"I've got to give my talk in fifteen minutes!" He shot out of bed and began pulling clothes out of his suitcase and throwing them everywhere.
"Wait, I laid your clothes out for you last night," Delia said, pointing to the neatly folded clothes lying atop the dresser.
"Oh, thanks," he said as he began to hurriedly pull on his khaki slacks.
"Don't forget your shirt," she said as she jumped out of bed and began to help him get dressed.
"Delia, you don't have to…"
"I've had plenty of experience with this, Samuel," Delia said as she began to button his shirt. "When Ash was little, he'd always oversleep and I'd have to hurry to get him dressed before school. There. Now let me get you a comb and run it through your hair, and you'll have a few minutes left to eat." As he slipped on his shoes, Delia began combing his unruly hair. "Perfect," she smiled as she stepped back to admire her handiwork.
"I was thinking the same thing," he said as he gave her an appreciative glance.
Delia blushed. "You'd better hurry up and get down there. You don't want to be late for your big presentation." She handed him an orange from the fruit bowl on the table and then threw open the door. "I'll get dressed and be down there in a couple of minutes. I want to hear your speech, too. And don't forget what I told you about the underwear," she said as she shoved him outside into the hall. At that moment, two of Professor Oak's colleagues just happened to be passing by and overheard Delia's remark.
"Oh, hello, Professor Blanca, and Professor Blanca," he said nervously as his face began to redden -- the married professors had been his mentors in college. The elderly scientists gave their younger colleague a questioning look and then saw a nightgown-clad Delia waving in the doorway. Professor Inez Blanca raised her eyebrows as Professor Oak's face turned even brighter red.
"Come, dear," Professor Miguel Blanca said as he took his wife's arm and the two headed down the hallway. As they disappeared around the corner, Professor Oak overheard him say to his wife, "I have no idea what she meant by the underwear, but I can't wait to hear Sam's talk now."
And his talk ended up going surprisingly well. At one point, he nearly broke down in laughter when he caught sight of Professor Wentworth in the third row and remembered Delia's advice about the underwear. Delia was in the audience, too, smiling at him the entire time.
"Oh, Samuel, that was so interesting!" Delia congratulated him as soon as he had concluded his presentation and joined her in the audience.
"I thought it was very interesting, too," said a female voice as a hand tapped him on the shoulder. Both Delia and Professor Oak turned to find themselves face-to-face with a pretty bespectacled young woman with bright red hair. "My name's Mary Chatsworth," she said, extending her hand. "I have a radio show called Pokémon Talk."
"Oh, I've heard of you," Professor Oak said as he shook her hand. "I'm a regular listener."
"Thanks, Professor," Mary smiled. "It's nice to hear from a fan. Anyway, I was listening to your talk and was wondering if you'd like to be my guest speaker on today's show."
Delia gasped in awe. "Oh, Samuel, that's wonderful!"
"We're at the conference to check out the latest news in Pokémon research that our listeners might be interested in. I think your talk about Pokémon and trainers having similar brain waves might be of interest to our listeners," Mary explained.
"But I don't think we can make it to your studio in Goldenrod City in time for your show," Professor Oak said.
"Don't worry about that. We're broadcasting live from the conference all this week. We've set up our remote studio in the Thebes Ballroom down the hall. So, are you interested?"
"Certainly. I'm quite flattered, actually. What time do you want me to be there?"
"The show starts at noon. See you then," Mary said with a wave as she headed down the hallway.
After listening to the rest of the morning's speakers, Samuel and Delia made their way to the ballroom down the hall.
"Come on in. You're just in time," Mary said as she waved the two of them in and motioned for them to sit down at the table across from her. "Now the important thing to remember is not to be nervous. Just pretend that it's just the two of us talking in five-four-three-two…Good afternoon, fellow listeners! This is Mary Chatsworth, better known as Deejay Mary, and it's time for Pokémon Talk. This week we're coming to you live from the Pokémon Biology Conference on Cleopatra Island. We'll be bringing you some of the latest happenings in Pokémon research this week, so let's get started. With me today is noted Pokémon expert Professor Samuel Oak."
