The Story of Alexander, Part 2.

The only people ‘like him’, he found online.

His grandparents were reluctant to get him a computer, but the insistence of his teachers that his assignments be submitted in tidy, computer-typed printed pages meant that they had no other choice. His grandfather attempted to drive him back and forth between the library and home, but his eyesight had begun to worsen and the risk of losing his driver’s license was becoming more and more real.

First, the computer; a printer, an Internet connection. Alexander was allotted only a few hours a day, of computer time – his grandmother had heard dreadful things, about today’s youth spending all their time in front of a screen, becoming mindless. Their boy wouldn’t get caught up in those video games – nothing but time-wasters. They had a driven young man, one who was going places.

Alexander didn’t spend his time on his assignments. His grades began to suffer, as he instead found other things to do. Little pockets of comfortable socialization; there was no face-to-face, no one being loud or grabby. People who typed out their thoughts in long paragraphs, composed their arguments – no matter how inane the contents of those arguments were – and called him a friend.

He could be honest. He could be blunt. He could plainly state how he was feeling and ask for the same information back, because there were no facial cues to incorrectly read. Everyone was on an even playing field.

What was more, he found that the talents he had were better applied, in his online world. Games that could be played to test the limits of his imagination, coordination, reflexes. He could create those games, himself, with only a few hundred lines of code.

His grandparents noticed, in time. His punishment was to be cut off from his world.

They physically monitored his computer usage, disconnected their Internet connection. He was cut off from his friends. Separated from the world in which he’d built a place for himself.

Had they not raised a driven young man, perhaps he would have buckled and broken. He may have bowed his head, and gone back to his lessons and his schooling. He might have tried to cope.

But a driven young man could not let matters lie.