Chapter 25

Joshua had never heard Bird Pokémon sing so loudly.

Shielding his eyes against the sun that played hide-and-seek in a cloud-filled sky, he looked up at the trees that encircled the clean white lines of the Child Development Center. The massive oaks and pines appeared as if they were standing guard over the building and its precious occupants. The Bird Pokémon Joshua could hear were hopping from branch to branch in the trees.

He realized he'd never really paid a lot of attention to Flying-type Pokémon in his real life, or any Pokémon for that matter. He'd heard the ones in his dreams every night. But had he ever listened to their songs during the day? Not really. Well, he was going to start now.

I'm going to start doing a lot of things, he decided. But right now, he needed to pick up his sister.

It took him a few minutes to get into the building and make it down the long hall to the Activity Center. He was still limping, mostly. The limp was caused by the healing gouge in his leg, but he had a couple hairline cracks in his bones, too - in his tibia and fibula. Not big enough for casts, his doctor had told him. They'd heal on their own.

The rest of his injuries were healing, too. He'd needed a lot of stitches, and for a couple weeks, he'd looked like he'd had himself inked with splotches of black and blue and purple. But three weeks out, the bruises had mostly faded. His stitches were gone, and he was on the mend.

The sound of laughter hurried him along. He looked ahead and saw Dr. Pinery standing in front of the Activity Center window. They exchanged a wave, and Joshua was at her side a few seconds later.

He grinned at Dr. Pinery and looked through the windows. Inside the colorful play space, a group of kids were in the midst of a rowdy game of tag, a Lechonk running alongside them, and - to Joshua's total joy - Ava was one of the kids. His sister, wearing her favorite green overalls, was bobbing and weaving to avoid getting caught. She had some mad moves. Running from animatronics and a serial killer Sprigatito had honed her escape skills. And thankfully, it didn't seem to have dampened her spirit at all. Just the opposite. Right now, as she did an impressive drop-and-roll that got her out of range of a little boy with a flat top buzz cut, Ava grinned bigger and wider than he'd ever seen.

Ava shot to her feet and leaped away from a little redheaded girl. She spotted her brother and gave him a brief wave. Then she was off again, sprinting to the far side of the room.

"It's really extraordinary," Dr. Pinery said, "the turn she's taken these past few weeks. She seems almost-"

"Happy?" Joshua turned to look at her.

The doctor tucked a lock of blue hair behind her ear as she nodded. Then she glanced down at the leg he favored. "One of these days," she said, "you'll have to tell me what happened." She pointed at the leg. "And how you got that limp."

Joshua smiled, but he didn't agree to spill the beans.

He and the doctor watched Ava in silence for a few seconds. Then, Dr. Pinery asked casually, "And still no word from Marla?"

Joshua shook his head. He'd been ready for this question, and he answered it just as casually as Dr. Pinery had asked it. "You know," he said, "I think my aunt has finally decided to move on."

I mean…she kind of did, he thought.

Joshua flipped on his car's turn signal. The creaky click-click led into the sound of his squeaking brakes as he maneuvered the old jalopy around a corner. A belch of exhaust wafted in through his open window. He gave the dashboard in front of his steering wheel a pat. The car's idiosyncrasies had started to amuse him more than annoy him.

He looked over at Ava, who had her feet pressed against the glovebox. Her sketch pad was propped on her knees. She was drawing something Joshua couldn't see.

"It's really not that hard," he said.

But Ava said nothing back.

"I asked you a very simple question," Joshua pushed, "to which there's a very simple answer. Pizza or spaghetti?"

Ava held up her drawing pad, and Joshua flicked a look at it. She'd drawn a platter of pizza and spaghetti. "I told you. I want both," she said.

"Hmm, I guess we're at an impasse." Joshua said.

Ava gave her brother a pretend glare. Then she half-grinned and applied a colored pencil to her drawing. She made a sweeping motion with the pencil, and she raised the pad for him to see. Joshua glanced over at the pad to see that Ava had circled the spaghetti.

Joshua returned his attention to the road. "Done," he said.

Ava smiled and she flipped to the next page on her drawing pad.

"Mind if we make a stop first?" her brother asked.

"Nope," Ava answered, concentrating on her next drawing.

Joshua stood over the tombstone nestled in the earth, surrounded by multiple other tombstones. He breathed shallowly at the grim sight of the grave laid out before him. Why did all cemeteries have to look so foreboding? Maybe it was the sounds of weeping coming from other grieving families around him, or maybe it was the smell of the old bare trees planted around the perimeter of the cemetery. He didn't know. All he knew was that he no longer wanted to be here, staring at the grave he originally came to see. As if in response to his grief, the sun above - still cavorting with puffy white clouds - put a soft hand of warmth along the length of his back.

If only Celestine was here to feel it with him. Or maybe she could feel it. Could the dead feel things? Considering the ghosts he and Ava had encountered over the past week, it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that Celestine's spirit was here, sensing his pain.

