Chapter Two ~ The St

Chapter Two ~ The St. Stephen

"Well now what?" questioned Jessie, "We need to have some kind of dinner."

"I don't know Jess. I have no idea what we could eat."

"I'm hungry," Jessie complained as she rubbed her growling stomach. She added, "We better think of something fast. It's not like good ideas just come and smack you in the face."

With her words, a loose flyer flew down the street and hit her in the face. "Ouch!" she cried and picked up the fallen flyer. "Or maybe they do…"

James peered over Jessie's shoulder, but he couldn't see the writing on the paper. "What does it say Jessie?" he asked, still trying to see the paper.

"It's about a boat cruise. A dinner cruise. It's called 'Evening on the St. Stephen,'" Jessie read, "It says they serve a buffet style dinner and they have a DJ right on the ship. The ship travels to Cinnabar Island, so it will be a nice way to get back to the hotel." Jessie gasped. "And the tickets are only $40 each! That's a LOT cheaper than dinner would've been at Café Brak! I say we do it."

"But what will we do with the Meowth balloon?"

"Um… we can leave it in Vermilion City, since that's where the ship is leaving from. We have to hurry though, since it's launching in only half an hour."

"We can't leave the Meowth balloon in Vermilion!" protested James, "let's park it on the boat."

"I don't care what we do but we have to leave right now!"

Jessie began to run towards Route 7 to retrieve the balloon. James followed a few steps behind. Once they had taken off, Jessie sank to the bottom of the balloon basket in exhaustion. James slouched down next to her. Too exhausted from the run down Route 7 to talk, Jessie just reached over and held James's hand for the entire ride to Vermilion City. By the time they arrived, Jessie had regained her energy. She landed the balloon right next to the ticket booth and got out. James followed. And old, gray haired man was sitting in the booth reading Time magazine. He had his feet up on his desk and was leaning back in his chair. James rang the bell to get his attention. The man jumped up, startled.

"Sorry to surprise you, but we would like two tickets for the Dinner and Dancing cruise that's' leaving in five minutes," explained James.

The old man muttered something about 'lousy late people' as he ripped two small green tickets from a roll. "That will be $80 please," he said out loud. James reached into his pocket and pulled out three crumpled twenty-dollar bills.

"Oh no!" he groaned, "Jessie, I only have $60."

"I think I can cover the rest," she replied, promptly whipping her thin wallet out of her dress's tiny pocket. Along with a few other bills, she discovered a ten, a five, and five singles, which she fished out and handed to James who gave them to the old man along with his three twenties.

"And here are your tickets," the man grumbled as he turned over the green papers.

Jessie glanced at the Meowth balloon and turned back to the man in the booth. "Excuse me, sir?" she began, "We have a hot air balloon. Can we park it somewhere on the ship?"

The man started to mutter under his breath again, but he replied that they could as long as they deflated it. James and Jessie thanked him and left. They quickly deflated the Meowth-head balloon, then dragged the whole thing behind them as they walked up the entry ramp. At the top was a young, brown-haired man. He was a member of the ship's crew, so he wore a red shirt with blue sleeves. Gold designs decorated the front of the shirt. He wore nice blue pants and a tired, forced smile was pasted under weary eyes. "Tickets please," he told Jessie and James as they reached him. James handed him the small green strips. "Thank you. Have a nice evening on the St. Stephen," the man droned on monotonously. Anyone could tell it had been a long day.

Jessie caught James's eye and nodded towards the man, then at the balloon. James nodded in response to signal that he understood. Then he turned to the man and cleared his throat.

"Uh, do you have a place for us to stow our, um, hot air balloon?" he asked.

"Yeah, over…" he started, then his eyes widened. "Wait… did you say a hot air balloon?!"

"Mm hmm."

"Um, yeah, well, I guess we can stow it in the cargo hold for you."

"Okay," James replied, "Where should we leave it?"

"Right here on the deck. I'll call some crew members to carry it down for you."

The man still looked flabbergasted as he crossed the deck and picked up a house phone. He punched in three numbers and leaned against the wall. Jessie and James looked at each other, not knowing what to do. The man put his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone. "You two can go. Just find me when the ship docks." Jessie nodded and they began to follow the signs to the ballroom, where the flyer said the dinner was. As they turned the corner, they heard the man begin to speak.

