My name’s Gary. I am the Viridian gym leader. I have a great family. I have Clair, my wonderful wife, Ken, our baby and also May, my sister who’s so nice and cares so much about me. But one day, I felt like something was missing… My parents… I wanted them to meet me, my great pokemon, my dear girlfriend and my baby, Ken, who is also their grandson. I wanted them also to see how much I worked to reach my goals to be a pokemon master. I ended up to be a gym leader, but now I’m really proud of me! I want them to be proud of me too! Here is how everything happened. I was in my gym and I thought… “I have to know who my parents are! I don’t care that they’re mean, ugly, stupid or any other thing, I just want to know who they are! Anyway, they can’t be mean! They’re the ones who have raised the nicest girl I know! Well they’re not really the one who raised May, Grandpa is. Plus, they didn’t really abandoned us, they gave us to Grandpa… I know, I’ll question May! She can know some things about our parents…” I went on my Pidjeot’s back and he flew. He stopped in front of May’s house, in Pallet Town. I went off Pidjeot, recalled him and knocked on the door. She opened right away and smiled. “It’s so nice to see you, Gary.” She hugged me. “Yeah, sorry I haven’t been visiting often. I have an important job and also a baby.” “I understand, come on in!” We entered and sat on a couch. “So, how are you?” “I’m feeling really empty… I want to know more about our parents…” “You know what? I always wanted to know who they were too, but I also have a feeling that I shouldn’t even try…” “We have to try! We can’t ask ourselves who our parents are for the rest of our lives!” “You got a point.” “We have to ask Grandpa for information about them!” “Ok, I just still have this bad feeling…” “It’s gonna be ok.” I smiled to her. She smiled back. Then we went outside to walk to Grandpa’s. May knocked on the door. We waited a few seconds and we got no answer. “He doesn’t seem to be here.”, my sister said. We were both discouraged. Then, I looked at my sister and said: “We don’t have time to look for him, we’ll have to ask a specialist.” We had asked to an adoption search center to look for our parents. We waited weeks until we finally got some news. Here’s what happened, later, in the center… “We have found your parents.”, said the woman working at the center. “Your mother’s name is Oak. Lorelei Oak.” “So, our mother’s grandpa daughter?”, May aksed. “Duh!”, I said. “I like that name. Lorelei…” “As for your father, he’s…, he’s well known… I’m sure you heard his name somewhere… Anyway, it is Miyamoto. Giovanni Miyamoto.”, stammered the woman. “WHAT!”, I exclaimed. “Isn’t that the Team Rocket boss?”, my sister asked with a stressful tone. “Not anymore, he retired last year.”, the woman answered. “I knew we shouldn’t have tried to look for our parens… I think I’m gonna faint…” “May, we don’t have time for this!”, I said, coldly. “I can’t believe it… Giovanni is our father!” “Eh, wait, can you tell us if we have brothers or sisters?”, I asked the woman. “I knew you would ask me that, so I looked for that as well.”, she answered. “Lorelei had no other child than you two, but Giovanni did. Your brother’s name is Ash Ketchum.” “WHAT!” “Ash…”, said my worrying sister. “It looks like you know him…”, said the center’s employee. “I don’t need to tell his mother is…” “Delia Ketchum, I know!”, I interrupted her. “Thanks for everything.”, thanked May. “We’ll have to go now. Bye…” We went outside the center heading towards Pallet Town. “Ash always wanted to know who is father was… We have to tell him!”, May said. “Are you crazy? I don’t want him to know we’re… brothers…” “Gary, stop that! He has the right to know too!” “I don’t want him to know!” “Why not?” “Because of… of… Anyway, you can’t understand!” “I do understand that you’ve always been jalous of him!” “Jealous? Never!” “You were always competiting with him, because you were jealous! Don’t deny it!” “I deny it!” “Gary…” “Ok, ok, ok… You’re right. Ash had always friends, while I had none… He had always been succeeding in everything and he always had fun… I didn’t. That’s why, when we became trainers, I wanted to prove him that, for once, I could be better than him in something! At the beginning, I was better, but became a lot more skillfull. His Pokemon always loved him… Mine didn’t. I do am jealous! Happy, now? ” “Well, Gary, I think it was very mature