A Random Act of Kindness...

Yesterday was Jeffrey's birthday.

Yes, that Jeffrey. Toys' R' Us's giant giraffe mascot. To celebrate Jeffrey's birthday, the TRU near us had several events, handed out noisemakers, and had a special Pokémon giveway.

Mew.

No, not meow. Mew. It's a Pokémon. And if you have a Game Boy Pokémon game, you cannot get Mew. It's not in the games, unless you download it from elsewhere. Rumor has it that you can download them in Japan. Yesterday, you could bring your Game Boy Advance and your Pokémon game to the store and they would download Mew onto your machine free of charge.

I agreed to take my youngest to get Mew. (His brother wanted Mew, as well, but had lost his Pokémon Emerald Game, so he was out of luck.) I had been fighting a migraine, and had taken some heavy duty meds, so we left as soon as they had worn off enough so that I could drive.

The event ran from noon to three. We arrived at 1:45 and the line was out the door. Not a problem -- even at that the line was not that long, and we didn't have to leave until 4:15.

Except the line did not move. It turned out it took five minutes to download the Mew -- you had to actually play the game and trade something for the Mew -- and there were people who had brought multiple games to put the Mew onto. So we stood and stood and stood. Me and the youngest -- the middle child had gone off to sit in the car -- for two and a half hours. And we were still forty minutes from the head of the line when 4:15 arrived.

We had to leave. The marching band was playing a "Community Thank You" performance ("Gee! Thanks for putting up with us practicing at seven o'clock in the freaking morning!") and I had to be there. I was torn.

My youngest son rarely asks for anything. I usually have to take his brothers hither and yon, and he gets dragged along all the time, usually without much complaint. Just this once, he should have been able to get what he wanted.

The lady behind us in line with her daughter kept trying to help us find a solution. Finally, she said "Give me the Game Boy. We'll get the Mew, and I'll give you my phone number so we can arrange a time for you to pick it up."

My son was ecstatic. I was relieved. We turned over the Game Boy, raced over to the high school, watched the show -- or at least most of it -- and decided to dash back to TRU while the eldest was changing and putting up his equipment. We got back to the store just as our angels had reached the head of the line. Delighted, my Pokémon trainer got his Mew. He traded a level 8 Pichu for it. (You do realize, of course, that I have no idea what that signifies.)

We said thank you -- my son over and over -- and managed to get to within five minutes of the high school before we got the call from the drummer that we needed to pick him up. And all day today, all I've heard is how wonderful Mew is and how grateful my son is to me for having taken him the store and waited for two hours so he could get it. (And how this gives him bragging rights among all his Pokémon playing buddies, but that he's going to be nice about it and let them play with Mew too*, some.)

So, somewhere out there, is a very nice lady with a very cute daughter who should know that they have made one boy very very happy.


*Not Mewto; that's a different Pokemon that you can only get by going to "Pokémon Rocks America." PRA 2005 occured in five (!) cities across the country, and had things you could only get by attending PRA. I met a man there who had driven his kids six hours to get to the one we were attending. I decided not to tell him that the only reason we were there was a) it was 20 minutes from my house and b) it was free. Unfortunately, my son lost the game he had loaded the Mewto on, or he would now have a set of insanely hard to get Pokémon. Unlike TRU, the lines moved a lot faster, and there were a lot of things going on other than just waiting in line to get the Mewto. I will be so glad when they outgrow this or, as was the case with the three teenagers in line in front of us on Saturday, learn to drive.