This is the writer's voice new fiction from the New Yorker. I'm Deborah

Treisman fiction editor at the New Yorker. On this episode of the writer's voice we'll hear

Jamil Jan Kochi read his story Playing Metal Gear Solid Five The Phantom

Pain from the January 6th 2020 issue of the magazine.

Kochai was a Truman Capote fellow at the Iowa January 6th, 2020 issue of the magazine,

Kochi was a Truman Capote fellow at the Iowa Writers Workshop.

His first novel, 99 Knights in Logar, was published in 2019.

Now here's Jamil Jan Kotry.

Playing Metal Gear Solid 5, The Phantom Payne.

First, you have to gather the cash to pre-order the game at the local game stop where your cousin works.

And, even though he hooks it up with the employee discount, the game is still a bit out of your price range because you've been using your Taco Bell paychecks to help your pops,

who's been out of work since you were 10, and who makes you feel unbearably guilty about spending money on useless hobbies,

while kids and couple are destroying their bodies to build compounds

for white businessmen and warlords.

But shee, it's kojima, it's metal gear.

So after scrimping and saving, like literal dimes you're picking up off the street,

you've got the cash, what you give to your cousin, who purchases the game on your behalf, and

then on the day it's released, you just have to find

a way to get to the store.

But because your oldest brother has taken the Civic to SAC State, you're hauling your 260 pound ass on a bicycle

you haven't touched since middle school, and thank Allah if he's up there, that the bike is still

rideable because you're sure there will be a line if you don't get to game stop early.

...