Last week, a GameStop shift manager witnessed a moment so heartwarming that it was still going viral five days later.
Twenty-year-old North Carolina resident Kristen Wolfe wrote on her Tumblr blog, sweetupndown, about an episode at her store in which a boy whose age she guessed as between 10 and 12 wanted to buy a purple controller:
“He specifically asked me, ‘Do you have any girl color controllers?’ I directed him to the only colored controllers we have which includes pink and purple ones. He grabbed the purple one, and informed me purple was his FAVORITE.”
His father wasn’t happy, and tried to persuade and threaten his son to choose another option.
“The little boy just stands there repeating ‘Dad, this is what I want, OK?’ Eventually it turns into a full-blown argument complete with Dad threatening to whoop his son if he doesn’t choose different items.”
In the end, the boy’s older brother stood up for him. Wolfe wrote:
“He said to his dad, ‘It’s my money, it’s my gift to him, if it’s what he wants I’m getting it for him, and if you’re going to hit anyone for it, it’s going to be me.’ Dad just gives his oldest son a strong stern stare down, and then leaves the store.”
Afterward, Wolfe wrote, she tried to comfort the boy:
“I say ‘I’m a girl, and I like the color blue, and I like shooting games. There’s nothing wrong with what you like. Even if it’s different than what people think you should.’ I smile, he smiles back (my heart melts!)”
In the days that followed, Wolfe’s blog post received 30,000 reblogs and 58,000 unique visitors, including Ellen DeGeneres, who shared the story on Facebook and Twitter. Wolfe’s story was republished on the Huffington Post.
She also received less than positive feedback. She wrote a post asking people to stop making hateful comments, titled “I can’t even believe this is a post.” She explained why she couldn’t call Child Protective Services: “What a lot of people define as abuse, the state, and child protection services does not.”
And she confirmed that yes, the story was real.
One commenter wanted to know if Wolfe was concerned her viral story would end up angering the boys’ father even more. She was.
“That is almost all I’ve thought about for the past week,” Wolfe replied. “I keep hoping every day I go to work that I will see one of them so I can make sure they’re OK.”
