Chapter 11: The Groping Gardening Gloves
Pandabot: What? Updating already? Madness I say! Well it's happening so I think you should read and then review
"Blue. Blue, come in."
JT was still staring in disbelief at the wanted poster clenched in his fist as a voice suddenly sounded from Blue's pocket. He pulled out a small walkie talkie and depressed the speech button,
"Blue here. Report" he said sharply, peering cautiously around the sky. After a second of silence the walkie talkie fired up again.
"I guess you're alive then, huh? Any problems?"
Blue looked around, tight-lipped at his two companions.
"A couple actually. Are you in position?" he said, laying a hand on his Pidgeot's neck; it veered slightly to the left and angled down towards the ground on a gentle descent.
"Of course," the voice replied, almost reproachfully. Blue nodded quickly, an odd bird-like expression,
"OK. Rendevous in ten," he stated, his words quite clearly a command.
"Roger that."
Blue slipped the talkie back into his pocket as Lyra spoke up,
"Who was that?" she asked, sliding closer to Blue subconciously. He glanced at her keenly before turning away and scanning the approaching ground closely.
"Someone you will meet soon. One of mine."
Pidgeot dove rapidly, slamming through the thin layer of branches and hurtling towards the ground; Blue gripped tightly with his knees as JT and Lyra clung desperately to the diving Pidgeot. At the last possible second, Pidgeot snapped it's wings open, halting it's descent abruptly and gliding smoothly to the ground.
Blue slipped off instantly, leaving JT and Lyra to collect their wits before they too slipped off the magnificent bird Pokemon. The shaken pair looked warily around the clearing they had landed in. It was fairly large, comfortably big enough for the whole group, including the large Pokemon; Blue had already strode over to the far side of the clearing and was conversing rapidly with a young teenage boy, careful to keep his voice down.
JT studied the boy, cradling his broken wrist gently in his free hand. He was small, even for his age, with a light slim build. He wore a grey felt cap over blonde hair, some of which escaped to spray over his face wildly. He wore slim pants that hugged his legs and a long-sleeved shirt that managed to seem both warm and thin.
JT and Lyra sat on a convenient log. The boy and Blue conversed quickly and then came over purposefully, Blue carrying a light pack. He dumped it on the floor in front of them.
"Ok. Here's my plan. You two will go with my boy here through Ilex Forest to lose any pursuers while I will fly away. I figure they'll come after my Pidgeot," he said bluntly, turning away abruptly. "Have fun kids," he added sardonically as he leapt athletically onto his Pidgeot. A flap of powerful wings, a second later and he was gone; Lyra and JT blinked at the speed of his departure.
The boy was left smiling shyly at them, clearly feeling a little awkward at the unexpected company.
"Hello. My name is Alex" he said in a quiet voice, giving a small bow in greeting. JT and Lyra mirrored his greeting, mumbling their own names awkwardly; JT winced as his wrist shifted painfully. A flash of concern crossed Alex's face as he studied JT's hand closely.
"Broken wrist?" he questioned quietly. At JT's nod he swung his own pack off his shoulders and began to dig through it. He spoke to Lyra as he did.
"I'm going to need either two straight sticks or one long one that we can snap in half." At Lyra's questioning look he elaborated. "It's for a splint. We can't go anywhere until that wrist is strapped up" he said, sounding suddenly business-like as he focussed on the items he was pulling from his bag.
Bandages. Safety pins. A thick roll of tape. He placed them carefully on the leaf litter, laying them out ready for use. After he managed to get himself organised, Lyra tramped back into the clearing bearing a long, thin, very straight stick; Alex nodded at her encouragingly.
"That looks about right" he said, before looking apologetically at JT. "And now comes the fun part" he remarked with a slight grimace. Alex grabbed his items and pulled them over to JT's position on the log. He examined JT's wrist closely. Sweeping around, he grabbed the stick from Lyra, using his foot skillfully to snap it almost perfectly in half. He slowly and carefully aligned them parallel to JT's forearm, trying to move the wrist as little as possible.
He took the bandages from the ground and, holding the sticks gently in place, loosely wrapped them around his arm, starting just short of halfway along his forearm and moving up to the base of the thumb. Alex turned, seemingly looking for an item on the ground; a swift yank, a yell of agony from JT and the bandage was suddenly tightened around his wrist painfully.
