One winter night, two brothers were sitting on the steps of their front porch. They were watching the dainty little snowflakes float from the sky and onto the ground. The mother had made them hot chocolate and provided a lantern that shone bright, as it was terribly dark outside. It was quiet and they didn’t bother to do much rather than just sit there and take a couple sips of their steaming beverage. They had planned to play video games that night but unfortunately the older brother failed a test, which resulted in their mother to take their system away and the younger had to fall with him too. Surprisingly, the younger brother was okay with it.

     The two brothers were snug in thick coats and scarves to keep warm, their mother even came out to check if they needed extra coats to which they claimed was unnecessary. The night was mostly silent with the exception of the cold wind and until the older brother decided to break the silence.

He asked his brother, “Have any stories you wanna share? Like from school?”

     “Oh, yeah! I do!” The younger said, a bit cheerfully as he grinned widely. “I learned about it today.”

     “Well, what’s this story?” The older asked, a bit interested. He placed his mug down, crossing his arms to keep in a bit warmth.

     “Okay, you see, there was this man.”

     “What about the man?”

     “He died!” The younger said, oddly enthusiastic about the man’s death. “He died! He died!” He chanted and jumped.

     Upon hearing this, the older laughed, not just a small one. He had burst into a fit of laughter, what a silly story. He eventually regained himself. “How did he die?”

     “Well, that’s a long story.”

     “Tell me from the beginning, I don’t care,” the older brother replied.

     “Well, the man one day had a fight with his wife and his children were scared.”

     “Why were they fighting?”

     “The man was drunk,” he younger answered. “And he was scaring the children so his wife had to send them to bed. I don’t think they slept well that night.”

     The older blinked, looking at his younger brother with an odd expression on his face. “Well, okay… where did he get drunk at? And what happened with the fight?”

     “He was at a bar.” The younger answered. “And so the man ended up beating his wife.”

     The older nearly choked on his hot chocolate. “What? Beat his wife?”

“Yeah! He said he slapped her and then kicked her, I think a lot.”

     The older brother furrowed his brows in disbelief. “You’re seven years old, lighten up a bit., I didn’t even know that you knew what a bar is.”

     “I didn’t, the homeless man had to explain to me.”

     “Homeless man? Where were you? Mom said to never be by yourself.”

     “I met him at school. he was sitting by the fence and he was lonely!” The brother retorted.

     He sighed. “Well, what happened after?”

     “He got kicked out the house, duh.”

     “Oh…?”

     “Yeah, he came to his senses so he walked out the house and set for a journey. He stopped going to work so he got fired and he had no where else to stay,” the younger brother explained. “He was scared to go back to his family and he thought his kids hated him. He knew he couldn’t fix it. But then one day he realized he regretted everything he did so he wanted to apologize to his wife and children but it was too late. It had been years and then he died. The end!” He finished.

     The older blinked. “How come no one saw you talking to the homeless man?”

     The younger shrugged. “They just ignored him. Oh, and the homeless man said that the man who died was him. He’s nutty.”

     “Did you have more stories to tell?” The older asked.

     “Actually I do, but they’re not all from today. I meet a lot of homeless people and the homeless man I talked to today told me more stories too, I just liked that one, it was funny.”

     “Funny how?”

     “He dies. Every story I’ve heard from the homeless people involves dying.”

     “Wait, wait,” the older brother said. “How are you able to just assume that these people are homeless? Don’t you think it’s kind of mean?”

     “Well, they usually don’t have a home and are just by the fence so I just assume so…”

     “Well, anything else this particular homeless man said?”
     “He said he might visit me and see me again because I told him I usually never see the same people.

     “And you agreed to it?”

     “Pretty much.” The younger answered. “He was like,” He began to imitate a deep, gruff voice, “I’m gunna visit ye one day.” He switched back to his normal voice, “So I went something like, okie dokie sir!”

     “I don’t think he knows where we live though, does he?”

     “I didn’t think so, I thought he was lying, but I think I might have heard him somewhere. It’s too dark too see but I hear a voice and some breathing.”

     The older brother however, didn’t hear any of the breathing nor did he hear a voice that didn’t belong to himself or his brother. And that was when the older brother had realized that he should have studied. He stared at the darkness, shoulders tense as the younger brother called out to the air.

     “Hello? Hello? Hello, sir?”