Loud, Louder, Loudest were three brothers.

Loud was the youngest and the meekest of the three. Three years separated him and Louder. Louder and Loudest were separated by five years though. 

Loudest being the eldest, always got everything he asked for. He was full of pride and ego, for being the loudest meant he could command whatever he wished for. He was the most aggressive of the lot, always boiling over things and shouting at the top of his voice even for straight forward conversations. 

Loud on the other hand, being the youngest, was relatively soft spoken. He would hear to the abuse hurled at him and often had to be content with hand-me-downs. This didn’t make him particularly happy but he wasn’t as aggressive and never expressed dissent.

Louder though was in a balanced state of mind. He won every time he played with Loud but lost quite a few when he played with Loudest. He had some grievances and got aggressive often but not all the time. But he was definitely the weaker one in front of Loudest. 

The two elder ones disparaged Loud all the time, making fun for him for being the weakest of the lot. He didn’t show enough aggression or dissent. And in the house’s vocabulary, that amounted to capitulation, not a favorable trait! 

One day, Loud got really upset about this step-brotherly treatment that was being meted out to him. So, he took off alone, bent on showing to the world that he could do things he wished for without supervision. That he could be aggressive as much as he wanted to be and outclass others of his league. 

***

On the other side of town, lived another family of three brothers. Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest. 

Dumbest was the eldest, Dumber junior to him by three years, and Dumb junior to him by six years. They had similar problems between themselves. 

Dumbest thought of himself highly but was the least learned, having left school early on. He would just loiter around the house and make poor jokes all day along. Even if someone gave him work, he would never be able to complete it. He however, by virtue of being the eldest, feigned ignorance of his lack of capabilities and instead considered it his birthright to lord over everyone else.

Dumber had some sense in him but he had also followed in his elder brother’s footsteps and left school last year. He however, did some household chores to keep himself occupied. His Achilles heel was that he got lost in his own thoughts often, forgetting the task at hand and ending up doing it wrong.

Dumb was far more methodical in comparison and wanted to not turn out as his brothers did. So he endured school and continued to focus on learning, hoping some day he will be able to fly high his family’s flag. He didn’t have as much brains as the other students in his class and he was often laughed at, but he continued because it gave him a chance to get out of home. 

It however, wasn’t an ideal situation and he often wondered if he should run away. 

***

The day when Loud left his home, Dumb had had a bad day at school. Many of his classmates had made fun of him and he was dispirited.

He was sitting down on the pavement, looking at the oncoming road, when he saw Loud approaching him. In a boisterous manner, Loud stopped and hurled out some quick words, “Hey buddy, why are you sitting alone”? 

Dumb had no idea if this stranger was a friend but he liked that someone could be that loud and heard. In his frame of mind right after the incidence with his classmates, he felt an instant attraction toward it. 

He replied, “Oh, I am just whiling away time. I didn’t feel like going home because there are better things to do outside”. 

Loud was surprised. He hadn’t imagined finding someone who also didn’t like being at home so soon. He gave Dumb another look and asked him, “Is it that you find the idea abhorring or do you not have anyone at home”. 

Dumb didn’t want to lie, so he just replied casually, “I don’t want to face my brothers”.

This sounded like Loud’s own story and he sat down next to Dumb and consoled him. That was the beginning of their friendship that lasted for years…

***

That day, when Loud and Dumb became friends, it could have been the turning point in their life. 

Well, the effects of their partnership lasted for well over a month. But only a month. 

Dumb invited Loud to stay with him at his house and with his brothers being more dumb than he was, they easily succumbed to Loud being loud. Loud had suddenly entered the house as an enigma and set right so many things for Dumb. 

He had succumbed the brothers to let Dumb be, asked them to do more work, and used his loud voice to command new rules for the house. He for once felt powerful. 

But as was his wont, he was loud about everything related to his past too. So, one day while hurling abuses randomly, he let go that he had two brothers who were even louder than him. 

Dumber, being less of a fool between the two elders in the house, grasped it after a full week of that utterance. He wondered to himself, “What if I could get hold of someone like Louder? Maybe my life would improve too”. He was dumb but still had some wits to himself. 