Taking advantage of JT's paralyzed state, Alex quickly pinned the bandage in place; almost having to hold JT down as he did. As quickly as the bandage was applied, Alex let him go, quickly stepping out of JT's reach.
"Ow! Did you have to do it so hard?" JT hissed, clutching his new bandage painfully. Alex merely shrugged, packing away his medicinal items,
"If I didn't it wouldn't heal properly," he said calmly. He continued sternly, "But that means that you have to let it heal, got it? No lifting or anything with that hand; it needs time to set." At JT's grumbled assent, Alex swung his pack onto his back and motioned for Lyra to do the same.
"Let's get moving."
The trio zipped along at a good pace as the afternoon was setting in. Alex stared thoughtfully at the sinking sun through the light canopy.
"We'll need to find somewhere sheltered to stay the night." Alex turned to JT and Lyra, "Ilex is around another day away and we don't want to be out in the open at night."
They were tramping through a bushel of oak trees when Alex stopped abruptly; Lyra walked straight into him, caught unawares by his sudden pause. He held up a hand for silence and crept forward stealthily, moving almost silently through the undergrowth.
In the next clearing an old woman hummed quietly to herself as she poked at the ground with a stick thoughtfully. Deciding that she looked fairly harmless, Alex motioned for Lyra and JT to follow him as he stepped through to the clearing with a cautious greeting.
"Uh, hello?"
At the sound of his voice, the old woman's head snapped up remarkably quickly. She spied the three teens and clapped her knarled hands together excitedly.
"Oh, visitors!" she cried. Her wispy grey hair blew across her face as she moved to greet the group, grasping Alex's hand she pulled insistently. Giving JT and Lyra a bemused look, he allowed himself to be pulled along in her wake, sweeping up a slight incline.
JT and Lyra looked at each other before each shrugging and following the pair; as Alex had said, anything was better than spending another night out in the open.
It wasn't long until the odd, old woman yanked Alex into view of a ramshackle cottage, half falling down from years of missed maintenance. Before he could inspect the cottage properly however, the old woman yanked through the swinging gate and into the house. JT and Lyra, trailing behind noted the sign on the gate,
"Thestleburn Manor."
JT scoffed in disbelief, "This is a manor?" he laughed, stopping abruptly when Lyra elbowed him hard in the ribs. Pouting at her and rubbing his ribs, he fell into step with her, following her into the house where Alex was already seated at a dusty table, an upside down teacup on a saucer in front of him.
As JT and Lyra joined him, Lyra setting her pack down by the door gently, Mrs Thestleburn, for they assumed that was she, laid out upside down teacups of their own and then sat watching them carefully. After a pause, when all three alternated between staring blankly at each other and their teacups, Mrs Thestleburn spoke up.
"Well? Aren't you going to drink?" she asked in a raspy voice. JT looked at his teacup blankly for a second.
"Uh, I don't drink...tea" he said lamely, smiling uncertainly. Hearing the others echo his words, Mrs Thestleburn just shrugged.
"Oh well. More for me!" she exclaimed. Mrs Thestleburn grasped their teacups tightly, weighing them up for a second before hurling Alex's cup on the ground. She sat back with a satisfied expression, eyes closed, as the group gaped at her.
"I do love a good cup of tea" she cooed dreamily. She opened one eye and studied them closely. "I do hope that you will stay and help an old woman with her garden. You'll get a meal and a bed out of it" she said calmly. JT blinked in suprise,
'Um, ok...I guess.'
The increasingly eccentric old woman gestured JT and Lyra into the hall, leaving Alex to the mercy of Mrs Thestleburn's hospitality. As they left the dining room the pair mouthed a stifled 'good luck' to Alex, who was struck wide eyed at the uncanny situation his duties had led him into.
The manor's main hallway was narrow, decorated solely by a small armoury of gardening tools. Dozens of pairs of gnarled gloves adorned a wooden rack consisting of short, jutting, wooden poles. The limp gloves fingered JT and Lyra as they squeezed through the cramped hallway. Mrs Thestleburn clattered together a bunch of tools for the pair.
"Good luck children. My garden is very, very grand as you will see."
Pruned primrose thickets scattered the unkempt grass, yellowed and threadbare, playing beneath a creeper of ivy, winding up the back wall of Miss Thestleburn's house and choking the topmost spire. JT clutched the set of gardening tools in his left arm and leant down to grab the bucket of water with his injured right hand. Lyra stepped in and snatched it away before he could. JT glared a perturbed look.
