My Brother, The Rocket Scientist

I've always had my big brother to look up to. Ever since we were kids, Denis was the brains of our outfit. While I was a master at making trouble, Denis was the one who could always explain why whatever it was I wanted to do would just not work.

There was once, when we were quite young - I think I was probably about six or seven at the time, that I came up with a great plan! I'd noticed that the moon passed over the climbing tree in our back yard each night. So I reasoned that if we only watered it enough, it would grow huge; much like the bean stalk - without the possibility of producing all those yucky beans!

If we could only water it enough, I reasoned, it would grow really huge and one night, the moon would get caught in its branches. That way, we could climb to the moon. It would be great I reasoned. We could charge kids a quarter to climb our tree to get to the moon. Wouldn't that be cool!?

Of course, then my brother, the future rocket scientist, explained that the tree in our back yard could never grow tall enough to catch the moon in its branches. For one thing, the moon had to be at least a mile high, he explained to me. Furthermore, there wasn't enough water in Dade County to get our tree to grow that tall!

But he was always doing things like that... tossing a wet blanket on my dreams of making exquisite trouble! So I decided just this time to show him. One night, after everyone was in bed, I snuck out of our room, made my way to the back yard and left the garden hose at the base of the tree. I turned on the hose and went back to bed.

I was crestfallen to see that the tree, the next morning, was exactly the same size. Apparently, Denis had been right. Mom and Dad were puzzled and more than a little furious to see that the back yard (which was east of the house) looked like the Everglades (which should have been a good few miles to the west. I, of course, blamed it on my little brother. But that is another story.

Wherever you are, I hope you'll have a great day and think of your siblings fondly. I know I am!

Don Bergquist - August 15, 2008 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA