Hello! It is Wednesday and I am back with a new chapter :P Well, this idea has been whirling around in my mind for years and I only finally wrote it in the past couple of months! This story tackles quite a heavy subject and certainly one quite prevalent in the lives of all of my characters. Here, Jessie and Gary find themselves discussing - and almost arguing about - why Misty has been so lucky to have her parents visit from 'up there' while both of them have deceased parents also but haven't been as lucky. I hope you enjoy a more serious one. But of course there's lighter moments thrown in! :)
Disclaimer: I own the story and the OCs mentiond!
(Oops I pressed upload prematurely but might as well keep the story up now it's only a few hours to midnight and being Wednesday! xD)
Although Misty tried to portray an expression that matched the complete opposite of the bright and beaming Kanto weather that we were experiencing, she didn't appear to be doing very well from the way that her frown trembled on her forehead.
Practically gulping with bemused exasperation, she banged the palm of her hand against the wooden door of the lavatory room one more time. The sound ricocheted through the walls.
"Jeez, Dad, hurry up!" she called to Jordan on the other side of the door, him having only disappeared in there a couple of minutes ago in order to change before they all left the house. Succeeding in rolling her eyes more passionately that time, she added. "This little baby of mine will be birthed by the time you get out here!"
One more time the wooden frame experienced a smashing of the hand. Silence inside the bathroom was what followed, not even the slightest of hyena giggles fluttered from underneath the gap of the door.
Rolling her eyes a second time – that time more fondly once again – Misty adjusted her stance backwards so she was able to peek round into the other room, where the rest of us were situated in the kitchen. It was this moment that Lynne swanned through the archway, clearly hearing the words that her daughter had jokingly yelled even if her husband was seemingly ignoring them.
Hands flat out against her chest, Lynne's eyes were filled with gentle concern.
"Are you getting contractions already?" she wondered, taking her daughter's words literally and making an effort to reach her hand out to the baby bump to make sure that all was okay.
Quite often and certainly when things were a little hurried, Misty would have rolled her eyes all over again and even showed off a knotted brow to boot at her mother taking things at face value.
However, on this day, apparently it was her easy going streak that won out in the end and even with the addition of pregnancy hormones!
Misty actually took the time to reassure her Mom while they loitered outside of the bathroom door together, the younger of the two taking the older one's wrist softly in her fingers as Lynne continued to pet her bump, just to be on the safe side.
"Everything's fine, Mom." She told her before deciding to leave it there rather than explain why she had said these words. She was shown that this tiny sentence was enough for her mother from the way that she nodded her head immediately, oceanic eyes containing their natural shimmer. "But they won't be for Dad if he keeps on wasting our time for much longer!"
Misty's voice elevated even louder to prove a point and her eyes were the complete opposition of Lynne's. Even a caring hand that was not cupping around her bump lovingly which swanned equally as dotingly to the side of her cheek could not cool this attitude down.
The rest of us in the kitchen shared a brief glance together. Then at last, cheeky cackles erupted from inside the lavatory room and this was followed by the flushing of a toilet. A couple of loud, stomping footsteps afterwards told us that Jordan would soon barge the door open so the girl's had better watch out!
I was right. Soon enough, Jordan was standing there with his hands on his hips and announcing his readiness but with nothing but jovialness bouncing off each and every one of his features.
"Relax, relax, relax!" he announced, his fingertips not faltering on his hips and his head bouncing in a flamboyant way as his spoke, causing some of his citrusy hued curtains to unravel with gusto. "But maybe we better get going to the beach to cool your temper down."
Jordan's fingertips stopped their union with his hips to make a brief weapon shape alongside a clicking noise with his tongue. From being in the kitchen with Jessie and Gary, I couldn't see the two girls' just round the corner but I could clearly see Jordan looming there. And it didn't take long to realise that Jordan was mistaking his daughter's flushed appearance for oncoming frustration!
Misty soon set her father straight with words as well as gestures. Although she did go on to show off a very clear shudder, pretending to cover her eyes in such a way that lasted a good couple of seconds so it started to become very real for her.
"Oh, Dad, when you said you were getting changed, I thought you meant you were putting on more clothes!" her shaking of the head turned into a more violent shudder, even causing her to hop backwards so she was back in the kitchen rather than in the hall, outside the toilet room. "This is just ridiculous now."
I didn't know what tickled me more, Misty's horror or Jordan's utter naivety towards it as his wide hands spread outwards in a display of dismay! Biting on the inside of my cheeks, I watched Lynne seemingly have no issue with it at all as she giggled in a hushed fashion, hand reaching out to rest on her husband's bare chest.
"We're going to the beach!" Jordan retorted, hands splayed outwards showing that he didn't know why his youngest daughter was fussing so much.
I knew that the two of them could have vocal ranges to compete with one and other and the next conversation proved that.
Misty didn't hesitate to argue back, still cowering behind her own palms to continue her point.
"Yes and normal people wear a t-shirt there that they take off when they actually arrive there!" she responded before one of her gestures at least faltered. Her arms folded over the bump of her stomach rather than her chest because it felt more comfortable to restrict there. "And they wear shorts that at least cover most of their thigh."
Lynne and Jordan's gaze dropped down to what he was indeed wearing while Misty didn't want to in case she felt a wave of nausea that was not morning sickness in the third trimester of her pregnancy.
I had to bite on the inside of my mouth harder as I too spied Jordan's shorts that were the same mottled blush colour of my cheeks and indeed was barely a few inches longer than his hipbones. At least most of his modesty was covered.
And Jordan seemingly wanted to focus on proving his own point rather than the hand from his wife brushing over his solid chest as if he already had sand glittered over there. He ignored the kiss on his cheek planted from her too, joining his daughter in the kitchen but in order to get a second opinion.
Misty, however, thought he was trying to give her a closer look so moved nearer to the bin just in case.
"Oh c'mon! You three all see my point, don't you?" he asked, and Jessie, Gary and I had to be the three that he was referring to. There was no other people lurking, and he certainly wasn't going to ask his daughter a second time! "Jessie?" he questioned, suddenly picking on one particular person. "You work in fashion. I am rocking this, right?"
For such wide and clumsy hands that Jordan had, they swanned rather gracefully down his body to prove a point, gesturing to the way that he was carrying himself as much as what he was wearing. I watched with then curiosity in my gaze rather than amusement as Jessie's eyes followed Jordan's gesture, a slight arch in her perfectly plucked brow.
One couldn't help but wonder how on earth she was going to respond to this!
After a couple of silent seconds of debating, she shrugged from being seated at the kitchen island area of the Morgan Household with her laptop.
"If anyone can get away with it then it is probably you, Jordan." Came her response before she began to pick at the polish on her nails, apparently wanting them to be a bit more unkempt than the rest of her.
While anybody else in the room could clearly understand these words for what they were, Jordan was a little less wise to it and his arms started to fold over his broad chest in a smug way.
Naturally, his glee was directed towards his daughter and meant for her and her alone.
"See?" he rotated his body to address her, his muscular arms not faltering from around his equally sculpted torso before, for good measure, he decided to get at least one more opinion. I didn't know if I was relieved or snubbed that he didn't pick me. "Gary?"
Another pair of eyes had to look away from their laptop computer at the opposite end of the kitchen island work surface. He had been far less interested in what had been going on than anybody else, seemingly using all of the shenanigans as background noise to crack on with his work.
Regardless, Gary did prepare to give Jordan the time of day. But Misty got in there before him, showing loyalty towards one of her oldest friends by actually breaking the distance with her father and shoving a hand against his flat torso.
"Don't pick on him too; it's bad enough that you made Jessie look at you." She retaliated. She didn't notice the smirk that could only slightly be seen from behind Jessie's fingertips in her mouth as she heard the younger female's words. A rare occasion for her to be amused by something she said. "Gary came here for peace and quiet and to work and you've already been a nuisance to him by insisting on changing here rather than over at mine."
Misty's hand plunged further against Jordan's shoulder to win back dominance. He was unfazed. He worked hard enough to be able to tolerate far more than that!
We all watched as his daughter offered a bit of an apologetic look over to Gary to which his unbothered hand waved before disappearing into his spiky locks for something to do. In the meanwhile, Jordan decided that he couldn't allow his daughter to have the last word.
He chose to push his hand against her shoulder in return, but with far less force otherwise he could've sent her flying.
"And I think you've been the biggest nuisance to him of all by keeping me here even longer and picking apart my outfit choice rather than being on the road already." Jordan pointed out, his touch quickly leaving Misty and not because he was afraid of what she could do to him if she tried.
His mouth pursed together in a mock conniving way and his fingertips of both of his hands pressed together, all together forming a triangle shape.
Silence. There was silence. No sounds were put forth by Misty and encouraged by Jordan.
She had to think about it. A trembling movement tugging at her eyebrow lifted it upwards as she did indeed think. And then at long last, even she had to give in a little bit after she gave her dad's shoulder just one more shove.
"Fine." She ensconced and she drew her own touch away, that hand of hers falling down to her bump for something to do. "Let's go." Misty agreed, not needing to glance at the clock to know that her and her parent's needed to get the show on the road. She was, however, thankful she glanced at Jordan and had the sense to stop him from reaching for her keys on the island top between Jessie and Gary before she could. "But I will be driving us all. You can hide in the back seat seeing as you're choosing to wear that as your outfit."
It was funny how both father and daughter described it as an 'outfit' because that was truly the loosest term in the entire world! Jordan was literally donned in swimming trunks and nothing else but a smile.
He opened his mouth to protest and I saw Lynne's lips part too for the first time long after she had joined everybody else in the kitchen. Catching Misty off guard, she was supported by her mother who for once knew exactly where she was coming from.
Jordan felt a touch encapsulating his shoulder that was far different than a shove.