"You heard Alex," cooed Lyra swiftly, 'you need time to heal."
JT went to protest but thought better of it; he rolled his eyes behind Lyra's back. The pair trudged into the garden, following a knobbled path of sunken stones. The trail descended into a tangle of milkweed and maple that smelled sweet of compost and blackberries. Lyra called the absent-minded JT to a halt, dropping the bucket of water to the ground. JT lay the tools at her feet. Lyra broke the silence chirpily.
"I think we should give this colwort a tidy up for starters."
"Give this what a tidy up?"
"Colwort!" She cried enthusiastically, tugging at his good hand; she knelt before a black thorny bush.
"Is there any particular reason you're so into this?"
"Come on Jordy! We said we'd help and she is giving us a roof for the night."
"That isn't what I asked..."
"Jordan Takeshi, if you're not going to be helpful you may as well just go for a walk! Judging by the size of this," she gestured at the bush, "I won't have moved far."
"Fine. If you need me, I'll be wandering the yellowcress."
JT set off, wandering deeper into the garden. He soon found himself strolling under a row of ash trees skirting the edge of Miss Thestleburn's property. A small cluster of park benches came before him; he gladly threw himself into the nearest, relishing the opportunity to rest his tired legs. With the weight lifted from his legs, however, his right wrist began to throb agonisingly. He nursed it tightly, biting his lip as he squeezed. The pain persisted for a minute and then eased - JT let out a sigh. At that moment, wandering his glum thoughts, he spied something odd just outside the garden; an Oddish was rustling beyond the low, jasmine-entangled wall.
With polite eyes, Alex observed Miss Thestleburn pouring cold, yellow milk from an unboiled teapot into a pot plant. The old woman piped up brightly,
"Will you be having any dear?"
"No, thank you! Will you?"
Miss Thettleburn ignored Alex's question. She joined Alex at the dusty oak dining table, leaving the rancid milk to simmer in the soil. Alex reluctantly took something from the tray of food Miss Thestleburn had placed on the table - a pile of large biscuits shaped liked plump Miltanks were the most appetising item on the menu.
"What's your name dear?"
"Alex."
"You remind so much of my granddaughter..."
"Oh, but I'm not a girl Mrs Thestleburn!" interjected the boy, red-faced.
"Oh no no, I'm quite sure that you are." The old woman reached a crusted hand across the table to pat Alex's cap. He took the gesture far better than JT and Lyra would have, peering back at her with a cool blinking stare.
"And I'm afraid its Miss Thestleburn now," she added, turning her eyes darkly to the soiled table top.
"Oh..." said Alex sheepishly, "I'm very sorry to hear that."
"Oh, don't worry I'm not" she answered, smiling dreamily, "I saw to it after all."
Alex choked hoarsely, spitting the crumbled rump of a Miltank into his hand.
JT crept from his bench and crouched towards the wall. Slumping his side against it, he carefully peered over at the curious grass pokemon. Its squat, royal blue body was waddling up the garden wall, seemingly tending to the meagre weeds splayed along it. Its beady eyes hadn't spotted JT and he decided to slink away after watching it with unusual interest for a minute or two.
JT returned to find Lyra wrangling with a thick bitter-weed. She said nothing as he stalked by, easing himself to a grassy patch nearby. Wrestling the stubborn vine out of the ground, she raised a voice to her companion.
"See any good sights then?"
"Other than a chance encounter with a strangely docile Oddish? No, not really." JT turned to Lyra, beet-red from her taxing encounter. "I don't see any point in getting too invested in your hidden love for gardening Lyra - we're out of here tomorrow morning."
Lyra slipped JT a wry smirk. He replied with the first grin he'd worn since Slowpoke Well. They spent the rest of the afternoon crossing jobs off their list, JT provididng Lyra with tools and emotional support as she engaged the unruly inhabitants of Miss Thestleburn's monstrosity of a garden. They took a route along the garden's edge as they returned to the house at the end of the day, stopping only to observe the curious Oddish who had worked his way around to the opposite side of the property.