He leaned forward and looked at the grave. Celestine's full name was carved into the stone, along with the year of her birth, and her death. Joshua could feel the weight of the situation pressing down on him even more. He clutched the rose he held tightly in his hand. Then, he let it go, watching it float down to the dirt by his feet, resting on top of Celestine's grave.

"So, the big news is," Joshua said, "I finally got a new job. Not as exciting as the last one, but I'm thinking that's probably a good thing." He chuckled softly, but his laughter quickly gave way to fresh tears as he realized he wasn't talking to anyone. It wasn't a good idea for him to make a joke in a place like this, so he stayed silent.

He was lying about his job. In truth, he was very excited about his apprentice-level position with a construction firm that was building a big complex in Artazon. The foreman, who'd said he had a past of his own, didn't have a problem with taking a chance on Joshua. He even told him that he could use company tools and scrap wood to work on his own projects off-hours. He thought he might make himself some bedroom furniture.

Maybe he would come back to tell Celestine about his new job another day. For now, he looked down and said, "I wish you were still here. I wish I knew more about you. I've made peace with a lot of what happened, and I know that…certain decision…you made, well, you weren't in control of them. And I know that when it mattered the most, you were there for me and my sister."

Joshua thought about Ava's description of all that had happened to Celestine when he'd been out of it. He immediately shut his mind down. He didn't need to linger on the ugliness.

"I don't think either one of us would be here today without you," Joshua told Celestine's grave.

A current of emotion rushed through him. So many feelings. Which was the most dominant? Sadness? Anger? Regret? Caring? Maybe something even more powerful than all of them? Joshua couldn't dissect his own psyche. He was not used to nuances like these. He'd been running on such limited settings - grief and regret - for so many years that these new sensations were going to take some getting used to.

"I miss you, Celestine." His voice cracked on her name. He cleared his throat. "Maybe…maybe when I die, we can see each other again. And then we'll talk."

With that, he turned and headed back the way he came. He tucked all his emotions away for a later time as he walked back to his car. In the back seat, he found Ava right where he'd left her. She was, predictably, drawing when he walked up to her.

"Did you tell her I said hi?" Ava asked glumly.

"Yeah." Joshua gave Ava a quick hug. "Let's go home."

Joshua looked out the living room window as he took a seat next to Ava at the kitchen table. The sun, possibly tired from its day of games with the clouds, seemed to be going down faster than usual. It had put on its dusk PJ's, and it now looked like an orange ball. The bottom of the ball had already dipped behind the hills.

Joshua looked down at his plate. Another ball, a meatball, was sliding off the top of a mound of spaghetti noodles. It rolled off the edge of the plate and stopped.

Joshua then looked at Ava. She was toying with her fork, turning the handle around and around on her folded napkin. Her gaze was focused on the disappearing sun.

"Everything okay?" Joshua asked.

"I was just thinking about my friends."

"You mean Spriggy and Ducky and the others?"

And Ava nodded. "They're all alone. And no one takes care of them anymore." She pulled her gaze from the setting sun and looked at Joshua. "Can we visit them sometime?"

What? No, no way in Hell, Joshua thought. His thought must have been clear on his face, because Ava looked down at her food and she sighed. Joshua thought about the promise he'd made to her at Spriggy's. He was going to do better. He meant it.

So, if it meant that much to Ava…

He reached out and rubbed Ava's arm. When she looked up, he made sure his expression was neutral. "You never know what can happen," he said.

Ava smiled. She stopped twirling the fork.

Joshua noticed that the glass next to her napkin was empty. "I forgot the orange juice," he said, jumping up.

He stepped to the fridge, and opened its door, grabbing a carton of orange juice. As he closed the door, his gaze landed on Ava's latest drawing, secured near the door handle by a Bulbasaur-shaped magnet. The drawing was of Ava, Joshua, Celestine, and the four animatronics. They were all inside the table-fort they had made back at Spriggy's.

Feeling his lips tip upward in the smallest of smiles, Joshua turned away from the drawing. He returned to the table and poured Ava's juice. The juice sloshing into the glass made a glug, glug sound that acted as a catalyst, snatching Joshua from the present and plunking him back in his childhood. In his mind, he was watching the juice fill a different glass: his own glass.

He looked up from the glass, and saw his mom set down the juice carton and sat across from him. She smiled at him and lifted both arms to join hands with Sunny and Joshua's dad. At the same time, Sunny and Joshua's dad took Joshua's hands. Joined, the family bowed their heads.

Joshua blinked, and he was back in the present. He reached for Ava's hand, and she took it. Sharing a brief smile, they bowed their heads and closed their eyes. Ava spoke. "Thank you for this food…and everything else. Amen."

Short and sweet, Joshua thought. He squeezed Ava's hand, but he didn't let go of it. Fancifully, he wondered briefly what the tip-top of the setting sun - almost gone now - was seeing as it peeked through their window. He imagined the scene from the sun's perspective. Brother and sister. Holding hands. Heads bowed. Holding the moment…because it was a perfect one.

For this moment, Joshua and Ava were happy.