Imagine a large room and three or four people sleep there in sleeping bags or somethings of that sort. The idea being, that at night they adjust their bags to occupy as much space they can when they're ready to sleep.
They are tramps, occupying this hall without any ownership. But as long as they remember, no owner or other official has ever come to challenge them or ask them to move away.
The room has a porch connected to it through a door which was at first kept closed. Until the person sleeping nearest to it, one day pushed it open and went in. He found a nice place, untended but otherwise clean, and enclosed with glass windows. Then onward, he slept here in the night, enjoying the solitude and being able to look out at the stars.
Those inside heaved a sigh of relief, for of late they had all begun bickering, and the person in particular who had moved into the porch, was becoming threatening.
As is likely in this situation, some of these occupants had been around since a very long time. It wasn't definite, but they said they had met the owner. And this fact showed in the manner of everything they did. They said the owner had been quite kind to them and had said they could live here. Things they did were what they believed or considered correct, as the owner would have wished.
The person who had moved into the porch however, established a newer set of rules of how he would go about. One can understand that he guarded the passage to the porch stringently. Otherwise, he was organized and had much less of clutter. At times when he let the other's visit the porch, they approved of what they saw. What did jar them though was his belief that they had complete ownership to everything here; not just the porch but of the entire house. He even discredited their claim, those who said they had met the owner a long time ago.
This is how it was then. The others came to visit and saw how he did things which they did mostly like. But then they sifted in their minds and took back only what they believed was in agreement with the idea, a sort of unwritten pact they had made with the owner. A pact they believed reflected their position, not just in this house, but the entire community in which they were all .. but only tramps.
As you didn't ask for particulars I will comment generally. This is a very moving short story, with very interesting details. I hope this is not based on reality because it's very sad. I can imagine the porch dweller sitting and reigning from there. Very intimidating to the others.
I actually shared my porch and spare room with a homeless couple. We became friends, but it was very trying. Your premise rings true.
What can you say about the owner to add some missing facts? Also you could develop the relationship between the tramps and the porch guy.
Good luck!
