Letters to an Absent Father
Note from MandyQ: Loosely inspired by Mare Odomo's Letters to an Absent Father. Anyone reading this should check out his work at his Deviantart (mareodomo) or his tumblr (mareodomo). The comic strips are amazingly touching, and focuses on Ash's absent father and the advice and help and all the talks they could have had. (I might have teared over a non-official comic strip of a cartoon I was once obsessed with).
You can read the first comic strip here ( art/Letters-To-An-Absent-Father-01-191872044).
Love isn't something that Ash thinks consciously about much at all. It comes to him as naturally as breathing – he loves his mother most of all of course, and he loves Pikachu, his Pika-pal, and he loves his friends. Misty and Brock are fast becoming the best friends he's ever had, and he feels closer to them than even Gary, who he's known for most of his childhood.
Brock is strong and supportive, and like an older brother he can go to for advice. Sometimes he thinks Misty's only following him for her bike, but mostly Misty is possibly his best human friend, who is an enigma and a girl that he bickers with. Pikachu is his best friend, who loves him unconditionally, and will never leave him, and that is all Ash needs to know to love them.
His mother was always there until he set off on his journey, and right now, she is his home to return to. But although she smiles for him, before he left, and now when he calls, he can see that air of sadness around her when she thinks he isn't looking. Ash knows it's about his dad. She will never say anything, and Ash never knows how to talk about it.
His dad isn't there, but Ash hopes he'll be there one day.
After his friends go to sleep, Ash quietly - or as quietly as he can manage - slips out of his sleeping bag, gently setting Pikachu back onto the makeshift bed. He is careful to avoid brushing against Misty, who is curled up in her bedroll next to them. As he removes his favourite black pen (it is an Official Indigo League Pen), and his red journal from his backpack, he freezes for a moment when Brock suddenly lets out a loud snort from across the dying embers of their small fire-pit.
When the older boy snorts again more softly and turns over, and Misty seems to not have awoken, Ash lights his torch, uncaps his pen, and starts writing.
Dear Dad,
Today, Misty, Brock and I saw a huge group butterfree set off to start new families. Did you know that they had to cross the sea to do that?
I let Butterfree go, so that he could find a mate and start a family and…have kids. He had trouble at first, and then Team Rocket tried to steal all the butterfree away! But we got them out, thanks to Butterfree and Starmie, and then, Butterfree managed to win over the pink butterfree he had a crush on, which made me really happy until I remembered he would have to leave.
On a cliff, by the sea, I watched my Butterfree…and his mate, disappear into the sunset. I kinda wanted to cry, but Misty always knows how to cheer me up, Brock always knows what to say, and I'll always have Pikachu. He let me cuddle him to sleep because I was so sad even though he says I squeeze him too tight sometimes.
When we made camp, Brock made my favourite lazy-boy-no-chew stew, and Misty was extra nice. She smiled more, and only got a little annoyed when I stole her hair tie. It was nice, and I'll grow stronger, so that Butterfree will be proud of me when we see each other again.
Do you ever miss mum?
I know I miss her.
Love,
Ash
End Letter One.
Hope everyone is willing to suspend a little disbelief that Ash Ketchum can write so cleanly. Heh. I did try to stimulate trains of thought and rambling with his run-on sentences – I hope I succeeded! Do let me know if I screwed up any grammatical rules too badly; reviews and constructive criticism and any sort of feedback are very, very welcome.
The second chapter of Confessions will probably be up this weekend, I hope.
