Suey

I went to work with a stomach virus today. It was over fourty-eight hours old.

I also worked with Soul today. Soul, as his name implies, is a very interesting person to work with; I find it easiest to hold a conversation with him at any given point because we tend to share common interests more often than not.

(I must confess I am terrible at giving nicknames.)

It was a slow morning. Aside from getting Warioware D.I.Y. shipped in, we didn't have much to do. Which was fine, because Soul spent the first hour talking me into buying a PlayStation 3.

My poor wallet.

A customer walks in. The man is wearing a leather jacket, sporting a buzzcut and a fuzzy light blonde mustache. He is with a woman, roughly the same age. Probably only a few years older than me. He spends a few minutes standing around in the PS2 aisles before picking a few titles up while Soul and I run next door to request a movie to be played over the various television sets mounted between both stores (a movie rental store is next door, and our stores are connected).

We pick Fantastic Mr. Fox.

As I head back to the register, the customer approaches me with cases in hand. He has picked out three PS2 games:

- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
- Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus
- Fantavision

As I ring him up, thinking nothing of his choices, he asks if we can search for a game in our system. I, of course, tell him yes we can. The man mentions it's a bit hard to spell, so he begins spelling it out for me as I force thoughts of how socially inept the man must be around authority figures out of my head.

"S, U, I."

Sui? Something in the back of my mind clicks.

"K."

No way.

There's no way this guy knows about the Suikoden series. Not in this rural city. This is the country. People don't play those games here.

"O."

I can't believe it.

"Suikoden?" I blurt out without thinking.

He nods. And it turns out we don't have any in stock. I banter a bit about how difficult it would be to find those games in this area - or in general, and he remarks that he's been looking for them for a long time.

Soul pulls the discs and hands them to me. The customer pays and leaves, and I wish him luck in finding any of the Suikoden games he's looking for.

My face wears a look of disbelief as the credits for Fantastic Mr. Fox play.

It was then I realized my stomach virus hadn't bothered me all morning.