Heart of Gold

My favorite book was the one my old grandma Midori gave me when I was eleven. It was a book on legends, specifically pokemon legends, and had a leather-bound cover with the gold words on the side: Mythical Pokemon in Johto. The inside smelled like Grandma's house, lavender incense and old people, and contained testimonies and even some grainy photographs. I figured they were fake even at eleven, but Grandma insisted they were real. She also told me her own stories about the pokemon, like saying that Ho-oh was so big it covered the sun as it flew by. I wished I wrote her stories down. She passed away when I was thirteen, and at eighteen I couldn't remember much of them.

"What's with that look?" Luca asked me.

He took the bucket of pokemon food from my hands and slung it over his shoulder. The pail was filled with dense food for ground types and was out of my ability to carry. Luca, being an athlete, didn't mind the weight. "I'm thinking about getting my own pokemon," I said.

He laughed his signature snort-laugh. "We already have about fifty at the lab. Do you think Professor Elm will let you take one?"

"He's seen me handle pokemon, and I'm sure he'll let me raise one on my own." I took a lighter bucket of food from the shed and we headed for the lab. It was a medium-sized, wooden building with a sloping roof. In the distance, a few windmills' blades rotated in the wind, the main picture on the postcards New Bark Town sold at convenience stores. "Besides, he even said I was his best volunteer," I said.

"Compared to me you are, and I'm your only competition." We pushed through the gate in the back to the feeding area. A couple sentret bounded at our ankles and cheeped. "Hey now, be patient!" Luca told them.

My chest tightened. "I want to leave home."

Luca stopped. I almost bumped into him. "Is this because of the gum incident?"

"No!" I said. I'd cut the gum out of my hair a long time ago. "I want to battle gym leaders this summer. It's not that I don't love volunteering here and getting pokemon poop all over me, I want to do something else. I want to travel, Luca."

My friend's face went from disbelief to horror in a slow three seconds. It was like seeing a metapod turn into a butterfree. "You're serious about this, aren't you?" he whispered.

"Hey Astrid, Luca!" Professor Elm called from the back door. "We've got a new batch of pokemon to feed today. Take the food over here!"

I hauled my bucket ahead of Luca to avoid looking at him. Professor Elm had five little pokemon at his side, probably relocated from a pokemon shelter or caught from the wild. "Um, sorry for my forwardness," I said, "could I take one of these to train by myself?"

Professor Elm adjusted his glasses. "Sure, Astrid. Have you talked about it with your parents yet?"

"Wait a second-" Luca said.

I jabbed a finger at a green one with a leaf on its head. "Could I have that one? I'll take good care of it at my house."

Professor Elm noticed something was wrong and met eyes with Luca. My heart beat like a taiko drum in my chest. Elm slid his gaze back to me. "As long as you talk to your parents about it. Aren't you working on college applications?"

"Don't worry, I've done all that," I said, breathless. "I just want to make history."