42 comments

General

He was living in a world of his own. I could tell because every time I went into the ice-cream shop, he would be there licking the brown cream off the cone, and dozing off into his comic book. Sometimes he would be so lost in his comic all the ice-cream would melt down his fingers. He would read the same comic every day. The odd thing about him was that he would only have ice-cream once a month. 


Watching him would be like watching the younger me flipping through the pages. He had dirty blond hair just like me and his shoes would always be untied. Collecting comic books was a hobby of mine. He probably also is a comic book collector. The sight of him brings a smile to my face.  


I wanted to get to know this kid. One afternoon I walked up to his table and sat down. He didn’t notice for a minute or two, but he eventually did.  


“Hey!” I said to him with a big smile. 


“Hi.” he replied back and I could already tell he was shy, just like I used to be. 


“What’s your name?” I asked. 


“Johnny but most people call me Jo, " he says finally putting his comic book down “What's yours?” 


“My names Tony!” I say and he smiles brightly at me as I say my name “Whatcha smiling about?” 


“That's Iron man’s name!” he responds picking his comic back up. He flips to a page and hands it to me “That's him! He’s my favorite superhero!” I look at what he has shoved into my hands. Its iron man shooting the bad guy right in the face. I laugh at this and he smiles. 


“I know! I'm also a big fan of him, but I think I like Captain America much better” I say smirking at him. 


“No way!” he shouts laughing “Iron man is the best!”  


“Sure, totally!” I say sarcastically “Wait, I had a question for you” 


“Yeah?” he asks, ignoring my sarcasm. 


“Why do you always read the same comic book every day?” I ask inspecting his face. The smile had turned into a frown. 


“My family can’t afford another one.” he says breaking eye contact. His eyes zoom around all over the place trying not to meet mine.


“Oh.” I say not knowing what to say next. 



We talked and talked for hours to come. Soon enough, he felt like a little brother I never had. Weeks past and I had decided to get him another comic book for his birthday. Our little meets would happen every day at 5 in the afternoon. 


I learned that his favorite ice cream was chocolate just like mine. Everything that happened to him had already happened to me. Both our families had a hard time with money and we both loved superheroes. He even looked like me when I was younger.  


It was a bright sunny afternoon when Jo came into the ice-cream shop with teary eyes. He had mud all over his jeans, and his comic book was ripped in half. I hurried over to him and asked what happened. 


“I was walking over here,” he sniffs his nose “and these guys came up to me. They were big. They pushed me and I fell on the ground. They called me a geek and a nerd.” tears start to slide down his face. 


“That's so rude! Who ripped this up?” I ask as I take the only comic he had from his hands. 


“I did.” he says, wiping a tear with his sleeve.


“Why?” I was very surprised. 


“Because I don’t want to be a geek or a nerd” he says with a teary voice. 


I look at him for a second with amazement. “Do you think I'm a geek?” I ask him with a frown. 


“No way! You're so cool” he answers like there's no question about it. 


“I think you're cool too.” I say back hoping for a good reaction. 


“You do?” he asks surprised. He looks at me like I'm joking. 


“Yes! A thousand percent! Those big guys are the real geeks” I say to him with a smile. 


Two of his teeth had come out loose so he looks like a bunny when he smiles back. 



On one cloudy afternoon his mom wanted to meet me so when I drove Jo home that day I was greeted by a woman. She looked exactly like my mother. Short brown hair and a dimple on the right side of her face. She might have looked much younger, but it was the same face. 


“Hey mommy” Jo says, walking into his house. I stay frozen on the gray door mat. 


“Mom?” I ask her 


But I get no reply. 




BEEEP...BEEEEEEEP...BEEEEEEEEEP 


I open my eyes and am greeted by my blue painted ceiling. I reach for my phone to shut the alarm. It was just a dream? But It seemed so real. It went by so fast, but I'm sure it was real. I get dressed and go downstairs for breakfast. I can see my mom on her laptop typing away. 


“Mom?” I ask as I get a box of cereal from the top counter. 


“Yes, sweetheart?” she says, her eyes still on the screen. 


“Do I have a brother?” I ask her. I watch as her eyes widen up and she looks up from her laptop. 


“Oh honey! Your father and I wanted to tell you when you were a little older--” 


“Tell me what?” 


“Yes, you did have an older brother--” 


“Was his name Jo? Did he like comic books?” I ask without letting her finish her sentence. 


“No?” she says, confused “Well, yes, he loved comic books, but his name was josh.” 


“I had a dream!” I say “W-wait a minute. Why don’t we have any photos of him then?” 


“We do, but you guys looked so alike you never looked close enough to know the difference, " she says shamefully “you have blue eyes and he had green eyes. He also had a lighter shade of hair than you.” I can see her own eyes tearing up now. 


“Well, where is he now?” I ask confused. I had so many questions about him. I wanted to know if I would ever get to meet him. 


“In heaven.” she answers. 


June 28, 2020 06:38

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42 comments

19:53 Nov 25, 2020

Hi Lata! First of all great story! This was so descriptive and an emotional story. Your characters are really well thought out and written. I can’t wait until you write some more, I would love to read it. Second of all, with stories like this you should be up way higher on the leaderboard. I just upvoted you about 100 points to help you get higher! I hope I can see you in the top 50 soon.

