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Years later, Clint and I were playing the battle game on Super Mario All-Stars version of Mario 3 when my mom’s favorite niece came to visit us in Indiana. Clint and I shared a room, there. It was before my brother moved out for college. My mom’s favorite niece had brought her two daughters with her.
That night, at dinner, my mom’s favorite niece and my mom talked like excited schoolgirls. My mom had made pot roast. I wouldn’t be a vegetarian for another year. My mom’s niece’s husband had stayed behind in Pennsylvania, working. It seems all he ever does is work.
They were talking about pregnancy. My mom’s favorite niece had just had her second daughter. That daughter was asleep in an old crib that my mom had set up in my room.
According to family legend, my mom and her favorite niece are psychically linked. I don’t know about all that.
My mom has several anecdotes she’ll tell for “proof.”
For one thing, my mom claims that Clint was conceived when our family was staying in Pennsylvania during her niece’s wedding. And her niece’s daughter was supposedly conceived that very rainy July night, in my basement, on that sofa bed.
As I played Final Fantasy II on my SNES the next afternoon, my mom’s niece’s first daughter kept asking me all kinds of questions.
“Who’s he?”
“That’s Cecil.”
“Is he the bad guy?”
“No, he’s the good guy.”
“He looks like the bad guy.”
“He’s not.”
I get this feeling, sometimes, as I’m playing any videogame other than Super Mario Bros. 3.
That feeling, basically, is a feeling that I want to play Super Mario Bros. 3.
I felt like that that day, when my second cousin was badgering me about Final Fantasy II.
I felt like that today, as I played Final Fantasy X.
I didn’t play Mario that day when my second cousin wouldn’t shut up. I kept playing Final Fantasy II, and thought about that rainy July day.
Why had Heath run away so quickly? Was he embarrassed that a girl his age saw him with children? Or was he just embarrassed that he was playing videogames, period?
I don’t think I know the answer, even now. Something tells me it has more than a little to do with videogames themselves.
I wonder what kind of job Heath got? I wonder what kind of woman he married? Does he have any children?
He's one of those guys, now, I’m guessing. One of those 35-year-olds, married, with a few sons. He probably lined up to buy PS2 on launch day. God bless him.
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