He found an old notebook in Loud’s backpack, which gave away his brother’s address. So he decided to go and seek them out. He of course couldn’t do it alone, so he took Dumbest into confidence. 

If not for that loud utterance, Loud and Dumb would have ruled over Dumber and Dumbest for times unforeseen. 

***

Dumber had noted down the address of Loud’s brothers but in a hurry to keep the kitchen fire on, he had thrown that notebook in the fire. He thought he had memorized the address but couldn’t remember it all. All that his mind recalled was that they were at the other end of the town. 

As he and Dumbest set out for the search, they had an idea about what to do. Go and ask everyone living in any other part of the town about whether they were Louder and Loudest. 

This search went on for one full week. They used to go out every day and then come back in the night. What probably kept them going was the enthusiasm of meeting someone who was mightier than Loud. 

Then, on the eighth day, as they were running out of time, they heard two boys arguing in the middle of the street. They were shouting, one more than the other. 

Dumber and Dumbest looked on, not sure about the argument but enthused by the ruckus it was creating. They listened intently, and soon realized these were the very same Louder and Loudest they were seeking. 

They went together and stopped the two brothers in between their argument. What a dumb thing to do! They got bashed up. 

Not giving up, they went up again and asked them, “Are you Louder and Loudest”? They told the brothers they were seeking them because they wanted someone mightier than Loud. 

When Loudest asked them if they knew where Loud was, they both nodded in unison. 

***

Louder and Loudest, ever since the departure of Loud, had been arguing more than the usual. Earlier, they had Loud to take their aggression out on. Louder faced lesser brunt of Loudest’s fury. 

But with the youngest gone, Louder had been increasingly coming into the crosshairs of Loudest, and was getting a shouting from him all the time. Naturally, he shouted back and tried to be louder, but then Loudest couldn’t be beaten on loudness! 

So it had gone for that one month, and even though they had continued to live together, they were increasingly becoming wary of the everyday affair. 

That day, they had gone to the market to buy something for the home and had broken out into an argument over what they had not bought. 

When Dumber and Dumbest approached them, they were in the heat of the argument and handled those two roughly. But when they heard these strangers knew about Loud, they embraced them. For, they wanted to get back with their youngest brother, so that they could lord over him as before. And not worry about fighting each other all the time. 

Dumber and Louder were the same age, so they hit it off well. Dumber found Louder to be more preposterous than Loud and to him, that was sufficient. He could rely on a useful friend like Louder so that he could mind his ways and think his wayward thoughts. 

Louder just found some relief in the fact that he wasn’t alone going forward and he was going to be louder than more than person now. 

Dumbest and Loudest took some time getting along. Loudest wasn’t sure if Dumbest was feigning ignorance or if he was naturally as dumb. But he realized very soon that he could benefit from this friendship. He would get to lord over more people, which is what he always wanted. And he would have an ally to pass time with, which he would have loads of anytime.

Dumbest on the other hand had no clue about why he wanted Loudest to be a friend. He only knew that if he had Loudest on his side, he could relax all day long and not do a thing. 

***

Dumber and Dumbest took Louder and Loudest to their home and it was no surprise that as soon as they were all together, it went back to mayhem, just like before. 

Loud and Dumb however, found solace in the fact that they weren’t alone now in their respective houses. They had each other for company. And they could sometimes escape outside, for school or other household errands. They accepted it as their fate and decided to stick around. 

Louder and Dumber had company now and could look forward to bossing around at times, getting lost in their own thoughts, or just lying around when they wished for. They weren’t the junior most in the house, and that was a relief for them too. They found each other’s company amusing.

Loudest and Dumbest knew they had hit upon a winning formulae. They could boss around as much as they want, and even if they were wrong, they would be right. They could not do a single thing but claim all credit for it. And they could enjoy the best of things without a worry, for they were the loudest and the dumbest. Theirs was partnership as thick as any other.

Life went on, and these six boys, continued to live together. Raising their bars of loudness and dumbness every year. And being happy that they had someone else for company or they had reached a higher level in their life. 

When all they were doing was just being loud and dumb…

***