Dearest Father

Games

"How do you lot figure this out so quickly? There's ten buttons on this thing!" Alex looked down at a blue xbox controller resting between his two hands.

"Daddy- just press THIS one!" Kaya looked at the television screen. "See! You jumped." She pointed to the screen from the couch, where both herself and Alex were sitting.

"Ah, I see? I still don't fully understand, puppet."

Alex looked confused as to how complicated Minecraft truly was. Kaya kept pushing him though, so he had to keep going and try his best.

"Maybe it's for the better if we play something I'm familiar with, no?"

"But daddy- you promised me you'd play with me after work!"

Last night, when Kaya was getting ready for bed, Alex had promised her that he'd play video games with her after he came back from the recording studio. He'd been busy for a while, writing songs for his band's new album 'The Car". It's been a lot for him, and he hasn't been spending much time at home, rather at Matt's house, the local pub, and the studio. He naturally felt bad that his young daughter didn't see much of him, so he promised her that he'd play video games with her the next day while he was tucking her in.

"Okay, okay. What do we have to do next then?"
"We need to build a house so the monsters don't get us."
"There's monsters? Where are they now?"
"They only spawn in at night!"
"Oh."
"Come get wood with me."

Kaya moved her character into a small forest, and Alex tried his best to follow. They gathered some wood and started building a small box around themselves.

"I think we need windows, or a door, and a roof..."
"I need more wood for that!"
"Where can we get more?"

The two had conveniently started building their house in the middle of a flat plain, they'd chopped down all the nearby trees. They would have to explore further if they wanted more wood. Alex wasn't too fond of that idea.

It had started getting dark in their world, yet the two had no bed, roof or door on their house.

"Daddy! What do we do?"
"Erm.. I don't know, puppet. You tell me."
"We need beds! Or we'll die!
"How does that even work- how do we get them?"
"SHEEP!"
"There's none around!"

Monsters had started spawning around them.

"SPIDER!!!"
"Where?"

Alex looked around the living room, until he realised Kaya was still talking about the game.

"Oh. Where?"
"Daddy it's hitting me!"
"Do I hit back, or?"
"YES!"

He tried his best to hit the spider, however he missed. He couldn't get the joysticks on his controller to move his character where he wanted it to. Kaya's character died from the spider attack. Shortly after, a skeleton shot Alex's character to death. He didn't realise he was being shot, he was too busy trying to find food because he thought he was starving to death.

"I think we're better off with a different game. Dolls, maybe?"
"Maybe..."
"Come on... I promise you I'm much better with dolls than I am with... what's the game called?"
"Minecraft."
"Minecraft, yes."
"Okay. But I choose which dolls you are."

Alex chuckles.

"Alright, deal."

Alex holds Kaya's little hand and brings her over to her room, where they sit down across from each other.