"Yes, the last thing that Misty needs is you being pulled over while driving her vehicle." Lynne agreed and as she planted a kiss on her Jordan's cheek, he reacted towards it this time. His expression was a perverse mixture of adoring flattery and confusion. "Because if anybody sees you in that, she will be for sure getting a ticket!"
While the rest of the kitchen erupted into varying degrees of chuckles, Jordan's mouth hung open for a different reason. The muscles in his arms bulged bigger than ever as the crossing of his arms across his chest was tighter to prove the biggest point of all.
But eventually, he just had to let bygones be bygones and focus on the day that could be ahead of him rather than everything that had been said. And when he focused on that, he was more than happy to loop both of his arms through an arm each of one of his girl's and head off to their fun-fuelled day at the beach together.
How I wished that I could join them! But Jordan and Lynne's presence on earth had sadly been dwindling over the past couple of years. And I very well understood that time just the three of them was so very precious. The three of them certainly lapped it up.
All the same, Misty showed me that other people were still on the forefront of her mind from the way that she poked her head back around the kitchen when the rest of us were certain that we were alone once more.
She offered me a very enthusiastic wave, Jessie a polite one before her true focus was towards Gary. He had resumed typing on his laptop once more but still somehow knew that her silent nod was for him and for him alone from the way that he looked up.
"Enjoy the peace and quiet now, Gary. Sorry about him." Misty apologised, not needing to speak a name because it was obvious the chaotic character she was referring to! It became continually unnecessary when that same person came up behind her, pretending to manhandle her away from the scene! She called back out to her husband's best friend in between fake struggles. "Good luck with your research paper!"
And even though Gary possessed a rigid expression of concentration as he held the pen that was in his digits up against his top lip, he managed to offer Misty a smirk before she disappeared and words to boot that made me think that I had somehow stumbled across a time machine.
I heard the sound of an eleven year old's voice even if it was actually a thirty one year old speaking.
"Smell ya later." He offered with a wave of the hand, the pen moving against the groove of his top lip as he spoke.
Then that was that. Misty, Jordan and Lynne headed off to the beach. I half wished that I could go but also knew that I should properly leave the Morgan Household soon enough to go and see other family members of my own.
Jessie and Gary proceeded to go back to doing the work that they were doing. Or at least, try to! Procrastination was an attractive menace during times of tight deadlines. That was why they agreed to meet up and try and do their work together.
It was a little bit unplanned when Jordan insisted on getting ready for the day out at Jessie and James' house rather than Misty's but it wasn't the worst thing in the world. They both prepared to get back to doing what they needed to do.
Or did they?
Seemingly out of nowhere, Gary stopped looking at the screen of his laptop and turned his head back towards where the other people had just disappeared out of. He had the strangest choice of reactions there and then. His irises revolved in the white sockets of his eyes. But then he went back to tackling what needed to be tackling.
Jessie, however, caught it as much as I did. And instead of looking over at me to gain herself the knowledge that we were on the same page, she studied Gary for some swooshing of the clock hands to make sure that she really had seen that.
She didn't doubt herself. And because she was certain, she decided to address it.
"Well I haven't seen an eye roll that huge since my husband found out that Ash was trying to propose that he and Misty's new baby should definitely be named after him in case it really is their last one." Jessie pointed out, finger no longer anywhere near her mouth but her eyebrow containing the same arch. "What's the issue?" a more direct approach started to follow. "Are you jealous that Jordan is practically on his second life but still has a better body than anyone here?"
Gary's lower lip had fallen into his mouth as he was really trying to concentrate on his work after his eruption and he had merely muttered a 'ha' noise. Jessie might've tried a more direct approach but that didn't mean it was any less amusing to see. I was rather glad that I had stuck around!
His façade of concentrating on the glare of his laptop screen started to falter and he couldn't help but knit his eyebrows together towards the woman across the table from him.
"What is that supposed to mean?" For some reason the words cut him. But the longer that the invisible fish hook tugged at her brow and she possessed no qualms about looking at Gary steadily in return, he decided to change his own approach after a windy exhalation from his nostrils. "There is no issue. I just need to get on with my work."
I glanced over at Jessie even if she didn't take the time to look over at me all that much. Seeing her consider these words filled me with intrigue because I too knew that they were fair enough. But we both were not foolish. We both had seen the way that Gary's eyes had presented themselves and we knew that we were not mistaken.
We shared the briefest of looks because of this. It was fleeting.
Jessie tried a different approach that was very much the same approach in disguise.
"If you want to go and join them then you better get in your own car and hurry along." The back of Jessie's chair felt the curving contact of a spine and as she leaned back, she pretended to spy the state of her nails for a split second. Then, that hand of hers wave, ushering and gesturing Gary. "I know we agreed to do this together but you won't be disappointing me. You'll only be disappointing yourself."
