Golden Opportunity For Disappointment

The golden egg TANNYA JOAQUIN PHOTO

In my column here last week, I wrote about the sweet satisfaction of being part of a candy-free Easter hunt for my daughter’s class.

Little did I know then that there would be part two to this egg saga, featuring my son.

Our neighbors (who right about now are thinking, oh no, she’s going to go there) were nice enough to invite us to Easter brunch again. I say nice enough because they are very nice and, well, there was an episode last Easter.

It had to do with the Golden Egg. You know the tradition. A golden egg is hidden somewhere more challenging than the usual candy-filled egg. This gold one is special. It has money inside.

Every child wants to find the coveted golden egg — especially my son Kaimana.

He was crushed last year after another child found it. He cried and it broke our hearts, but there’s always next year, right?

Well, this year our very nice neighbors hosted another brunch and guess what? They ended up with two more golden eggs from guests.

Great, I rationalize. Kai has greater odds of finding a golden egg. But there were no guarantees. I didn’t hide them or see where they went.

Besides, I didn’t want to rob other kids of a fair shot.

Golden egg No. 1 is found fair and square somewhere. The lucky finder is stoked, until she sees hers only has $1 inside.

I think egg No. 2 was high up in a tree. One of the taller boys scored this one. Lucky him. This one had 5 bucks.

That left only one more golden egg. Egg No. 3 also was hidden in a tree, out of the reach of most of the children.

So, you see where I’m going with this. All the parents start giving hints. You’re getting warm. Look up.

Big mistake.

All of the kids spot it at the same time and swarm the tree. The tallest boy swats at the egg. There’s a mad scramble. It falls and Kaimana grabs it, but at this point, there’s a dog pile going for the golden egg. Someone steps on his hand, he lets go … and just like that, the golden egg is gone.

Oh no. He is devastated. It literally slipped through his fingers and he is bawling. Everyone feels bad, but what can you do?

Another very nice dad gave his son’s golden egg filled with quarters to Kaimana. He feels vindicated and happy to, at last, have his own golden egg.

But we should have protected that thing like it was real gold because Kai decided to put it inside a blue plastic egg and go on his merry way.

Then, he came back to us sans egg.

Just as my husband and another dad asked where it was, I started to respond, “It was in a blue egg …” Out of the corner of my eye I spot another boy holding — you guessed it — a blue egg, and I finish up saying, “just like … that.”

At that moment, the boy cracks it open and squeals “A golden egg!”

Oh no, here we go again. Well, I say to our very nice neighbors, at least I have a MidWeek column.

tjoaquin@hawaiinewsnow.com