Chapter 20: Showtime, In More Ways Than One
(So, when did you start properly learning to speak the human tongue?)
Actually, we made progress on it not long after the first week ended. That was around the time we learned to fight as well, and learn other things such as how to tell the time and how to add numbers up together, although I bombed at both of them at first. It's a lot to talk about at once, though, so what do you wanna know?
(The speaking lessons, please.)
Alright then. I mean, we basically touched on more of what I talked about before, like how human sounds are different in meaning to what we say in our own language. The week before with Azzy was just finding out what all the possible sounds were and how to connect them to letters. After a while, I learned how to connect the two together, but when Azzy started his next round of lessons, he started talking about words. He'd write them out on that cringe-inducing chalkboard again, would break down each of the sounds used in it, and tell us to repeat it.
I had trouble with that at first, since words were a mouthful compared to the single sounds I was used to doing, but take my word for it, I got better. I don’t care to go through it in huge length since Shine could probably do that. One thing that really helped though, believe it or not, was watching the actual Pokemon show, which they found a way to tie into our lessons. Aw, this takes me back. I know you never played the games, but did you watch the series, at least?
(When I was 7, I think. That was when it first started, with Ash in Kanto.)
Yeah, now you're on my level. So, it's been a while since I've seen it, and now I remember it, it's nothing special. I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it again. But parts of it are stuck in my head from when I'd watch those episodes in the AV room, sitting with Aipom and all that, sitting in those comfy beanbags around the TV. A human would operate the remote and flick through several channels before tuning into Pokemon: Diamond and Pearl. Soon enough, I was hooked. I loved the bright colours and the art, except they were moving pictures. When I think about it now, the time it must've taken to do that must've been insane.
I say moving pictures like I'm a caveman or something, but that’s what they are. Not to get too nerdy, unlike one Pokemon I know sitting in this room right now, but film or animation is just a series of frames cobbled together, 24 times a second, with voices and music to bind it all into one package. And the music as well. I sat through the opening theme, and even though I couldn't understand it yet, I hummed along with the tune, as did some of the other Pokemon watching it. Even Shinx paid attention and wasn't sulking in a corner like usual.
But yeah, we must've watched the first episode where Dawn, that girl trainer or something, tried to find her way to the professor's lab and ended up bumping into the wrong places. Again, we couldn't understand her fully yet, but we got the gist of what was happening, which was enough. Then Ash came on screen on a boat with the Pikachu, and I was waiting for that yellow sparkster to speak, but he never did. Instead, he repeated his name over and over again, and so, it sounded like complete gibberish. It felt really weird, so I raised my hand up when it happened to try and find out why, but the show kept going and wouldn't stop. I gave up after a while, plus my classmates gave me weird looks, so I sat through the rest of the episode with my mouth zipped shut.
There were some battles along the way with other Pokemon, which got me excited, and as it ran, I understood more and more of what they said. Only certain words and phrases, mind you, but the one catchphrase we got familiar with was "I choose you!". But after the big fight, Ash, Pikachu and Dawn eventually banded together, along with that pervy guy as well, but anyway, the episode ended and the credits rolled, so they turned off the TV soon after. We all clapped and asked for more, but that was it for now, and so, they led us back to our bases. I caught Azzy's attention before he left the garden again.
"Yes, miss Riolu. I saw you wanted to ask something during the show."
"Yeah. Pikachu's really weird. And the other Pokemon. They keep saying their names all the time and I can't understand it. Am I just being thick?"
He shook his head.
"It's something the series does. While the human characters are voiced by humans, for whatever reason, the Pokemon are voiced by humans too."
"But why? Wouldn't it be better to have Pokemon talking like Pokemon so we could all get it?"
He patted his ears — his aura radiated a nervous energy. I take it he didn't want to answer that.
"Well, the show is aimed for humans for all ages, but you still understood what was going on, didn't you?"
I nodded. "I'm starting to understand humans better now too!"