"Hello… It's Jack… yes… well two people just brought this hot air balloon onto the ship and- what?… yes, a hot air balloon… I don't know, I thought I'd seen everything, but a hot air balloon…" His voice faded away. Jessie began to laugh.

"Did you see the look on that guy's face when we told him we had a hot air balloon? He looked like he had never even seen one before!"

James laughed too. "I don't think his expression would've changed if we told him that he won one million dollars!"

They both giggled until they reached the ballroom doors. When James pushed open the doors, Jessie's laugh turned into a gasp of surprise. The room was huge. The color of everything – from the floor to the ceiling, the tables to the lights – was either beige or gold. The glamour of the whole room struck Jessie as indescribable. She stared in awe at the room.

James was confused. "What's so great about this room, Jess?"

"It's beautiful! It's huge! It's-"

"…about as big as my kitchen was," James cut her off as he crossed his arms.

"You were rich!" exclaimed Jessie, "Your house was huge. My house? We had one room. We didn't have indoor plumbing. We had an outhouse in our backyard. I had to eat snow, since that was all we could afford! Jeez, your dumb DOG'S house was five times bigger than mine!"

"Sorry Jessie. I guess I… forgot." James hung his head and dragged his foot in a circle on the floor. He kept forgetting that Jessie had been poor when she was little. She didn't usually mention it, probably because she hated her childhood. One of her few happy memories were the "snowgasbords" her mother made her in the winter. The "snowgasbords" included everything from snow sushi to snow pudding. James was even surprised that-

"May I help you?" came a voice interrupting James's thoughts. Standing in front of him was a stern-looking man in the same uniform as the one who asked for their tickets.

"We'd like a table for two, please," spoke up Jessie.

"All right," said the man, glancing around, "Ah, there's an empty one." He began to lead Jessie and James to a small round table right next to a dance floor… and right next to a familiar and unwanted face.

"Is that…" James started.

Jessie finished for him, "The Boss!"

"But what is he doing here?" wondered James. He and Jessie sat down at the table and continued to stare. Three days ago, when Giovanni had called them and said they had two weeks off, they were overjoyed. Two whole weeks free of failing, free of electric shocks, free of bumps, bruises, and Band-Aids…and free of their boss's cold, hard face. And now here he was, sitting less than three feet away from them, talking quickly and quietly on a cell phone. His back was to them, so he didn't see Jessie and James gaping at him.

"But why-" began James.

"Shh!" hissed Jessie with a hurried glance at Giovanni, "He'll hear us!"

"Oh, right." James nodded and continued to look at the drink menu in silence. There were no drinks at the buffet table. After doing "Eenie Meanie Miney Moe" a few times, James decided to order a Coke while Jessie chose a raspberry iced tea. As they sat waiting for their drinks, James began to make a fortune teller our of his paper napkin. Jessie was re-applying her red lipstick and looking in her compact mirror. The sound of glass shattering made them jump. Jessie peered over her mirror to see Giovanni standing there staring at them harshly with a broken plate lying at his feet.

"What are you two doing here?" he demanded.

Before James could answer, Jessie replied, "We pose that very same question to you!"

"Why am I here?" blinked Giovanni, "Well, I learned that, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself."

Jessie and James were bewildered.

Giovanni continued, rubbing his index finger and thumb together. "I've already devised a plan. A plan which cannot fail. Since every single one of my pathetic teams has let me down, I decided to undertake this mission alone."

"So what's the plan?" asked James.

"Why should I tell you bumbling idiots?" sneered Giovanni. Jessie glared at him. "Besides," he went on, "the plan is far too complex for amazingly simple minds like yours."

Smiling, James laughed, "Hey! He said our minds were amazing! Did you hear that Jess?" Jessie and Giovanni both rolled their eyes.

"Anyway… I can't tell you my plan, but I will give you some advice: don't be near the front of the ship at ten o'clock," the Boss concluded.

"Why not?"

Before Giovanni could answer because the waitress came back to Jessie and James's table.

"Here are your drinks. You can go to the buffet table now."

"Thanks," mumbled Jessie. She whipped her head back around for her Boss's response to her question, but alas! Giovanni was gone!