Every man is pursuing his dreams. As such, I do too. Have you ever wondered what it took to finally see that one dream realized? I did. I never paid much attention to my dreams, though. Writing the articles for an adult magazine doesn’t really sound appealing, now does it? But once I’d been fired, I did get to think things over. If I ever expected to see my dreams realized, I’d never have expected it to happen like it actually happened.
Last week, Cookie dropped by for dinner. After the initial praising of Nadia’s cooking, he gradually slid away in an ongoing cycle of depression and joy, then back to depression again. It was about his job.
“What are you talking about? I thought you had it all. Wasn’t working at Far From Finished Game Studios what you’d always wanted?”
Cookie slowly ate a piece of boiled potato. “Yeah, but after half a year, it’s kinda missing that magic.” He sighed. “Well, I suppose that all jobs can feel like a drag sometimes. Cheer up, it’ll come around.” Cookie slowly put down his fork and looked at me with the most serious expression I’d ever seen on his face. “They pulled the plug on the series, Gene. They stopped making Dragon Master games.”
Dragon Master. Talk about nostalgia when mentioning that legendary game series. I still remember the first text-based adventure back in the 1980’s, when it all started. The twisted sense of humor and the (back then) textual violence were the very core of the game series and appealed to only the nerdiest youths of that time. Even though the fan base wasn’t big, the people that were playing could not play anything else. Dragon Master was listed in video game history as the crappiest game series with the most loyal fans on the planet. Not even Michael Jackson had more loyal fans.
“You’re kidding? How come?”
“Believe it or not, but the producers thought the game concept was outdated. Even though a lot of fans say otherwise. So that’s why I decided to win the company in a game of poker yesterday”.
He’d taken up his fork again and mentioned it so casually that it took me at least a minute to let the words reach me. I should have been amazed, suspicious or I probably should have laughed at him in his face. But because I’d seen and heard many weird and ridiculous things from Cookie before (plus I had my mouth full of food), the only thing I could say was:
“Wow.”
A swift ‘tchh’ sounded as he twisted the cap off his beer bottle. “By the way” he started, “seeing you’re the head story writer, we’ll have a meeting in my office first thing on Monday. In other words, I just hired you”.
I was never one to be good at the classic staring contest, but in the minute that passed after Cookie spoke the words, I had the feeling that I was improving my skills with every second.
“What?”
He smiled and gulped down half of his beer. “You heard me. We’re going to lift our favorite game series to a whole new level. I didn’t invest those 10 million dollar for nothing.”
Even though I had barely passed the big ‘three-oh’ and didn’t know what it felt like to have a heart attack, something told me that I had one coming right now. After I’d finally caught my breath, I didn’t even ask any questions as to where he got that kind of money. Knowing Cookie he’d gotten it as a token of appreciation after helping an eccentric old billionaire, dressed up as a beggar, cross the street.
After visualizing the nightmares I’d get from having Cookie as my boss, I quickly wove them away and gave in to my joy. Could dreams really come true? Even if they wouldn’t, I sure as hell was going to enjoy every minute of them.