Ouch! If it truly was jealousy that he had to crack on with work while that little gang could seemingly play then Jessie's words there and then had to sting. I listened from one of the window sill's overlooking their vast garden as she had more of a harsh approach towards her eldest daughter's partner than she did towards her children even during their most troublesome of phases.
That eye roll that was the whole reason for that conversation during that moment in time made its appearance all over again. And yet, that one possessed a lot more gusto as it was more aware that it was trying to prove a point.
People often knew not to choose fire when going up against Jessie because she could surely burn better than almost anybody but there and then, Gary decided that he didn't care and wanted to prove to the older woman that he wasn't in the mood.
His eyebrows clasped together in a unison that wasn't compassion following his revolving eyes and he looked over at her.
"Will you just drop it?!" he snapped, his pen accidentally sliding out of his grip and very much proving a point that he didn't realise needed proving. Gary started to adopt Jessie's same stance of leaning against the back of his chair to give validity to his attitude. "Maybe you don't want to work but I do."
Jessie heard the way that the younger male grumbled and for a few ticking noises of the clock on the wall, her only reaction could be a continual arching of the eyebrow as well as an unfaltering stare.
But then after she studied Gary picking back up his pen all over again and holding it against his lips for a reminder to concentrate and he did indeed at least try to go back to the task at hand, she decided to go along with what he wanted.
For a rare occasion, she did this with words as well as actions.
"Fine." Jessie uttered, proving that she was willing to comply.
Or was this really the reason that she chose to say this word? Or rather, in reality, did she know that something like this would lead Gary to behave in more of a way that she approved of in the next couple of minutes?
I wasn't sure I liked that the lines between tactic and manipulation were blurring. But for some reason, I couldn't encourage my legs to move away from the window sill and away from the Morgan Household.
The silence that befell the kitchen after this interaction between the two people was a heavy one. It was like that thick fog that hung around in the air after an intense firework night, where the cold and crisp winter air had not broken through the smog quite yet.
Tap, tap, tapping noises from two different laptops started to fill the air as well but they sounded eerie. Almost slow motion. As if these sounds themselves knew that something else needed to occur and they didn't have the energy to appear normally.
I didn't know how many minutes passed following this. In the same way that my legs didn't feel it right to move, carrying me away towards my own home, my neck did not possess the same desire to look over at one of the other faces that lurked in the kitchen of Jessie and James.
Tap, tap, tapping noises prevailed. I was none the wiser to the fact that they started to be just because of the one computer and the one person rather than a harmony of both.
It was unbeknownst to me until he hesitantly spoke once more, that even though Gary was the one who proposed that he needed to concentrate, funnily enough, it was him who was able to do this the least.
Silently, he had started to lean back against the spine of his chair once more. And in the same manner, he drew his body back upwards again, in an attempt to appear erect and sure of himself. In the end, the only thing that he was sure about was that he couldn't stop these words from forming themselves. They started off as an itch in his mind and in his belly too that he tried to tame.
But they spiralled. And he knew that he too would spiral if he didn't mutter them to at least someone.
"Do you think that maybe it shouldn't be flaunted so much that Misty gets to hang out with her parents basically whenever she likes?" Gary said, these words seemingly started being carried away from him even if he decided that he didn't want to hold them back. He couldn't stop the continuation either. "And we don't?"
I started to realise why I had stayed. Gary hadn't of course needed to add these last three words but for some reason he felt it necessary. Watching with eyes darting like I was observing a tennis match, I waited for Jessie's own words as I spied her reaction and I suspected that the first one would be 'no'. I was stood corrected.
While it was true that the lady with the flushed hair had suspected that something beyond the lack of desire to crack on with his work was irking Gary, she could never have dreamed that it was something like this that was occupying his mind.
Both of her eyebrows drew up towards her hairline. And once more, she started to speak in between a mouthful of her own chipped nail varnish.
"I think that the opposite of flaunting around is sneaking around and nobody likes that occurring, do they? No matter what they're trying to hide." Jessie began herself and it was as if she had swallowed some of Gary's own irksome feelings from the way that her words couldn't help but harden in the base of her throat. "Besides, Misty is terrible at hiding things. So there is very little point."
I didn't appreciate the dig towards one of the truest members of my own family and I felt my red cheeks burning brighter. However, all I could do was focus on this quality within Gary for a different reason.
He deemed it entirely necessary to defend his choice of words.
"I don't mean Misty in particular. And I never said that she has to hide her relationship because that would be absurd." Gary answered. In spite of my previous feelings and being brushed the wrong way, it was still almost fascinating to see two humans interacting with a consistently knotted brow.
I believe that Gary was going to go on to say more words but he was not offered the chance. Jessie's fingers taking a break from being against her parted lips, they loosely drummed against her own laptop before she interjected him.
Gary's mouth was encouraged to slam shut and have a furthermore rigid portrayal of features.
"Then what do you mean?" Jessie did her best to encourage by her own merit. But it's intriguing and even a little sad how sometimes a welcoming to speak more of your mind can sometimes cause you to shut further down. It can cause you to think that your words aren't even worth hearing at all.
