I remember I was sitting at the family computer in the kitchen. It was this big old thing and it sat in an an armoire type thing with a pull out desk for the keyboard. The kind of computer with the two of those thin cloth covered speakers with the hole that you liked to put your fingers in. I didn't know it at the time, but in a year or so I'd be in that same spot, looking at the Unova dex for the first time, leaked early from Japan on a website called "Psypokes". And only a few months previously, I was sitting in that same spot, up earlier than the rest of my family, eating cold pizza and watching George Lopez while picking at an irritated, impacted toenail.

But in this moment in time, I was playing Poptropica. Me and my blue skinned, green-haired avatar (who also wore those big, chunky gamer dude goggles) were exploring the aqueducts on Mythology island. I was fixated on the way the Sphinx would turn her head as I moved.

And then, from down the hall and to the left, my mom called out to me.

"You sent your Pokewalker through the wash!"

The Sphinx watched as my aqueducts engaged. I rushed to my mom so I could cradle it in my hands and mash its waterlogged buttons in a desperate cry for God to forgive me for only praying when I felt sick and help me here, one last time. But he ignored me. And Scizor was gone.