"That's good then. Well, have a good day."
He just left, and it was me in that garden again, still mulling over those questions I asked. Mostly about why they didn't hire Pokemon to voice their own characters, but I never got the answer to that, but knowing more about the world now, I can guess. There aren't many Pokemon actors, and while you see them in a lot of films shot on camera, for a show like that which is all drawn, it's not needed at all. A lot of shows or movies aren't made for Pokemon in mind, just for humans who actually have time for art and can talk with their wallets, apparently. What money is there to be had in that industry with us dumb Pokemon in there?
(People did kick up a fuss about the Pokemon not voicing their own roles after enough time. Oh, sorry, can I intervene again?)
As long as it’s not about Lucario dying because of a tree again, Shine, then you’re golden.
(Thanks. Trainers and their Pokemon actors formed a union and started pestering the team for requests, and eventually, they hired Pokemon actors to speak for the Origins and Generations specials, which I guess is a step in the right direction. Of course, it didn’t make much of a difference since they just spoke in unsubtitled grunts and shrieks, but oh well. Again, sorry for interrupting.)
No, it's fine. See, this guy knows. Anyway, I'm getting off topic. I could literally talk about it for ages, but you get the idea. It was a slow learning process, where we alternated between learning to speak like humans and listen to humans. In a few weeks, we could understand entire sentences, and once we digested that information, we understood what the humans around us were saying all along.
(That’s good to hear. So, you mentioned bombing other lessons. What did you learn?)
Eh, just maths and basic stuff. If you ever went through grade school, you’d know it’s something along the lines of that, so there’s not much to say. My biggest crime was not paying attention, so there’s that. Before I forget, though, after I saw that show, that inspired me to pick up my set of crayons again and draw. So I got my belongings out from the locker and remembered all the characters I saw from it. Humans like Ash seemed too complicated for me to draw at that moment, but Pokemon like Pikachu had simpler shapes, so I sat by a tree and ended up drawing that guy, starting with the head and drawing the rest of the body from there.
Again, it wasn't very good, as the first result literally looked like a lump of cheese with eyes, but that didn't stop me, as I drew him again and again, until I got a feel for how to draw him correctly. Since my paws weren't used to making such tiny movements, the lines all looked wobbly, but at least it resembled something like a living thing. I didn't stop there though, and kept doodling until Aipom butted in, hanging upside down from a branch above.
"Whatcha doing?”
I gasped and hid the paper behind my back.
"N-nothing."
"That's not nothing, I saw what you were drawing!"
"Oh," I said, shrinking up into a little ball, "it sucks, doesn't it?"
"Are you kidding?" he said, and leapt off the tree. "That's awesome! I could never do something like that!"
I sat up, breathing a sigh of relief, and flipped back to the page I last drew on.
"Thanks. I wish I could draw better, though."
"Still looks awesome! I don't know why you'd hide it!"
"Well," I said, "Papa didn't like me drawing. He was kind of a jerk about it."
"I thought you said your family was alright."
"Papa is—“ I don’t know what I would’ve said — I was still processing what happened on the island. “He had a lot to deal with. His trainer left him, so he's still kinda upset about that."
"Kind of like my Dad was." He sat down beside me. "He'd never shut up about it either, talking about how he won this battle or fought this big Pokemon, and I was always like, just cram it, old mon!"
"Wish I said that to Papa too.”
"Yeah. Keep doing your thing, though. Don’t mind me."
So we just hung out together, with Aipom acting as my second pair of eyes while I drew more faces, eventually moving onto Ash and Dawn despite my reluctance earlier. He wouldn't say much, but I forgot my current troubles with the lessons at that time and felt at ease with him around. It was nice to have someone by your side who wouldn't judge you, although I yearned for someone to correct my mistakes and help improve my craft. At one point, that Cubone passed us by and stopped to stare at my work.
