I have seen the Grail...
I was “preparing” for the unboxing by taking out those pesky- jab-something-soft-and-painful-and-make-it-bleed copper staples from the top of the box when, with the last staple I had tugged free, the box lid jumped open just enough to glimps the familiar blue, purple, green and yellow cabinet art... I stood like a kid on Christmas morning, rubbing his still sleep encrusted eyes, trying desperately to look in every direction all at once, as the parents looked on in utter amazement as they watch their child's head swivel 720 degrees on every axis...
Yeah that was me... I carefully then lifted one flap, then the other, then carefully, slowly, I tugged her soft styrofoam corner protectors from each corner, and placed them by the side of the bed...
...of papers and flattened boxes that I planned on dragging her out onto and gazed in bewildered awe at her beautiful...
...shiny lockdown bar with etched likenesses of all her monsters and then slowly, ever so gently, I touched her left front...
...corner where the decals meet and looked for her ever threatening and widening crack...
...to make an appearance and determined that both of her front decal seams were as smooth as a virgin...
...bottle of olive oil and I didn’t have to worry about that. But then I noticed my hands... they had been, well, stroking her smooth and supple...
...cabinet vinyl and I was breathing in the raw scent of her...
...newly machined plywood, freshly silkscreened playfield, the smell of electricity, the pull of magnetism, the glare of photons, and the cacophony of sounds that all sat now silent, boxed, chained, wrapped in plastic strapped bondage, yearning to be free so I can jam her slots full of...
...quarters and listen to her sing her magical songs and perform her evil pinball magic on my brain as I pummel her over and over...
...with my attempts to Rock before Bash, and then put my huge big...
...GC score up on the high score table.
Come to me, my most sacred one, my most desird pinball title of old... my most precious pinball machine...
My Most Precious, yes... yes... my, my, my Precious... yes...