Pookamon

Parting Words

The four of them stood on the dock, whilst beside them a Wartortle-morph readied a ship for sailing. The words on her side proclaimed; "Freedom." It had been an oddly uneventful month since the conflict in Sereniti, but now Brooke’s spine had healed enough for travelling, and James’s ribs were better. The Vaporeon-girl hugged the Eevee close to her.

"I’m finally going to be free!" She said, turning her oh-too-pretty smile at him. "And you and Cassandy can come too. It’ll be great, it’ll be happy! It’ll be better then the rainbow!"

"Nothing could be better then the rainbow," James said with a smile, enfolding her and Buttons in his arms. "But I have bad news for you, my fishy friend." He had hated having to break the news to her, but he had made his decision, and he would stand by it.

"Really?" She said the concern evident in her voice. "What?"

"I shall not be going with you."

"But you’re not safe here!" Cassandra exclaimed, "the assassin may have failed, but Team Rocket are relentless, they’ll send others after you!"

He shook his head, and put his finger to Brooke’s lips, cutting short her protestations at the least.

"I must stay here," he replied, "for this is my place, and there are others like you, like Cassandra, even like the wretched assassin. They need help, and I can help them. I’m sorry."

He hated the sight of the tears springing to Brooke’s eyes. Hated the pain in her fair face.

Cassandra at least was more accepting.

"No, you can’t leave us Mr Green-eyes!" The Vaporeon wept, "I, I don’t want you to leave us, I want you to stay with us forever and ever and ever! You’ll just get yourself hurt. Like he did." She smiled sadly and brought her reddened eyes up to meet James’, which were none too dry themselves. "I loved him, I did," she said sadly, "once, a long, long time ago, almost as long as time, but not quite. The memory had run away, flitted like a Butterfree in the wind, but I caught it again and I showed it to him. I don’t think he liked it much. I missed him," she continued, moving herself so close to James that she almost crushed poor Buttons. "I thought he’d gone to the world over the rainbow. But they had lied. I should’ve known they’d lied. They’re just a bunch of lie-mongers!"

"I know," James replied, squeezing her gently.

"And now I’m going to lose you too. It’s not fair!" She stepped back and stamped her foot on the ground. "Its not fair!"

Beneath the wharf a discharge pipe released a spray of water that bounced into the leg of the jetty and made it shake.

"I’m sorry," James said again, "but I have to help others. Even your Umbreon friend," he paused, "especially your Umbreon friend, I think he needs all the help he can get."

"You’re right," Brooke agreed tearfully. "To just want to keep you to myself like a trinket is, you know, selfish, and I know you can help heaps of people. But I don’t want any bad things to happen to you." Suddenly she paused and setting Buttons down, transformed into a Vaporeon.

James watched puzzled as the two of them had a conversation, whilst Cassandra watched with a knowing smile.

And then Brooke was back. She scooped up Buttons. "I think everyone needs a guardian Angel," she said, holding the Eevee out to him, under the little creature’s armpits. "I asked her what she’d like to do and she thought it was like what I’d want to do, so, here she is." She stepped forward, setting Buttons carefully in James’s arms.

The gratitude soared in his heart. She had given him her Eevee, her precious companion, well, not exactly given, since presumerably Buttons had agreed to it, but she was now his. He stroked the little Eevee.

"Eevee!" She said happily, and then turned her head to face Brooke. "Eevee vee vee," she added sadly.

"Bye, bye," Brooke waved, "she’ll look after you." She stood on tiptoe to kiss James, a light peck on the lips and then kissed Buttons on the forehead. "She looked after me good."

"Thank you," James replied, although single words could not still the turbulance he felt in his soul. He would miss Brooke with her rainbows and her nicknames and her little pixies, or was it imps, in the clouds.

And he would miss Cassandra, with her silent grace, her intellectual input, her shy nature.

Suddenly he felt very sad.

"Goodbye girls," he said, as they boarded the boat. "I’ll miss you."

"When you see a rainbow, remember!" Brooke added a little more brightly.

"Don’t worry, I’ll look after her," Cassandra added. "Look after yourself Mr Green-eyes!"

"EE VEE!"

He watched until the boat had gone from sight, towards the distant island, the distant haven, then hoisting Buttons into a comfortable position, he walked back along the beach, tears in his eyes, and pain in his soul.

He was not the only one watching the leaving. Not that far away, on a cliff overlooking the harbour, stood a tall black figure. He was hunched now, hunched with the weight of too many truths, of deceit, of the loss of the only things he had held dear.

His dark cheeks, black as sin, black as night, shone with tears, refracting a spectrum of colours.

And across the harbour, above an island so far that one could barely see it, a beautiful arch appeared across the sky, seeming to emerge from the clouds themselves.

The two onlookers saw the rainbow, and each smiled secretly, privately.

They would remember.