Can't Wait to Get to Heaven

Easter at Elner’s

Elner and everyone else in town were so happy she had made it home in time for Easter. And this Easter turned out to be one of the best ones ever. The entire family flew in to spend it with her. Dena and Gerry flew in from California, and Linda and Apple came in from St. Louis. As usual, the day before Easter, Elner and Luther dyed over two hundred fifty eggs, and by sunrise on Easter morning, the two were out in the yard hiding them. Elner walked around the yard with the golden egg and thought about where she might hide it.

Norma got up early and ran out to the cemetery to put flowers on her parents’ grave, and when she got back, they all headed over to Elner’s house. The Easter egg hunt always started around twelve, but this year people had arrived with their children even earlier, and everyone was waiting in the front yard at 11:45 ready to go. When it was time, Elner stood on the porch and rang the old school bell, and about eighty little children with baskets along with Polly, Louise’s forty-two-year-old daughter, ran screaming and running at breakneck speed through the yard, while the grown-ups sat in lawn chairs and watched them. Sonny the cat had to run up a tree before he was trampled to death by the rushing hordes, and he sat there very unhappy-looking for the next hour. Louise Franks and Elner watched Polly as she ran giggling from place to place, along with five-year-old Apple by her side. As it turned out, one of Tot’s grandchildren found the golden egg, but as usual, Polly Franks received the biggest prize, a large stuffed rabbit that Elner and Louise had picked out the week before. Later that afternoon, after all the children except little Apple and Polly had gone home, Macky and Gerry set up the big folding table out in the yard and they had their Easter dinner under the fig tree. Reverend Susie Hill was with them and said grace, and then they started passing out the food. Elner sat happy as a lark eating her food and drinking her big glass of iced tea. She turned to Dena and said, “You know, this is about one of the best Easters I remember, and if you think about it, I had my own little Easter already, didn’t I? I sort of rose up from the dead myself. And I’m mighty glad I did, I wouldn’t have missed this ham and these deviled eggs Louise brought over for anything.” She called out down the table, “I think they’re the best deviled eggs you ever made, Louise!”

Louise Franks laughed and said, “Elner, you say that every year.”

Elner said, “Well, then it must be true.”

Susie, the Weight Watchers leader, helped herself to a second helping of the sweet potatoes with the marshmallows on top, and added, “Everything here is delicious.”

Elner looked at the assortment of pies and cakes at the end of the table and said, “I can’t wait to hit the coconut cake and that lemon icebox pie, can you?”

“No,” confessed Susie, “me either.”

The next morning when Linda came to pick up Apple, who had spent Easter night with Elner, Sonny the cat was hiding under the couch, and couldn’t wait until she left. He was tired of being picked up and almost squeezed to death by the little girl. It wasn’t until they were on the plane flying home that Linda noticed something on her daughter’s hand. “What is that on your thumb?”

Apple proudly held it up. “Aunt Elner took my fingerprint. Did you know that nobody in the whole world has one just like it?”