Destined From the Start

Chapter Twenty-eight - Holidays

2285-6

The first holiday that was celebrated after he arrived at the Academy was Halloween. The street festival that ensued then was like nothing he or Joey or Shu!ss had ever experienced. They cruised the main drag with their roommates and several other cadets they had become acquainted with, dancing with one girl after another, drinking beer, and generally having the best time of their lives. It was after three in the morning when they stumbled back to their rooms, arms draped around each other's shoulders, singing the current popular song, and fell across their beds to sleep fully clothed and awaken with headaches and upset stomachs. But they had had a great time and regretted none of it.

The next holiday was Thanksgiving, and they joined with a group of students who were making their own celebration, being too far from home to return there in the short time the students had free. He remembered his parents talking about such events when they spoke of their time at the Academy. Shu!ss found the whole experience extremely interesting, and asked whether Humans always celebrated holidays with such an abundance of good food. Grayson thought about that for at least thirty seconds before grinning and agreeing with him, while Joey just sat there and laughed, with his third piece of pie in front of him.

But for the third holiday of his first year at the Academy, he traveled half way around the world, to the home of his grandparents, for his first Christmas with them. They met him at the transit station, in the same vehicle that they had had all his life, and talked to him non-stop all the way to their home. And then the relatives began to come. His uncle Hamid, with his wife, and four children. His three aunts, with their husbands and children. Aunts, uncles, cousins, until the house was overflowing, and tables set up in the yard were groaning under the weight of the food. And the noise! How did one forget the amount of noise generated by all those people!

On Christmas Day, they called the Enterprise, and there was a long visit, with everyone talking at once. He had to stand, and show off the clothing that Bibi had given him, practically the minute they walked in the door. Mama demanded that Babu take holos for her, and he promised her that they were already on their way to her.

And there were the fires in the evening, with the story-telling, and the music, and dancing. And the cousins who wanted him to try on his cadet uniform for them, so that they could admire him. He was slightly embarrassed by this, but did it anyway. And was clapped on the back, and told how good he looked, and how he was doing the family proud. He hadn't expected that.

The heat of Africa was so enjoyable that he cringed when he thought of going back to San Francisco's cool fog, but he had no choice in the matter. At the end of his leave, he donned his uniform again, packing the loose cotton clothing into his duffle, along with the cookies and the tin of tea, and the other things that his grandparents kept bringing to him as he packed. He could barely get the duffle closed. When he stood in the transit station, ready to beam back to the Academy, Bibi broke down and cried, and he gave her a long hug, patting her back, before turning to step up onto the transporter deck. The last thing he saw before the swirling patterns of light took him away, was Babu comforting her as they waved goodbye to him.

He returned to his dorm room just in time to receive the call from New Vulcan, from the clan gathered to celebrate the end of another year. More cousins, excited to see him still in his uniform, sa'mekh and all the other relatives, bringing back memories of the year his family had lived there among them. It was overpowering. He was glad that he had made it back in time to interact with them, rather than simply getting a recorded message.

He had time to unpack and rest before classes resumed again, and he plunged completely into his studies. But the holidays had given him chances to unwind and release the tensions of being away from home for the first time, and facing so many new challenges, all at once. And they had created new memories, not family memories, but personal memories. He realized that from now on, there would be fewer and fewer memories that involved his whole family, and that brought sadness with it, as well as the realization that he was for all intents and purposes, now an adult, his own person. It was a sobering thought.