I didn’t know what to think or how he’d react. I’m not sure he even knew what I was doing at the time, but he kept his eyes on the page. I tried to pretend he wasn’t there. Then—
He grabbed the sketchpad, and snatched it off my paws, along with the pink crayon for Dawn’s skirt.
I yelped, not knowing how to react, when Aipom ran after him. He tried to swat Cubone with his tail when he hissed back, hunched over the sketchpad as he scribbled furiously at the book. This probably wasn’t the right time to think that, but I hoped he wasn’t drawing over my hard work.
Aipom stood there, tail swishing in case he needed to attack again. I stood up, about to go over there and sort it out myself when the Cubone came back, handing me the sketchpad once more in one piece. He grunted and returned to his spot, staring at the wall.
Once Aipom was at ease again, he returned to my side, still keeping an eye on that lone Pokemon.
“What’s his problem, huh?” He groaned. “Sorry I couldn’t get it back for you before he messed it up.”
I looked at the page before me. There was a massive pink mark in the middle of the pad, scratched in crayon to the point the paper was warped. At least he used a fresh page instead of doodling over mine, but I stared at the drawing, trying to make heads or tails out of it.
“Is that a star or a…” I started. It kind of looked like a flower when I narrowed my eyes at it.
“Ah, it probably doesn’t mean anything,” Aipom said with a shrug. “Now forget about that weird guy and get back to your stuff. Oh! Are you gonna make those two humans kiss?”
“Wha—” I turned the page to Ash and Dawn, drawn together in crayon like two stick figures with ketchup and blueberries smeared all over them. “Ew, gross!”
I tackled him to the floor, though he tackled back as strongly as I did. From there, we just play-fought until the next bell rang. You know, I kind of miss those moments where I could just waste away the time without thinking about anything else. But oh well.
I got another call some time after, and honestly, there wasn’t much to say. It was just the usual small talk — they were still happy to hear me and Dad was still off somewhere else. Then Trunks came into the picture:
“Hello, sis,” he said, “Have you been keeping with your studies recently?”
I gulped. I didn't want him to know I wasn't paying attention in class, so I tried to bluff my way out. "Yeah, I've been learning a lot!"
"Such as?"
"Well, things like adding other things together, and stuff?"
"Really? Two plus five equals what?"
"Wait, what?"
"Answer me, two plus five equals?"
I drew a blank. Trust me, this sounds really stupid now, but from my view, numbers were much more foreign to me than letters. I tried to come up with answers in my head, but no matter what, I couldn't put two and two together, or two and five in this case. I gave up and sighed.
"Sorry, bro," I said, lowering my voice, "I wanna do better, but I can't wrap my head around it. It's not like letters, you know."
He took a deep breath, making the receiver crackle a bit. "That's fine. There's still time to learn, plus things are a bit trickier with us than it is with humans. I'm really sorry if I sounded annoyed, still, I just want you to do well."
I could still tell he was disappointed, but I gulped down my guilt nonetheless. "I know. Well, thanks."
"You're welcome. Just keep attacking it and eventually you'll understand. Shall I pass you back to Mom?”
“Yeah!”
So that was that. I didn’t want to disappoint him next time, so after the call ended, I wanted to attend the classes with a new found focus. I would learn all I could and make his efforts pay off in a month.
(You mentioned you started battling around the same time you started learning basic literacy and numeracy skills. What did those entail?)
Well, it was alright at first, at least when we were still learning. We were in the battle arena for the first time, separate from the gym, so when I entered, I stood by the door, mouth agape at the sheer size of it. How practical it all was, I couldn't say. But from surface to ceiling, it was spacious, and there was an indented dome in the roof where the windows were, with light radiating through the glass and giving the ceiling a disco-ball effect.
It did make me wonder where the hell we actually were, since the building must've stuck out like a sore thumb outside with something this huge, and for something apparently so secret. There were separate arenas in the room, set up like stages for each of us to practice in, and the layouts in some of them were different, not unlike the battle coliseums I'd see in that show.