This was the case for Gary on that occasion. I knew that he had a lot to say from the way that I could kid myself that I saw his temple throbbing in between his tightly knit eyebrows. But at that point, he tried to pretend that work was the only thing that mattered.
"It's fine. Just forget about it." he answered. He tried to make it out like it was fine. He tried to wave a careless hand that ended up in his hair just because. Yet of course, he couldn't hide the fact that the words had been sent out of him like they needed to make their way around a very bitter boiled sweet before they could be sent into the ether.
Jessie wasn't having any of it. Truthfully, she didn't tolerate a lot of things! But especially things like this.
Even her direct self, ended up surprising me somehow.
"No." she told Gary and in this second, his eyes were just gaining the ability to be able to at least pretend to look at his laptop screen. Needless to say, they flickered back like a pinball machine. For half a second, he wondered if Jessie was angry with him. "Say what you mean."
I sank back against the window sill and it wasn't because my legs had given away even more. I know that what she really meant to say was to encourage Gary to say what he felt. But if encouraging him to speak rendered him silent for a couple of fleeting moments, then this would certainly shut him down entirely.
In the same moment that my bottom sank against the chipping white paint of the window sill, Gary shuffled from left to right on his own chair. He wanted to be stubborn and to repeat Jessie's first word back to her, and then to repeat his own prior words.
But where would that get him? He had started by asking Jessie the question first of all, hadn't he? He had started it. So he had better finish it. Or at least, continue it.
His bottom shuffling on his seat from side to side was the only thing that did the talking for a good few minutes. But then with a pen that jumped from his left hand to his right hand over and over again, Gary started to say a few more things.
"It just isn't fair that it's those two parents who come down all the time." He started, setting afoot with just the one sentence despite the fact that surely he had way more rattling around in his mind. "Loads of other people we know have dead relatives." Other people would use the word 'passed' or even 'deceased' if they were feeling bolder. Gary came face to face with death for the first time at the age of seven. What was the point of saying anything else other than what it was? "We have dead parents."
This time, four words escaped from Gary that he probably didn't need to add. I wondered why he felt the need to say them. But then, I supposed, that maybe there was a small part of him that wanted Jessie to feel as strongly as he did. Maybe he wanted to remind her that they could relate to each other on this sad instance.
She was often a fired up woman even if she didn't burn quite so unpredictably and intensely as she did when I had first gotten to know her as a younger woman. Yet for a rare occasion, she wasn't allowing herself to get lured into this volcano.
A very meek sigh for her escaping from her nostrils, she shrugged her shoulders before adjusting the part of her loose, v neck dress that had accidentally slipped off her shoulder a little. Her touch lingered on that fabric even if it didn't technically need to.
"Misty's parents haven't been down to visit since she first got pregnant with the latest little twerp." She reminded him and I feel like she was speaking some of these words for more than just old time's sake. In her own way, while I continually observed from the window sill, maybe she was softening a difficult conversation. "And I know you've seen her. So I don't need to point out that by now, she is almost ready to burst out that little thing."
Gary's head began to move from side to side as he leaned back in his chair all over again, doing more than leaning away from the work that deep in his heart he knew that he should be cracking on with. But deeper in his heart, he knew that there was pain there and he couldn't ignore it.
There was a very slim part of him that realised that he had allowed his first question to be posed to Jessie because he thought that she might understand. But the way that she was interacting with him and responding…?
He didn't understand how she of all people seemingly didn't understand at all.
"Even if she had only seen them once this year, it would be a hell of a lot more than you've seen yours. And that's not even mentioning mine." Gary pointed out. Again, Jessie sighed and this time she mustered one with more strength like the temperamental weather of Kanto could sometimes offer us. "Do you not imagine it? Do you not wonder what Misty, for example, has done so right to see her parent's all the time and what we have done so wrong?"
Like Gary, Jessie leaned her body away from her laptop but with her own, different reasons. She knew it would've shown vulnerability to chew on her fingernails all over again and even if she wanted to do this simply to think of her next response, she knew that she couldn't risk anything.
From Gary's point of view. She wasn't anything. She possessed nothing but indifference. And it was this that was nearly upsetting him more than any of the feelings bedded deep within what he was saying.
"We don't even know why Jordan and Lynne are able to come down so it's pointless wondering why other people can't when we can't even ask them." she offered. I couldn't help but wonder when the indifference would be too much for them to bare. For both of them. While it caused my head to turn to the side as I observed, I was more empathetic towards it than Gary who met it with plain disbelief, bordering on the insides of his throat burning. "I don't believe I'm the one stopping or encouraging anybody to come down or go back up. It's the same for you too."
They began to show me who was going to give into the frustration of it all first.
Gary, while continually leaning back against his chair, reached out a fully extended arm and swiped his hand in order to shut his laptop in a half closed manner. He was going to go back to his work. Eventually.
Instead of tackling any part of his research paper there and then, he decided to respond to Jessie. And as he did, from her point of view, he grumbled heavily.
