Brothers

Brothers

“That tree is big isn’t it.” Jon said, dreamily.

Alex looked at him wondering if his brain ever had a normal thought.

“Big as compared to what exactly?” he asked, unable to ignore his brother’s inane comments like his parents asked him to. Jon was younger by two years, but the fact that they were even related continually amazed Alex. At fourteen Alex already knew what he wanted to do, spending all of his time and energy aiming toward his goal. He wondered, on occasion, if Jon would ever grow up.

“OK, so say it was a giant, a real giant, then would we be like ants are to us, or would we be even smaller?”

Alex closed his eyes in frustration. “I don’t know how big a real giant is because there are no real giants, so I couldn’t say.”

“How do you know?”

“What?”

“That there are no real giants?”

“I’ve never seen one, or even heard of one.”

“So, you don’t know then, right?” Jon said.

“Yes Jon, I don’t know. I also don’t know the mathematical equation to match tree height to ants, or how to string a violin, or the theory of plaid. I don’t know these things because they are not important to me, if they are important to you then you should find them out! Stop asking me!

When Jonathon Nash won the Nobel prize for his work with the Reinhold giants on plant life, opening the door to our current methods of hyper vegetation, which has always been credited for saving our planet from extinction during the asteroid storm of 2832, he credited his brother Alex for sending him down the path that ultimately saved our planet.

Oddly enough, his brother Alex spent his entire life in the now obsolete plastic industry.