One: An Interesting Find
The old wooden planks groaned under my leather boots as if my weight was too much for them to take. The ample bay windows were adorned with tattered, filmy curtains which swayed in the breeze generated from me slamming the door. Dust lay over every inch of space, irritating my sinuses. This was a tiny excuse for an apartment. I'm sure nobody has inhabited it for at least several years, judging by the condition of the place. Yet, places like this never failed to draw me in with their antique and eerie charm.
The only piece of furniture in the room was an ebony piano which took up nearly a quarter of the room's space. I frowned at it, weighing up the pros and cons of hiring someone to move the thing. I quickly decided that it wasn't worth it; too much time and effort. I made my way towards it, brushing my bony fingers over the well-used keys. I pressed them in the pattern of a peaceful tune, the sounds echoing through the cold silence in the room.
After further exploring, a musty bedroom was found in an alcove on the left, beside a small, damp and dingy bathroom. The kitchen stood at the very back of the room, looking just as moldy and disgusting as the bathroom. I would definitely have my work cut out for me if I was aiming to make this place hygienic – that sucks, a lot. But, in all honesty, this place should turn out to be the perfect place for me to spend the next few years (if that, I moved often).
I placed my hands on my hips and let out an exhausted sigh. Well, at least this takes the whole 'moving' thing off my list because that was a pain in the ass. At least now I could devote more time to my studies and my various jobs. Luckily, work had been slow lately but, like always, something was sure to mess that all up sooner rather than later.
I reached into the pocket of my tight denim jeans and pulled out my cracked iPhone, accessing the number of the movers I had hired. After a short, curt conversation with the brutes, they agreed that they would have everything ready and dropped off by this afternoon. I locked the phone before shoving it back into my pocket. Luckily, I had brought something to entertain myself with while I waited – not study of course; I was tired after my move.
I traipsed through the thick dust, causing clouds to the annoying particles to take to the air. I stopped at the door, where three boxes were waiting to be opened, the ones I actually took the effort to lug here myself in my bashed up red KIA Rio (it got me out a hefty number of scrapes with Death). Tearing one of the boxes open savagely, I pulled out my trusty, yellow Gameboy. Feeling like a retro gamers, I switched it on, the placid notes of Pokemon Gold version floating gaudily through the still air. I smiled, relaxing myself as I slumped to the floor in the middle of the room with a puff of dust.
The atmosphere was a unique one at that, peaceful at a glance, but eerie if one stuck around for too long; just the way I like it.
The sofa flexed involuntarily as I flung myself into it, burying my face into the auburn cushions and screaming into its soft mass in anger. The movers had made the sorry mistake of loosening their grip on my monitor, hence causing it to fall and set up a chain of annoying events.
The heavy monitor fell onto the smaller man's foot which made him topple over and swear at his quickly brushing foot. The other man was forced to drop the rest of my beloved computer on the wooden floor, making its fragile components scatter far and wide. But, I could have been more upset. The old girl needed replacing anyway and taking advantage of a damage claim I would be filling as soon as possible.
With a heavy sigh, I rolled off the couch and onto the floor with a thump, prompting me to swear and push myself into a sitting position, massaging my aching side. I gave the room a once over, hurriedly checking to see if everything was in its place. I didn't have much furniture in the first place but in this confined space it was all I could fit anyway.
After that incident earlier, there wasn't anything I was particularly in the mood for doing so I decided I'd head out for a walk to calm myself down. The thought of that made the lazy slob inside of me groan in annoyance but since there wasn't really anything else I wanted to do I pulled myself to my feet and left the safety of my apartment.
I slid into the scuffed leather seats of my car, slamming the door a little too hard. I took in the awful smell of stale burritos, a meal that I had eaten on the way over and only partially polished off. I grimaced and rolled down the windows, letting the cool breeze wash into the cramped interior and hopefully rid it of some of the smell for the time being. Kicking the rust bucket into gear, I decided that finding an electronics store would be good idea. Some new games and a spanking new lap top would definitely lighten my mood, even if I didn't have any time to play the games.
The vivid lights of the electronics store were a beacon for tired eyes since I had been searching for the place for hours. I have lived in Toronto all my life so I had never expected the streets to look so unfamiliar; I guess moving to the other side of the city would do that to you. I locked the car behind me, skipping towards the electronic glass doors of the place. The glass doors slid open instantly upon sensing my presence, letting me into the deserted store. I quickly discovered that the only person here besides me was a geeky-looking clerk. Pleased that there was no one around to bother me, I quickly set to work finding a cheap lap top that would suffice until I was sent a new monitor and hard-drive.
After searching for some time over the various options available, I selected a clunky machine with Windows 7 pre-set for it, figuring that with my current wages, it would have to do. As always, I tried my best to seek out a decent game for me to waste my time with but, to my displeasure, everything on offer I had either played or wasn't interested in for the time being. With a scowl, I paced back to the counter to pay for the lap top.
The clerk didn't notice me straight away; he was too busy reading a comic book I didn't recognize. Resisting the urge to see what it was, I was on the verge of speaking up and drawing his attention to me when my eyes snapped to a particular cardboard box stacked on a shelf behind his head. The words 'Nintendo 64 cartridges' were written on the face of the box in fading permanent marker. Poking out of the open box was a number of grey cartridges, the names of most of them being written in black marker. However, one cartridge, the one with the word 'Majora' etched onto it was the one that caught my eye the most.
