"Higher!" Shane ordered. And just like he requested, I pushed the swing, sending it higher into the air. "Yay!"
As I pushed him on the swing, he was happy as can be, swinging his legs as the swing went back and forth. When we had arrived at the park, he had immediately ran to the swings and begged me to push him. He had told me, too, that the swings were one of his favorite things to do at the park. Ironically, they had been my favorite when I was a kid. I guess I had always liked them because of how I could swing really high and then jump off.
When Shane was ready to move on, I took him out of the swing so that he could run over to the slide. As I would learn over the next few weeks, Shane only had one speed. Something really neat about the park in Cerulean was that they had this big slide that was like a water slide, but without the water. The only catch about it, though, was that if you were five and under, you had to go down with an adult. That meant that I had to go down the slide with Shane-not that I minded. Even I would admit that it was a really neat slide. Shane was just my excuse to be able to go on it.
Unfortunately, because this was a popular slide, we had to wait in line behind a bunch of other kids and their parents. While it was rather easy for me to wait, it was almost impossible for Shane to wait for the four groups before us to go. I think I had to tell him to wait his turn at least ten times. When it was finally our turn, I sat down and placed Shane between my legs and pushed off the slide. After the first curve, he gave a shout of glee, giggling in excitement.
"Are you having fun?" I asked him as we went around the second curve. I knew the answer, but I just loved hearing him giggle in excitement.
"Yes," he shouted. Turning around he gave me a big grin before saying, "You're the best, Miss Misty. I wish I could stay with you forever."
Now with most kids, they usually said this when they just didn't want to leave the fun, but with Shane, I had a feeling that wasn't the only reason. Yes, we were having fun, but this was fun that any kid who did stuff with their parents could have. He was just happy because for once, not only had someone done things with him, but they were able to keep up as well.
After that, we went down the slide three more times before we moved on to another part of the park. Somehow, Shane had gotten a few of the kids that were there to start up a game of tag. Of course, though, their game of tag consisted of me being the one who had to chase after them. Not that I minded. I was just really tired after. So, when they finally got bored of playing tag, I sat down on one of the benches so I could rest and still keep an eye on Shane.
"Which one's yours?" a lady sitting next to me asked.
"The one in the blue shirt," I told her, pointing out Shane. "But I'm just watching him. He's not mine."
"Oh. Really? I thought you were his mother. You're very good with him," she complimented me.
"Thank you," I replied, blushing a bit.
"No problem, dear. You'll be a wonderful mother one day."
Me? A mom? I hadn't actually thought about that. I was still pretty young and the gym always kept me busy. It was only now that Shane was here that I started working around having a kid to take care of. Then again, if I ever wanted kids, this was good practice.
"Miss Misty, can we go down the slide one more time?" Shane had run over and asked me.
"Okay," I answered, leaping off the bench to follow him.
I don't know why, but I really had a tough time saying no to Shane. And it was because of this that we ended up going down the slide three more times before he finally decided he was ready to go home. He had wanted to go a fourth time, but I told him that we really needed to get home but that we could come back next weekend.
Sometime on the way home, Shane crashed in the back seat. I was really tempted to stop and take a picture of him because he looked so adorable, but I refrained. When we got home, he woke up when I was trying to take him out of his car seat.
"What'd you do to him?" Brock asked me when I walked into the gym. He must have been in the middle of making dinner because he was dressed in that dumb apron of his.
"I wore him out," I laughed. Despite him waking up when we got home, he had fallen right back to sleep when I was carrying him inside.
"I see that." He gave a small smile as he inspected the sleeping Shane in my arms. "Well, dinner is almost ready."
"Okay. Great. I'll just put him to bed and then I'll be down."
I turned around and headed up the stairs to Shane's room, happy that my plan was working perfectly. Now that he was sleeping-and probably would stay asleep-that left the whole evening open for me to spend some well deserved time with Ash. I wasn't exactly sure what we were going to do, but Ash had told me this morning that it was a surprise.
