very serious discussion about what we should do today. But I would love nothing more than to have a fun day today.” The door bell jingled and Bruce rolled in. At the same time, Darren brought over Ethel’s drip coffee with a splash of half and half. She smiled and thanked him.

Bruce arrived at the table with a dangerous look in his eyes. Ethel thought that it was just destiny that they all woke up feeling the same way. “So are we causing some mayhem today or what?” said Bruce. “Let’s hear everyone’s best prank ideas. I’ll go first. We need walkie-talkies. We hide one in the ceiling and then throughout the day we meow into it so anyone who is in here at the time thinks that there’s a cat hidden somewhere.”

Ethel looked up at the ceiling and shook her head. “I’m not sure if you’re aware of this Bruce, but none of us have any chance in reaching a ceiling, especially not you with those worthless legs of yours,” she looked purposefully at his wheelchair. “We’d have to call in an assist for that one. My idea: we swap out all of the stock photos in picture frames in the general store with pictures of Ronald Reagan.”

“Great idea, Ethel. Great idea. How about we buy a bunch of plastic cockroaches and scatter them around the block?” said Mark.

They all nod in appreciation of the idea. Terry all of a sudden looked mutinous and they all leaned in to hear what her idea was. “Hear me out, we put a cucumber in random people’s mailboxes.” They all burst out laughing. Ethel didn’t remember the last time that she felt so giddy and bursting with anticipation. She felt like a young kid again, playing pranks on her siblings. It didn’t matter if anyone else found their prank funny, she was perfectly content.