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It happened all at once. One day the world was normal and the next everyone was walking around in a zombie-like state staring at their phones.
“What is going on?” Lorelai asked as she pushed through the crowds of people to get into Luke’s.
“Pokemon,” Luke snarled.
“What?”
“You haven’t heard about this? They released some stupid Pokemon game and everyone has gone crazy.”
Lorelai stared at him. “I don’t get it. Why are they all here?”
“Apparently they made this a gym.”
Lorelai shook her head. “I really don’t understand. And please don’t try to explain.”
The bell above the door chimed and Luke and Lorelai turned to see one the local kids sit down at a table, his eyes glued to his phone screen.
“Hey!” Luke barked. “Paying customers only!”
“Yeah!” Lorelai exclaimed and then she added, “Buy something or shell out $20 for 30 minutes!”
Lorelai was shocked when the kid reached into his pocket, pulled out two tens and handed them to her. “He’s like eleven. How does he have $20?”
Luke shook his head. “What are you doing?”
“Making you money.” Lorelai handed him the bills. “I can’t believe that worked.”
—
The next few days the number of residents playing Pokemon Go grew exponentially. Lorelai couldn’t believe it and she couldn’t wait to tell Rory all about it.
But when she arrived at her house on Friday night Lorelai was crushed to see that Rory was already playing.
“Oh no, you’ve been infected too.”
Rory rolled her eyes. “I’m writing a story about the game. But you know it’s not terrible. Lane said that the boys were outside playing all day yesterday.”
“Sure, that’s great. But wait until you see--”Lorelai stopped. “You know what? Come on.”
She took ahold of Rory’s hand and pulled her out the door.
“Where are we going?”
“Luke’s!”
---
“What the what?” Rory whispered as they walked into Luke’s.
Every seat was taken, everyone was tapping away on their phones unaware of anything going on around them.
That was, until the door opened and someone shouted, “There’s a Pikachu at the gazebo!”
With that everyone was out of their seats. Lorelai reached over and grabbed Rory, pulling her close as the crowd rushed out into the street.
“Amateurs,” Rory muttered as she took a seat at the counter. “I got a Pikachu from a 2k egg. It’s not as rare as everyone is making it seem.”
“Her too?” Luke asked as he poured two cups of coffee.
“I don’t know where I went wrong. I gave her a good life, sent her to a good school, and still she gets wrapped up into this world.” Lorelai placed her hands on Rory’s face, “Where did I go wrong?”
“Are you finished?”
“I don’t know. I think I’ve got a couple more jokes in me.”
Suddenly there was a loud crash outside of the restaurant and the three rushed out to see what had happened.
It was only a simple rear ending both of the drivers were fine, but when they got out of their cars they were clutching their phones and still staring at their games. That was all it took for Taylor, who had come outside to see what all the commotion was, to lose his cool.
“That is it!” he shouted. “Mandatory Town meeting now!”
—
“Ooh this is a poke stop,” Rory whispered as she took a seat.
“I don’t think now’s a really good time to be playing that,” Lorelai whispered.
Luke agreed, “Taylor looks like he’s trying to blow up your head with his mind.”
Lorelai took a look around the room, there were multiple people playing on their phones, holding it up to take pictures of the creatures in funny places. She had to admit, it wasn’t as bad as she’d been making it out to be.
“Everyone put down your phone's!” Taylor declared. “Pokemon go is banned inside the City Limits!”
“But Taylor!” Babette said standing up “I just caught a snorlax! You can’t do this!”
“Yeah!” Gypsy agreed “There is a meowth around here and I am going to catch it.”
“I do not care! This game has become a scourge on our poor town.”
Rory sat in her seat, her foot bouncing anxiously.
“Say it,” Lorelai whispered.
“What?”
“Whatever you’re holding in. Say it.”
Rory took a deep breath and stood up. “Can I interject please Taylor?”
“Rory I’m sorry but this is a town issue and you technically are no longer a part of this town.”
“No, I understand that. But I was and I still consider Stars Hollow my home so please just let me speak my peace. Do you remember when Grand Theft Auto came out and you tried to ban it from being played because you felt it was contributing to a rise in speeding? Or when you tried to stop the school kids from playing Red Rover because you thought we were playing too rough?” Rory sighed. “There’s always going to be something but you can’t just go around banning things you don’t understand. This is a game that is getting children out of their house. And okay, yes we need to remember the first rule we ever learned about street safety and look before we cross the street but if you’re going to punish people for walking in front of cars I happen to know you walked in front of my car when I got into town early tonight.”
Taylor stood at the podium fumbling with his words.
“Alright,” Ms. Patty said as she pushed Taylor out of the way so she could get to the mic. “I think it’s safe to say that this meeting is adjourned. Thank you for coming. Please remember to look both ways before you cross the street and have a safe night.”
Everyone stood up and began to head towards the door and Luke and Lorelai turned to Rory.
“Aww, sticking it to the man. Everything a mother could want.”
Rory rolled her eyes. “Mom.”
“Your mom’s right,” Luke told her. “I don’t think I’ve seen Taylor that speechless in a long time.”
“It’s kind of sad though.” Lorelai sighed. “What are we going to do to drive Taylor crazy now?”
“I’ll let the kids keep coming in and playing, that’ll get under his skin for a while,” Luke told her.
“Wait, that’s why you dropped your no phone rule?”
Luke nodded his head. “I hate everyone with their faces glued to their phones. But I love how angry it makes Taylor more.”