by Arnie
"All done, Sergeant-Major?"
"All done, sir," the soldier said, proud of the work he and his men had accomplished.
Garrison nodded and headed upstairs to the big room where his team were waiting, wondering what their mission would be this time.
The table, unusually enough, was clear, and Garrison spread a map out and waited for the reactions.
"But that's...." Goniff looked as confused as he felt.
"A map of the Mansion," Casino chimed in, wondering what the Hell the Warden was up to now.
"That's right, gentlemen. A map of the Mansion...and the grounds, to be specific." He looked around at his puzzled men. "Our mission today is quite simple. In one hour children from the local orphanage will be arriving. They're here for an Easter Egg hunt."
"Warden, there's a war on," Actor told him helpfully. "Where will *we* find any eggs?"
Garrison smiled. "They're not real eggs, they're cardboard eggs."
Goniff looked disgusted. "Warden, boiled cardboard eggs just ain't any fun!"
"That's for sure!" Casino agreed.
"I know that, Goniff. All the children have to do is find the eggs. Each egg found wins a candy bar."
"So, lemme guess," Casino said, "we have to hide the eggs."
"Not quite, Casino, the eggs are already hidden."
Chief frowned. "So what do we do?"
"We help the children search. We're splitting them up into five teams, one team for each of us. Once the hunt starts, we'll have two hours to find as many eggs as we can. All the eggs are hidden in the grounds of the Mansion," Garrison said, indicating the edges of the Mansion grounds on the map. "Just don't let any of them fall into the duckpond." With that, he rolled up the map and headed towards the door.
"'Ere, Warden." Goniff hurried after the officer with a worried look on his face. "What if we don't find any eggs?"
"Then the children won't get any candy bars," Garrison told him, a smile on his face. "Don't worry, Goniff, you'll be fine."
~*~
The children arrived on time, all wildly excited at the idea of an Easter Egg hunt. They were a little disappointed to discover that they wouldn't be searching for real eggs, but cheered up immensely when they heard that each cardboard egg was worth a candy bar.
As soon as the children were divided into teams, they all stood before the stone steps ready for the starting whistle. Garrison glanced around, making no effort to hide his grin. He was sure today would show a totally different side of each of his men.
The starting whistle blew, and the teams set off. Half an hour later, the personalities of each man meant that each team was proceeding in a totally different manner to any other team.
Garrison, having had the advantage of military training, had gathered his team, drawn a quick sketch in the ground and sent each team member off to search his allotted part of the ground thoroughly.
Actor, his team strolling elegantly around with an unruffled air, had the two youngest members of his team clinging to his hands, (unsurprisingly they were both girls). No one who saw them go could doubt that they would find their quota of eggs, and maybe just a little bit more.
Casino's lot had set off at a gallop from the start, rampaging over the ground at a speed that guaranteed they'd cover the most ground (and scare the neighbourhood). The youngest member of his team, a four year old boy, was having the time of his life. His short legs had meant that he wouldn't be able to keep up, so Casino had hoisted him up on his back and the kid was directing the operation with pride from his vantage spot.
Garrison had put Goniff on his honour that he wouldn't teach his team to pick pocket other people's eggs, so the thief was rather stymied as to how to proceed. His team had been searching, not very successfully, but their ingenious leader came up with a plan to ensure that they'd get their share of the candy bars on offer. With that in mind, his team retired to the house and spent a very enjoyable hour making their own cardboard eggs. Goniff sincerely hoped that Garrison wouldn't examine the eggs too closely when the time came to hand them over.
Anyone looking for Chief and his team would have had trouble spotting them. The children, totally impressed that their team leader was a real live Indian, were thrilled to be following him as he crept through the bushes. There had been a slight delay in starting off as each child had begged for their own Indian name, but their skill at searching meant that they were doing quite well. Laughing Donkey, in particular, (in spite of her giggles) had proved to have very sharp eyes, and the Sergeant-Major would have been dismayed if he'd seen how easily she found his well-hidden eggs.
Finally the whistle blew, and each team returned from a different part of the grounds, each certain of being able to triumphantly crow over the other teams.
The Sergeant-Major, being impartial, was given the job of counting up each team's hoard and handing out the prizes. Garrison's team had won, but only by one egg, Actor's team having done amazingly well considering they hadn't even strained themselves looking. Goniff's team was third, with Chief and Casino in joint fourth place. The Sergeant-Major handed out the candy bars with a big grin on his face. He had three children himself and since he couldn't spend Easter Day seeing the smiles on their faces, he reckoned this was almost as good.
It wasn't until after the children had left that the Sergeant-Major told Garrison of the slight blip in their plan. While counting up the eggs, he'd been very surprised to note that the total of eggs found was more than the total of eggs hidden. But, as he commented to the Lieutenant, after considering most of the team leaders, he thought that he really should have guessed there'd be some monkey business.
The End
