Magic (Story)

“The year we stayed home,” I answered, hoping to catch the attention of my children. We were all sitting in the living room of my parent’s home, my sisters Kathy and Annika, and my brother Peter. We had all come home for summer vacation to spend it with my parents. The adults were gathered in the living room, while the children—at least mine, were in a world of their own. I had just been asked what my favorite summer vacation was as a child.
“You stayed home for your summer vacation?” my twelve year old daughter Jessie looked up from her magazine, chewing a Twizzler. “What’s the fun in that?”
“As I recall,” Mom said, winking at Jess and pointing her thumb at me, “She thought the same thing.”
I smiled at Jessie, and then looked down the hall at my ten year old son Jordan who was completely engrossed in his game boy. I wanted so much for them get a sense of the magic I had as a child.

“Yes, I objected at first,” I said, “But it was the best vacation I ever had. Dad took a week off from work and we spent a week at home.”
“What did you do?” Jessie asked.
“The first night,” I said, “Dad and Mom handed us sheets and told us we could make tents anywhere in the basement we wanted and could sleep there.”
“Monday was outdoors day,” Kathy said, “We went swimming at the recreation center, hiking, and roller skating that night.”
I chuckled as I heard the Game Boy music suddenly stop. We had someone else’s attention.
“Tuesday was culture day,” I went on, “We went to the museum, the zoo and then the planetarium.
“Wednesday was my favorite,” Peter said, “We made homemade ice cream that night and the girls had a pie baking contest,” he looked over at Annika and smiled at the pleasant memory, “That was the raspberry crumble pies to end all raspberry crumble pies.”
“What did you do on Thursday?” came my son’s voice from around the corner, “Not that I’m interested.”
“Thursday was movie night,” I answered. “And the best part of all was the popcorn snow. We all went down in the basement and laid out sheets. Then we took the top off the popcorn popper and watched the popcorn fly out.”
“No way!” Jordy said, “That’s awesome!”

The children listened to Friday and Saturday’s activities and I was delighted that after that, they stayed and listened to the other “favorites.” Watching their faces filled me again with the magic that had once been mine. When I tucked Jordy in that night, he asked, “Mom, next year, could we maybe try the home vacation?”
“Sure Kid,” I said kissing him on the forehead. I walked outside and saw Mom sitting by the door.
“It’s your turn,” she said with shining eyes. “The magic never has to end.”
I turned towards my sleeping children and smiled. She was exactly right.