Blue.

Though I often wish I could, I’ve never seen it. However, I do know of its presence, as I hear its name being mentioned everywhere I go. It is a curious thing, and it holds a strange power over people, I know.

During summertime, when all the little children drop their books and come out to play, I can hear the screaming and shouting from the boys playing marbles next door. Their voices would grow more strained and agitated whenever the blue marble was at stake, and when you finally heard that one shrill, triumphant hoot, you’d know that someone had won.

It wasn’t just during summer, either. My mother would bring me out on her trips downtown occasionally, and amidst the lively cacophony of voices there, I would always be able to make out a few that said the word ‘blue’. If you listen close enough, you can hear a girl pleading incessantly with her parents for that blue jumper. And if you keep listening, you’ll notice that the colour mentioned will always be blue. When choosing their first pair of sneakers, the youngsters always take the blue one. When picking a soft toy to go along with his MacDonald’s Happy Meal, the boy would always choose the blue one. When it came to buying jeans, no one ever bought the red or the brown ones. It was always, big surprise, the blue one.

Even when you’re in the supermarket, you’d hear children imploring their moms to get more blueberry jam.

And it doesn’t stop just there.

Whenever the television was switched on, I would hear contact lenses that can make eyes blue being advertised, or the story of a male lead falling hopelessly in love with a blue-eyed beauty on a teenage soap opera. For some reason, blue eyes were always the beautiful, coveted ones.

Blue. People loved it, were obsessed with it even. I wonder how it looks like. It must be something magical and fantastic, to captivate people like that.

I toss and turn in my bed, with these thoughts plaguing me.

“Danny? Are you awake?” I call out to my little brother.

“I am now,” he mumbles grouchily. “What is it?”

“You know the colour blue? What’s it like?”

“I don’t know, blue is, uh, blue. What kind of dumb question is that?”

“I just need to know, okay? You know it’s your job to tell me when it comes to these kinds of things.”

“Don’t you have anything better to do? Quit bothering me and go to sleep. Gosh, and I thought younger brothers were supposed to be the annoying ones.”

“Well, at least older sisters like me aren’t afraid of the dark.”

I hear a whimper from Dan’s bed, and smile at the thought of emerging victorious from yet another one of our childish banters. I didn’t get the answer I wanted though. Sighing, I try again to get myself to sleep.