of you to tell the truth for once.” “Huh? Mature?” “Yes, we both know you had always difficulties with, maturity, but you’re really improving.” “Think so?” “Of course! I just told you! Anyway, we have to drop to Ash’s for a visit. “Let’s hope he’s there so we won’t have to come back.” “I know his schedule. He’s one week to Misty’s and the other week to his mom’s. This week, I know he at Delia’s.” Later on, we were in front of Delia’s house. I knocked this time. Ash opened the door. “Hello! Huh? Gary! What are you doing here?”, he greeted me. “We’re here to tell you something important!”, I answered. “Please, Ash, let us enter and we’ll talk to you a bit.”, my sister added. “If it’s that important… Come on in!”, Ash said, smiling. He had welcomed me a bit rudely, but I would have been worse. After all, he smiled and installed us in his bedroom. Misty entered. “Hey there! How are you guys doing?” “Great! It’s nice to see you, Misty!”, May answered. “Didn’t we say that we needed to speak to Ash and to Ash only?”, I asked May. “It’s ok Gary, Misty can stay!” “She has to.”, Ash added. He kissed his girlfriend and then she sat beside him. “We come back from an adoption center.”, started May. “What’s the link with me?”, Ash asked. “Ask questions later.”, I said coldly. “The woman who works here told us that you were…”, continued my sister. “What?”, Ash asked. “Well… Ash, you’re our brother.”, she finished. “What!” May nodded. “How come my mom didn’t tell me?” “How come I didn’t tell you what?”, said a familiar voice. “Mom!” “Hello, Mrs.Ketchum!”, May greeted. “What’s going on?”, Delia asked. “So, now that all the family’s here, let’s finally reveal the punch! Ash, your father is Giovanni, the team rocket boss!”, I said rudely. “You mean OUR father.”, May corrected. “What!”, Delia exclaimed to May and I. “That monster is your father too!” “The team rocket boss!”, Ash exclaimed. “I insulted monsters!”, Delia realised. “How come you didn’t told me before?”, Ash yelled at his mother. “I’m really sorry. I’ll talk about it with you later, Ash. It’s just not the right time, now…”, Delia cried. Ash seemed guilty of having made his mother cry. “I’m really sorry, mom, I understand. It’s okay, we’ll talk later.” He hugged his mother. “Thank you, Ash. You’re the only man I ever loved in all my life.”, Delia said. Misty watched the whole scene without saying a word, she seemed really surprised. Giovanni was her boyfriend’s father! “Thanks for informing me, guys.”, Ash said to May and I. “You’re welcome.”, my sister answered. “I would have appreciated to tell you before, Ash. But I wasn’t able to… remember about that…” “We’re sorry, Mrs Ketchum, maybe we shouldn’t have done that. ” “No, it’s very nice of you to tell Ash who his… father… is.” “We have to go.”, said May in a sad tone. “Bye…” We all wished the others goodbye and left. When we were outside, May and I were glad to see someone we really needed to talk to! Granps! “Granps! There’s something we need to talk to you about!”, I said. “Well, hi, first!”, he answered. “Hi…” “You both look pretty troubled.” “We learned who our parents were.” “Ah… I feared you would do this someday.” “Yeah, I know we should have told you first, but you weren’t at your home.” “I had been visiting Lorelei…” “Great! Where does she live?” “I’m sorry not to have told you sooner, but Lorelei was always telling me she wasn’t ready to see you yet…” “Yeah, but where does she live? “I have her address on this paper I always keep it with me, in case I feel like visiting her…” He handed me the paper. “It’s in the Orange Islands…” “Thanks, Grandpa, we appreciate it.”, May said. “I hope you won’t visit your father!” “Don’t worry, we don’t want to see him!” I answered. “Of course, our mother’s different from him, because she’s your daughter, Grandpa.” He smiled. “But first, there’s something I need to tell you about her…” “What?” “Huh… I forgot! My age isn’t helping me… Heh… Go, go, I have work to do. Bye!” “Thanks! Bye!” Two days later, we went on a boat to visit our mother. Grandpa had phone her to tell that we were arriving. After an hour in the ship, we arrived at the island where she lives. We looked almost everywhere around the island till we finally found her house. It was a very small house. It was white, except for the roof and the door: they were light blue. Our mother saw us by the window and she got out of her house. She had light brown hair with a ponytail. She looked a lot like Delia, but, of course, she was not exactly like her. She was taller, had glasses and was wearing a blue shirt and a blue skirt. The first thing she did when she saw us is smile and she let out a very shy “Hi!”