Duck Season [One-Shot]

Duck Season

Do you remember the video games you used to play back in your childhood?

Pac-Man?

Sure.

Galaga?

Okay, that one's a fun one too.

Super Mario Brothers?

How could you forget it?

When I talk to my co-workers, I hear about how they had played Pac-Man or the newest Pokémon game back in the day...

I, however, have a very different experience. One game in particular that I never tell people about my experience, one that I know, if I did, no one would believe me, or call me crazy, or even recommend I get help from a mental institute...

But I know what I saw.

I know what I saw that night wasn't fake.

And now my therapist recommends I write down my experiences in this little journal

That even if no one would believe me, I could just recite this journal to myself as if it was a madness mantra or something similar to that of the sort.

But despite it all, I had to get this out somehow, make my experience all those decades ago finally known.

It was the Summer of 1988, and games back then were rather scarce.

I had beaten every level of Sintara and Ghouls several times over, had gone every route in Hover Junkers, I had almost beaten Whaling 1842, but even then that game had gotten kind of lame by that point.

The newspapers weren't really that interesting either, save for the one about an accident at a pizzeria in Utah back in 1987, but even then, that had been a year ago, and stories like this got brushed under the rug anyway in the next month or two. Other than that headline, it was just football news and comics that had really gotten old by now.

I suppose I could've gone and played outside with my best friend, Brian, but he seemed to be pretty cooped up in a new video game he himself had gotten. So alas, I was all alone for at least a few weeks.

I was just ready for a boring summer, and personally, I wish it just had been boring.

I had just decided to play another few rounds of Ghouls that fateful day when I heard the door open with a small "pop!"

"Mom?" I curiously called out, waiting for a reply.

Sure enough, I heard the loud calling of my mother, "Help me carry in these groceries!"

I sprang up from the couch, running over to help Mom, also a bit curious to see what she had gotten from the shopping haul.

Sometimes, if I was lucky, I would be given a candy bar or even better... a new video game.

I ran into the kitchen with a jolt, and stared at my Mom, who stared at me back as she pointed toward one of the clear bags on the counter, as if telling me to look inside.

I slowly walked over to the counter and looked inside, almost audibly gasping when I did.

I quickly pulled the box out from the container, nearly yelling, "Aww, you got Duck Season!!"

Sure enough, on the box was an anthropomorphic dog, some birds flying in the background, which itself was a nice field. The words, "DUCK SEASON" were plastered nice and clear in a nice red font.