A Reunion of Sorts: Prologue

Satoshi lay somewhere between the world of the unconsciousness and the world of the waking, inhabited by those poor souls still awake at this hour, like him.  His stereo quietly emitted classical music.  Sure, he loved rock music, but the calm music had a soothing touch—exactly what he needed right now.  He didn’t know why he couldn’t sleep—only that it happened often.  The alarm clock, programmed for 6 AM, seemed to wait for the moment it could explode forth with a shrill cry.  But for now, it silently glowed the time: 2:37.

Satoshi sat up and sighed.  He gently stroked Pikachu’s fur, careful not to wake him.  “Hey buddy, how’s it goin’?” he whispered, not expecting a reply.  He remembered the adventures the two had early in his Pokémon training career.  Those were good times; yet, he remembered all the mistakes he had made.  He was glad that those times were behind him, for the most part.  “I’m seventeen,” he thought.  “No more dumb mistakes.”

Reaching over to his nightstand, he felt the smooth, cold touch of his Pokédex, worn from many years of use.  It had helped him plan his strategies and had come in especially useful when dealing with Team Rocket.  Satoshi didn’t really remember exactly when they stopped following him, but he was glad when they did.  “I guess you can only fail so many times,” he whispered again, grinning widely.

As he pulled his hand back, his hand hit the edge of a small picture frame and tipped it over with a metallic clank on the marble stand.  Satoshi gritted his teeth, hoping no one had heard.  Pikachu’s ears twitched, but his peaceful breathing continued, almost purring, with an occasional “chu.”  Relieved, he thought, “Chalk up one more stupid mistake.”  Satoshi restored the picture frame to its place.  In the dim light of the moon, Satoshi recognized the picture.  It was from the day he and Kasumi had parted ways.  He grinned.  In the picture, she was taller than he was.  “Not any more,” he thought.  He hadn’t talked to her very much since then… maybe he should give her a call or write her a letter some time.  But right now, his primary concern was sleeping as much of the remaining five hours as he could.  After a yawn and a couple minutes, he drifted into dreamland. 

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            Kasumi turned over under her warm, fuzzy, and also favorite pink blanket.  Tonight, however, sleep would not come, as it usually did.  With a groan, she sat up in bed and checked the clock.  “If I don’t fall asleep soon, I’ll only get a couple hours of sleep and be tired all day,” she thought.  “Maybe a jog will release some tension.” 

            As she strode across the room, her long, light blue nightgown flapped at her ankles.  She changed into a T-shirt and running pants and laced up her running shoes.  She then pulled on a pink hoodie over the T-shirt.  She grabbed a water bottle from the refrigerator and quietly slipped out the door, rubbing against her bike.  Bike.  Bike.  She had said the words quite a few times before… usually in conjunction with the words “You had better buy me a new [one]” and “I’ll kill you if you can’t repay me for my [bike].”  Yes, she had followed Satoshi around for so long…  Originally, it was to get a new bike, but…  her motivations had changed somewhere along the way.  “The brat never did buy me a new one…  Oh…  I guess now that he’s older, he’d be a jerk…”  She seemed to find that thought amusing as she walked with a quick pace. 

            “Isn’t this kind of dangerous, to be out her in the middle of the night?  No, of course not.  Besides, it’s adventurous.  You can’t have adventure without danger.”  Kasumi momentarily paused her walk and her monologue to consider what she had just said.  “Well, then it’s dangerous.  Oh, I knew I shouldn’t have done this…”  She resumed walking, and when she had fully warmed up, began a jog.  “It is very beautiful out here at night,” she thought. 

Because Kasumi was preoccupied with enjoying the scenery, she somehow missed a hole in the path.  Her right foot slipped in.  Kasumi, not ready for the sudden change in elevation, gave out a bit of a yelp, tripped, and fell.  She gingerly pulled herself up to a park bench to examine the sprain.  Half of her mind, the logical part, wanted to shout “See?  Danger!”  The adventurous part, though, just wanted to shrug it off in the name of “adventure.”  The rest of Kasumi couldn’t care less about what to call it.  She was just going to call it an injury. 

Now, her bed seemed to call out for her.  She became aware that she was now, in fact, quite tired.  She limped slowly and carefully across the grass, taking a short cut through the park.  When she got home, she slipped an ice pack around her ankle.  After icing for thirty minutes, she put the ice pack on the floor.  “Great… Just great.  This is exactly what I need,” she said sarcastically, flopping back on the bed. 

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            “Mmm…  This sleep feels wonderful.”  Satoshi was slowly becoming aware of surroundings.  He could quietly hear a rhythmic tone.  It carried on for quite a while without changing.  Furthermore, there was no other music.  Just the ever-constant tone.  But wait!  Satoshi could now hear voices—no, wait—a voice.  Something was tugging at his shirt.  “What in the world is going on?”

