I was reading Shawn’s post earlier, and it made me think about the best present I’ve ever gotten from a man. I immediately zeroed in on one memory. It was winter 1998, and the gift was so wonderful that to this day I remember opening the wrapping paper and seeing the box inside.
I was a sophomore (if I’m doing the math right), and he was a freshman. His name was Andy. He rode my bus. Andy was younger than me and an understated sort of cute; with floppy brown hair, glasses, a nervous bounce to his knee. I don’t remember how he and I began to talking, but we did. It turned out we were both writers. Our friendship fast-tracked into very close in a matter of weeks. We traded printed out stories, and hung out after bus drop off in the back aisles of the public library, talking about books and our future. I just really, genuinely liked Andy. There were few high school kids that struck me as wholly nice and good, and Andrew was one of them. He got my enthusiasm for all things creative. He was kind to everyone. He was humble about his own talents, even though he was an excellent author and lightyears above the English papers I’d read from my own male peers. One afternoon, in passing, I mentioned that LucasArts was coming out with a new title called ‘Grim Fandango’. I was, and am, an avid LucasArts adventure fan. I was hoping to scrape together enough cash to pick it up someday.
I didn’t think much of it, but come Christmas, Andy was waiting for me one day on the bus with a package. As soon as I peeled the paper away and saw Manny Calavera’s face, I was overwhelmed. A brand new copy. My first brand new copy of any game– all the others I owned were from a second-hand PC store. It wasn’t cheap, I knew, and I was pretty sure he’d used his own money to buy it.
It was the first real gift I’d gotten from a boy. It wasn’t something generic, either. He hadn’t just bought something pink, or something sparkly. He knew I’d been coveting this particular title, even though I’d mentioned it only once. He remembered, and he took his time and money and allowance or after school wages to buy it for me. There are very few times in my life I just felt really moved like that. I felt so loved, and so appreciated. (And stoked: the game looked AWESOME.)
I remember Andy to this day. He moved away a little while later, and I spent years trying to track him down. We traded a few emails after I had Elias, and then he quietly slipped off the radar again. On one hand, it was almost perfect that it ended how it did: a perfect, rosy, and tender friendship. On the other hand, I don’t know that I ever got to thank him properly for what that gift meant to me.
As for the game itself: ‘Grim Fandango’ went on to be widely considered one of the best titles of all time, and has never left my top three games list. It’s hard to track down a copy now (and because of its cult status, many copies are extremely expensive), but if you can wrangle up a copy on Ebay— do. It is to adventure games what Casablanca was to film; which feels fitting to me on so many levels.
We’ll always have the bus, Andy.
Andy was so sweet! I even remember what he looked like- kind of that Jesse Eisenberg thing going on. Hehe.
That game seriously is EPIC. I still think it’s one of the best I’ve ever played; the storyline, the characters, the dialogue- even the creativity of the storyline and the visuals! It’s still pretty much untouched in today’s world. VIVA LA REVOLUCION!!
Aw, sweet, sweet! I love it when people pay attention to what you have been coveting and show what they’ve been listening to you.
I remember the days of printing out your stories and passing them around to get feedback. That’s one of the first times I knew I loved loved LOVED my best friend — she printed out this 200 page story I’d written (GOD AWFUL, btw) and carried it around, trying to read it at school. So sweet.
What a sweet story! I’ve never even heard of that game! I’m not a gamer, but you’d think it would have crossed my radar.