Mistermafio
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The four brothers
Once,
not too long ago,
four brothers lived in a mansion,
together.
They had lived their entire lives
in relative harmony.
They respected each other
and each other’s privacy.
Each of the brothers had a room of his own,
and next to that they shared a few rooms they had in common.
Everything went well,
for many, many years.
Until that one faithful day,
that answered all their fears.
One of the brothers had a terrible accident,
for weeks he struggled for his life
in a cold hospital bed.
Until he finally fought no more,
until he found his death.
The three brothers mourned for many weeks,
they complained and cried together.
But as with any great pain,
in time,
this too began to grow better.
One day the oldest brother stood up during dinner,
and begged for the silence of his siblings.
“As we all know,
now our dear brother is dead,
his room has remained empty for quite some time.
I think this is a waste of space,
as, as a room, it does quite fine.
We also know,
as the youngest of us four,
my room always was the smallest.
And now I know I’ve never complained before,
but I feel that,
with our dear brother gone,
he’d want me to move into that room.
It’s what he’d have done.”
The youngest looked upon his dearest siblings,
confident they’d feel the same.
He was quite surprised though,
to hear his oldest sibling complain.
“I’m sorry brother,
But I feel you take this just a little too light.
I don’t think we should disturb that room.
It doesn’t feel right.
I say we let it be,
clean it every now and then,
treat it respectfully.
That’s the least we can do,
in our brother’s memory.”
And so the oldest and the youngest brother
argued for the rest of the day.
The middle brother?
He decided to keep his mouth shut,
and let his siblings play.
After all,
it would stop eventually.
There would be a way for the two of them to figure this out,
at least one common possibility.
But days later,
the siblings argued still.
Emotions going up high,
but neither of them changing their will.
They went on and on,
for days on an end.
Sometimes screaming and yelling,
sometimes sneaky and mean.
But no matter what the other tried,
verbal traps were spotted,
and bad intentions quickly seen.
The middle brother,
during all of this,
tried to keep his siblings calm
and did his best not to let things grow out of hand.
Though he quickly stopped believing,
in a peaceful end.
After a month of what seemed like none-stop fighting,
on a dark and rainy night.
While the only sound outside was that of the wind fighting the lightning,
suddenly the doorbell rang.
What an odd hour
for guests to come by,
the middle brother thought.
Not being the mistrusting kind,
he went to answer the door.
A dark figure greeted the brother,
“hello there,
friend,
I’m so glad you opened up.
I’ve been searching for this for hours on an end.”
The brother found it hard to see,
precisely who this stranger could be,
but he didn’t complain as the stranger waked in,
as he could use the company.
“Excuse the mess,”
he began,
“me and my brothers have had a bit of a dispute,
and cleaning up hasn’t yet fit in their plan..”
The stranger looked around,
not as someone who was new to the place,
but as a guest that hadn’t been around for quite some time.
“Anyway,”
the brother began,
“my siblings aren’t around right now,
I send them out to dinner.
Hoping they’d get civilized again,
or at least settle their dispute somehow.”
The stranger turned to face the brother,
who only now could really,
for the first time,
see his guest’s face.
Though he couldn’t remember ever seeing this strange man,
a sense of similarity found its place.
“Excuse me,
this might seem a little rude to say to someone that just entered your door,
but what was your name again?
And have we met before?”
“Oh, no,”
the stranger said,
“you and I have never met.
My name is David,
I knew your brother,
may god have his soul,
I heard the news of his passing,
and came here as soon as I could.
I wanted to pay my last respects,
I hope it’s not too late for that?”
The brother did not have to think long,
a friend of his brother was a friend of his,
there was but one problem,
his brother was already buried,
and this wasn’t exactly the best kind of weather there is.
“Of course you can pay your last respects to my brother,
David,
though I don’t think right now is the best time.
If you could come back tomorrow,
that would be more then fine.”
The brother told David,
who proceeded to walk down the hall,
as he said:
“You know,
my friend,
that would be fine and all,
if it wasn’t for the slight problem
that I live more then a day’s travel away from here.
You couldn’t possibly ask me to get back into my car
after I’ve just arrived.
Without even offering a single cup of thee,
or some kind of food,
to poor old me.”
The brother followed David through the hall,
getting slightly uncomfortable with the gist of this all.
But, as he was ever the gentleman,
he couldn’t express this concern,
as that would be unexceptionally rude.
And he wasn’t that kind of brute.
“Where are my manners,”
he said,
“of course I’d offer you something to drink,
if I had known that.
Even more so,
since I couldn’t possibly let you sit in that car for another whole day,
why don’t you just stay?
I’m sure we can find a bed for you to sleep on,
somewhere in this house.”
David paused his step upon this invitation,
as he turned towards his host.
“My friend,”
he said,
“you don’t know how unbelievably glad that offer makes me.”
And so the two of them drank,
‘til the evening had passed.
When the youngest and oldest brother
finally came home,
a second pot
was just boiling on the stove.
They walked into the living room,
busy fighting as they now had done for at least a month.
So caught up with their constant bickering
they didn’t even notice a stranger on their very own couch
until the middle brother loudly scraped his throat.
Interrupting the verbal battle for just a second.
Long enough for the oldest brother to notice David,
at least.
“Who is this?
Brother,”
he asked surprised.
Not expecting someone he had never met before,
to sit right before his nose,
while he hadn’t even really realized,
he was already home.
“Yeah, who?”
The youngest brother asked too,
in a similar tone of voice.
Directing it at David,
he said again:
“Who are you?”
David’s intentions were quickly explained,
while the pot of thee was quickly drained.
And even though outside it thundered and rained,
inside,
for once,
all was calm.
The time to go to bed,
quickly grew near.
A time the youngest brother,
already silently began to fear.
Eventually it was David himself
who said what was on his mind;
“You know,
right now all seems good and well.
But in a few hours we should really go to sleep,
and I’d love to see the room I can spend the night.”
The oldest and the youngest brother
looked at each other.
And there,
over the course of one moment,
in the middle of the night,
they set all their differences aside.
“Seeing how you are a good friend of our brother,
we’d like to offer you his room.
It hasn’t really been touched since he died,
though,
don’t worry,
we’ve been through it with a broom.”
David smiled upon hearing this suggestion,
“I’d be more then honored to sleep in my old friend’s bed this night.
Are the three of you sure though,
that it is all right?
You seem to have had trouble in the past,
with setting your differences aside.”
Both brothers nodded,
“if anyone deserves that room,
it is you.”
The youngest brother said,
as the oldest quickly adds;
“really,
It’s true.”
The night flew by quickly,
and when the brothers got up the next day,
they rushed to wake their guest,
and inform if he enjoyed the stay.
Instead of David sleeping sound,
however,
it was a note they found.
Gently placed upon the unused bed,
in their dearest brother’s room,
the note simply read;
Thank your for the hospitality,
I enjoyed tonight so much,
I’ll try to get back again soon.
Thank you,
my brothers.
For not wasting,
or misusing my room.
Since that day the brothers never fought again,
every day they lived in pure and utter harmony,
as they found that whenever they worked well together,
they were truly happy.
And once every now and then,
On a stormy,
rainy day.
A stranger visits for the night,
though he never seems to stay.
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