"Hey! Professor Oak's on Pokémon Talk!" Brock exclaimed as he turned up the radio in the Ketchum house. He was in the middle of making lunch for everyone.
Misty and Ash, who had been busy cleaning up after Totodile's attempt to clean the kitchen floor, dropped their mops and gathered around the radio on the counter.
"Professor Oak," Mary continued. "Please tell us about your latest research project."
"Well, Mary, my latest research involves measuring brain waves in Pokémon and their trainers. I had a hypothesis that Pokémon and their human trainers who share a strong bond have similar EEG patterns."
"And how did you go about proving that, Professor?"
"I had several test subjects in Pallet Town that volunteered for this study. Matter of fact, one of them is with me today."
"And you are?" Mary asked as she turned to the auburn-haired woman sitting next to Professor Oak.
"My name's Delia Ketchum."
"Hey, Ash, that's your mom!" Misty said excitedly.
"Mrs. Ketchum…"
"Oh, call me Delia, please."
"Okay, Delia, what did you have to do in this study?"
"Oh, not much. All I had to do was lie down while Samuel -- I mean, Professor Oak – did the rest."
Mary raised her eyebrows. "And just what did Professor Oak do to you?"
"He asked me to relax and think about things that made me happy. Then he told me that I had nice tomatoes."
Mary's eyebrows raised even further. "Oh, he did, did he? This sounds like a very interesting study."
Professor Oak's face began turning bright red. "Uh, actually, what I told Mrs. Ketchum was…" Then he realized that he really did say that she had nice tomatoes -- no way he could talk himself out of that one. "Um, never mind."
"Then what happened next, Delia?" Mary continued.
"Oh, there was nothing to it. I just relaxed and let Professor Oak do whatever he needed to with me."
"I see," said Mary with a glance at Professor Oak, who was beginning to sweat nervously at the turn this conversation was taking. "I'm curious, Delia. If the study is over, then why did you come to the conference with Professor Oak? Did he need you for further…research?"
"He said he wanted to thank me for helping him out. Matter of fact, he even insisted that I stay with him in his room."
Brock and Misty's mouths fell wide open.
"Gee, what's wrong with you two?" Ash said as he began devouring one of Brock's bacon double cheeseburgers. "My mom and Professor Oak always travel together."
"So the two of you are sharing a room?" asked a very interested Mary.
"Not only that, but we're sharing a bed, too," Delia continued while Professor Oak wished he could crawl under the table and die. "I tried to insist on sleeping in the chair last night, but Professor Oak wouldn't hear of it. We were pretty cozy last night, even though I had on a thin little nightgown."
While Misty doubled over in laughter, Ash started choking on his hamburger, while Brock tried to imagine what Mrs. Ketchum looked like in her thin little nightgown.
"Do you treat all your research subjects like this, Professor?" Mary asked while Professor Oak started looking for any means of escape.
"Uh…uh…" he stammered desperately, trying to think of a graceful way out of this interview.
"Well, of course he does," Delia said. "Professor Oak always gives his subjects his full attention when he's experimenting."
"And just what kind of experimenting was the Professor doing with you last night, Delia?"
Oh no, Delia, please don't tell her about….
"Oh, we weren't doing that last night. We just watched a dirty movie, that's all."
"Wow, I didn't know the two of them were into that kind of stuff!" an amazed Brock said as he tried to perform the Heimlich maneuver on Ash.
"And just what was the title of this movie?" Mary continued.
"I think it was called 'The Naughty Professor'."
Misty roared with laughter as the piece of burger shot out of Ash's windpipe.
"Now let me get this straight, Professor," Mary said archly. "You tell one of your research subjects that she has nice tomatoes, then you invite her to a conference with you where you make her watch dirty movies and then force her to share your bed. Is that right?"
Professor Oak fell over backwards in a dead faint. So did Ash.
"Uh, looks like we're experiencing technical difficulties," Mary said quickly as she signaled to her producer to go to a commercial. "We'll be back in a minute with more of Professor Oak's very interesting research with one of his test subjects on Pokémon Talk."