There’s a specific moment that I recall from my early teenage years that has lingered in the back of my mind ever since.  It’s a small memory, but an unsolved one at that.  Even weirder, it involves our favorite green plumber Luigi.

It was around Christmastime and like any kid, I was keeping an eye for presents.  I had picked up a Playstation 2 a few years earlier and was content with getting some games for it or something in that vein.  What I didn’t expect was to see my father come home from work with a copy of Luigi’s Mansion.  Yeah, the Luigi’s Mansion that was exclusive for the Gamecube.

I asked him about it, and he told me to mind my own business.  In retrospect I should’ve been curious as to why he’d just be brandishing it so openly, but at the time I was fairly certain I was getting a Gamecube for Christmas.  I mean, the game in our house was a pretty good indicator I thought.

Apparently I was way off.  Christmas came, and while I don’t remember the gifts I got, I can damn well tell you that there wasn’t a Gamecube involved.  It was as if it had vanished from this plain of existence completely.  My father played dumb and insisted that he never had the game, but being the rambunctious little shit I was, I found it in his closet and held it in my hands.  I know it was real.

So my remaining theories are that he realized I didn’t have a Gamecube at some point and returned it, or I had a secret brother that was getting a Gamecube for Christmas.  Over the years I’ve asked him occasionally about it, but he doesn’t remember this moment at all.  That, or he’s still hiding the truth.