Miranda is the mother of two teenage boy ages 15 and 16. She loves her sons very much. They are not perfect kids nor does she expect them to be. She has watched them grow up from babies. Their farther died when they were very young. They have never really had a full time adult role model. Lately, she suspects that they have been drinking.

She has hot actually seen them, but she has noticed that the liquor she keeps around the house has been disappearing. She does not drink. She worries that they may already be or will start drinking and driving. They may hurt themselves or some one else. She has confronted them about this, but they flat denied being involved with alcohol.

She did not want to accuse them unfairly, but she wanted to know the truth. She would also know exactly what she was up against. The quantity in the house stayed the same for a while. Then after a couple of weeks it started to disappear again. She was determined to find out which one of her sons were drinking. She thought it might even be both of them. They were pretty close.

They knew almost everything about each other. One would never tell on the other. She had to devise a plan to catch them in the act. She decided to dust the outside of the liquor bottles with a permanent clear marking powder. Only she would know it was there. When it came in contact with moisture on the skin it would turn blue. It takes weeks for it to wear off.

The one with the blue hand would be the drinker. She put the marking powder on all of the bottles and waited. She checked the bottles periodically to see if the content level was decreasing. She also paid careful attention to the boys hands. The alcohol was still disappearing, but the boys hands were not blue. She kept checking and watching but no blue hands. The liquor was steadily disappearing.

She even tried some of the powder to see if it was really working. She put a little bit on her finger and sure enough it turned blue. She wondered why is their hands were not blue. She was puzzled. Then one day someone rang the doorbell, it was the complex maintenance man. She opened the door. She recognized the guy; he had been up to her place a few times in the past few months.

He was part of a crew checking water pressure in the complex. When he raised his hand to say hello she noticed it was blue. At that moment she knew who was drinking the liquor. It was the maintenance guy. He must have been taking drinks while he checked the pressure when nobody was home. She reported it to the complex management.

The maintenance man was fired. She felt really small, because she had placed the blame squarely on her own sons without proof. It took some time to rebuild the trust between them. She never accuses them of anything unless she is sure. False accusations can destroy relationships. Make sure you have proof before you make accusations, especially if it is a family member.