As a child sick days, for me, meant laying feverishly on the couch at my grandmother’s house watching cartoons on what now seems to be a ridiculously small black and white TV. There was orange juice, chicken soup (or Vernor’s ginger ale if I had a tummy bug), and a sense of comfort in the midst of ultimate bodily discomfort. Even as a child I was an avid reader, there was something about getting lost in a narrative that became even more attractive when I was feeling under the weather. Ironically, this was the time that I felt least like holding and reading a book (honestly the same still holds true).
This week my daughter has been home battling some pretty heinous flu-like symptoms and desiring stories of her own. Over the course of the week I have read to her, we have listened to audiobooks, and we have watched far more television than we ever do (because neither of us was up for much else during late night bouts of nausea) . After several days she requested something new. She asked me to play a video game. It wasn’t that she wanted to play the game for herself, but she just wanted to watch me play and it had to be a particular kind of game. No match 3 games, no generic platformers, and no Minecraft. She wanted more stories. Interactive ones that we could participate in. While she was too ill to play the games for herself she could off some input into the choices that we made.
So we spent some time playing choice based games (like Minecraft Story Mode), point and click adventure games (like Grim Fandango), and even some survival games (like The Flame in the Flood) and we made choices together. Sometimes she gave direction and I followed and we she was too tired to boss me around (I mean offer suggestions) I made the choices for us and just kind of talked through it. We cuddled on the couch and made our own stories and when we were both too tired to play more we could turn to Let’s Plays and watch others’ stories unfold in the same way.
One of games that Pea and I played this week that seemed must fitting was the survival game The Flame in the Flood. This game was new to Pea and she was a little hesitant about it at first because she thought that it would be like Don’t Starve, which she says she doesn’t like because you “just play an old man who grows stuff and kills stuff”. After she learned that the protagonist, Scout, was a girl with a dog (and that she didn’t just have to stay in one spot and grow things) she was not only willing to give The Flame in the Flood a try, but she was actually excited to play the game. Over the course of the last couple of days we have visited with Scout a lot and grinned and grimaced as she ran into other people in the game and met many an untimely demise, but mostly we have enjoyed learning her story.
This whole week, this whole experience has brought on a sense of nostalgia for me. It has caused me to recall those days when I found myself tucked in warm and safe by those who loved me and wanted to make me feel better. This week has also made me thankful that I have the opportunity to share these stories with my little one in my own attempt to make her feel warm, safe, and loved….all while we die in a wolf attack.