. “Here we are…”, said May, as shyly as our mother. “Hi!”, I added. Of course, we were all very timid at the first… “Would you like to… enter?”, Lorelei said before laughing nervously. We entered and all around a table, in the dining room. She gave us juice and cookies she made herself. For us. That’s nice… “Lance!”, Lorelei shouted. “Please don’t come in the dining room, I have to be alone with my… kids.” A voice from away let out a loud “Ok!”. “Lance! Isn’t he THE champion?”, I aksed. “Well, yes, he’s the champion of the Elite Four.”, answered my mother before laughing again. “I knew I had seen you somewhere! You are part of the Elite Four too! You’re… Prima!” “Yes… Well, Prima was a name I gave myself not to be reconzied by Giovanni…” “That monster!” “He’s terrible!”, May added. “You’d be surprised how he has changed now that he’s not in the team rocket. He’s a lot nicer to Pokemon and… to women too.” “How come you know that? You’ve been seeing him?”, I asked. “Yes, I wanted to see if he was like before, when we were… together.” “Was he part of the team rocket at that time?”, May asked. “Oh, no, he wasn’t. A few months after your birth, Gary, he wanted us to be part of Team Rocket. So, I raised you two all alone.” “I understand why Delia said he was a monster!”, I exclaimed. “Team rocket had completely changed him. When he was not part of it, he was the men I loved. When he joined Team Rocket, he became cold-hearted!” “I hate him!”, I shouted. “Gary, hate won’t change anything.”, May explained. I changed subject. “How come we got raised by Grandpa?”, I asked my mother. “When you were born, Gary, I had to take care of two babies. I knew I wouldn’t be able to, so I gave you both to my dad.” “I understand this, but how come didn’t you visit us earlier?”, my sister asked. “I was never ready… I was so afraid that you would hate me…”, she answered. “Well, we don’t!”, I exclaimed. “I hate Giovanni! He’s the one who…” “Gary, stop that!”, ordered my bossy sister. “Our mom said he had changed.” I tried to calm down. “You just can visit me anytime and I’ll visit you sometimes too.”, mom said. “We’ll try to forget about past…” She hugged us. Suddently, she began to cry. “I’m sorry I was so irresponsible… I’m a complete failure as a mother…” “You’re forgiven!”, May said. “It would have been better if you came earlier though.”, I added. “Gary, don’t you see that our mother is crying?”, May whispered. “Ok, sorry… We love you!” “You do?”, mom asked. “Of course, we do!”, May answered. “You are so nice, I’m so proud to have such wonderful children.” She smiled. “Hey, do you want to see your grandchild too?”, I asked, acting proudly. “I’m a grandmother! How old is he?” “Two months.” “I would love to see him! What is his name?” “Ken… Ken Oak.” Later, all three of us were at my gym with Clair holding Ken in her arms… and Grandpa! My mom looked at Ken and smiled. “He looks just like you.”, she said to Clair. “Congratulations!” “Thank you. We’re so proud!”, the women of my life answered. “He’s so adorable.”, my mother told me. “You have chose a very nice wife.” We smiled. Clair’s face even turned red. “Hey! Do you want to see my pokemon?”, I asked my mother. “Sure, you must have good pokemon and I bet you’re a very good gym leader!” I introduced my friends to mom… “This is Blastoise, Umbreon, Arcanine, Nidoqueen, Nidoking, Pidjeot…” I continued for hours, because I had so many Pokemon! “I am happy everything had been fine when you met.”, Grandpa said. “Lorelei, it’s very nice of you to receive your children in your house and taking the resolution of visiting them.” “Thanks, dad… I should be the one thanking you for raising my wonderful children.” “Why don’t you all stay here for the dinner?”, my wife asked. “We’ll do a kind of… family party!” Everybody agreeded and decided to stay. We had a great time and I’m so happy that I finally knew who my parents were, though it was shocking first… At least, our mom is nice… Anyway, that party was wonderful, my Clair had such a good idea. Everyone was feeling proud towards everyone. If I understand, Grandpa is proud of Mom; Mom is proud of May and I; Clair and I are proud of our son. My life is like… familial!