The Greatest Gift

Chapter 9 × Bennet

A/N: Sorry if this chapter isn't written real well. I haven't written anything like this before!

It was the next morning, and my brothers and I were sitting on the couch with the twins in our laps.

It was time to tell them. We couldn't put it off any longer, no matter how hard it was going to be.

Jaison took a deep breath. "Baby, do you know what it means what somebody dies?" he said.

Conor nodded. Sadie shook her head.

"Okay, Conor, what does it mean?"

"It means that it's not alive anymore," he said.

Of course he know this. He'd probably read a book about dinosaurs or something and then asked the "dead" meant.

"And what does it mean to be alive?" Jaison said.

Neither twin answered.

"Umm..." Conor whispered.

"When you're alive, you eat, think, sleep, and feel things, like happiness and sadness," Jaison said.

"Bubby and you and Conor eat and sleep and feel things, right?" Shayne said. The twins nodded.

"That means we're alive," Shayne said. "But does a... um..."

"A dead bug," I said. "Does a dead bug need to eat or sleep?"

The twins shook their heads. Sadie giggled. "No, silly," she said.

Jaison looked down at his phone. He'd been smart and took notes from parenting websites on how to do this.

"When someone dies, their body stops working, and that means they don't need anything to eat or drink, they don't need to sleep, and they can't think or feel anything," he explained. "Because their body stopped working—their brain, their arms and legs, their heart—they can't come back to life."

"They can't be alive again," Shayne said, his voice breaking.

"When a person's body stops working, sometimes doctors can't fix it," Jaison said. "And when that happens, the person dies, and they can't be alive again."

He looked into the twins' eyes, communicating to them that this was serious.

"Dead people stay dead forever," he said softly. "As much as we want them to, they can't... can't..."

Jaison's voice cracked and he let out a sob. He put his face in his hands.

"I can't do this," he whispered.

Shayne put his arm around Jaison's shoulders. I put my hand on his arm. Conor got on his knees and hugged Jaison around his neck.

"It's okay, bubby," he said.

Jaison smiled through his tears and hugged him back.

"Listen up, okay?" he said.

Conor sat down again and looked at me. I gulped.

"Dead people can't be alive anymore," I said. "And..."

My voice broke and my eyes welled up. I looked at Shayne. He had tears in his eyes, too.

We both knew what we had to say next, but none of us wanted to say it.

"Does that make sense?" Shayne said. His voice was hoarse from tears. "What does it mean to be dead?"

Sadie paused, then said, "It means your body broke, and... um..."

"And when your body breaks, you die, and you can't be alive ever again," Conor said. Sadie nodded.