The pair hung up their boots and slid into Miss Thestleburn's foul-smelling kitchen to an odd scene; the old woman of the house stood beside Alex as he sampled pickles from her extensive shelf full of grey, muddied glass jars. Alex looked at them with pleading eyes; Please! Save me!. Miss Thestleburn was very pleased with the work Lyra and JT had crossed off. The young trio thanked her again for her hospitality and, upon Alex's advice, retired to their upstairs bedroom without dinner.
Their room was cramped and reeked of must. Propped in its middle was a damp bed big enough for three. Lyra decided they'd had enough fun for one day, so she pulled the surprisingly clean curtains shut (to mask that it was, in fact, only 5:30 in the afternoon) and the three of them shuffled onto the limp mattress.
"Uh..." grunted Lyra, staring at the black ceiling, "I think I've seen enough knotgrass to last me a lifetime."
"My thoughts exactly," remarked JT from the other side of the bed. Alex huddled between the two. Lyra spoke again.
"Still...I think we need to remember that...given the circumstances...anything is better than being out in the open."
JT turned grim at this. Inside the rickety walls of Miss Thestleburn's house, and the thick milkweed of her garden, the problems of the outside world had seemed strangely distant. Alex remained warm, yet focussed,
"I think Miss Thestleburn murdered her husband."
JT and Lyra turned to the young boy in unison, mouths agape upon their thin pillows.
"What?"
"Are you...how do you..."
"She said she'd lost a husband...and then she said she had 'seen' to him." Alex cracked a rare nervous smile in both directions. JT found his voice first.
"Wait...let me get this straight...you knew she'd killed her husband...and you ATE HER PICKLES?"
Alex's voice grew small, "I thought refusing might give her reason to turn us out is all."
"Well I am not staying here!" JT boomed, springing to his feet. Lyra cut in,
"I agree with JT. Let's get outta here..."
Thestleburn Manor at night was shadowed over like a crypt. The trio were thankful it was a very well built one however - the staircase didn't creak one bit as they descended to the ground floor. Alex decided they'd leave through the garden so as to not leave Miss Thestleburn's front door unlocked (JT pointed out that he was showing a strange amount of consideration for someone who may be plotting their grisly deaths at that moment). Lyra spotted the garden door and bolted to get out of the creepy house. JT and Alex squinted through the darkness as she took off down the narrow hallway, only to stifle a yelp as she was handled by the groping wall of gloves.
They weaved their way through the ramshackle garden (improved as it was after Lyra's attention, it was still a mess), taking care to avoid making unneccesary noise as they did so. A rustling sound was heard, causing the whole group to shush each other urgently; as soon as they began to move, the rustling was heard again, this time loud enough for them to realise that the sound was in front of them. Using the sparse moonlight to see, they moved silently to the source of the noise; just outside the low wall a squat Oddish was tending to the weeds growing over a large slab of stone planted in the ground. JT recognised it as the same Oddish he seen earlier that day as it struggled to pull a small weed away from the stone slab.
Alex slipped stealthily over to the Oddish, eyes saddening as he recognised the traditional shape of a gravestone. He helped the Oddish, yanking the weeds away from the grave roughly. As he did the name became clear, the moonlight shining on the roughly carved letters.
R.I.P Hikari Thestleburn
May her spirit find it's place in the stars
JT and Lyra joined him as his head dropped sadly. "I think this might be her granddaughter" Alex said solemnly. His eyes fell on the Oddish watching them warily, he walked back to the gate and held it open, staring at the Oddish. Waddling carefully over, the Oddish entered the back garden, proceeding to begin weeding with an almost lewd enthusiasm. Alex smiled as he turned away, nodding at JT and Lyra in satisfaction.
"Maybe now she won't be so lonely."
The group had set up camp about ten minutes tramp from the old woman's house; JT stirred as a thought struck him.
"You don't think that old lady's gonna try and kill that Oddish or anything do you?" he asked curiously. Lyra stared at him for a second as Alex snored lightly,
"Well it won't be on our heads. Get some sleep JT."
Peppy: I've been reading Watership Down recently and have taken a bit of a shine to the quaint charms of the English countryside. So that explains why this chapter kinda becomes an English children's fantasy for a whole section. Yeeeeaaaaahhhhhh.
Pandabot: See, while Peppy thinks this is a bit Watership Downy (which is an amazing book, read if you haven't already), I found that this chapter reminded me a bit of Alice In Wonderland. The cool one, not the toned down one. So anyway, please review; I love to hear your thoughts/criticisms/blind love statements. Whatever, I'm not fussy