"Well, I think that I should be able to see my parents." He quipped. This was what he meant. So this was what he decided to say.
Even in retrospect, I can't be certain whether it was the quality of his voice that, from Jessie's point of view, was like a child longing for a lollipop from the candy shop even though they had already visited there the day prior. Or was it the way that he had practically shut his laptop lid, seemingly abandoning their agreement for good?
I knew that Jessie was big on promises. But her reaction in the next few moments might have taken the biscuit even for that.
It had to be the grumbling. I was surprised in myself that I didn't sense something bigger in her like she had been suspecting in Gary.
"Will you stop with your whining, God?!" she suddenly erupted to him, not quite banging her hand against her own laptop in order to shut it but the mousepad of it accidentally feeling a bit of a slap all the same. I believed that her eyebrows had previously been as close as they could be. I was wrong. "It's not up to you to decide!"
We all have those moments. We all have those moments that, looking back, our emotions get the better of us or for one reason or another; we take certain emotions out on people that are rather unsuspecting.
Gary was a tad suspecting from the way that he was the one to start having this conversation with Jessie. However, nothing could prepare him from the way that the volcano within her exploded there and then, covering him with thick and scorching lava.
My own mouth hung open. Jessie's did too at what she had set free. But it was Gary who spoke next of course.
"Just forget about it." Those words from him finally repeated themselves and they did so along with a heavy body slowly lifting themselves up away from the chair and preparing to move entirely away from the table too.
Without his laptop in hand, it was uncertain where he was intending to head off too. To cool down in another room of his partner's parents' house possibly. Or perhaps to the tree in the Oak Laboratory in Pallet Town. That was where he felt closest to his own parents, after all. And they were the reason for that whole conversation.
In truth, they were the reason for a lot of silent heaviness that Gary kept caged in his heart.
Jessie watched Gary stand like a frail tree of his own and with her lips parted just open to portray dismay at her own fiery actions as well as to allow some of the air to escape to blow off steam, she wondered if she could be cowardly enough to just let him go.
Though she never would have dreamed of admitting it, she knew she had been cowardly to yell at someone visibly in pain so she didn't put it past her just letting him walk away.
She caught herself off guard. And in doing so, she allowed people to make sense of the way that she previously acted.
"No, wait, sit down. That's not how I meant those words to come out." She tried to apologise without actually saying the word. Hands of hers that had gotten so used to being chewed upon by her teeth started to press against the clammy forehead that resided beneath a layer of make-up. "We need to talk about this."
Regardless of the countenance that had taken over him that was like a crumpled piece of paper blowing in the wind, Gary managed to somehow flick his eyes straight over to Jessie with a whole lot of gusto. He was not willing to go down without a fight.
He still had fight in him left after dealing with deceased parents for twenty four years and had carried that bleeding heart of his around ever since. So he certainly had it within him after being yelled at by Jessie not for the first time.
However, although he stood firm in his stance that he had been more than let down and he was a whole lot less willing to let his opinions be set free anymore, he actually went along with Jessie's first part of her words and the chair welcomed him.
The chair felt strangely foreign after barely less than a whole minute. He had to fight the urge not to shuffle on it even more than before. He had to try and appear somewhat composed. I had never wanted to hop away from the window sill and join him more.
This time, my legs would have allowed it. But, you see, my heart didn't. It wasn't ready for the vulnerability that would surely ooze and weep out of Gary if he was embraced. And because I knew that he didn't want this possibly either, I stayed sitting and just loving from a distance.
That's funny really, isn't it? I loved from a distance just like his parents were doing. And like Jessie's parents were doing with her.
I believed that the silence that befell the kitchen after Gary had told Jessie to more or less 'drop it' earlier on was going to be the heaviest of all but I was more than stood correct there and then.
And, in fact, the silence wasn't really all that heavy. It was a chilling one. It was like all of the collected ghosts of our loved ones and our pasts were joining us in that room and filling it with a macabre hollowness.
But, of course, like Jessie pointed out without saying it at all, that wasn't possible because we weren't the lucky ones like Misty.
We were alone.
"My parents deserve a chance. I do as well." Gary suddenly broke the wordlessness of the room and I hoped – no, I prayed – that Jessie wouldn't perceive this was whining and would be a bit kinder to him moving forward. "Mine weren't bad like yours were."
Ah, of course. Words that did not need to be said were spoken.
Again, in hindsight, I know that Gary was only trying to reveal something more honest, something other than indifference out of Jessie. But 'only' isn't a very fair way to describe it. His sentence had great weight attached to it that could cause great damage and he knew it.
This is why he spoke them.
Proving to me while I looked on that it wasn't the half-closed laptop that had irritated Jessie so, she altered hers so it was in the same state and looked over at Gary from the less blocked view.
There was weariness in her eyes like she had weathered a great storm. This was the only thing that spoke of any emotion. Other than that, after another long pause that was put forth by her this time, she uttered rehearsed words that she had told herself that she believed for the longest of times.
