Usually, my older sisters played tricks on me, but my favorite trick that I got to play on my big sister is a trick with the hand in the toilet.
This just happens to be my favorite Judy Moody story. It’s in the first book. In the book, Judy plays this trick on Stink, but in real life, all my sisters got to go to Washington, D.C., and we were visiting friends. When we got there, Mom and Dad took everybody to the White House to go on a tour, but I was too young, so they said I would get bored, and I would cry. So, I got left behind.
I was so disappointed, ‘cause when you’re the youngest, you wanna do everything your big sisters get to do. We were with our friends, and they said I could play with whatever — they got out a big box. I could play with whatever toy I wanted. I found this fake hand that looked really real. It had fingernails and everything on it.
I went all over the house. I had this idea. “I’m gonna play a funny joke on my sisters while they’re at the White House and I’m not.” I took the fake hand, went all over the house. As any kid would probably do, I thought, “Hey, why not the bathroom?” — right? I went in the bathroom, lifted up the toilet seat and had the fake hand stick out of the toilet [and] look like it’s reaching out to get you. Then I waited for my sisters to come home.
It took them forever, but finally my sister Michelle went into the bathroom. She goes in there, shuts the door, and it was two seconds later we hear this, “Ah!” — this really big scream. She came running out of the bathroom, and she goes, “Mom! Dad! There’s somebody in the toilet!” We, of course, were just cracking up. My poor sister to this day, she has not lived down the family story of the hand in the toilet.
In the book, Judy wants to play that trick on Stink. Stink being the youngest like I was, gets to go to the White House, and he dresses up as a human flag, and Judy’s sort of incensed. She gets the idea, “Hey, I’m gonna play a trick on him.” She borrows the fake hand and plays the same trick on Stink in the first book.