Written by Aaron Dunlap. Story by Aaron Dunlap & Shiva Stella.

A month until Christmas. Plenty of time.

She'd set aside money for a while, whatever part of her paycheck didn't go toward food, house payments, or school loans was withdrawn as cash and tucked into a book on the bottom shelf of her bedroom's sparse bookcase populated mostly by tales of whimsy she hadn't had time to read or nonfiction books on finances, small-businesses, and self-motivation she couldn't motivate herself to open. There was no Christmas bonus at work, she was sure the doctors all got bonuses, and she even heard the RNs talking about theirs. Nothing for the nursing interns, though. No child support checks lately, either.

No matter, though, she had the extra $300 she wanted. Enough to buy the one thing her daughter wanted for Christmas: the whimsically named 'Wii,' a video game console by Nintendo.

Her daughter, Jessica, had seen the commercials over a year ago when she was just 10. She hadn't made much of a fuss, but her mother knew how badly she wanted one, whatever it was. She had tried to find one that Christmas, but they were impossible to find and too much money. This year she would be prepared, though. She'd tucked the money inside that book. This year Jessica would get her Wii, she would be happy again.

They were $250 still, she saw in a Target flier recently. For her $300, then, she could get the system and still have enough to get one game -- she wasn't sure which one, whatever a salesman recommended. Perhaps a Mario Brothers game, if they still made those.

She had to work on "Black Friday," the day after Thanksgiving, but she asked Gail, a friend of hers who was going sale-hunting to see if she could find a Wii on sale with the promise she'd pay her back. No luck. A few stores had them, but they were all gone within minutes.

Shoot. She'd hoped that the shortage from last year would have been sorted out by now. They usually are, the Ticke-Me-Elmos and Furbies were never a problem to find after the initial craze, her friends had told her.

Since then, she'd swiped the sales fliers from the Sunday newspaper each week, careful not to let Jessica see her pouring over each one, looking for a hint that the video game system would be in stock or, even better, on sale. The games were always there, brightly colored boxes priced between $30 and $50, but never any mention of the Wii being in stock.

---

She'd hear stories at work from the nurses and a few patients about waiting in line outside stores before opening to get one, but how did they know what days they would be in stock? On her lunch breaks she would call local stores and ask about the Wii, each time receiving a response that sounded tired and rehearsed. They didn't have any in stock, they didn't know when they would. Try to get here around opening time some day. The next Saturday she didn't have work and Jessica was sleeping at a friend's house, so she got up early and drove straight to the nearest Best Buy at opening time. There was no lineup, but maybe that was a good thing. She went inside the mostly-barren store and headed toward a colorful sign in the back that said "Wii." Beneath it were the games she'd seen in the fliers, lots of accessories like controllers and covers and something called a "Nunchuck," but no actual Wii systems. She grabbed the attention of the next-passing employee, a young teenager.

"Do you have any Wii systems or know when you'll be getting any?" she asked, trying to mask the eagerness in her voice.
The employee smirked weakly. "No," he said, "they're impossible to find. If you really need one you can find them on eBay."

Discouraged but with a glimmer of hope she returned home and turned on the computer in the living room. She knew Jessica wasn't home, but she still glanced over her shoulder as she went to ebay.com and typed "nintendo wii" into the search field.

"Good grief," she said to herself as she browsed the listings; $350, $400, some were even as high as $500.

One was as low as $300, as much as she could spend. If she got it, she could maybe rent some games from Blockbuster or get the games later. By the time she clicked the item, though, it was already at $428. She spent a few hours digging, hoping to perhaps luck out and snag one for a low price before anybody else saw it, but it was hopeless.

She had almost given up hope until a few days later when she happened to see an article in the newspaper about Nintendo and GameStop stores selling a sort of voucher. Like a raincheck, the voucher cost $250 but reserved you a Wii that you could claim whenever they came in stock, be it next week or next year. What a miracle! Even if they didn't come in stock in time, at least the voucher guaranteed you a system set aside for you, so she could give Jessica the voucher as a gift. With a bit of exlaining, it might do the trick.

On the day that the voucher program started, she went straight from work to the mall and to the GameStop. She spent a moment looking at a demonstration kiosk for the Wii to try to figure out what the fuss was about, but she was so excited she couldn't stand still. She rushed to the counter and asked the employee, another teenager, about the vouchers.

"Oh, we ran out of those early this morning," the kid told her.
"Ran out? Not the systems, I mean the vouchers... rainchecks," she clarified.
"Yeah, the rainchecks. We ran out. We only got about 25 of them."

She was so shocked that she just stood with her mouth open for a moment. She hadn't thought there was a limited number of them. Christmas was in just a few days, and this was her last chance. How could it be so difficult to make these Wiis? She was so distraught she was close to tears.

"I see," she said softly after a moment.

The employee glanced around briefly, then noticing that she wasn't leaving, said, "We have some PS3s in stock, though."
"PS3?" she asked.
"PlayStation 3, yeah, it's another video game system. Just as new, better graphics, plays movies."

She thought for a second. Was it specifically the Wii that Jessica wanted, or just any system. She couldn't be sure of that, of if there was even a difference.

"Do they play the same games?" she asked.
"As-- the Wii?"
She nodded.
"Umm, some of them, yeah. A lot of games get released for all three systems."
"Three?"
"Yeah, there's an Xbox 360 too."

