So I've got a confession to make. April Fool's Day is my second favorite unofficial holiday in the whole year. The whole silly concept just really appeals to me. Imagine having a whole day where the whole point is to trick people and make them laugh! From the very first time that my first grade pal fell for the old 'your shoelace is untied' trick, I was hooked. I've participated in my share of April Fools pranks in my time, but none of them tops the year that my chum David dragged me along with him to play a little April Fool's joke on the unsuspecting public.

Mind you, the joke wasn't all that original, but sometimes you just gotta go along with a friend for the sake of the friendship. This one was an old standby. We headed down to the shopping mall, where we walked in separately so that no one would think we were together. David wandered on ahead, and right there in front of Cheesecake Heaven, he stopped and stood there staring up at the wall above the sign. You know the way this one goes, right? I walk by and he calls me over and points up at the wall and I pretend that I see what he's talking about. Next thing you know, if you're convincing enough, you've got another dozen people standing around, staring up at the wall and pretending that they see it too.

Well, we were pretty convincing. There we were, with all these strangers standing around pointing out this phantom to everyone else and David is totally hamming it up, pointing and gesturing and backing up without looking where he was going. You see this coming, right? I saw it coming from halfway down the mall. I should say I saw HER coming. Pretty girl, blond, distracted, carrying an armload of packages and not looking where she was going. Now, I'm not a mean person but it WAS April Fools Day, and David was already playing a trick on everyone and I thought to myself maybe someone should play a trick on him. I did realize that letting him knock this girl over really wasn't all that funny. I just didn't count on David not believing me when I yelled out, "Davey, look out behind you!"

But see, it was April Fool's Day. And David was one of those guys who always figure that someone else is going to be trying to one up him so his response was, "Yeah, right, Romeo. Think I'm going to fall for that!" Which was absolutely the best timing in the world because at precisely that moment, he took one step back just as the blonde took one step forward and David did exactly that. Fell for it, that is. And that's not all he fell for.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one playing April Fool's pranks that day. Remember my little pal with the bow and arrow? The one who should have been taking a well-deserved rest after Valentine's Day? I guess the little guy likes his April Fool's day jokes, too, because somewhere between scrambling to pick up all those bags and falling all over himself to apologize, my boy Davey talked the pretty blond into letting him apologize over dinner. And make it up to her with a movie the next Saturday night. And follow up his apology with bottle of champagne and a box of chocolate. In fact, he apologized so well, that two years after that April Fools joke, I was standing next to him at the altar, watching that pretty blond walk up the aisle toward us.

And I was good. When the minister asked if anyone knew any reason that this couple should not be joined, I wasn't even tempted to say, "April Fools!"