The mediators didn't stress the technical stuff at first and let us duke it out in pairs. They sorted our groups into three rows, grouped into those from the wild, those from domestic areas, and those born in GeL, and were told to pick our partner from any of the other teams except ours.
"Aw,” Aipom said with a frown, “I was hopin' to go with you again.”
"Can't be helped, I guess."
My attention was drawn to the Pachirisu from the GeL group. He chatted with the moist-eyed Shinx, nuzzling close to him, and from what I can imagine, whispered reassuring compliments into his ear. Unfortunately, when he turned to us, he made the first move and went to Ponyta as a partner. I didn't really know what to do after that, so I thought I'd pick the luck of the draw. I watched everybody else pick their own partners. Aipom ended up going with Buneary, the girl he'd often tease in class, so that was off the table. By the end of it, there was only me and the blue guy left. I approached him, and before I could raise my paw up to say hi, he flinched and buried his head in his paws, whimpering. Again, that gave off a familiar vibe to my sulking brother. Part of me wanted to tell him to shut up, but another part of me wanted to hug him.
Since this wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, plus Reggie was giving me the stink eye, I slowly went to embrace Shinx. He stopped shaking underneath my paw, so I started petting him, and eventually, he bloomed from his shrivelled up ball of fur and looked at me, wide-eyed, tears streaming down his face. When my aura honed in on his feelings, they radiated, to my surprise, nothing. Just emptiness inside. It wasn't deeply sorrowful or afraid, or anything. All it gave off was the loneliest feeling I'd ever experienced so far. How to describe it? It was like he never had anyone in the world before to care for him up until that moment, and as it turned out, it wouldn't be too far off.
Isn’t that right, Shine? I don’t know if you remember, but I don’t want to steal the spotlight from you, since it’s your story too.
(I-I’m not ready yet. Sorry.)
Alright, no sweat. So anyway...
"Don't mean to rush you," Reggie said, “but we'll be sparring soon, got me?"
Talk about a moment killer. Anyway, I let go and led Shinx to an open spot in the wide room. We stood a few paces apart, ready to start, but he sat down, looking like his deflated self again. I approached him, trying to reassure him with more ear scritches.
"Are you alright?" I said. "Don't you wanna fight?"
No response. He looked at me sadly, and I sighed, hiding my frustration with a friendly smile.
"Look, I'm not really used to this that much either. My family didn't make me do that much fighting, unless you count play-fights, but you know, you and me are kinda the same here. I dunno what you're going through exactly, but I feel outta place looking at all these Pokemon and their fiery attacks and fancy spells and whatnot. I kinda suck at channelling my aura to attack at the moment. But I socked that Aipom in the jaw, so that balances out, I guess."
Still no response. He looked less miserable, so that seemed like a step in the right direction. I stepped back and knelt down to him, gently caressing his face.
"You don't have to say much, that's fine. To be honest, I'm getting a little sick of that Abra yammering on all the time, so I could take a break from that. But we're still supposed to spar, so we should get started soon. Can you do that for me?"
Shinx looked to the other Pokemon duking it out in the right side of the room. They were all doing their own thing while we were still fence-sitting. I shook him gently, not wanting to urge him too suddenly to join the fight.
"Well?"
Finally, he looked back and nodded. I dried his eyes and shifted to a battle stance not too far away. He followed suit and stood on all fours. At last, Shinx looked like the fierce lion cub he was born to be. Still, pity got the better of me, and I pointed at him.
"You know, I haven't actually seen what you can do yet. You can make the first move."
Shinx took a deep breath and started charging up something, making the light dance around his head like a halo. I braced myself for what was to come, expecting nothing more than a light tap on the head. Big mistake. He shot a jolt of electricity at my belly, sending me backward. I lay on the floor in a trance, jerking my body up and down like I was possessed. It stopped after a few seconds, but as I rose to my knees, the air around me felt a little different, somehow. I put a paw on my chest, catching my breath.
