Twiddling Thumbs

I’ve been waiting for a customer.

A week ago the phone rang. “My Halo 2 doesn’t work,” the customer said.

“What’s the problem?” I asked.

“I bought the PlayStation2 version by mistake. It doesn’t play in my XBox.”

Halo 2 on the PlayStation2? What planet was this guy on? “Are you sure it’s Halo 2?”

“You know the game that’s really popular, that everyone is playing on-line. Halo 2.”

“How do you know it’s the PlayStation2 version?” I asked, even though I knew there was no such thing.

He told a story about how his XBox reported that the disc couldn’t be read, about how his best friend popped the disc out of the system and pointed out the PlayStation logo on the disc, about how they took the disc and put it in the PlayStation2 and it fired right up.

I pondered the matter for a moment. “Tell you what,” I said. “Come on by, and we’ll take care of the mix-up.”

“I don’t have my receipt,” he said.

“Accidents happen. I want to make sure you have a Halo 2 that plays in your XBox.”

In reality I wanted to see what the hell he had. What he thought was Halo 2 for the PlayStation2.

I’ve yet to see him. I’ve only been waiting a week.