Theodore Parker is a one of the many identical faces you will find around the Bluewater Museum. However, due to Theodore's advanced skills in his job as a security guard, you will be hard pressed to spot him. He dangles from the ceiling nearly twenty feet above your head near the Ancient Egyptian exhibits. There's only one problem: Theodore has a fear of heights.
To combat this obvious and occasionally debilitating problem, Theodore's wife Matilda makes him a tea every morning. This tea is filled with special ingredients to help make Theodore's day a little better so he doesn't have to constantly be afraid of falling. Matilda learned how to brew this unique drink when her own mother had to make it for her father. Her parents had gone on a trip with her to France and her father had refused to go to Eiffel Tower.
Unfortunately for Theodore, that morning Matilda was so busy preparing Ezekiel and Geoffrey (their two sons) for school that she had forgotten to make him his tea! Theodore didn't even realize this until he had been strapped into his safety gear and settled into position twenty feet above the ground! He panicked, and started shaking terribly! He was sure he looked absolutely terrified!
Theodore slowed his breathing down as much as he could, realizing that it was too late to fix his problem and he would just have to tough it out as best he could for the next seven hours. To pass the time in the very slow day at the museum,and take his mind off of his predicament, Theodore thought about all the things he would rather be doing. He imagined himself at home, sitting in Matilda's beautiful spring garden, a paintbrush in hand and a blank canvas before him.
Unbeknownst to many, Theodore was an accomplished artist. He had painted many different works over the years, and he considered it to be his only real talent, even though Matilda and his sons and a few close friends were the only ones to know about his skill with a brush. Of course, he had other past times. These included rebuilding his old truck and playing video games. But he was not nearly as good at those as he was at painting.
The day dragged on and on, and Theodore feared it would never end. Fortunately, it did and he was able to go home. He personally made sure that Matilda remembered his tea in the morning, writing her a note before going straight to bed. He was thoroughly exhausted from all that dangling!
