Brother Broken


Alf Reads about playing pranks...

about playing pranks . . .

For some of us, the telephone switchboard fed an impish itch for fun. I followed John’s lead as we indulged ourselves playing pranks on other kids. One of our strategies was to have a kid place the telephone plug in his mouth. He or she usually required some convincing to do it.

“Just put the plug on your tongue.”

We were gifted at crafting reasons why a plug to the tongue was a good thing.

“It’s fun,” we’d say.

Sometimes, we had to persuade by demonstration, so we’d show them by illustrating with a mouth full of plug.

“See? Wike yiss.”

It took some doing, but we eventually persuaded one wide-eyed patsy to try. He opened his mouth as though to receive a communion wafer, and we dropped in the plug. Timing was key, and before he got a chance to change his mind, one of us worked the hand crank.

The surge of electricity never caused his hair to frizz, but watching his eyeballs bulge was satisfactory. Our friends never fully appreciated the gags, nor did they fall for the same trick more than twice.


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