Chapter 8: Hereditary

James walked into town on a bright and busy Saturday afternoon. Mothers with hundreds of children strolled down the pathways as loud and lary Market owners shouted out their product and half price prices.
James walked slowly pushing the pushchair he had with him along gently, so as not to harm the small child on the seat.
After a few minutes, James spotted what he was looking for. He stopped and knelt down in front of the small child.

“Do wanna get an ice cream?”

The young girl nodded and smiled widely, her green eyes sparkling, “Strawberry.”

James got up and turned to the man inside the ice-cream van.

“One small Strawberry and two large Chocolate ice creams please.”

James paid the man and gently gave the strawberry ice cream to the young girl, “Here ya go, now don’t drop it.”

The girl took the ice cream gingerly and immediately started licking it. James took the other two ice creams from the man and walked behind the pushchair. The man stared in disbelief as the ice creams he had given James started to float in the air. James turned the pushchair around and started walking back from where he came, the two ice creams happily floating in front of him as he walked along.

Eventually, he came back to the field where a large blanket was lying on the grass in the sun. Covering the blanket was a variety of food and drink; fruit, sandwiches, cakes, soda, and endless bars of chocolate and donuts.
Lying on one end of the blanket sucking her drink through a straw lay Jessie, staring up at the cloudless sky above her. She turned and put her drink down when she saw her husband and daughter coming towards her. She laughed as one of the chocolate ice creams floated towards her. She stretched out her hand and plucked it from the air.
James picked up his daughter and placed her on the grass. She saw some Magikarp splashing in a nearby pond and waddled after them, only to fall over a Chikorita sunning itself in the sun. The Chikorita, wondering what the heck just fell on it, sprang up from the ground shouting its name and looking around.

“Lauren, don’t disturb the pokčmon.” James shouted after his daughter.

James voice frightened the Chikorita, which ran away into the bushes.
Lauren lifted herself off the ground and laughed, running back over to her parents. Only then did Jessie and James realise that when she had fallen over, her strawberry ice cream was now plastered over the front of her pink Jigglypuff t-shirt. Not noticing this however, the young Lauren plopped herself down in the middle of the blanket, grabbing a small sandwich and beginning to eat it happily. Jessie laughed and grabbed a tissue out of a box and began to wipe the ice cream of her shirt.

“Der youse are! We’ve been loiking for ya for da last 15 minutes, I t’ought you said you’d be by da lake?”

James turned around to see Meowth and Mondo coming towards them, Meowth looking particularly angry with them.

“We are by the lake Meowth.” James said,

“YOU SAID OVER DA O’DER SIDE YA IDIOT!!” Meowth screamed, swiping him across his face, making James drop his ice cream on Jessie’s back as she was leaning over her daughter.

Jessie immediately shot up and glared daggers at James, as did Meowth. Mondo giggled and shook his head at the fighting threesome. He walked over to Lauren and picked her up in his arms.

“Well you’ve certainly grown a lot since last year haven’t you?” he said lovingly, making her giggle as he tickled her stomach.

She looked down at her father and giggled again as Jessie whacked him over the head with her paper fan.

“Daddy do bad.” She said smiling.

Mondo laughed again and shock his head, “You two should really stop hitting each in front of Lauren, or she’s gonna grow up thinking it alright to hit her father.”

James peered up at him from the floor, cowering under his arms as Jessie stopped and sighed,

“Your probably right.”

So she whacked Meowth instead.

“HEY!”

So they began clawing at each other instead as James got up off the floor and took Lauren from Mondo’s arms.
The two men walked over to the Lake and walked by the shore talking, leaving Jessie and Meowth to fight to the death as they usually did.

“So how’s your part time job coming along?” James asked, keeping a watchful eye on his daughter as she played, chasing a wild Psyduck along the shore.

“Oh it’s okay, Meowth isn’t much help though.”

“How come?”

“Well I give him the letters but he’s to afraid to go in peoples gardens in case there’s a Growlithe in there that’s gonna chase him away.”

James laughed, “Yeah, that sounds like Meowth.”

“It doesn’t matter though, I won’t be doing that for much longer, I just need to find a better, full time job, one that doesn’t involved a Meowth preferably.” He laughed to himself, “What about you and Miss Jessie?”

James laughed, “You’ve always called her Miss Jessie, you can call her just Jessie you know.”

“I know.” Mondo blushed.

“We’re fine, better than fine actually. Ever since Lauren was born, I’ve never felt so close to her.”

“Yeah, close to her fan.” He laughed.

James frowned at him before Mondo realised what he had said, “Sorry, I think a bit of Meowth has rubbed off on me.”

“It’s alright. No, the fans don’t bother me.”

“How come?”

“Because I know she doesn’t mean to do it. Every night she apologises to me, no matter how many times I tell her not to worry about it. You’ll find out when you fall in love Mondo.”

“Find out what?”

“That if you love someone, no matter how many times they do wrong, in your heart you somehow find a way to forgive them.”

Suddenly, a large crack of thunder rumbled through the sky as grey rain clouds began to form. A few drops of rain dripped down from the sky, creating a perfect ripple on the otherwise perfect still lake.

“JAMES! IT’S RAINING! WE BETTER GO!” Jessie yelled out to her husband.

“Lauren, come on, we’ve gotta go.”

Lauren had caught the Psyduck she was chasing and was now having fun trying to lift it up and run around with it, much to the Psyduck’s disapproval.
Hearing her father call, she sighed and put the Psyduck on the ground.

“Bye bye duck.” She said, as she ran back up the shore into her father’s arms.

The rain got heavier as James and Mondo ran back to their car where Jessie and Meowth were waiting. Strapping Lauren into her car seat in the back, James ran around the other side and into the drivers seat, quickly closing the door to the pelting rain.

“Jeez, where’d dat come from?” asked Meowth, staring out the window at other families running for cover.

James started the engine and began to pull away. As they waited for other families to cross the road, Lauren looked through the window at the Psyduck she was playing with. It has got one of it’s webbed feet stuck under a tree root and was desperately trying to pull it out, only to fall over and get it’s beak stuck in the mud.

Lauren frowned at it and turned to pull on Mondo’s shirt next to her, “Hang on a minute Lauren, Uncle Meowth has got his tail stuck in-between the seats.”

Lauren turned back towards the Psyduck with a worried expression. She tried to wriggle out of her seat, not wanting to leave her friend in trouble. Un-able to move, she stared at the water type instead. She stared at it intently. Suddenly, her deep green eyes glowed very, very softly, as the Psyduck was slowly lifted off the ground, freeing his beak and foot from trouble. It floated in the air for a moment, ‘psy’ing from confusion, before it was gently put on the ground. Lauren’s eyes returned to normal and she giggled lightly to herself, as her father sped away in the car back to their home.

The End (???)