"They both got caught up in Team Rocket in varying degrees and you know nearly as well as I that that organisation and badness do not always coincide." She said, her voice more level and sturdy than the table that stretched out between her and Gary, distancing them both. She had only a single twitch of a pair of rows of eyelashes in response. "My parents were never bad. Neither was yours. Just not as lucky, perhaps. Like us."
For the first time since introducing this topic, Gary knew that had had to look away. Even so, he didn't feel that he could look down at his laptop because he would be reminded of what he needed to be doing with his time rather than feeling. And he couldn't look down at his body because he couldn't bear that his parents had never seen what their sculpture of a little boy had ended up like as an adult.
Gary, instead, looked at some uninteresting and vastly boring discoloured spot on the wooden floor that resided below both him and Jessie and me as well. And it was within that water-bubbled mark of the floor that he discovered the words that he wanted to say next.
While his head swung slowly from side to side once more, his eyes didn't look away from where he had found his truth.
"I thought you of all people would understand…" he mumbled, at last speaking a fragment of the disappointment that he felt as he realised Jessie's stance versus his own.
But then again, did he really want her to be getting as worked up as he had allowed himself to get and did he want her to go back to getting as fiery as she had allowed herself to be for those seconds before the flames were extinguished?
Surely not.
While I was musing this within myself, peculiarly, Jessie started to grow a touch more animated. But fortunately, it was in a different way than before.
"Oh, I do." Jessie insisted, at last breaking her distance away from the spine of her chair and crossing one leg of hers over the other one underneath the table to give her posture an added air of certainty about her. The way her arms rose to play with her own hair benefited her in this way also. "Believe me, I have a number of reasons I could allow Misty to piss me off and this could certainly be one of them."
Jessie announced. Or maybe this was her conclusion. To tell you the truth, I discovered myself to possess a slant in my neck for a different reason as well as the quirking up of one of my own, single eyebrows. So I didn't know where she was going with this. Or if she had been going, and now she was finished.
It was similar for Gary, really. While he had a touch of an understanding twinkle in his eye that he believed Jessie had never portrayed for him at all, he decided to come out with his own words rather than simply allowing expression to do all of the talking.
At long last, he broke a small amount of distance with the woman at the other end of the table and with his laptop too. Folded arms and elbows rested against the wood of the table.
"That's not what I meant." Gary attempted to get his own point across. But Jessie wasn't having any of it.
She knew that he believed that she didn't understand at all. He had made that perfectly clear a couple of times now. Because of this, she had no qualms about insisting that she spoke.
Well, not that she ever did, really!
"Well it's what I mean." She insisted. And as she did so, I started to notice that it was no longer a conversation between two people with fully knotted brows. Tensions still could rise again at any moment but at least expressions had softened a good fifty percent. Jessie leaned closer across the table to Gary herself, her own arms folding around her. "Every person has a lot of reasons to get jealous and burst other people's bubbles." That didn't sound like a promising continuation! Luckily, Jessie didn't lose my attention or Gary's either. "But reuniting with ones lost loved ones isn't one of them. Jealousy and anger isn't what is important here. Hopefully other people can move past these feelings if I am fortunate enough to see my parents again."
Gary's interest could have peaked at any point during all of these words from Jessie. But in reality, it was the last sentence that really captured him. And with his folded arms pressed firmly against the kitchen island counter top, he couldn't prevent his expression from showing the opposite of his limbs and softening.
There was at last a slope in his neck, much like there was often one in my own. His eyes contained a diamond in realisation as he didn't bother to stop these words either.
"So you do think about them surprising you…?" Gary inquired. Jessie could've spluttered a sarcastic eruption from her mouth but she didn't do this. Instead, the light air bubble that blew out from her parted lips had the same effect. They even encouraged him to continue his next words. "Then how are you seemingly way cooler with the way things have turned out than I am? How do you not spit with rage every time Jordan and Lynne walk into a room?"
This is a question that could've needed a lot of time to ponder and understandably so. It was a question with many possible answers and it could be anybody's guess which one Jessie could choose. Even she could possess a plethora.
However, I was used to being stood correct. I didn't mind it.
I didn't mind when Jessie caught me off guard as I finally decided to move a bit nearer to them but not constrictively so. But, in truth, I don't think they even noticed my heavier presence any more or indeed any less.
"Because," Jessie put forth. She did this to show that she had an upcoming answer even if she needed to buy herself some more time too. A hand ran through Gary's own locks and after everything that day, his hair was looking spikier than ever. "What's the point? Bitterness is only going to poison me and me alone. It's only going to take my focus away from who is actually here with me." She paused. Gary's hand fell away from his spikes poignantly. Jessie then found her voice one more time. "It isn't going to bring them back to me."
She didn't need to tell him that it wasn't going to bring his parents back to him either. The way that, slowly but surely, his lower lip fell into his mouth and his spikes seemed to shrink down and he finally gained the ability to look down at his folded arms, told Jessie that he already knew this.
