Donning the Mask (Part 2) - Joe

Donning the Mask (Part 2) It turned out that Anthony would keep his sister's memory alive in two ways. One, he keep her prized New York Yankees baseball card collection and preserve it; second, he would keep alive her legacy of pranks. Over the years, Anthony would go about the neighbourhood and play small pranks to cheer people up or just get them to lighten up and enjoy life. Whenever he pulled a prank, Anthony would always go "this one's for you, Evelyn" before the deed. It always seemed like Evelyn was smiling down on him whenever he ran from a prank laughing. On his Sixteenth birthday, Anthony got a small chain around neck. On the chain was a pair of dog tags; on one was inscribed "Evelyn" and on the other "Little Joe". The dog tags would come to be one of his most prized treasures over the next few years and Anthony never took them off. Eventually, by a miracle, Anthony made it into Lehman college. Whilst Frank wanted Anthony to take a degree in something business related so he could run the Deli in the future, Anthony decided instead to take a degree in something he was more interested in: Chemistry. To please his father though, at Lisa's behest, Anthony made sure to get a minor in Economics and Business. Anthony also joined the college's theatre troupe and regularly put on performances. Though his career never did a Rowan Atkinson, his performances was usually well received by his fellow actors. Anthony seemed to especially have a knack for slapstick which unfortunately did not go over too well with the troupe director who wanted the troupe to focus more on drama than comedy. During his college years, Anthony would also team up a couple of guys - Charlie Spencer, Jerome Blank - to create ‘The Prank Squad'. The trio would go throughout campus and play good natured pranks on their fellow students each week. Once a month they would also pull an elaborate prank on an unsuspecting person; usually a faculty member that everyone despised or sometimes a certain college student who needed to get taught a lesson for being too big of a jerk. Whilst some people hated the prank squad, others loved them. The prank squad would also eventually be joined by a young asian girl who would become Anthony's girlfriend - Lucy Qiu. Lucy and Anthony hit it off instantly and she would become his confidante during his college years. Like Evelyn, Lucy was a die hard Yankees fan as well and the duo would enjoy many a date in Yankee stadium. Being with Lucy was the first time since Evelyn's death when Anthony could fully relax and just be at peace; everything just seemed right. As the last exams before graduation approached, it was Anthony's idea to reunite the Prank Squad for one last major prank for old time's sake. The prank was centered around the holiday song "The twelve days of Christmas" and revolved around three facts - one, their old dean had a prized elm tree in the college which he would always boast about; second, their dean hated "the twelve days of Christmas" song, and lastly, as much as the dean hated that particular Christmas song, he loathed April Fools Day even more.. The squad planned to stick pears onto the tree's branches and make it an impromptu pear tree. Anthony would hide in the tree and on cue release certain things as the rest of the squad sang the song when the dean stopped by. The squad had gathered a pair of live doves, three roasted french hens, and they even had an actual partridge ready for the prank. Although it wasn't going to be Christmas for another six months, the squad decided that they would bring some Christmas cheer early in the year to a certain dour faced dean. They had even roped in some graduating members of the theatre troupe and their friends to help out. Everyone wanted to send a goodbye present to their Dean and decided to help out in this last major prank on the campus. So on that fateful April 1st, Anthony waited in the tree for his cue as Lucy rushed to bring the Dean over to the tree sprouting some yarn about Anthony being stuck in it. When the Dean came running over, Lucy ran past him and to her position beside the other prank squad members. Anthony and the squad shouted "April Fools" and then began to sing... "On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...." The Dean, taken by surprise, stopped beside the tree and turned to see Jerome, Charlie and Lucy grinning as they continued. "Twelve drummers drumming..." On cue, a cohort of twelve people made up of graduating members of the theatre troupe as well as graduating friends of the Prank Squad came marching in and around the Dean who was trying in vain to call everything off. Each member of the cohort had a toy drum held by a sling around his/her neck and they drummed on it as they marched. "Eleven pipers piping..." Eleven of the cohort ceased drumming and brought out toy recorders and proceeded to give a demonstration of how unskilled they were at playing said toy instruments. The