Holiday Vacation

Hello All:
In some parts of the country, kids are still on their holiday vacation--or Christmas break as we traditionally call it in America. My kids are still home. As for me, I actually took a couple of weeks off towards the end of December and didn't return to work until the third of January. It was a very nice and much-deserved time off!
Not actually received as a Christmas present; I got a nice, new phone for myself over the holidays that includes the ability to take 360 VR images to be viewed on a VR headset when needed. I spent plenty of time in the woods during my vacation, visiting all my favorite places and taking 360 photos. I really had in mind to share these 360 photos with you on my blog, but Blogger doesn't have a tool for 360 viewing.
Oh, but there has to be something! Surely they have a widget that I can easily install so that readers like you can enjoy my VR worlds. I'll  have to look into it.
***
If you're kids are still home for the holidays, hopefully you don't put them through the torment that the main character, Daryl, had endure on his Christmas break. I'll let you read all about it in today's brand, new story.

Holiday Vacation

It was the day after Christmas about mid morning, just before lunch, as Daryl sat in the recreation room of his basement, playing with his new X-box. Daryl was a sophomore in high school and could be considered a very hard working kid. He takes all honors AP classes and works extremely hard to earn A's in all his classes. It isn't easy. It's a very stressful life for Daryl. In many cases he believes that he'll fall behind in his studies and earn a B in his class which is definitely what Daryl doesn't want. But he worked hard this past semester in school, and it was Christmas break; time for Daryl to relax, unwind, and catch his breath before returning to second semester after the New Year.

Really this was the first moment that Daryl had a chance to play with his X-box since unwrapping the gift on Christmas morning. You see, both he and his sister, Dawn, had to quickly unwrap their gifts on Christmas morning before going to church; after which the family immediately went to Grandmother's house to be with the family throughout the day. By the time Daryl returned home that night it was close to midnight. Oh he wanted to go into the recreation room at that time and hook up his X-box. But Father wouldn't have it. It was too late at night. Tomorrow was another day Daryl was very tired, anyway. He went right to bed and dreamed of when he would finally hook up the X-box and play to his heart's content. It's what he deserved for being such a hard working kid.

By 11:30 that morning on December 26th, Daryl had only played with his X-box for a little over an hour. He was just beginning to enjoy it, had it fully connected to the TV with controls working. It was then that he heard Father calling from the family room.

"Daryl...? Daryl...?"

"Yes Father!" nervously answered Daryl.

"Where are you?"

"I'm in the basement!" This of course, meant he was in the recreation room.

"What are you doing?" further probed Father.

"I'm playing with my X-box."

"That's enough of that, Boy!" declared Father. "You've played enough of that. Why don't you come upstairs and spend some time with your family. That's what the holidays are about.”

Daryl sighed out of disgust and dropped the controller on the sofa. By then he was feeling a bit of outraged that he couldn’t have the simple pleasure of enjoying his Christmas present. Father was always controlling his life; dictating when it was time to work, play, what his career choice would be. As for his career choice: according to Father, Daryl was to become a nuclear physicist—of all things. And Daryl didn't want to do this, of course. But for some reason Father thought that it would be a wise choice for a career. He read some article in a science magazine that reported that future careers as nuclear physicists would be booming in upcoming years; but it would require extremely intelligent, bright, young minds. And of course, Daryl was the perfect candidate for this in Father's eyes.

Daryl softly stamped his way up the stairs in further disgust and outrage. He did so, softly, to prevent Father from hearing. Had Father heard such a display of contempt and resentment, there would be punishment. Father might have taken the X-box away from Daryl. In extreme cases, Father might have even hit him.

Daryl finally made it into the family room where Father, Mother and his sister, Dawn, sat together. Dawn was sitting in a recliner chair and reading one of her new novels she had received for Christmas. Perhaps if Daryl hooked the X-box up in the family room, he would be able to enjoy it the same way that Dawn was able to enjoy her novel.

"Come sit down with us in here, Boy." invited Father.

Daryl wasn't happy but did his best to hide it. Reluctantly he sat down in an empty seat.

"I don't like it when you play those video games too much, Son." informed Father.

"But, Dad, I was only playing it for an hour." argued Daryl.

"I understand that." answered Father. "But that's plenty of time for you to play. Like I said before, the holidays are for family and to spend time with them. We are all in this room together and enjoying one another's company. That's the way it should be. Don't you agree?"

Feeling he had no choice, Daryl nodded in affirmation. "Yes..." But then he suggested, "Well, if I bring my new X-box upstairs and hook it up to the TV in the family room, can I play it up here?"

Father rejected the proposal. "No, I'm sorry. It doesn't work that way. I won't have you being one of those kids who play their video games 24 hours a day. You need regulated amounts of time on that thing. But forget about your video games for now. Let's talk about other things. Let's talk about school. Do you have any thoughts on how your first semester of sophomore year ended up?"

