The year when I entered primary school, a mysterious toy item became popular all over the country: a tiny egg-shaped digital toy with a screen and three buttons in which you take care of a digital pet. the toy appeared from nowhere, and all of a sudden, both adults and children were crazy about it.
When many of my friends started hanging the egg-shaped toys from their necks, I also wanted one. At first, my parents didn’t give much thought to this “silly” toy, but as days went by and more and more people started talking about it including the national news headlines, they agreed to get me one just to see what it was.
There were, however, strange rumours about this egg-shaped toy. Apparently, you couldn’t get it at any toy store. You must go to Toys “R” Us since they were the only stores that carried the toy. Moreover, you must get “lucky” in order to get the toy because it’s almost always sold out, and nobody knew when the next batch would arrive.
The first day my parents and I went to the nearest Toy “R” Us, we were told that the egg-shaped toy had just been sold out. When my mother asked the store staff when the next batch would arrive, he replied he didn’t know.
“So, we must come back when we hear a rumour that the new batch has arrived? We must take the chance. Is that what you’re saying?” asked my mother.
“Yes, that’s right,” replied the store staff with an apologetic smile on his face. “We really don’t know when they will arrive. I’m sorry.”
We all thought this was a bit crazy. But we went back to the store nonetheless when we heard a rumour about the arrival of a new batch. This time, we got lucky.
“There is just one colour left,” said a store staff, guiding us to the aisle. “That’s all we have.”
The toy had a transparent blue eggshell with yellow buttons. I decided that was exactly the colour I’d wanted. We went ahead to purchase it.
Once we got back home, I hung the new blue egg-shaped toy from my neck just like others did. I set up my new digital pet and started playing with it from that night.
I wasn’t sure how much I actually enjoyed the toy, but the memory of the day I got “lucky” was something that I treasured for a long time.