Blue Water

When my brother was younger, he was a very creative little guy.  He thought up an answering machine/voice recorder on someone's door, so that if you came to someone's house and they weren't home, you could leave them a message.  He also created all sorts of things with Legos and could think up solutions to all kinds of problems.

When he was about 6, he found a lizard that was dead.  He decided that he could heal the lizard by putting him in blue water.  He took a jar, put water and blue food coloring in it and then put the deceased lizard in it.  After several days the lizard was obviously not being healed or revived.  However, one time when my brother looked at the jar, the water happened to move, so he thought that his miraculous blue water was working. 

Shortly after the lizard incident, our uncle passed away.  My brother's first instinct was to put our uncle in blue water, which would clearly able to bring him back to life.  He was heartbroken when my parents explained to him that not only would the blue water not work, but that it also didn't work on the lizard.

I miss my brother's innocence.  He is now a married, 20 year old, Army guy.  He's now tough and like most people his age, thinks he knows everything.  His innocence is long gone, but I still remember that sweet little boy with so much hope for his blue water concoction.