"W-wow," I said, "That'll teach me to underestimate you, huh?"
My classmates laughed from behind. Nearby, Pachirisu and Aipom stopped their match while they pointed at my face.
"Come on guys," I said, "What's so funny about this?"
They said nothing and just snickered like idiots. I rubbed my head in frustration, only to feel nothing but fluff. My fur stuck out in the air like a cloud of cotton candy.
After that initial shock, har har, we had a bit of a song and dance, which involved me playfully slapping him across the face, since punching didn't seem in good taste, and he'd shoot more bolts of electricity my way, which I tried to dodge. Most attempts weren't successful, so I ended up flopping around like a Magikarp half the time, but at least it was harmless. The one time I managed to dodge must've been completely by accident. Either that or he missed and hit another poor sod in the background, but I dunno. But after a while, we were both tuckered out, so we sat out together to take a breather. All things considered, Shinx warmed up to me quickly, nuzzling my side while I watched the rest battle. He was still as silent as death, but we didn't really need to speak. It was just nice to feel I was there for him after that much heartache on his end.
That moment of peace got cut short when we heard screams on one of the stages. It came from the Munchlax, while his Cubone partner beat him over the head with a bone-like stick. It wasn't the friendly match we were told to perform, I mean, the guy really went at it. He pinned the Munchlax —who begged him to stop— to the floor and just whacked him on the head, over and over, all with this look in his eyes. Even though we were far away, that gaze was vengeful and gave the same impression my Dad gave off sometimes, except more blank rather than angry. There were little splotches of blood on the floor around Munchlax's head. We hugged each other for comfort, feeling Shinx’s static course through me.
Thankfully, Reggie stepped in before there could be any more carnage and separated the two by picking up Cubone by his tail. It didn't stop there since he flailed in his grasp, but couldn't get free.
"Hey, chill out, mon! This isn't the wild, you don't need to go that far!"
Cubone continued screeching. Reggie closed his eyes and emitted a purple energy which pulsed through his paw. Eventually, Cubone stopped struggling altogether and gradually fell asleep. The Medicham lifted him up and cradled him in his arms, looking at him with a sorrowful expression until he tended to Munchlax, whose bloodied head had several nasty egg-sized bumps.
"Just lay there, mon. It's all chill now. You'll be healed up soon, yeah?"
Munchlax nodded before slumping to the floor, knocked out cold.
So, that went well. After that, Reggie called the lesson quits and me and Shinx went our separate ways for that day, returning to our own rooms. It was me and Aipom in the garden again, where we sat by the pond with Buizel in there and Ponyta resting by the bank to collect our thoughts. Of course, Cubone was absent.
"What the heck was that?" Aipom asked. "I thought there was something wrong with him, but not like that!"
"Yeah," Buizel said, "he was so scary!"
"Such a shame," Ponyta said, "I wanted to see that happen."
We all shot her questioning looks.
"You wanted to see that?" Aipom said. "Why, did you want a fight to break out between them?"
"Oh, sorry," she said, blowing smoke out of her nostrils, "I meant, I wish I saw what was wrong between them before the fight."
"Ah, okay, that's slightly less creepy. I mean, I knew that guy was gonna pop off at some point."
I hummed to myself, considering the fight again, and a chill washed over me when I realised something.
"He's gonna come back here, right?" I said. "What happens then?"
"I dunno," Aipom said. "We'll avoid him as usual, but this time, we'll make sure to stay out of trouble. And if he decides to start a fight, we'll all look out for each other, won't we?"
A collective nod.
"If he comes anywhere near me—" Buizel started, splashing the water with a punch—"I'll make him eat my bubbles!”
"No offense," Aipom said, "but I don't think those little pockets of air will help very much."
"Then I'll punch him in the face!"
"That's kinda better."