Daryl shrugged his shoulders, "Well I got all A's."

"This is true." acknowledged Father. "But you know, Son, it was necessary for you to drop all of your extracurricular activities so that you could concentrate on your studies. It almost looked like you were struggling to earn these A's. When I was your age I took all of these classes and they were child's play for me. I took the same classes you did and I played cricket, I was in theater, I was in the Student Council, and I had time to be with my friends. School was just something to do; do the homework and prepare for the classes and ace them all. But look what you had to do. You had to drop all of your extracurricular activities so that you could focus on studying for your classes. You stayed in your room to study for six to eight hours a night to get your homework done. Now what's wrong with you, Boy?"

Daryl nervously shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know... I guess sometimes the classes are little too difficult for me."

"Too difficult for you?" repeated Father. "It shouldn't be. You are a very smart kid. The problem with you is that I think you don't believe in yourself enough. That's very important when taking these classes. You need to be that way. What's your hardest class right now that will carry into the next semester?"

"Laplace Transform... " answered Daryl. There were only four people in the school taking the class because it was terribly challenging. Most people have never even heard of Laplace Transform. Most people think that the highest math is Calculus. But Daryl had already taken Calculus One and Calculus Two. Now he was taking Laplace Transform so that he could become a nuclear physicist for Father.

"Why is Laplace Transform such a difficult class for you? asked Father.

"Well I can do the work." explained Daryl. "I just have trouble at first understanding, and it takes many hours of work to make it happen."

"Understood." acknowledged father. "But I envision you next semester not struggling so hard to pass this class. What do you say? Do you think you can do it?"

Daryl shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know... I guess..."

"What do you mean you don't know, Boy?" challenged Father. "That's the sort of attitude right there that is preventing you from acing your classes with no problem. Like I said before, you need to believe in yourself. I mean you don’t have any gumption or drive to you. That's something I had when your age. If something started to get challenging for me, I simply reminded myself that everything in life is relative, and I could easily overcome whatever obstacle was in my way. It was amazing. I just did it. I couldn't get over how easy it was. And that's how you need to be."

Daryl remained silent.

It was then that Father asked, "Did you bring your Laplace Transform textbook home with you?"

Daryl nodded his head, "Yes..."

Father continued, "Do you know what your lessons are going to be for next semester."

"Well I have the syllabus." answered Daryl. "I know what chapters the teacher will be going over."

"Excellent!" exclaimed Father. "Why don't we do this? The holidays are a good time for family to be together. What do you say you and I go up to your bedroom with your text book for some quality Father and Son time? We'll spend the afternoon studying ahead so that Laplace Transform will be easy for you next semester."

Daryl hated this idea. For one it was not going to be quality time with his father. Laplace Transform was a terribly difficult class for Daryl. He could barely understand the material. Father would see this and surly scold Daryl. It would be a miserable afternoon for sure. It was a horrible idea as far as Daryl was concerned. That's why he argued, "Oh, Father, it's Christmas break and I just want to relax and play with my X-box."

Father nodded his head in negation. "Out of the question!"

But Daryl continued to argue, "But why? I got it for Christmas to play with. Can't you just let me do this? Can't I just rest?"

It was then that Father warned, "I will take the thing away from you. Is that what you want?"

"No..." sadly answered Daryl.

"Then you will join me upstairs for the afternoon to study from your text book. Now let's go, Boy."

***

Just as Daryl anticipated, the afternoon was horrible. Father scolded Daryl for everything he did; the way he wrote out the Laplace Integral, his choice of notebook used to write on, and the fact that he needed a calculator at certain times. At one point in the afternoon Father had become so disgusted and outraged with his son that he shouted at him. He declared that Daryl was worthless, and that he couldn't believe that Daryl was actually his son. He confessed to beginning to suspect that Daryl had some sort of mental handicap that prevented him from performing mathematical calculations.

Poor Daryl had become so frustrated and overwhelmed from the negative comments from Father than he began to cry. It was then that Father spent a good forty-five minutes explaining that maybe it wasn't entirely Daryl’s fault. Maybe the American schools had failed Daryl; something in the education system that made Daryl somewhat defective in his thinking. Father reassured his son that he wouldn't let him become lost and slip away into becoming a worthless person in life. Then the two resumed working the problems out of the text book.

After some time, Daryl's confusion and seeming inability to comprehend the material threw Father into another rage. He shouted and stormed out of the room. And before slamming the door behind him, Father declared, "You could not possibly be my son!" Poor Daryl sat upstairs in his bedroom until nine o'clock that evening until Mother entered with a sandwich and a small glass of milk for her son.

But don't worry; on the last day of vacation, Daryl was allowed to play a couple of hours on his new X-box. It was interrupted by Father, of course, who declared that Daryl had played long enough. It was time for him to get ready for school the following day.

The End!