            Satoshi sat up.  Pikachu’s eyes suddenly sparkled, now that he had accomplished his task. 

            “Pika pi!”  Pikachu exclaimed. 

            “Finals!” Satoshi cried.  Pikachu just nodded.  Satoshi raced to get dressed while Pikachu, grunting and groaning, inched Satoshi’s backpack across the hardwood floor with the intent of reaching the door.  Satoshi hunted out his keys, wallet, watch, important papers, study guides, and so on, from a pile on his desk.  “Thanks, Pikachu.  I owe you one,” as he picked up the backpack to which Pikachu was clinging.

            “Pi.”  Of course, whatever words Pikachu used really didn’t matter, but Satoshi understood from the context what he was trying to say.

            “Have fun!” Satoshi said as he flew out the door and down the steps.  Pikachu just sat there. 

            “Pi…” he sighed.  Pikachu used a nearby chair to do a double-jump over to the desk on which the alarm clock was situated, still beeping.  Pikachu carefully positioned himself and depressed the “off” button with all his might and weight.  It clicked off, and the room was filled with silence again.  The clock read 6:42 AM.  Satisfied, Pikachu scampered away, his toenails clicking on the desk.

            “What should I do today?” he thought.  “Ketchup?  No, too early for that.  I’ll save that for later.”  Pikachu always raided the fridge while Satoshi was gone.  Anymore, Satoshi was very busy with classes and work, which made Pikachu a little sad.  Satoshi always left his Pokémon at home when he went to those places.

            Pikachu looked up at the corkboard on the wall, displaying Satoshi’s badges.  Below that was his trophy from the Orange League and other souvenirs he had collected during his journeys.  Pikachu felt a bit of a lump in his throat.  It had been a while since they had done anything like that…

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            “Oh man, I’m gonna be late,” Satoshi said to himself as he changed lanes.  His hair was ruffled and messy and there were dark lines under his eyes.  He would have enjoyed a shower that morning, had he not overslept.  He tried to mentally review his chemistry notes without flying off the road at the same time.  “Just one more day of finals to go,” he said.

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            Pikachu quietly waddled down the hall.  “Is Mom home?” he thought, referring to Satoshi’s mother.  He peeked around the corner and saw her cleaning out the living room.  She was listening to headphones, so she shouldn’t be able to hear him.  He scampered down the hall to the kitchen. 

Pikachu ascended the fridge and firmly planted his back feet against one handle, which opened the freezer, of which he cared nothing.  His prize was on the other side.  Pikachu used his front paws to open the fridge side.  The door swung open.  Pikachu used the condiment holders as ledges, leaping from one to another.  With several jumps, he had reached the summit, at least as far as he was concerned: a bright, red squeeze bottle with the words “Heinz” printed across it.  He pushed against the wall with his back feet and against the bottle with his front.  He had to be careful not to push too hard, or else he might leave make a mess and leave evidence.  He could almost taste that tomato goodness… 

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            Satoshi’s mother was hard at work when the vacuum stopped working.  She thought: “Oh, I really need a new vacuum.  This old thing barely works half the time anymore.”  Then she remembered what worked last time—a few swift kicks.  Satoshi had told her that there was a loose connection in there somewhere and that it needed to be jarred back into place.  “Here’s hoping,” she said to herself.

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            Pikachu was enjoying a grand feast when he heard a loud whack from the living room.  The sudden sound surprised him, and he lunged forward, exerting pressure on the ketchup bottle.  The next few seconds played out in slow motion.  He looked up in time to see a fountain of his favorite topping.  It now was topping him. 

            He panicked.  His natural instinct was to shake it all off as a cat that has just fallen into a stream would, which only made the mess worse.  “Footsteps!” he thought.  He raced to the door just in time to meet Satoshi’s mother, who was muttering about how much time she had wasted on a vacuum cleaner that would never clean again.  Looking up, she gasped.  “Pikachu!  You’re bleeding!”  She scooped him up into her arms, searching for the wound that in her mind was bleeding profusely when a sudden realization hit her.  “Wha—what?  But this is… ketchup?”  Her gaze slowly lifted to see a trail leading to an open refrigerator.  It looked as if twenty tomatoes had exploded.

            “Pikachu, what have you done?” she said, stepping towards the bathroom.  He smiled nervously and sweatdropped.  “Well, it’s bath time for you, little guy.”  He hated baths, but since he was in enough trouble already, he figured it would be best to keep his tiny mouth shut.

            She looked back across the kitchen and sighed.  “Well, Pikachu, I suppose I know what I will be doing today.”