It was not unusual for Danny to have a full-scale afternoon snooze every Sunday afternoon. This wasn’t a gentle doze in front of the television; this was a get-into-bed affair. His wife and kids would hear him snoring away for an hour – sometimes for an hour and a half. Then he would get up and life would return to normal.
“Work for your parents tomorrow,” he would say to the kids. “And school for you.”
This particular afternoon the children decided to play a trick. They adjusted all the clocks, even the clock in the car. They convinced their mother to wake their father up.
“Hurry up, dear!” said mother. “You’ve overslept. You slept all the way to Monday morning. You must’ve needed it. You’ll be late for work.”
Danny leapt out of bed.
“A quick breakfast?” asked mother. The kids were all sitting around the breakfast table eating morning cereal.
“I’m not hungry,” said Danny. “I’ll grab a coffee on the way to work.”
Off he set in the car for work at four o’clock on a Sunday afternoon. The kids were ecstatic about their trick! It worked!
Twenty minutes later, Danny reappeared. “I’ll get you lot sometime soon,” he grumbled. “I want everyone seated in the dining room in five minutes.”
The event began. “I’ve got these family tickets to Disneyland,” said Danny. “We’ve always wanted to go, and now we are.”
The kids didn’t believe him. “You can’t fool us with this one,” they all said. “We don’t believe you.”
“I knew you’d think that,” said Danny. But that was Danny’s real trick. They didn’t believe him, and they never knew they were really going to go!