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Lata B
20:21 Nov 25, 2020

Thank you so much! That is so sweet! What do you have to do upvote someone??

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20:29 Nov 25, 2020

Of course! What do you mean? Are you asking how to upvote someone?

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Lata B
17:35 Nov 26, 2020

Yes. How do you upvote someone? Do you just click the arrow next to the "1 point"?

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Lata B
17:36 Nov 26, 2020

ohhh yup I figured it out! You will be getting some new points!! :))

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18:18 Nov 26, 2020

Yep, that is how you do it. Sometimes people go on 'sprees' and look through their stories or something and just press that button on all of their comments. Or people just upvoted when they commented. Thank you so so much! That means a lot :)

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𝔸. Triangle
16:05 Jul 07, 2020

What a twist! I personally love your writing style and enjoy the amount of effort you put into creating loveable and interesting characters. Also, noticed in your bio you said you were a Griffenpuff. I, personally, am a Slytherclaw... just saying. Sincerely, A.

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Lata B
16:17 Jul 07, 2020

Thank you so much! Haha that's so cool. My best friend is a Slytherclaw!!

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𝔸. Triangle
19:08 Jul 07, 2020

Tell them I said hi! -A.

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Lata B
19:29 Jul 07, 2020

Will do!:)

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Niveeidha Palani
06:55 Jul 07, 2020

Hi Lata, this story was extremely inspiring and reminded me of an incident that happened similarly to this! Just check your punctuation a little, you forgot to put commas or full stops right before a speech mark. To be honest, Grammarly really helps ;)

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Lata B
14:35 Jul 07, 2020

Thank you!:)

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Niveeidha Palani
08:33 Jul 08, 2020

No problem :)

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E. Jude
09:09 Jul 06, 2020

Amazing story, with a great vibe and impeccably cool characters. I read intently until the end and enjoyed every moment... Well done! Hats of to ya! I would love it if you could check out my stories too! XElsa PS: Iron man is betterrrrrrrrr. Iron Man will always be Betterrrrrrrrr. Iron Man is the besssssssst!!!!!!!

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Lata B
14:29 Jul 06, 2020

Thank you so much! Of course! Nope...Captain America is much better!!!!:)

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E. Jude
16:17 Jul 06, 2020

You're welcome! And... Iron Man beats them all!!!

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Lata B
16:31 Jul 06, 2020

It's 100% Captain America for me!!!!!!

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E. Jude
16:40 Jul 06, 2020

Mmmhh... 😂 But EVERYONE loves iron man. Cuz he's the besssssst

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Lata B
17:05 Jul 06, 2020

Captain America is the best! There's no question about it!😂😂

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13:01 Jul 21, 2020

I really liked the writing style and the dialogue between the boys. The "it was all a dream" twist is kind of overdone but it actually flowed really well. It made for a really touching story...

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Lata B
14:30 Jul 21, 2020

Thank you!

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18:10 Jul 20, 2020

This was so touching! I loved seeing their friendship grow

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Lata B
18:11 Jul 20, 2020

Thank you! :)

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Samar Jadhav
00:42 Jul 15, 2020

I really enjoy reading this story, keep up the writing. The end part was really sad:( (Keep up the writing) :)

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Samar Jadhav
01:17 Jul 15, 2020

It was a very unpredictable story

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Lata B
03:01 Jul 15, 2020

Thank you so much!! I truly appreciate the feedback :)

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Deborah Angevin
21:23 Jul 03, 2020

Loved the ending! Would you mind checking my recent story out too? Thank you! :)

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Lata B
23:18 Jul 03, 2020

Thank you! Sure!:)

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Khizra Aslam
10:55 Jul 02, 2020

An amazing story with quite an unpredictable end.👏❤

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Lata B
14:32 Jul 02, 2020

Thank you so much! 💛

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Corey Melin
22:18 Jun 29, 2020

Quite entertaining, and impressed with the twist near the end that takes you down another road. "Wow! Not expecting that to happen" moment.

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Lata B
23:19 Jun 29, 2020

Thank you so much!

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Grace M'mbone
18:13 Jun 28, 2020

I like it. I read every word. Brilliant.

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Lata B
18:17 Jun 28, 2020

Thank you!!

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Charles Stucker
05:28 Jul 29, 2020

This is a fairly light piece until the end. It works well, so I don't have much to say. I thought of a variant title, "Secrets of the Collector," which is both a nod to comic book titles and a hint about the secret to the boy which nobody will guess until the reach the end. People reading will think it is just about how collectors are normal people. Until you hit them with the ending. The ending is very strong but the start is a bit slow. Same thing happens to me at times. If you try to condense the entire first paragraph into one senten...

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Lata B
14:35 Jul 29, 2020

Ok yeah thank you so much for this! It will really help in the future!

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P. Jean
16:40 Jul 06, 2020

Really? I wanted it to be the real brother! Nice writing!

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Lata B
17:03 Jul 06, 2020

haha so sorry!😂 Thank you!

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Reeva Lalani
15:09 Jul 23, 2020

i loved this story. the beggining rlly pulled me in. just check a bit of punctuation, for some missing periods, commas, and stuff:) but other than that, this was amazing! i think you could win one of these one day. plus, the twist at the end was crazy! loved it! -R

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Lata B
15:21 Jul 23, 2020

Thank You so much! :)

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