Waiting for Wii

A few nights ago, I went to dinner with my brother and his family. While there, he asked me, innocently: "Al, (see, even my brother calls me by nicknames - his is RD) how early do you usually get up?"

"I usually get up between 5:30 & 6," I said.

"Wow," my brother replied, "that's a lot earlier than me. Since you're up that early, would you do me a favor?"

Uh oh, I thought. "What?" I asked.

"Toys R Us is getting a shipment of 30 Wii's tomorrow morning," my brother responded,
"I want to get one for my kids. The store opens at 8, but they said I better get there by 6. Could you go there and wait in line at 6? I'll relieve you at 7."

"Okay," I agreed, reluctantly.

When I awoke the next morning, it was raining.

"There's no way anyone's going to stand in the rain at 6 am on Sunday morning for a stupid video game machine," I grumbled to myself.

But, a promise is a promise, so I got dressed and drove to San Rafael.

There was nobody on the road. Until I got the road to Toys R Us, that is.

When I turned onto Francisco Blvd, I suddenly found myself behind a row of cars.

"I hope they aren't going to Toys R Us," I thought.

They were.

I looked at the front of the store and saw a line of people waiting outside.

"I'll be darned (well, 'darned' isn't what I actually thought, but for the purposes of this post, it'll have to do...)!"

I parked my car and quickly, casually, trying not to look like I was hurrying, got in line.

The woman is front of me looked like she was camping out. She was sitting in a folding chair under a down comforter reading a book. As I got into line, she looked up, smiled and said: "Good morning! You're number 19."

Soon after, the manager of the store came outside.

"Good morning, everyone," he said, as if having a line outside his store at 6 am happened everyday, "is everyone here for a Wii?"

"What's a Wii?" someone cracked, "I'm here for a Tickle me Elmo!"

"The shipment is here," the manager continued, "but we only got 27. I need to do a head count."

A worried hush fell over the line.

I turned out to be number 21.

After his count the manager said, "okay, I'm going to trust you all to be civil. Everyone up to the guy in the green sweater is going to get a Wii. Only one per group, please. No saving spots for other groups, no cutting in line. If you're behind the guy in the sweater, you can wait to see if we miscounted, or you can go to Best Buy down the street. I heard they're getting 50, but they don't open until 10." Nobody left.

Once we knew we were okay, everyone started to relax. People started trading stories about how many places they'd been to to find a Wii. I didn't have any stories, so I just smiled and nodded a lot.

Then, my brother showed up.

He walked right up to me, said good morning and stood next to me in line. Conversation stopped.

I looked around. "Don't worry," I said, "we're only buying one."

People started talking again.

I ended staying until my brother actually got his Wii. While we waited, the rain stopped, the sun rose (nothing special-it rose over the freeway, afterall) and the store opened. We talked to all the people around us. Everyone was reasonably happy, for we'd all gone out of our way to do something nice for kids.

As he left the store, Wii in hand, my brother said: "Man, I hope the little brats appreciate this."

He had a big smile on his face as he said it.