Pushing open the door with my foot, I carried Shane over to his bed and set him down. I debated waking him up to put on his pajamas, but I was afraid that if I woke him up, he would stay awake. Pulling the covers over him, I gave him his Squirtle and Todadile before turning off the lights and leaving.
"Miss Misty," I heard him call my name, "come back."
Sighing, I turned around and headed back over to his bed. "What's wrong Shane?"
"Can you lay down next to me until I fall asleep?" he asked me. "My mommy always used to do that for me."
Shane very rarely mentioned his mom or what happened to her. So, when he asked me to do something his mom used to always do for him, a part of me felt the need to oblige. It was obvious he missed his mom, so, I only wanted to try to make him feel better.
"Sure," I replied.
Kicking off my shoes, I walked over to the other side of the bed before climbing up and lying next to him. Since he was already super tired, I knew it would only be a few minutes tops for him to fall back asleep. After that, I could head to my room to get ready.
XXX
I sat at the kitchen table waiting for Misty to finish getting ready. Thankfully, knowing her, it wouldn't be too long of a wait. Then again, I hadn't seen her in four months so, she could have changed a bit; but I doubted that. The only thing that ever changed about Misty was her hair. Which, by the way, was now pretty long since she had let it grow out.
"What are you and Misty doing tonight?" Brock asked me.
"I'm taking her to dinner," I answered him. I had told Misty it was a surprise, so I had to spend the whole day planning it while she was at the park with Shane. I had even taken the time to buy some flowers. "One of those fancy French places she loves."
"She'll love that," he agreed. Of course she'd love it…
Another five minutes went by of waiting without any sign of Misty. I didn't worry too much, though because I had assumed she had taken a shower after being at the park the whole day. Plus, for once, I was actually early.
I watched the minute hand on the clock tick, as the time I was waiting grew larger and larger. After fifteen more minutes, Misty still hadn't come back downstairs. Now was the time when I was a bit concerned, as Misty was never this late for anything. Brock was gone, too, as he had gone to check on Shane to make sure he was still asleep. As I was about to go check on Misty, I heard footsteps echoing in the hall as someone walked into the kitchen. My spirits fell, though, when I saw it was just Brock.
"Hey, Ash?" he said, a frown on his face. "Misty…she's, uh, she's asleep. I tried waking her up, but she's out cold."
"What?"
If I wasn't already disappointed when it hadn't been Misty walking into the kitchen, I was crushed now. She had fallen asleep, knowing that I had this whole surprise waiting for her. Disregarding what I had blurted out, I jumped off the stool and threw the roses in the nearby trashcan before pulling off my tie and throwing that on the stool.
"Ash, she didn't do it on purpose."
"I know that," I sighed, running my hand through my hair. "It's just that I've been gone for four months, and I missed her so much. And now that I'm back, a whole week's gone by and I haven't seen my girlfriend for more than five minutes. When we finally get to spend some time together-just her and I-she falls asleep."
"I'm sorry Ash." He tired to give me a sympathetic look. "You know Misty, though. She gets involved in things, and then overworks herself because she's too stubborn to ask for help."
Of course I knew that. And boy did I know it well.
"I'm going to bed."
"Alright, Ash. I'm really sorry about tonight. Maybe next week."
Next week? That was a whole seven days away. And just a guess, but it was probably going to be a repeat of the last seven days, too. To make things worse, I had yet to tell her that, the second week of July (3 weeks from today), I was leaving again for five months. I had told Brock this morning, but since I didn't see Misty all day today, I was going to tell her tonight. And each week I went without seeing her, only made it harder to leave.
