[ WP ] A compulsive gambler finds a genie 's bottle . Instead of taking his free wishes , the gambler has a different idea .

Last one. Last one. I promise, last one. Of course it never is, and I always know. Yet there's something oddly comforting about thinking it. Last one. Until it actually is, and then reality hits and its time to come home. I'll have to explain to Jane where the money went... and I ca n't keep saying its on fishing supplies. She is n't stupid, she knows, but as I keep deceiving myself into thinking its the last one, she holds on to... hope, perhaps, that I am not throwing our future into a machine or a deck of cards. 
 
 I stumble out of the casino drunk with self-made shame, ca n't afford the fancy behind the counter shame. Nor do I crave it, but seeing there on the ground, just laying there, is a bottle and the urge to pick it up. There's nothing special about it that I can see, it's unlabelled, just a plain bronze bottle... but it just looks so... delicious? I quickly glance around to see if anyone has claimed this prize, but its already in my hands as I rub it possessively. 
 
 The bottle hums, although I ca n't tell if its audible or just in my head, but I know it offers me three wishes, to be decided in the next three minutes. Like any reasonable adult, I have spent many a night thinking about these wishes, and they come immediately. 
 
 `` I wish for Pokémon to be real.'' 
 
 Reality warps around me, and suddenly I am in a house. New memories come to me, Jane has left, my obsession with gambling lost all our money, but it was my fishing obsession that drove us apart. These wishes come at a cost, each wish is a gamble. I quickly move on to the next, nothing could go wrong with this. 
 
 `` I wish to be rich'' 
 
 Nothing has changed. Jane is still gone, but suddenly I am hit with new memories and experiences. I have wasted all the money. On fishing supplies and a new bike... I was never good at gambling. But there is one thing I could be good at. 
 
 `` I wish for a shiny Magikarp!'' 
 
 A pokeball hangs on my belt, it's there. It is mine, yet I do not feel pride or joy. Why? And then it hits me. No one cares about the colour, it's all about the size. Even with my wishes I ca n't be the best. I need the biggest Magikarp. And as I am thinking, regretting, a young boy walks in, approaches me silently. Why does n't he speak? A new thought comes to me, I will gamble one last time. I tell him that I want the biggest Magikarp, and that he will be rewarded. But he does n't seem to have a rod. I knew that of course, but he seems like the one, the very best. So I give him my most prized possession, and hope this gamble pays off. I give him my Super Rod.
