Grain of sand whipped across the blistering blue ocean, spreading across the empty beach.
The breeze behind Jaylen filled the room as he sat in his bed and as the little grains of sand continued to cascade over him.
The ebony locks of Jaylen's hair and ocean-blue eyes had to be redirected by his hands, and he wiped them out of his hair as they fell across his eyes.
It was by this motion that Jaylen's eye muscles adjusted to the fact that they were dirty.
The lack of water in his eyes caused a spontaneous burning sensation that he knew his father would want him to fix soon.
"Take a shower!" His father always told him, "every time you get dirty!" But that meant he would have to go outside and get wet, and the sunrise was nowhere near. This sunlight meant that it was still early in the day… probably almost noon. A great time to stay inside and enjoy the sun. Or the moon. Or watch TV. Or play video games. Or do some homework. Or… anything with the "play" button on it.
"Old man, let's turn on the TV," Jaylen said to his father as he walked in to see the show that he was watching paused on an image of a painting of a blue man with yellow skin. "They've been showing this crap for years now."
"Oh, was that the story about Blue Man?" asked Jaylen's father without looking away from the painting. "Wasn't he the devil?"
"You mean, Blue Man as in the superhero who saves people?" asked Jaylen, "No, they never said anything about him having a different persona in another dimension."
"Oh, well, don't you mean Blue Man as in the comic book hero?" asked Jaylen's father, "It is strange that he is not wearing any clothes."
"It seems to be a common theme in Marvel comics," said Jaylen, rolling his eyes. "I wonder what it is. Some sort of public indecency problem?"
"I, personally, don't see a problem with nudity in an artistic sense," said Jaylen's father. "In fact, I think it is just the opposite of an issue. It's always a beautiful thing to see the human body in its full, natural state. That is way I like that painting so much."
"What do you mean?" Asked Jaylen, "I mean, yeah, I agree with you, but why? It's like he's just standing there with nothing on? No emotion."
"Are you sure he has nothing on?" asked Jaylen's father, and Jaylen replied, "look, literally no clothes, superpowers coming out of his hands and all that. What more do you want?"
"Well, yes, you are right, I was referring to the character of Blue Man, the one that the comic portrays," said Jaylen's father. "What I mean is that I see something deeper in this painting. There is something there that I can't quite put my fingers on. I'm not talking about the title of the painting either."
"What do you mean by that?" asked Jaylen as he decided to turn the painting off and just watch the news. Who needed superheroes, anyway?
"Well, like I said before, Jaylen, I consider it to be a beautiful image, but I'm not sure what it means," said Jaylen's father. "It speaks to me, but I cannot pinpoint what it is I see. I see beauty but I can't appreciate it."
"This gets deep," said Jaylen, shaking his head and continuing to watch the news.
"I mean, why is he standing there with his arms out?" asked Jaylen's father, but Jaylen was too busy with the news to hear him. "Why is he standing there with a note in his hand?"
"Nothing's happening," said Jaylen as he took a moment to look at a picture of a reindeer apparently eating the face off another reindeer, "Hey, they said we were gonna have a snow day tomorrow but that was like months ago and it still hasn't snowed.