XXX
As I opened my eyes, I found myself in a place I didn't recognize. After a few seconds, though, it dawned on me that I was in Shane's room. The last thing I remembered was Shane asking me to wait with him until he fell asleep. While I was waiting, I must have fallen asleep. And that meant…Ash! I sprang out of the bed and glanced at the alarm clock to find that it was 9 AM. It was already Sunday, which meant that I had missed my date with Ash. I couldn't believe it. I felt absolutely horrible about falling asleep on him like that. Looking around, I noticed that Shane wasn't in the bed anymore. Great. I really hope he didn't wake up and wander around the gym himself. Jumping out of bed, I rushed downstairs to see if maybe he was in the kitchen. When I entered it, I let out a breath, relieved to see him sitting at the kitchen counter with Brock.
"Look who's up?" Brock said while he gave Shane a plate of what looked like pancakes.
"Uh, yeah. Do you know where Ash is?"
"I think he said something about going out to train," he told me.
"Oh."
"Do you want some pancakes, Miss Misty? Brock makes the best ones ever," Shane exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air. This, of course, sent his fork flying through the air and onto the floor. "Oops."
"Don't worry about it," I told him as I picked up the fork. "And I'm okay. Miss Misty has to go work on some stuff. Would you mind playing at home today?"
"I don't mind," he smiled.
"Okay. Well, I'm going to hurry up and get some work done, and then we can do something."
"Bye, Miss Misty!"
For the first half of the morning, I worked on some paperwork I needed to have completed for the gym, as well as some plans for this week's camp. It was hard to believe that it was already going to be the third week, with only four more after that. So far, my camp had been a hit with my numbers rising each week because parents liked to tell their friends about it. This meant that if things continued to run smoothly, I would finally have enough money to redo a part of the gym that I had wanted to do forever.
Around lunchtime, I decided to call it quits and see what Brock and Shane were up to. After cleaning up my work, I went out searching for them. When I found them, Brock was sitting by the pool, while Shane swam in the shallow end with Pikachu, who was in a little inner tube. And, despite the fact that Pikachu was here there was no sign of Ash anywhere. Sitting by the edge of the pool, I watched Shane, while Brock went and fixed lunch. And after lunch-minus Ash again-it was back to work.
While I was working, I heard a knock on the door.
"Come in," I called, not bothering to even look up. After setting my pen down, though, I turned around to see Brock standing there. "Oh. Hey, Brock."
"Misty, we need to talk." Letting himself in, he went over and sat down on a nearby chair.
"If this is about me overworking myself, I'm fine." I was fine, too. Maybe, I had a lot of stuff I needed to get done, but I just wanted to make sure I got it all done in a timely manner.
"That's not what this is about," he explained. Then what was it, I felt myself wondering. "Misty, what happened last night?"
"What do you mean?" I played dumb. Maybe he didn't know about what happened and was talking about something else.
"He was dressed up and everything, you know? He even bought some roses," he told me. What was he doing? Was he trying to make me feel bad for falling asleep last night? If this was supposed to be a pep talk, then it was the worst one I'd ever heard.
"Do you think I did this on purpose?" I shot at him.
"No, of course not," he quickly answered. "I'm just saying that he was really excited about spending time with just you. I know you can't always see it, but he misses you a lot when he's gone. But since last night didn't work out, you at least owe him some of your time today."
"I know, and I miss him, too. But I can't just drop my responsibilities so I can hang out with my boyfriend."
"I understand what you're saying, and I would totally agree. But, you guys are living in the same building and you haven't seen each other for more than five minutes. It's as if you avoid each other like the plague. We all know Ash isn't going to make the first move so, you are going to have to make it if you want to save your relationship."
"Our relationship's fine," I assured him. Ash and I had moved on from the argument we had earlier, and we would get past last night's problem. And, in due time, we would finally spend some time together.
"Is it?" he asked in that tone where they knew something you didn't. "Did he tell you when he was leaving next?"
"No." He had just gotten here, so I didn't want to ask.
"Ask him," he said.
After that he got off the chair and walked out of the room, leaving me to my thoughts.