So that was the highlight of that day, if you could call a Munchlax getting the stuffing beaten out of him a highlight. A few days later, Cubone returned to his spot in the garden and just kept to himself. We all made sure to stay as far away from him as possible in that room, which I kind of regret now, but you'll find out why later. So anyway, weeks passed without much excitement, and were either spent with me sparring with Shinx, who still never uttered any words, or keeping my head raised to pay attention to the numerous classes on addition and subtraction when we weren’t learning the human tongue. Then for the third time, I got the family call.
"Hello, dearie," Mom said. I heard shuddering and sniffling on the other end, as well as the sound of crackling, bringing both cold and warmth to the call.
“Hey, mama. Is, um, everything fine?”
“Oh, yeah, of course! It’s gotten chilly all of a sudden. Your brothers are just huddled around the campfire. It is late autumn, so it is to be expected. We’ll be fine.”
We did spend one winter on the island before, and although that was cold, it hadn’t snowed, so the food supply wasn’t exactly short.
"Anyway,” she said, “how have you been?"
"Well, things kinda went crazy. There's this Cubone in our group who isn't friendly at all, so we've been dealing with him, but other than that, things are kinda the same."
"Unfriendly in what way?"
"He almost killed a Munchlax not too long ago."
"Well then, that's not good, is it? I hope you're alright after that!"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm helping a Shinx with his battles. He always seems lonely in class and never talks, so I wanna be there for him whenever I can."
"Good to hear, dearie." I sensed her motherly smile through the receiver, if that makes sense. She passed me onto my younger brothers, who were always excited to say hello over the phone, even as Stumpy apparently had a cold, and then to Trunks.
"Hello sis," he said, "I hope you've kept up with your studies this time around."
“Well, yeah!” I said. “I ain’t gonna fall asleep in class again after last time!”
“Sounds good. Then, what’s four plus nine?”
“Thirteen!”
“Very good. Have you learned multiplication and division yet?”
“Eh, no. I don’t think we’ve gotten that far. Sorry, bro.”
“No, no, that’s great. I wouldn’t expect them to go to that yet, from what I know about the school system. I’m glad the last call influenced you in some way.”
I smiled. It was really gratifying to hear I’d improved, coming from his words. We talked idly some more, but then, we stopped as Mom and Dad started shouting at each other. It was hard to make out what they were ranting about, but it was the first time in a while I heard his voice, which put me on edge. Eventually, their argument devolved into simple yelling, and the sound bumped and crackled with a series of random noises, which I took as a sign it was being passed around. Dad's voice was no longer there.
"Dearie," Mom said, voice lowered, "Lia— I mean, Dad wants to talk to you. Is that alright?"
My heart stopped. After all that song and dance about keeping me away, he finally wanted to talk. Although dread nestled in my gut, I wanted to catch up with him, and hoped that he wasn’t still salty about me leaving the island.
"Yeah. Please."
"Alright," she took another deep breath. "Well, I'll hand you back to Azzy for now. I'll probably speak to you soon, and as usual, I love you. Bye."
"I love you too." The phone went dead on the other end. I understood there would be another call soon after, so I sat and waited, breathing in and out, in and out.
Words can't easily describe the awkwardness of that situation. If I can compare it to a human situation right now, it would probably be like going out with a day trip with your separated dad to go for drinks, only for him to dump you at the corner of the bar while he was off talking to his group of friends at a far-off table, and whatnot. I think I saw that in a movie, though I don't remember which one, but it's the sort of awkwardness that only comes from long silences and broken families. Waiting in that garden while everyone stayed silent as well only added to it, a presence I tried to ignore.
Thankfully, the phone rang again and I held it to my ear once more.
"Um, hello," he said. His voice was hoarse — much deeper than before.
"Hi." I waited for his turn, but there was a long pause in between then. It would've been the perfect moment for Cricketune to start chirping.
"How are things?"
"Uh, oh yeah, they're good."