twelfth drummer just merrily kept drumming along; "Ten Lords a leaping..." The seven guys in the cohort were joined by three other graduating males who seemingly appeared on cue. These ten then proceeded to go an impromptu cancan demonstration in front of a chagrined Dean. "Nine ladies dancing..." The remaining five girls in the cohort were joined by four graduating cheerleaders who appeared on cue and the nine started dancing around the now madly blushing Dean. "Eight maids a-milking..." From the tree, Anthony lowered down eight cans of "Milk Maid" condensed milk which he had worked hard to find. The rest of the cohort worked together to hand the cans to the Dean who, coincidentally, was lactose intolerant. "Seven swans a-swimming" On cue, a set of seven porcelain swans swimming in a line was presented to the Dean; they had been chosen as an apology piece for the Dean as in one of the Prank Squad's not so finer moments, they had planned an ill-conceived prank that resulted in some garden statues of swans in the college being damaged. The Dean, knowing the significance, accepted the swans graciously despite the chaos around him and his personal misgivings about the still ongoing April Fool's prank. "Six geese a-laying..." A set of Russian dolls in the shape of geese was presented to the Dean next. There were six in all in the set; accompanying them was also a half dozen eggs. On the eggs was labelled S-O-R-R-Y-! This was funny for the students because of two reasons...the Dean was half Russian, the second was that it was also a memory of an egg prank on Halloween the previous year when the Prank Squad had egged the Dean's car for him being a scrooge on Halloween. "Five golden rings..." The Dean hated onion rings and so was mortified when Anthony lowered a box containing five of the greasy morsels from the tree and into the Dean's hands. The Dean sportingly ate it at the goading of the cohort who later cheered. "Four colly birds..." Anthony let down four toy blackbirds (real ones are a protected species) on a mobile which was presented to the Dean. The mobile was in honour of his grandson and the now teary-eyed Dean thanked them for the gesture. "Three French hens..." On cue, Jerome, Charlie and Lucy each presented a French-style roasted chicken to the Dean who wondered how he was going to finish all the food. "Two turtle doves..." At this phrase, Anthony released two trained doves which flew around the Dean and perched on him, on on each shoulder. "AND A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE!" As they sang the last phrase, everyone pointed the Dean to look at the tree and to his horror the Dean noticed pears stuck all around the tree. To top it off, Anthony came down holding a Partridge pie. It wasn't a real pie but a porcelain replica with a message on it "Home is where the heart is...and where the stomach is filled." The model pie was significant because it was a tribute to the Dean's late wife who had passed away earlier in the year. She was half-british and loved eccentric British fare like Partridge pie. The saying was also one that she made often whenever she came on campus to visit students. At the end of the ‘prank' the students congregated round their soon to be former Dean and embraced him, thanking him for his patience during their college years and wishing him all the best. When all was said and done, the Dean walked away a happy man, and the Prank Squad was left with the clean up of taking the pears off the tree. It was at this point, that things went horribly wrong. As he was reaching for the last pear, Anthony heard something crack and started to have a sickening feeling in his stomach. Before anyone could blink, the branch Anthony was supporting himself on gave way, causing him to fall unceremoniously from the tree. The last thing he remembered before blacking out was pears falling around him and someone shouting for paramedics. It was a couple of days later when Anthony awoke, and the splitting headache that greeted him had almost made him wish otherwise. Anthony learnt that he had been lucky for two reasons. First, during his treatment, doctor's had detected and resolved an Aneurysm forming in his head, sparing him the same fate as Evelyn; Second, apart from his concussion, he had only sustained minor injuries from his fall and would theoretically be able to recover in time for his finals. There was, however one minor complication. According to the doctors, the combination of the concussion damage and the operation procedure to remove the Aneurysm would have some effect on his memories. It would be possible that Anthony would have trouble remembering past events and if so, he was to not force those but allow them to slowly return on their own, if they ever would...   (Note: Here's your chance to earn some points. Tell me which real life famous people Jerome, Charlie and Lucy are based on. For each correct identity, you get twenty points. Points are first come, first served.)