Freaky Friday

So while all of you had parents that bought you video game systems for Christmas, birthdays, or just because you whined enough about not having one and that everyone in your class was raving about the new Mario Kart 64 and how you were a nobody because you didn't have one and were forced to sit at the lunch table with the kid who still eats his boogers, we had nothing. I bought the first video game system we had from Toys R Us. The Nintendo64 happened to be out but I saw a special on the Super Nintendo so after scraping and saving, couch cushion diving, and conning small children into buying my creepy crawlies, I bought one. We LOVED that thing. We would all sit in front of the TV and contribute. Most of the time each of us would excel in a certain category, the water worlds, the jungle worlds, the animal worlds and the dreaded boss at the end. The TV already consumed our lives before the video games so my parents didn't seem to mind too much. So let me tell you a story because the Nintendo seems to be the thing that bonded us the most, using team work and rooting for each other.

This story is mainly for Kyle. Sarah hasn't always hated video games as much as crocs, she was actually a huge fan of the classics like Disney's Magic Kingdom and Paperboy. We had a game for the Super Nintendo called Porky Pigs Adventure and it was her life. She would come home from school and play it and you couldn't save so when we were forced to go to bed, she would leave the Nintendo on all night so she could start back up again. It became a big thing after school, we would race home to watch Sarah beat the next level. One night Sarah had finally made it to the very last level with the very last boss and we were so excited. Along came my parents to ruin our glory by telling us it was time for bed and that it wasn't healthy sitting in front of the TV for 7 hours. We complained that it was only 11:30 and we weren't going to bed until she finished. Our parents knew our weakness. Our mom went right over the the Nintendo and put her finger one inch away from the reset button and we all shrieked followed by little voices saying "ooh mommy you wouldn't" "Please don't mama you know this took us forever" and "If you do that, I am moving out." My dads way was a little bit more effective, he knew nothing got us up to bed faster than him chasing us with the plunger and telling us our head would fit perfectly inside. So that night we all dreamt of Porky Pig and the Evil Daffy Duck that awaited. School finally ended and we raced home only to remember that Sarah had her janitorial job to do at the elementary so we would just have to wait. It seemed like ages so Mitchell called the neighbor kids over to play. Nobody noticed anything had gone horribly wrong until Sarah got home, she turned the TV on only to be greeted by the opening screen. All of our hearts fell out of our chests and we wept and clung to each other. During our gigantic pillow fight someone hit the reset button and our hopes and dreams of seeing the end were shattered. We all tried to comfort Sarah but she needed a moment to herself so she went and colored her hair. We encouraged her to try again because it would be easier the second time but she snapped. She vowed to hate video games from that day forward. She has done that faithfully for the most part but she has begun to crack. Whenever she hears the electronic melody of paperboy, she can't help but want to play. She has had some peace though, about a year ago I pulled out the dusty Nintendo and defeated porky pig in a matter of 4 hours while she watched some and at then end of the game a tear rolled down her cheek while she said "That ending was beautiful."

*Disclaimer: Sarah is not a Nintendo hater too much anymore after countless hours of playing Viva Pinata and Dr. Mario.