Another pause. And then, aside from more deep breaths on the other end, long, drawn out silence. He'd never been good at talking, even on the island, so this wasn't unexpected, but having lived through the situation before it, it was getting nigh unbearable. That gave me time to really sit and digest what he did, and how he acted in general, and how emotionally constipated he was most of the time when he wasn't angry. If only aura could've reached through phone signals, that would've helped. These thoughts, along with the growing silence was the perfect catalyst to brew up a storm within me. I clutched the phone and took a deep breath.
"Dad. You wanted to talk to me, so just spit it out.”
“What?” His tone was more severe, like his usual self. “Don’t talk back to me like tha—”
“No.” I couldn’t believe myself. My heart pounded like crazy and my tongue felt dry, but I was really doing this. “I'm sick of you shutting me out all the time. You always did, even when I was back home. You wouldn't listen, you'd rarely make sure we were ever okay, you almost never spent time with any of us, it was just Mama doing it all. Why? What did I do to deserve any of it, or bro, or anyone else? Just say something, please!"
Rage boiled inside me, to the point I almost pitched the phone across the room. I stopped myself by pacing back and forth. They brought out emotions I never knew, and never would've expressed in front of Dad, but when he became a disembodied voice, that gave me the push to let everything out I'd crammed in up until that point.
I still wanted closure, though — hanging up on him would’ve only made things worse for me. So I held my breath and waited, and waited until he sighed on the other end.
"I apologise, pup.” His voice dropped. “I never should have treated you the way I did. Being alone has given me time to think, and looking back, there were many things I wish I could have done in a different way."
"Like what? Say it in front of me."
"Like, tearing up your drawings. I knew those were important to you — I just let my emotions get in the way. And kicking you. And not listening to you. I should not have made you feel powerless to talk."
"And bro, as well. He'd talk about you a lot, you know, he wanted to be like you, and you treated him pretty much the same way."
"I know I did. I just wanted him to be strong, for all of you, like I never..." He trailed off. "Anyway, that's not the point."
"What is the point then, huh?"
"Point is, he, well..." He lowered his voice even further down, sounding like a ghost. "I am paying the price for that. He doesn't look at me like I used to. Those eyes are always somewhere else whenever he comes with the rest to speak to me. That means I’ve failed."
More silence. I breathed in and out, calmer now I managed to squeeze that info out of him, but some things still felt unresolved between us. The fact I still left the island was the big Donphan in the room. And then another question arose from within.
“You know we have the power of aura and all?” I said. “You could’ve listened to what we were thinking, right? That’s what happens when you grow up to be a Lucario, isn’t it? Then why didn’t you listen to us?”
Another sigh. “I shut them out. They were there, but I pushed them away. That’s why I spent so long being so distant from all of you. I’m especially sorry for that. I could’ve been there for you.”
I took another deep breath. That brought some more closure, at least.
"So," he said, sounding brighter, "how is it over there? Are you safe? Are you keeping strong?"
"Yeah, of course. They're looking after me a lot. I'm training my body all the time, so I'm always on the go, and I've made a few friends already. I hope that's what you wanted to hear."
"Yes it is. I'm glad you made the decision to go there. I still wouldn't have allowed it, but it's a bit too late to complain now. It seems like you’re in good hands."
"Thank you. Is that all?" To be honest, as nice as it was talking to him and airing out our dirty coats, I wanted to get off the phone as soon as possible, so I could sit and decide whether or not to forgive him. Not just for me, but for the rest of my family as well. I waited again for his reply.
"Really, I just wanted to say," he said, exhaling, "I love you."
Another uncomfortable break followed. Then, he started sobbing.
"I never got to say that while you were still here."
More weeps followed, and the phone went dead quiet. That final silence lasted for a long time, even after I handed the phone back. I sat there, carrying his confessions and his sudden emotional outburst with me all throughout the rest of the day, and into the night, where I dreamed of him pushing me up in the air on that tire swing.
That’s the last time I ever spoke to him.
