My Wii U Story

I didn't know it, but deep inside, I really wanted a Wii U.

Last Friday, I went grocery shopping with my mom.  We parted ways when it was done and I found myself at a local game retailer.  There were five or six people already lined up in front of the counter.  I got a hunch, and asked what it is they were waiting for.

The store clerk said to me: 'Don't go telling everyone, but we just got a new shipment of Wii Us in today.'

'The deluxe version?' I asked.

'Yes.'

'Enough for all these people here?' I said, gesturing to the waiting line.

'Yes,' she replied, 'and if you get in line now, there's enough for you, too.'

What can I do?  I got in line.  Then a voice spoke up in my mind.  It's like from the back of my head.  My inner voice said: 'shouldn't you be at work now?  You should be working now, and if you line up here you'd be late.'

I really didn't care.  'This is the Wii U chance I've been waiting for.  So I'll get to work late, I'll make up the time later.  No big deal.'

Then I woke up.  And not only was I NOT lined up for a Wii U, I STILL had to go to work.  *sigh*  The signs are all there, right?  A line up?  For the Wii U?  Two weeks after launch?  Yeah right!  What is this?  A PS3?  Just joking, Nintendo fans, don't kill me.

My girlfriend has slowly been conditioning my beliefs to the idea of using dreams as a kind of premonition.  So I was curious to see if it meant something.  Maybe if I did go to a Gamestop today, there would be a Wii U deluxe bundle there.  Unfortunately, during my lunch break, I totally forgot about the dream.  It wasn't until late Friday night while I was over to a friend's house that I remembered again.

My friend worked for an independent game retailer, so I told him about the dream.  He then tells me that the place he worked for has the deluxe set, but the store owner was reluctant to sell them for just anything.  My friend tells me that maybe the owner would part with one if I promised to also buy a couple of games from the retailer.  This sounded fair to me.  Unlike some folks, I buy systems to play them, so adding in a couple of games was what I planned on anyway. 

My friend promised to talk to his boss the next day and see what kind of deal we can strike up.  The next morning, a Saturday, I woke up and anxiously waited for some news.  It was 1:30 when I finally decided to follow up on the deal.  Turns out he forgot to ask his boss about the Wii U!  When he did, however, his boss wasn't keen on the idea.  His boss said something like 'the Wii U is everywhere.  Just tell him to buy the system from some where else and buy the games from us.'

It's a little unreasonable but well within his rights.  But if he says that the new Wiis are everywhere, then maybe that's true?  So I hit a nearby Gamestop.  And here is the unbelievable part...  The clerk at this Gamestop told me they sold out of the deluxe versions...  THAT VERY MORNING!  Which means two things.  1)  The Wii Us ARE everwhere and 2) if I had bugged my friend earlier I might have decided to come to Gamestop earlier and might have gotten the machine!  Never mind earlier.  If I had followed up on my dreams Friday I might have gotten one then!

But in another way, the premonition was true.  The Wii U was just a dream afterall.

But giving up this easily just doesn't make sense.  The Gamestop clerk was nice enough to take down my number and promised to give me a call when they get the next shipment in.  He says that one was planned for the following Monday.  The waiting list was abolished, so he couldn't reserve me the next machine, but a phone call was possible.

So Monday it is.  And hope was alive.

Monday rolled around and I've waited all morning but still no phone call.  During lunch, I visited yet another Gamestop to ask if they had any Wii Us instead.  The clerk there pretty much confirmed what the other had told me: that they had expected a shipment earlier on Monday.  However, that shipment had yet to arrive.  Now I understand why there was no phone call.

But it was so close, right?  Just one more day, maybe?

And so we come to Tuesday.  Today.  I waited all morning and early afternoon and there was still no call from the first store.  So on lunch, I went back to the second Gamestop, the one who told me about the late shipment and tried my luck.

And they had them!

I think the story can safely end here.  There's no punchline or anything other than a happy ending.  I'm fairly certain you, the reader, can figure out what happened here, at the end. ;)