"Pete, I know you said you didn't want to come over today, but shut up and come over." read Jack's text. Pete laughed at Jack's persistence. Jack sent a text back, "God, you want to hang this badly? I've been to your house every day this week, dude. Shit get's old real quick."
"Come on, Pete, my grandpa sent me some new stuff from the homeland. Could be a full Mech in one of these packages. Maybe a tentacle monster. Who knows?", Jack replied. Pete stopped in his tracks after reading Grandpa. Jack's Grandpa still lived in Japan and was amazing. Jack's Grandfather used to be a fisherman in the fifties and would only go out to sea during bad weather. His understanding was that if there were less fisherman around him, he would have a better chance at the fish. And one day, like some kind of Japanese Forest Gump, his bounty was so large that he had enough profit to buy all the other ships in his local dock. Next thing he knew, he was a millionaire with own fish company. He would send Jack weird presents every once a while. Sometimes they were amazing and sometimes they were just strange. For example, one time Jack got a 18 inch scale model of Godzilla. And another time, Jack's grandfather sent him 15 bags of shrimp flavored chips. Either way it was fun to see what Jack might get. "Alright," Jack replied, "I'm coming over,"
"Yo, Jack," Pete announced, as he entered Jack's house, "I'm here. Show me what your grandpa sent"
"Hold your horses, Pete," Jack said peeking his head out of the corner, "Is that all you came over for?"
"Oh yeah, no other reason to come to this dump," Pete replied sarcastically, referencing the gigantic television to his left.
"Gasp," Jack actually said gasp, "My feelings have never been so hurt,"
"Cut the shit, dude. Show me the stuff."
"Alright, they're in the kitchen" Jack beckoned Pete to follow him. Around the corner, Pete's eyes found their way to the kitchen counter, which had three identical cardboard boxes placed on top of it. Getting a closer look, Pete could see they were all still unopened.
"Why haven't you opened these yet," Pete looked quizzically at Jack. If this was another one of Jack's pranks, Pete was just going to leave.
"I thought I would give you the honor," Jack innocently replied, "Besides, sometimes Grandpa's gifts don't always make the trip. Remember the squid ink incident?" Pete remembered a week ago, Jack's grandpa sent him 20 packets of squid ink. The box cutter Jack used went right through the thin cardboard and sliced opened some of the packets drenching him in black.
"I'm going to get covered in ink instead of you, is that?" Pete raised an eyebrow at Jack
"Oh, damn it. You saw through my brilliant plan." Jack shrugged, "OK, how about I open the first and the last one, and you open the middle one. Boom, compromise,"
"Fine," Pete sighed, pushing the middle box forward, "Go ahead, open away," Jack carefully picked up the box, brought it up to his face, and rattled it. Satisfied with that, he carefully picked back the tape with his fingernails. As he opened the box, he picked up what looked to Pete like sheets of dark green paper bound in plastic.
"What's that?" Pete asked, "Construction paper?"
"No, Pete," Jack sighed, "This is 50 sheets of dried seaweed."
"Oh. Jackpot?"
"Not quite," Jack placed the empty box in the trash, "I hate this stuff. My dad might like this though. You're turn,"
"Alright," Pete said, as we handed the second box. Pete used Jack's ineffective method of finger nail against tape. Pete looked into the box and his mouth went wide.
"Dude," Jack asked, "What is it?"
"You're not going to believe this," Pete looked back at Jack in shock, "It's 50 more sheets of seaweed,"
"What?" Jack grunted as he grabbed the box from Pete, "Grandpa, what the hell am I going to doing to do with 100 sheets of seaweed?" Jack got only more frustrated when he saw Pete laughing right at his face
"Well go on then," Pete chuckled, "Open the last one,"
"Whatever," Jack grumbled and picked up the last box. Waiting through yet another long period of time of Jack struggling to rip off the tape with his nails. When opened, Jack became perplexed what was inside. Out of sight, Pete peeked his head into view and was also confused with what he saw. Inside was what looked like a human shaped toy encased in plastic, in the same fashon as a G.I. Joe doll. Upon closer inspection, it was actually some kind of candy. With some sort of fleshy light brown color, it was a small person shaped gummy. The Japanese text around, although unreadable to Pete, was bubbly and in bright colors. Pete was disturbed by the realistic like face the gummy had, but Jack only grew more fascinated in the candy as he stared.
"Huh," Jack said as he picked the candy out and looked around the packaging. He pried open the plastic and held the gummy in his hand. "Do you want to eat it?" Jack asked Pete, holding the gummy in his face.
"No man," Pete replied in disgust, "That thing is freaky, Jack. Are you even sure it's edible?" Jack gave Pete a sly grin, clearly making fun of his apprehension, "I just don't think it's a good idea, is all,"
"Oh, Pete," Jack laughed, "Don't be such a pussy. Here, I'll show you." Jack then put the little guy in his mouth and began to chew. "See," Jack said, mouth full of strange candy, "Perfectly fine. Why would my grandpa send me something dangerous?"
"Why would your grandpa send you 100 sheets of seaweed?"
"That's..." Jack thought for a moment, "Actually a very good point. I don't feel so great." Jack then gripped his stomach and reached for the candy's packing. Jack investigated the back of the package, "What is this thing?"
"This is why you don't just eat whatever fits in your mouth, dumbass," Pete said, putting his hand on Jack's shoulder, "Do you need to go the hospital?"
"I'm fine, Pete," Jack brushed Pete's hand of as he continued to read, "It says here the candy is magic,"
"Let's not start putting our faith into strange Japanese candy. Probably just a marketing thing, dude."
"It says after you ingest the gummy guy, you are granted power," Jack read on, ignoring Pete, "It says that right here. Each gummy has a different power associated with it. This one gives me the power of... "
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