Science fiction is important in our home to me. Kelly likes Star Trek and will tolerate Star Wars, but she draws the line at string theory or Firefly. I need an outlet. So, when Ian started talking about ‘estimallations’ (i.e., constellations) and planets on the way to school, naturally the discussion turned toward the terraforming of Mars.

‘How would you change Mars so that people could live there?’

‘Well, first I would buy a water park.’

‘A water park? Like Aquatica? Why?’

‘Because we’d need a big bucket.’

‘Ah.’

‘And I would carry the sea to Mars in the big bucket,’ said my son, who does not possess doctorates in Chemistry, Biology, or Long Division.

‘How would you get the bucket to Mars?’

‘Lots and lots of people. Oh! And I would use the bucket to carry oxygen, too.’

‘Why oxygen?’

‘Because we need to breathe. But the oxygen would just float out of the bucket. Oh! We could put a lid on the bucket.’

‘That’s a good idea! Shouldn’t we use a rocket to carry the bucket?’

‘Well, the rocket would probably shake the lid off. But we could put a lock on the lid. And put the big bucket inside a bigger bucket with another lid. And lock that.’

And as my son transformed a world within the idle moments before school, his backward letters didn’t seem so concerning.