Disbelief trembled through my body, my eyes locked on that one word. Vibrant recollections flashed through my mind as I remembered that game and the memories and nostalgia that came with it. I had played that game through with my friends time and time again, since one of them was just so obsessed with the game my mother would often wonder if he had some kind of mental disorder.
But it wasn't only the nostalgia that convinced me at that very moment to purchase the card but the fact that it looked too similar to the one I used to own for it to be just a coincidence. I needed it, as a little tribute almost, to that boy from my past. I smiled softly, wondering why the hell I was being so sentimental all of a sudden; since when did I do things in the memory of others. I'll play it for the nostalgia.
Disbelief was soon washed away by ecstatic excitement as I called out to the clerk, prompting him to startle and look up at me. I told him simply that I wanted the lap top and the cartridge. He nodded awkwardly, staring at me for a few moments before taking my money for the machine. Just as I was about to pay for the game, he shook his head, avoiding my eyes as he spoke. Just what is with people and my eyes?
"It's kind of faulty, that thing," he warned me as he reached up and plucked the thing from the box, disheveling the other cartridges in the process. "I was planning on throwing it out along with the rest of those things so if you really want it, you can have it for free." I eagerly accepted his offer without any doubts in my mind, tucking my wallet back into my pocket.
If the game really was faulty than the only difference it would make to me is how interesting it is. The more glitches there are, the funnier it is in my opinion. I picked up my laptop and curtly bid the clerk farewell as I left the store, grinning like a madman.
Well, there go all my other plans for the evening. Playing this game suddenly became my greatest priority. Setting up the lap top, researching and studying can all wait; I'm going to order Chinese food and play the heck out of Majora's Mask. In my eyes, it was the perfect evening – there was little I could think of that would make the night better.
As I exited the store, I noticed a man sitting on a bench just outside the windows. He must have heard me approaching, his head tilting towards me slightly. His eyes glared at me with a bleak, weary expression though I could catch hints of relief within their stony depths. He stared at me for a time, prompting me to give him a look and turn away from him. I didn't like being stared at for too long, it made me uncomfortable. Just as I was beginning to head towards my trusty vehicle, I heard a voice.
"Goodbye, Ben," it breathed in a monotone.
I whipped back around to the man, having sworn that he was the one who had spoken. He was now staring out at the road, looking at something beyond the speeding cars and trucks. He was completely still now; even his chest didn't seem to be stirring. Confusion dashed across my features for a moment as I turned back towards my car, deciding to leave the man in peace.
I slumped into the driver's seat of my car once more, turning the old cartridge over and over in my hands, searching for any signs of damage. It looked scratched up and a little scorched for reason beyond my knowledge and the marker had been chipped off in places, fading. I wondered just what this cartridge has gone through, to look like that. I found that there was a name written on the back of it 'Ben.' My hands began to shake as I realized that this was indeed, the very cartridge I was familiar with from my childhood.
Sighing heavily, I pinched the bridge of my nose as I dumped the cartridge in the cup holder, holding back an assault of faded memories. I didn't want to think about all that right now – I was definitely not in the mood for that and in all honesty, I hadn't been for nine years straight. Instead, I forced myself to remember all the levels in the game instead, the characters. These thoughts occupied my mind as I drove back to my apartment.
I snuggled deep into the fluffy cushions of my sofa, bundled up in a massive furry blanket. A box of half-eaten Chinese noodles sat in my lap, my hands clasped around the controller of my Nintendo 64. Nostalgia fizzed through me as I played through the familiar opening scenes of the game. As it was a second hand game, Ben's file still proudly held its position on the screen. I bit my lip as I noticed that he was so close to completing it.
I ignored the file and created my own, not wanting to mess with it.
The game ran very smoothly despite its age; it only had a few bugs and glitches. But that just made the game more interesting, of course. One thing I noticed was that it took a long time to load, so long in fact that I began to think that it just wasn't going to start up. I couldn't quite think of why but staring at that black screen for that long evoked a strange sort of tension within me, as if part of me was wondering if something was about to jump out at me.
Another glitch I found was that the NPCs would never call me by my profile name 'Link' it would always be Ben. The longer I played however, the more often I was see his name. I began to notice that even the NPCs were now called Ben. I found this strange but intriguing nonetheless; prompting me to laugh at the sheer number of times the name would pop up. Another thing I found was that the different areas would take longer to load so I would be forced to wander around a darkened, tile-less zone for some time. There were other tiles and color pallets missing too, or switched with other kinds of tiles – particularly water tiles.
Eventually, I had played all the way up to and through the Woodfall Temple, assuring that I had collected any hidden goodies along the way. Upon checking the time on my phone, I found with a start that it was one o'clock in the morning, meaning that if I didn't get to sleep now, I wouldn't be able to keep myself awake tomorrow. With a groan, I gave Link's avatar a longing look before I saved my progress at an owl statue and switched of the Nintendo 64. To my surprise, the machine zapped me in the process, something that it hadn't done before. I shrugged it off however, since the thing was almost as old as I was.
Being too lazy to pull myself off the couch and haul myself to bed, I simply pushed the empty noodle carton from earlier onto the floor as I lay down. Smiling to myself, I found that I was much more tired than I perceived myself as being moments ago. Yawning, I soon drifted off into a peaceful slumber.
I heard a soft voice whisper to me moments before sleep suffocated me and whisked me away. I was too weary to do anything about it, and forgot about them moments after hearing them.
"It's good to see you again."