A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 8

From GITS reader James Tichenor, a story worth considering: “Long-lost brothers discover they’re neighbours”:

After years of trying to find each other, two long-lost Newfoundland brothers have discovered they live just metres apart in Corner Brook.
“He was across the road. I could not believe it. That was crazy. It took me about three hours to get up the nerve to call,” said Tommy Larkin, 30.
Larkin and his brother, Stephen Goosney, 29, were adopted as children by separate families. Larkin grew up in a happy family in Cook’s Harbour, on Newfoundland’s Northern Peninsula.
Goosney grew up a few hundred kilometres south, in Woody Point.
Both Larkin and Goosney spent years searching for their biological family but had no luck, until they received help from Newfoundland and Labrador’s Post Adoption Services agency.
On March 25, the brothers found out they have been living on the same street in Corner Brook, western Newfoundland, for the past two years.

Incredible that these brothers were living so close to each other and didn’t even know it. And so fantastic they finally found each other, right?

Or what if… no. What if discovering each other turns out to be the single worst thing that could have happened to the brothers. Brainstorming a few bad potential dynamics:

* They discover that they can’t stand each other, completely opposite personalities.

* How about one of the brothers plays fast and loose with the law, while the other one is Mr. Law-And-Order.

* One of them could make a romantic run at the other one’s wife / girlfriend.

* Uncle So-And-So could turn out to be a horrible influence on his nephews and nieces.

* They could uncover some disgusting, sickening truths about their adoption, their adoptive parents, some big awful secrets from their past.

It’s Twins meets Neighbors.

What would you do with this concept? What bad things can you brainstorm that could occur once the brothers re-discover each other?

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