When Alice hears the knock on the guest room door, and opens it to see Missy and Laurie standing there . . . her heart sinks.
Alice: You want me to leave.
Laurie: No no. We want to know if you’ll come on a prank with us tonight.
Alice is deeply touched. And, as she is standing there, a crooked smile comes to her face and a little water “puddles up” inside her lower eyelids.
Missy: I guess that’s a “Yes.”
Laurie: If ever there was one.
Alice: What time?
Missy: Two o’clock.
Alice: I’ll be ready.
And she is. As the five of them . . . Missy, Laurie, Jody, Celeste, and Alice . . . drive toward the, um, chosen location, they make sure that everything is all set.
Jody: Both pulleys are securely attached to the poles.
Missy: Check.
Jody: All the clothes are securely stapled to the rope.
Missy: Check.
Jody: All the clothes pins are securely glued to the clothes.
Missy: Check.
They park on the side street that borders the municipal parking lot.
They grab the shovels, the walkie-talkies, and . . . the other instruments of crime . . . and “move out.” Laurie and Celeste are the sentries and they branch off from the other three and slink to their respective look-out posts.
Jody, Missy, and Alice hustle out onto the lawn in front of the town hall.
Missy pulls out the tape measure and she and Jody quickly measure off the exact distance they’ll need. Alice and Jody then start digging. Missy stands guard . . . with a walkie-talkie in hand . . . and establishes contact with Laurie and Celeste.
The girls know that the holes have to be at least a foot deep for the poles to be good and sturdy. Neither Alice nor Jody takes a moment’s rest until that depth is reached. Alice suggests that they dig a little deeper “just to be sure.” And they do.
The poles . . . which have the rope and the clothes already attached to them . . . are then lifted up and placed into the holes. Jody and Missy hold the poles upright while Alice shovels the dirt back into the holes. They then stomp on the dirt around each pole to pack it in good and tight. Not one single car has driven by . . . yet.
They bring out the wood cut-out . . . and that would be the wood cut-out that has the amply proportioned lady painted on it . . . the amply proportioned lady who is wearing a blueberry-colored skirt, a banana-colored blouse, and a cherry red bandana with white polka-dots.
Alice steadies the wood cut-out as Jody and Missy hammer the stakes into the ground. Once this is done, Missy calls in the sentries and all five girls hustle over to the car, get in, and make a clean getaway.
It actually makes it into “The Courier.” Jody . . . a veteran of many pranks . . . is a little surprised. Only page five, it’s true, but still. And so, around town, a photo is clipped out of the newspaper and scotch-taped to refrigerators or push-pinned onto bulletin boards . . . a photo of a “washer woman” tending to the clothes on her clothes line . . . right out in front of the town hall building.
The mayor is tickled by it. Municipal employees, seeing it as they enter the building, all smile. Dorothy Prentice, a clerk up in the prothonotary’s office, feels a little honored by it. And Alice . . . dear Alice . . . knows that whatever yearning it was that made her want to . . . revisit her younger self . . . whatever it was . . . it is now satisfied. And she decides that it is time . . . to go home.
As Alice packs, her daughter Bethany is there with her. Missy and Jody stop down to say good-bye. They are carrying a wooden name plate with “Alice” engraved on it, a school key chain that has an “ALICE” pendulum carved out of wood, and a food tray from the school kitchen . . . a tray that has the “Deer in the Forest” design etched onto it.
Jody: These are for you Alice.
Missy: Jimmy made them up special for you.
Jody: The name plate and the keychain anyway.
Missy: It’s sort-of a tradition here that, when a girl graduates, she takes her name plate, her keychain . . .
Jody: And a “purloined” tray from the kitchen.
Missy: We had to guess at the design you’d like.
Alice: Thank you. It’s perfect.
Missy and Jody wish Alice good luck and then turn to leave, and, as they are walking away, Alice turns to her daughter and says: Alice:
You are the luckiest girl in the world.
Bethany: Thanks mom.
Bob arrives, and he goes inside to see if Alice is ready yet. She shows him the name plate, the keychain, and the tray. “That’s pretty nice.” he tells her. The three of them then walk out to the car. The parents say good-bye to the daughter, and then . . . Alice leaves Barclay’s.