Her voice echoed around the huge mansion, shrill and clear. His voice echoed back.
“I LIKE THEM.”
“WELL, I DON’T WANT ROSES AT THE RECEPTION.”
“JUSTINA THINKS IT’S A NICE IDEA.”
“MARRY HER THEN.”
“MAYBE I WILL.”
“FINE!”
“FINE!” A door slammed and hash footsteps were heard along the corridor. Meowth looked straight at Justina. “What?” He shook his head. “I know, I know. But I don’t see why I’m the focal point of every argument.” Meowth didn’t answer, gazing at the chessboard in front of them. He was determined to beat her this time. “You’ve taut me dis game sevan toimes, and I still don’t get it.” She laughed and stroked his ear. A loud thud upstairs caused to look up in alarm. James ran out onto the landing. “Anyone got a blowtorch?” They shook their heads. “Oh well.” With that he ran down the stairs towards the garden entrance. “Dat kid gets weirder and weirder!”
*
Jesse was beginning to get cold feet. It was funny really. She’d spent years hanging around with James, attached to the hip. But this was somehow different. Scary. He watched him run towards the Magikarp Pond. He seemed to be searching for something. Whatever it was, he soon found it and with a squeal of delight ran back in, carrying it in his arms. Jesse ran down the stairs to find out what it was.
“Look, James yelled. “It was there!”
“What was?” Jesse, descending the stairs, asked. He showed her proudly.
“My scrap book. I hid it where no one could see my thoughts and dreams.”
“Cool!” said Justina.
“That’s it? That little book is what you were so happy about. I figured it was going to be worthwhile. Like jewels or something.”
James snapped. “Justina liked it! But that’s all that matters to you. Money!”
“Whatever is wrong with money, James dearest?” asked his mother. Meowth knew this wasn’t going well. If they broke up, he’d be out on the street again! Oh, and of course it would be bad for them too. (!) “You’re weird!” shouted Jesse. “You’re the richest guy ever and you’re not happy.”
“If anyone is rich, it’s Meowth.”
“Huh?” Meowth said.
“He’s got everything I ever wanted. Love, a family…exactly what I didn’t have here. That’s why I left! Why should I stay? I’m not married; Jesse isn’t pregnant. Just a false alarm. Nothing is keeping me here.” He began to storm out but Justina blocked the doorway.
“You can’t leave. If you want to be rich…you have to earn it.” He stared deeply into her eyes, searching for a way to fight her back. He realised how pathetic he’d been acting, but believed that Jesse had been too. He was always the first to apologise. Well, he thought, not this time. He carried on walking past Justina and out the door. “James?” She looked at the others around the room. They all blamed her. She knew that. She had to make it all right again. Or not…
*
He borrowed one of the mopeds from the garage. As he sped down the forest road, he was amazed at how well he drove. He’d never taken a single lesson! What he didn’t know was that Justina was right on his tracks on another moped. She concentrated on him the whole time. On him and Jesse. And not on the fact that she was alone on a twilight night, under the spell of a full moon with him. She mustn’t think how romantic it was. He finally stopped outside a lonely-looking house. “Hey!” she called, screeching to a halt. “You know where we are?”
“No.”
“This is my house! My nephew offered to look after it and my Pokémon when I left to join Team Rocket. But he’s on a Pokémon Vacation with them at the moment, so no one’s here.”
“Coincidence, huh?” He looked at it. Studying it carefully. It was pretty; it had honeysuckle growing up the side of one wall. At one side was the ‘Recuperation Pen’, Justina explained. She dragged him around showing him everything, excitedly. She babbled on about her Pokémon, her nephew Connor etc. It intrigued him. How could someone, who normally said so little, suddenly have so much to talk about? She was like him, he realised. Afraid of sounding boring or stupid, they had shut themselves away from the people around them. Finding a friendship with one another only because they each understood the other’s pain. “I have a secret, James,” she whispered suddenly.
“What secret?”
“I’m…not from here.”
“Where are you from?”
“I’m not sure if I should tell you.”
“As long as it’s not somewhere like France or Utah, it doesn’t matter.”
She laughed. “No. I’m from…Well it’s hard to explain. You see where I come from, you guys aren’t real.”
“Huh?” This was too much for his small mind.
“You are all characters in a cartoon show called Pokémon.”
He thought she was crazy. “Uh huh.(!) Am I the star?”
“No. That twerp and his fat-assed Pikachu are. But everyone around the world prefers Team Rocket. They write stories about you called ‘fanfics’. They’re mainly written by girls and usually involve you and Jesse being in some sort of turmoil, yet surviving and becoming a fairytale couple.
“Which is why I’ve resisted you all this time. Because if I split you guys up and if I ever return to my world, thousands of young girls will thirst for my blood.”
“How did you get here in the first place?” he asked incredulously.
“Dunno. I just wished one night, on a star, that I could be with you. I woke up the next morning here.”
“Maybe if you wish again, you’ll go home.”
She looked at him tearfully. “I’ve tried. But I don’t really want to. It won’t work unless I want to.”
*
They walked home. James would collect the mopeds in the morning. As they walked along Justina described her world; the good like real water, doughnuts that don’t look like sushi, sex, and the bad like death, war and Barney the Dinosaur. He found it hard to understand, but listened anyway.
When they reached the mansion, Justina turned to him and said “We may be worlds apart, but we are the same in some ways.”
He reached into his pocket. “Here,” he said, “Have this.”
“Your scrap book!”
“Remember me.”
“I will,” she sobbed as he kissed her. “Look after the kittens for me.”
“OK.”
“Bye.” She waved quickly, and sauntered down the path looking for a star to wish upon. Jesse had seen it all from her window, but said nothing when James walked in. After all, she was gone now. And Jesse had learned not to take James for granted. Just in case someone else decided to take him away from her. Jesse ran to greet him at the bedroom door. “I’m sorry,” she said as she opened the door.
He smiled at her. “I love you.”
THE END (FINALLY)
