Four Hundred

The other day, Gamble and I went to Best Buy. He still had some change from exchanging the gift that Uncle Johnnie and Aunt Sam had got him for Christmas (it was a duplicate). I had bought him a game, but there was some money left back, and I saved it until he found another game he really liked.

This one's called Boom Blox, and it's really cute. There are stacks of blocks, and you throw baseballs, bowling balls, shoot with laser beams, etc. to knock them down and achieve objectives. It's very creative and challenging for him. The physics engine is really good, so it's a sensibility he can use in the real world.

We had rented it at Blockbuster for a week, but at the end of that week, when we had to take it back, he was devastated. So off to Best Buy.

While we were there, I was shocked to see that they had a supply of Wii, PS3, XBox 360 systems. Now, I've already got the Wii, but the Wii won't get Grand Theft Auto Iv, already hailed as one of the best games ever. I've seen conflicting reviews of the PS3 and XBox 360 versions of the game, but when it comes down to it, I figured I'd get one of them just to play this game.

Never mind that Uncle Johnnie and I are going to spend a significant fraction of the next week playing it on his PS3, I'm sure I'll be wanting to play it more, and having a copy at home never hurt. There's a bit of a barrier to entry, though. These systems are expensive, and I've been agonizing over buying one given all the money we've tossed at the house to improve it. The rule of thumb is, if I'm going to spend money, I should invest it in getting this house sold, even if it's to bribe the buyer's agent with a bonus.

That said, I've never been one to wince much at charging a game system, so there I was, in the middle of Best Buy, holding up a PS3. I had it in my hands. The price tag was $400.

"See this Gamble? It's a Playstation 3. It's only $400." I had half set myself on it. When I was in grad school, Uncle Johnnie would have told me to walk around the store for a while. That I'd already sold myself on it, and that I just had to get comfortable with the deal.

Well, that little boy, innocent and sweet, looks right up at me. He's a little puzzled, and looking at me through his glasses makes him look owlish, so that when he tilts his head, it looks more tilted than it is.

"But Daddie... You don't have $400!"

I deflated. I was at the same time proud of him, and kinda mad at him. Who was he to kill my buzz? What did he know of money? And credit? And Grand Theft Auto IV, for God's sake?

I did what any good Daddie would do. I sighed, looked him square in the eye, and said, "Well, Gamble? You got me there." I put the PS3 back down on the stack and went immediately to pay for his new game, feeling at least a little sad, but definitely proud of my boy, and to my surprise, not a bit mad at him.