The Messenger Bird

Good Luck

The next day came quickly.

It was Sunday, and the last day of school before the holidays was coming up very soon.

Silence woke up to bright sunlight shining into his face and the sound of Hope humming a song that had gotten itself stuck in his head.

Silence groaned softly and sat up.

His brother was still looking out of the window and had not noticed his brother's awakening.

Silence got out of bed, head still clouded with the remnants of sleep, and went to Hope.

"What are you staring yet?"

Hope jumped up, surprised by his brother's voice.

"Woah! Dude, give me a warning next time, alright? You scared me."

"I can see that. Anyway, answer the question."

"Look, Silence. Another letter on the window sill!"

Silence peered at the window, and sure enough, a small envelope, just like the first one, was sitting on the window sill.

"I didn't see the bird this time, but I'm sure it's the same one," said Hope.

Silence gave a grunt of acknowledgement and opened the window.

He picked the letter up and studied it.

There was no address written on it once again.

Closing the window, the two brothers went to the lower bunk of the bed and sat down next to each other.

Silence tore the envelope open and pulled out the small sheet of paper.

This time, two words were written neatly on it.

"Good Luck"

Good luck? Good luck for what?

"Good luck...? Hmm...I know! Maybe the crazy stalker dude is wishing you luck for the poem competition!" Hope grinned.

"Why would he even know about that?"

"Well duh, he's a crazy stalker dude, isn't he?"

As much as his brother usually doesn't make any sense, he had a point there.

"Submission day's today right?"

"Yea. I'll submit it later."

"Oh, my brother, ever the early bird, am I right?" Hope remarked sarcastically, yet still maintaining to keep a bright smile on his face.

Silence rolled his eyes.

Before either of them could say anymore, they heard the door opening.

Their mother, holding a small notebook and a wallet entered the room.

"Silence, it seems that the refrigerator is getting empty. Which means we are running out of food. Go to the grocery shop and buy the groceries listed in this notebook. Go now."

Silence sighed and grabbed the notebook and wallet, heading out the door.

Hope watched him leave, and before his mother exited, he asked, "Hey mom, need me to follow him?"

Juliet shook her head and replied, "No. I want you to clean up the room."

Hope gave a short "okay" and sneakily reached for his phone on the bedside table, waiting for his mother to leave so he could play some games in secret.

Unfortunately, his plan was foiled before it was even given a chance to be carried out and Juliet said over her shoulder, "Don't let me catch you on that phone, young man. Or it'll be gone before you can even blink."

Hope gave a dragged-out sigh and tossed his phone onto the top bunk and got to work, trying to tidy up the room in the shortest amount of time as possible.

'I would rather go food shopping than deal with this mess...'

An hour later and the room was looking cleaner already.

Hope was just about to tidy his study table when he noticed a particular piece of paper on Silence's table.

'Silence's poem! He must have forgotten about it! And who knows what time he'll be back? He's gonna miss the deadline!'

Hope tried to manage his jumbled up thoughts when suddenly, an idea struck him.

"I'll just submit the poem for him!" He exclaimed to no one in particular.

He took up the paper and looked at the address that was written on it.

It was the community centre just a few streets away!

Hope put on his white hoodie and dashed out through the doorway with the paper in his hand.

He raced down the stairs and out the main door, shouting, "Bye mom, bye dad, I'm going to submit Silence's poem thing!"

Without waiting for an answer, he ran down the stone pavement at lightning speed.

After all, he still had half a room to tidy back at home so he'd better hurry.