I went to a Gamestop to turn in a Playstation 2 slim that I had put towards a full preorder of Bayonetta for my brother to go with the 360 I bought him.

I noticed this raggedy looking kid that was poking around, looking real excited, and he turns to his mom, who’s wearing a grey sweatshirt with cigarette burns and grey sweatpants, obviously super poor. The kid goes “Oh wow, mom, look how cool this one looks!” and he picks up a copy of Gitaroo Man, for the PS2. I was pretty impressed, because that’s probably my second favorite game of all time.

His mom says, pretty gruffly, “That don’t look like it’ll fit in your Gameboy. That’s what we came here to get.” I guess they were Christmas shopping early. It made me kinda sad because the kid looked to be maybe 9 or 10, and he didn’t believe in Santa anymore. The kid looked kinda sad and put it back, then started staring at which GBA game he wanted.

I’ve been pretty depressed for the last couple weeks, but I was kinda happy that this was something I could do something about. So, I did. I turned around and bought the copy of Gitaroo Man, Metal Gear Solid 3 and Gungrave: Overdose (some of my favorite games) then I handed him the bag full of everything, the PS2, the two controllers I had with it and the games. He looked at me and asked why I did and told him, “Because Santa sent me.” And then I looked up at his mom and his mom was crying, and that made me cry, and I left Gamestop a blubbering mess.

Felt fucking great, man.