Bart's Window of Opportunity

Bart looks at his watch and it says 11 pm.

"This wretched electric company, always breaking down", moaned Bart, because there's a power blackout again in their village which started at 10 pm.

And it's damned hot because it's summer and there's a heat wave that's making some old folks just drop down dead in the middle of the street. 

The electricity stopped working 1 hour ago and there's no indication when it would go back to life. Bart was just in the middle of his Twitch stream where he's entertaining followers with his Valorant prowess and with his talkative humor.

Now, he can't do that because he needs electricity and the internet. They go hand in hand and there's no internet right now. 

Twenty four year old Bart is turning red with impatience, he's sweating all over because he can't turn the air conditioner on.

What is there to do? Bart almost forgot there's a world outside of his streaming room. That has been his fantasy world day in and day out right after medicine school ceased for the summer.

To ease his mind from his studies, he had turned to streaming to relax himself and to earn some money. That's how he gets his computer equipment and take out food money for summer because his parents won't give him allowance when there's no school.

About the world outside of his room, Bart really did remind himself. I need air now, lots of it. Aha, yes I'll open the window and let in the breeze of the night air. 

And lo and behold! It's the first time Bart has opened his window in about 6 months' time. His Mom had opened his room windows during that time because she had called the disinfecting company to come sanitize the house because of the pesky Virus floating around the world, which she doesn't want to bother them with.

And when Bart did open the window, the night chill went in and gave him a sense of comfort. He didn't realize how beautiful the night sky is. The stars were twinkling and the moon was full. If his family were on the beach right now, or in some other beautiful place where all four of them could walk around freely and laugh together, it would have been such a beautiful memory under the moonlight.

He was leaning on the window pane, and because his body was cooling down, he felt suddenly cold. He then thought about his multitude of jackets. 

Bart is a jacket enthusiast. He has a closet full of them and with varied designs and themes. And he sometimes wears them when he's streaming online together with an appropriate cap to complete the fantasy world of his followers who are all fans of Japanese Anime through and through, just like Bart himself. 

Bart sometimes pictures himself as one of his anime heroes with with their big eyes. It's an irony because the Japanese animators who create them have small eyes, typical of Orientals.

So Bart gets a jacket with orange stripes on the sleeves with black as the dominant color all throughout, stopped again by an orange neck collar. But putting it on gave Bart the comfort that he needs from the night chill. 

He had not realized for a long time how beautiful the world is, being in his digital world, maybe 22 hours a day, including sleep, wherein he allows his followers to watch him. The remaining 2 hours of the day he uses to get his food from the dining table outside. He then brings the food inside to his room and eats there.

Med school has been such a warzone, and streaming online has given him so much comfort. Plus his extroverted nature has been hindered in this abnormal times by this stupid virus which keeps mutating. Streaming affords him the chance to let out steam a lot, and be his old sociable self, albeit done online. Bart and his followers, some who have even become his close friends, even though they have never met physically, even have a drinking event every Friday, toasting with their respective drinks, wherever they are in the world. 

Looking out of his window, this got Bart thinking. How are Mom and Dad? How about Sabrina, my younger sister? They've been so patient with me, waiting for me to come out of my room. Me, I'm just digging in into my mancave for months now.

They even appreciate it more when the internet breaks down because that's one of the few times that I surprisingly go out of my room. But this time, I'm annoyed because I can't stream.

Regularly, they hardly see me, unless they're outside and I get my food and go back to my room. We just chitchat for a while, laugh a little, then I go back to my room and stream again, or I sleep. 

I'm here but it seems like I'm thousands of miles away. It seems to be of no use that I'm here. I might as well be far far away and we could just simply Face Time, Zoom or Facebook Messenger each other for several minutes. Far longer than the time I spend with them when I'm really here, physically present.

I can feel they miss me, actually miss me a lot. They've been so patient with me, waiting for the few precious times that I've gave them a warm hug. 

I can feel in their hugs a lingering sadness, a desire for me to stay a little bit longer with them. Forget my digital world for a half day, perhaps. Give them the son and sibling company that they long to have. Which they had a lot when I was of an age when I was an avid fan of Sesame Street and of The Purple Dinosaur, not those samurai Japanese Anime characters. 

Bart looks at his watch. It's 12:30 past midnight, and the electricity has gone up at last.

Instead of going back to his computer, Bart stayed on, staring out into the window. It was a Window of Opportunity that opened up to him. An opportunity to reestablish relationships again with his good old parents and sister who were always there for him. 

Starting tomorrow, I'll start anew, Bart promises to himself. This digital world, it has been good to me. But I'll give back, give back to the people I love... Through time well spent with them. 

And also before I forget, I'll pursue my childhood dream to be a great doctor.