The whole city was closed off. I woke up at 4 a. m. , stared at the dark ceiling, and thought about driving over early to watch where they hid the eggs.
But I couldn’t do it. That would be cheating, right? Low-key cheating, maybe. I was already 30 minutes late, dressed in my craziest outfit, holding a bag I was sure would be full of at least 100 Easter eggs.
Except I didn’t even know what an Easter egg looked like in this hunt. I didn’t know where they hid them. And the only insider information I had was from a guard who told me, “Good luck,” before sending me into a wall of people who were all getting there before me. Now I was standing in the middle of the chaos.
Everyone was looking. Runners were faster than me. People had brought actual tools. I just brought my chat, a bag, and a water bottle.
I thought I was dressed to win, but everyone here had a head start. “Excuse me, pop. Are the eggs still there? ” I asked a security guard.
“This way, pop,” he said, pointing. “Up here? ”
“Five. Five.
”
He was nice, but he didn’t know where the eggs were either. I asked another guard. He said he’d never seen any. I asked a gardener.
He said some people found eggs, but he didn’t know where. I asked the police. They just pointed and wished me luck. I walked through the triangle, the big closed-off area, scanning the bushes.
The vegetation was thick. I couldn’t tell what was an egg and what was just a leaf, a rock, or part of the scenery. Kids ran past me. Cats wandered through.
Someone’s dog was pretty, and I stopped to pet him because I needed a break. “This is not a good sign,” I whispered into my microphone. “I don’t think anyone’s actually going to find these. ”
People were still searching.
The sun was up. I was getting tired. I had woken up at 4 a. m.
for this. I had promised my chat we would be rich. I had promised myself I’d at least find one egg. But the more I walked, the more I started wondering something.
What if this is low-key a scam? What if the Easter Bunny is corrupt? What if there were no eggs at all, and the whole city was just chasing a lie? I looked around.
Everyone was still hunting. They believed. They had tools. They had hope.
I had a bag that was still empty. “Maybe the eggs are the friends we made along the way,” I joked to my chat. I wasn’t laughing. I asked another guard.
“Pop, may may it, is it over? ”
He just shrugged. He didn’t even understand the question. I stood in the middle of the crowded park, my bag open, my outfit ridiculous, my pride completely gone.
I had woken up early. I had driven all the way here. I had told everyone I would win. And now, after all the walking and asking and searching, I had nothing.
But then I saw something in the bushes. Gold. Round. One of them.
Right there, sitting in plain sight, half-hidden under a leaf. I stopped. Everyone was still running past me. Nobody else saw it.
I looked at my chat. I looked at the egg. I looked at the crowd.
Then I took a step closer.
