My tiny pet gecko

Most of you don't know I also have an older brother. We made our lives miserable when we were kids. Turns out we get along awesome these days (now that we both moved out of my parent's house actually... it must have made grown-ups out of us).

When I was in high school, I used to live with my grandmother because my school was in a different city from which my parents live (so, yes, technically I moved out since I was 15). Aside from her constant smoking, living with my grandma was a pretty sweet deal: I had my own room with my own tv, and I also had my own bathroom (I just had to clean it for myself thou).
One day, I found a tiny baby lizard (actually gecko, but I like how "lizard" sounds like) on my shower's floor. Forgive me, but when I was a little kid I used to watch "Henry's Amazing Animals" and I looooved Henry (a gecko and protagonist of the show):

So what did I do? I decided to adopt the lizard AND call him Henry.

Henry and I were very close friends (he used to shower with me, so yeah... preeeetty close). And our friendship lasted for almost two months. He never once came outside of the shower... he liked it there, it was his home. And I never dared to deprive him from that.

It wasn't long before my older brother decided to move in with us because he was going to start college. Now we had to share the bathroom. But I never bothered to tell him about my relationship with Henry because I knew he wouldn't understand.

So far, Henry was the smartest most amazing gecko friend I could have. He never got in my way, never asked for food, never made a mess or anything. And he knew how to be a ninja: he never came out to play with my brother, just with me.

It wasn't until a few weeks just after my brother moved in that he walked in my room and said those dreadful words I will never forget:

Brother: "Hey, I saw a lizard in your shower. Just killed it for you. So don't worry."
Me: "HENRY?!?!"
Brother: "What?"
Me: "HENRY?!?! YOU KILLED HENRY?!?!"
Brother: "Who's Henry?"
Me: "My pet lizard!!!"
Brother: "You mean you kept him as a pet? That's disgusting!"
Me: "Shut up!!! Where is he? WHERE IS HENRY?"
Brother: "I flushed it down the toilet! You are so weird."

I hurried towards the toilet, but it was too late... Henry was gone... My best-tiny-gecko friend was long gone.

I hated my brother for what he did, and I was tormented by the picture of Henry's corpse being eaten by crocodiles (yes, I still believed there were crocodiles in the sewer).

But there was nothing I could do, only mourn my friend's death.

Everytime I was going to play Gaia Online, I would remember him. Everytime I felt like singing in the shower, I didn't because there was nobody who could look up to me with big-lizard-confused eyes. My life was empty now that my friend was brutally murdered and then disposed of so easily and without care.

I decided to face my brother and give him a peace of my mind. I told him about how I felt, and that he was an awful person for killing such an innocent little creature. And then he made his point.
(OH! I forgot to tell you he's a doctor.)
He began explaining all the possible germs Henry carried with himself, especially from leaving IN a shower. And being the obsessive clean freak I am, I decided to leave it like that. I wouldn't want evil germ thoughts to replace Henry's dead corpse thoughts.
Things were clear now. Henry was now my scape-goat: he had sacrificed himself in order for me to leave in a clean environment. And I wasn't going to make justice for his honorable sacrifice, because he wouldn't want that; he would want me to leave in a clean place, right? He loved me, and he would only want the very best thing for me. And that was for me to be germ-free!
He was now a hero, and I would pay tribute to his memory by leaving his memory rest in peace.