This photograph sits on my piano -- next to our father's ashes. "Ours" because the photograph captures my brother and me at 2 and 4, or 3 and 5. (It doesn't really matter, but if you call my mother she can tell you -- right after you hear about the rubber boots, toy wagon, and serial chicken pox tales that every parent seems to use as sign posts of memory.)
I post the picture because it tells a little too much about me and it has a Mexico moral.
When most people see the photograph, they react as everyone does with childhood mementos. "Oh, how cute," they say. "The two of you must be very close." "Look how you are holding his hand."
We are close. But you cannot see it in this photograph. It has all the potential of a remake of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? There stands my dear innocent brother -- all blue-eyed and country naiveté.
And who stands next to him? If you look at those blank dark eyes, my guess would be the finalist to play Damien in The Omen. I hope my dad is watching these two boys. The one on the right worries me.
That was then. Now, my brother is one of my best friends. When I originally floated the idea of moving to Mexico, the move included my brother, his wife, their daughter, my mother, and me. Everybody else has dropped out. I am still going.
Personally, I think my brother and and I need an updated version of this photograph -- on the beaches of Melaque, the future home of our entire family.
And the Baby Jane eyes, we will simply leave in Oregon.
I post the picture because it tells a little too much about me and it has a Mexico moral.
When most people see the photograph, they react as everyone does with childhood mementos. "Oh, how cute," they say. "The two of you must be very close." "Look how you are holding his hand."
We are close. But you cannot see it in this photograph. It has all the potential of a remake of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? There stands my dear innocent brother -- all blue-eyed and country naiveté.
And who stands next to him? If you look at those blank dark eyes, my guess would be the finalist to play Damien in The Omen. I hope my dad is watching these two boys. The one on the right worries me.
That was then. Now, my brother is one of my best friends. When I originally floated the idea of moving to Mexico, the move included my brother, his wife, their daughter, my mother, and me. Everybody else has dropped out. I am still going.
Personally, I think my brother and and I need an updated version of this photograph -- on the beaches of Melaque, the future home of our entire family.
And the Baby Jane eyes, we will simply leave in Oregon.