Xbox 362? PlayStation 3? Now she was distraught and confused.

"They all play most of the same games, though?" she asked.
"Right. Well... yeah, mostly. Some games are just for the PlayStation and the Xbox."
"So they're better?" she asked, "Than the Wii?"
The kid frowned. "Better in terms of graphics, yeah."

She wondered if any game system would do. It shouldn't be a big deal, not if they all play the same games.

"How much are they?" she asked, then.
"Which?"
"Either of them, if you have them in stock."
"There are a bunch of models for each, but the PlayStation 3 starts at $499 and the Xbox 360 with all of the parts starts at $399."

It was more than she had, but she couldn't bring herself to say it. She told him that her daughter was set on the Wii and thanked him, then left.

Christmas was days away, and it would be another year without the Wii for her daugher. The raincheck system was her last hope.

Over the next few days she began to consider just giving Jessica the money for Christmas and saying to save it for a Wii when they come back in stock, or maybe a gift card from a store where she could get one. But what if she chooses a store that never gets them? It was her only option. She couldn't afford the prices of the sellers on eBay and she never knew which day to wait outside of a store. Maybe a nice card with the gift card in it would be enough. On the other hand, that $300 could buy a lot of books and other gifts for Jessica, though she knew Jess's grandma would be getting her plenty of books and clothes. Maybe she could ask her mother for the extra money to buy one from eBay. No, she didn't like that. Besides, it wouldn't arrive on time.

The phone rang just then. It was her friend Gail, the one she asked to find a Wii on Black Friday, calling to say that her son read online that some local Target stores were getting last-minute Wii shipments in overnight. Tomorrow was a day off, so she could get up early and be at Target just when they opened. She made arrangements for Jessica to sleep at a friend's again, promising the friend's parents that it'd be a sleepover at her house next time, dropped her off, set the alarm, then went to bed.

The next morning she was up bright and early and headed to the local Target at 10-minutes to opening time. There was already a bit of a line outside the door of people bundled up and shivvering. They must have heard as well. This store must actually have Wiis!

As she crossed the parking lot to approach the line formed across the curb in front of the store, someone from inside the store and wearing a typical "manager" outfit came through the doors and announced, hands burried in pockets, that they had 24 Wiis to sell and that they were limited to one per person, then retreated back into the store, locking the doors behind him.

At that, the people in the line all began to count themselves independantly, and those beyond the 24 mark shuffled off. Some of them discussed the locations of other Target stores and whether they could get there in time, others left in silence, but one man stopped and returned, offering alloud $50 to anybody who'd give him their place in line. No takers. Brow furrowed, the man flipped through his wallet, did some mental arithematic, and upped his offer to $100. Someone near the front of the line liked the sound of that, and traded his place in line for the hundred dollars.

Another person in the line, his capitalism senses flourishing, said, "I can give up my spot too."
Jessica's mother, the only person who wasn't in line and hadn't left approached him. "I'd like it," she said meekly.
The man smiled, but said nothing, as if expecting her to say somthing else.
"Oh," she said, realizing. The most she could part with and still have enough for the system was $50. "I have fifty dollars," she said, feeling like she was doing something illegal.
The man considered it, but shook his head.

"I.. what?" she asked, pulling $50 from her purse.
"Sorry," he said, turning away from her, "it's not worth it."
"Please," she pleaded. "My daughter, it... it's all I have, and the only thing she wants is one of these Nintendos. I don't even know what it does or what's so great about it, but I've been trying for a month now to find one for her and I have nothing."

The man was trying to avoid eye contact.

"It's all I have," she said again, this time to herself.

Nobody said anything.

She nodded slowly, bit her lip, stuffed the money back in her purse and turned toward her car so she could cry in private.

"Ma'am," somebody said as she walked away. She turned, to see somebody a few people behind the last guy was waving her over.
"You can have my place," he said when she approached.
"Really?" she asked, skepically.
"Sure," the guy said. He was younger than the first, in his mid-twenties.
Her hopes spiked and after wiping a tear from her eye she reached into her purse to retrieve that $50.

"No," the young man said after realizing what she was doing. "It's fine, you can just have it."

She stopped moving, and looked up slowly. "What?"

"Yeah," he said. "It's alright, you can just have my spot. I don't want it."

He stepped out of the line and gestured toward the gap he'd left. Everybody else tried not to stare.

Deftly she took the few steps to enter the line then turned back around. Searching for words or a thought, she said, "I.. let me just.. you.." before her sholders sank and she just asked, "Why?"

The young man zipped his jacket a few inches higher and stuck his hand back in his pocket. "Super Nintendo," he said, standing where she once was.
"I don't understand," she said.
"When I was a kid," he started, "all I wanted was a Super Nintendo Entertainment System. I bugged my mom about it endlessly, and she drove herself crazy trying to find one. She saved her money and hit every store just so I could have one on Christmas. I don't think I even thanked her, I was too caught up with the Nintendo. I played that thing for about a month straight. Now, I think the only thing I'd do with the Wii is let it sit on my shelf. It's not even for anybody. I think it's better when it's for somebody."

The doors to the store were being unlocked, and everybody at the front of the line was focused on that now. The young man began to walk toward the parking lot.

"Thank you," she was finally able to say. She repeated it again, louder.
He turned, and smiled. "Merry Christmas," he said, then turned back toward his car.
"Merry Christmas," she repeated quietly to herself.

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