Another silence took over the kitchen and this time, it wasn't a heavy one nor was it a chilling one. It wasn't really anything to report at all. And that's how I knew that things were moving a bit more forward than they had been before.
I took my chance there and then to jump up onto the kitchen island top between them both and was surprised when, after a couple of clock ticking noises, I felt the hand of Jessie roaming through my fur and almost pulling me closer.
She didn't look at me. She didn't look at what she was doing. But she was there. And I was there. And that was all that mattered.
Gary didn't express any of the things that were whirling around his mind as he looked down at his forearms but probably a lot of different thoughts presented themselves. He wanted to keep them to himself, though, so that needed to be respected.
And then, at long last, just like the mustered the ability to look down at the creation that his parents had made even if they were no longer around to admire it and nurture it, he mustered the ability to smile.
For the first time that day, he smiled at Jessie across the island counter top from him. It was a wan smile. But it was a smile nonetheless.
"Guess you're better at dealing with these sorts of things than me." He admitted, his hand then darting back into his hair for something to do and by his way of avoiding getting into even more complicated conversations.
He also managed to avoid Jessie pointing out that that goes without saying! He didn't convince her not to say it because, in actuality, this wasn't even on her mind at all. Something else was.
And, needless to say, from the moment that she wanted to say it, she spoke of it. Inadvertently, her own hand was roaming through her hair rather than being attached to her lip or her teeth as she made an observation to the younger male.
"You know…" she uttered at first to give herself time. Or moreover, she gave Gary the time to look over at her in return while her left hand was still bedded into the brown stripes of my fur. "I think this is one of the first times you've ever spoken about your parents to me." Jessie pointed out, her voice as level as the island top that resided beneath my hind legs. Then, more animation took over as she corrected herself, her head twitching lightly and her eyes growing rounder to accompany her point. "If you have ever."
Air escaped from Gary's nostrils that he no longer needed. It was better than tears, he told himself.
Although it wanted to in an attempt to locate the comfort that he hadn't really felt since he was seven years old, his hand didn't continually bed into his hair. And instead, his arms folded all over again and his head tilted on the one side.
He flashed Jessie a smile that tried to carry the weight of everything that had been discussed. It did. But it was almost earnest too. It was sincere as much as it was honest.
"Well…" and with this, Gary copied her example by buying himself time before coming out with the words he really wanted to say. "Not a lot of people ask me to. So I don't."
And with that, my heart that resided in my chest started to feel a lot bigger or it was my chest that started to feel as if it was shrinking. It wasn't something that any amount of exhales and inhales could fix. So, I just had to live with the truth.
I had to live with the truth that I hadn't done enough. But instead of ruminating on that, I could spin it around one hundred and eighty degrees. And I could start by being better tomorrow. Or even better – I could be better from the next minute.
I left the touch of Jessie and I seated myself in the gap between Gary's folded arms against the surface and his chest at the same moment that she decided that she could be different too.
We all learnt lessons on that day.
"I would like to hear things." Jessie offered with a shrug. Her movement rolled off her shoulders like she didn't really care at all. But Gary couldn't be offended.
Because, you see, when he gave her more of a second glance of surprise, he saw her eyes looking back at him and her folded arms copying the same stance but without me inside of it.
She meant it. Jessie hardly uttered things that she didn't mean. And on this day it was no different. So Gary knew. It was time to be real. It was time to open up. It was time to tell tales of his own. And he told them to two people who couldn't be happier to listen.
It's true that we all learnt lessons on that day. But most of all, Jessie and I learnt stories. They are ones that I will tell you. They are ones that wouldn't stop there. Because eventually, Gary and Jessie's waiting paid off and they were given the chance for people to be happy for them rather than the other way around. How wonderful for them.
And how exciting for me! The tales never really seem to end. And the more and more that I learn, the fuller the picture of how I want to remember my life grows.
And along with the picture expanding in size, my heart does as well. Sometimes I think I cannot fit any more love in but then I am stood correct! I wouldn't change it for the world. I wouldn't change remembering for the world. I wouldn't change these stories for the world.
They are my world. And they certainly keep me spinning around and around and around.
The End.
There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :) This one was an interesting one to tackle because, while Jessie has mellowed in age, you can see some of her fiery qualities here with Gary! However, you can see she has discovered some inner zen over the years. To be certain, just like it is for Gary, it's so hard for her to watch Misty of all people get to reunite with her parents all over again. But like the ending suggests, both of them get their chance. It might not be the same as it is for Misty and there are reasons for that. But they've got their own lives to live, haven't they? Maybe one day I'll tackle a story about all the rules for 'up there' and why some people visit and some don't :P On another note, I so loved writing the beginning of this story and the dynamics between Misty and Jordan! He is such a vibrant character and I couldn't help but put that scene in before things got serious :D Thanks again and I will be back again on Wednesday so see you then!
Amy signing out :)