The Sweet, Innocent, Perfect Little Brother

Most nights when I put the kids to bed, they’ll say, “daddy, tell me a story of when you were a little boy.” This is their favorite story.

Once upon a time, there was a sweet, innocent, perfect little brother. All he wanted was to play with his wicked, mean, evil big sister. But she did not want to play with him. One day, the wicked, mean, evil big sister had a friend over to spend the night. The sweet, innocent, perfect little brother wanted to play with them.

“Will you play with me,” he asked. But they said no.

So he went upstairs and stuffed some clothes with towels to make a dummy. He added socks and shoes, then stuffed a scary old rubber mask for the head. He put the dummy in the clothes chute cabinet right in front of the wicked, mean, evil big sister’s room. He leaned the dummy against the cabinet doors so it would fall out if he didn’t hold them closed. Then, he wound a piece of string around the cabinet door knobs and took the far end of the string into the dark, guest bedroom and waited. Luckily for the sweet, innocent, perfect little brother, the hall light had burned out.

He heard them coming upstairs. They were whispering loudly to one another and giggling. The sweet, innocent, perfect little brother had been quiet, and that was a scary thing. They crept closer, whispering and giggling. They tried the hall light--- click, cick-click. Nothing. The sweet, innocent, perfect little brother’s heart raced. He heard them getting closer and closer until he knew they were right in front of the clothes chute cabinet door.

That’s when he pulled the string, Zip! Gasp!

The girls jumped at the noise and faced the cabinet. Nothing happened. The sweet, innocent, perfect little brother waited, his heart aching. There was silence, then a creak. The doors swung open and dummy’s head fell onto the floor and rolled to the feet of the wicked, mean, evil big sister and her friend. The sound of their shrieking woke most of the dogs in the neighborhood. As they careened back down the stairs, the sweet, innocent, perfect little brother was happy.

The end.