The only Pokemon I ever wanted was

                                                            a Gengar.

Red, Blue, Yellow, etc etc etc I beat them straight through, all the way, with Charizard and Dragonite and leetness all over the place. I am Ash Ketchum, bitches

But never

                                    Gengar

I never had a Golem either

                        Machamp.

But I didn’t care about them.

Rocks and meatheads, I knew plenty and would meet plenty more

                        but prank-happy ghosts?

                                    didn’t have any

I didn’t have any friends to trade my Haunter

                                                to

                                    and

                                                from

No one I could trust to send him back

                        Can you imagine?

my Gengar, meant for me,

Living with Chad down the street, who skips town and moves on, living under an assumed name so I can never find him because he’s a thief and I swear this never happened to me but if it did

I’d hold his Rattata hostage

                                    and release him later when no one’s looking.

Because no one ever looked at my Pokemon training habits or

                                                            much of anything else, really.

                        Except Chad.

And I wonder, if I had had someone back then to help me

                        accomplish my first goal

            would I be different now?

would I be a sous chef with his own cooking show

or an elevator repairman

who happens to be best friends with the childhood hero who took my Haunter and then

gave him back a Gengar

                                    Maybe

                        Or maybe not

Josh Sippie lives in New York City, where he is the Director of Publishing Guidance at Gotham Writers and an Associate Editor of Uncharted Mag. When not writing, he can be found wondering why he isn’t writing. More at joshsippie.com or Twitter @sippenator101.