Antics of a Little Brother

At 21, he would cringe to think of this now, but when he was little, my brother Jonny was always up to something. His imagination married beautifully with his sense of practicality and he always felt that he could fix whatever challenges came his way. He would see things on the news like emergency evacuation, or natural disasters, or even sudden mishaps and he would take into his mind to be very prepared.

So imagine a little kid about three years old walking around the house dragging bags of all of his favorite things: Baby Einstein tapes, favorite stuffed toys, and Bob the Builder. Wherever he went in the house, his “Jewel grocery bags” filled with his favorite things accompanied him. Dragging and pulling, pulling and dragging, and if all else failed, he would be ready.

When he was eight years old it seemed that same sense of practicality and imagination that he had as a three year old was still alive and strong.

This leads us to our favorite family story of our beloved Jonny. My brother and house slippers just did not mix. He just couldn’t seem to keep them on. Constant reminders of the dangers of possibly stepping on something were never heeded. The slippers just wouldn’t stay.

He had it all under control. Toes were meant to be free and comfortable. The likelihood of coming in contact with hard or pointy objects was minimal. So to Jonny, our worries were inconsequential. And of course, when we don’t listen and learn, life has a way to make experience teach us in a way that the lesson becomes a part of us.

Jonny’s day came over one weekend. Business as usual, he went about his day doing his chores, playing video games, and a little bit of studying… just a little. Feeling thirsty, off to the kitchen he went to get his favorite juice. An exclamation of “Oooouch!” and a series of hops soon followed. My family and I all ran to see what had happened.

A small tack had found its way off the bulletin board in the kitchen and into Jonny’s left foot. Of course he was going to handle things on his own; the removal of the offensive teacher and the investigation as to what was the cause of it finding his foot. After pausing, experience had finally taught what we could not.

“Wear your slippers because you could step on something painful.”

Now Jonny got the point, no pun intended. We cleaned the area thoroughly, bandages, discussions of when was his last tetanus shot etc.

Jonny was fine, however in a bit of pain. His house shoes especially were the last thing he wanted touching his lesson learned at this point. They were hard and uncomfortable and caused him to limp, but walking on the hard floor was no longer an option either.

With his usual calm and sense of ingenuity Jonny had an idea. He knew he had to wear his slippers, but something had to be done.

One day while in the bathroom one morning he noticed a special cabinet.

This cabinet contained certain monthly items for the female family members. It was time for a solution to his aching foot and the offending slippers, and he was again going to be prepared.

Little did we know what was to come.

Jonny sat at his desk in front of his computer, doing his homework.

But what was that?

We looked down and noticed that one of his shoes were a little higher, a little whiter, a little more plush than we originally remembered. “What’s wrong with your shoe Jonny?” We asked.

“Oh, nothing.” he replied. “My foot was hurting, so I fixed it.”

“Fixed it, how?” We inquired.

It really did look very odd.

“I just fixed it.” He continued to type his assignment.

Now we began to worry. Over to the shoe we went. No!...He did not do that!…it couldn’t be!…

But I will have to assure you that he did. Jonny had proceeded to place an extra absorbent, unscented, leakage protection, maxi pad into the lining of his shoe to cushion the injured foot!

Needless to say we were all but silent.

“What?” He said looking at our astonished faces.

“It made my foot feel better.”

Only the young see the practicality of the imagination when we, as adults, mostly see the straightforward methods of reality…

“Always” never knew they had orthopedic uses as well, but Jonny apparently did…