"So I guess we’ve both been busy. It’s been a while."
"Yeah. I’ve had quite a few missions lately. The boss is keeping me busy." James was staring at the floor as he spoke, obviously uncomfortable.
"Is something wrong?" Jessi asked. The amount of gentle concern in her voice surprised her. It certainly must have surprised James, who looked up quickly.
"Well... I’ve just been... I was wondering..." The boy fumbled with his words for a moment, then took a deep breath. He looked right into Jessi’s eyes. "Do you... have you missed me?"
The ‘I-blew-it’ look on her partner’s face told Jessi that they weren’t the words that he’d been trying to force his reluctant voice to say. Her breath caught in her throat.
"Of course I miss you, James. I think about you all the time." Her former partner and friend shot her a brilliant grin that would be forever imprinted in her mind...
Jessi sighed, setting down the comb. She hadn’t seen James in two years to the day. A week after that conversation, the police had surrounded the Team Rocket headquarters. Jessi had escaped, but she had no idea what had happened to James or Meowth. She hoped they’d got away.
She shook her head. Sometimes she got carried away with thinking about the past. But tonight, on the anniversary of their last conversation, it was impossible to stop thinking about her old life.
Jessi rose from her chair and crossed the floor of the bedroom. After escaping from the police, she’d walked through the woods for three days before emerging on the outskirts of a tiny town that she’d never known existed. Luckily, the inhabitants paid little or no attention to the news, so she was able to rent a small house and live a semi-normal life without any trouble.
The house was quite nice, if a bit quaint, she thought. There was a good-sized kitchen, one bathroom, a tiny family room which opened into the kitchen, and, of course, her bedroom. She worked Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. as a clerk at the local Poke Mart, a job that bored her out of her mind, but paid generously.
Thinking about other things had calmed her down a bit. She opened the window and leaned out, looking up at the sky. She remembered the days when she, James and Meowth had slept out in the woods around a campfire. Meowth had no trouble falling asleep, but occasionally she and James had stayed up long into the night, staring at the beautiful velvet night sky dotted with bright stars like pinpricks of light shining through a great canvas. And the moon... oh, it had been the best part, like a globe smiling down on them, bathing them in soft moonbeams. It had felt like no one else in the whole world existed anymore, and it was just Meowth, curled up beside the put-out campfire, sleeping peacefully, a blissful look on his feline face, and herself and James, talking and laughing and gazing at the moon and stars, and occasionally each other.
Jessi sat down quickly on her bed, tears welling up in her eyes. Life just wasn’t fair. There was just no such thing as a happy ending anymore. Maybe there had never been. Angrily she brushed away her tears. This was no good. Feeling sorry for yourself doesn’t help at all, she told herself sternly. Still, the tears kept coming.
"I’m not going to keep doing this!" she said aloud. Her words reverberated in the lonely room. "That’s it." she stated, standing up. "I’m not going to think about him anymore, and that’s final!" She stamped her foot for emphasis, then looked around. Her radio, on the shelf in the corner, caught her eye. Music, that was just the thing! It would keep her mind from wandering. Walking over, she switched it on. Commercials... flipping stations, she finally found one with music and settled into her bed to listen.
The song ended, and commercials came on. Jessi gave an absolutely venomous glare at the radio and exclaimed, "Fine then. You think I care? Go right ahead and play your stupid commercials!" She folded her arms and flopped back down. The radio droned on from the corner. She tuned it out and remembered one of her earlier visits after she and James had been split up. She had gone to his room, and they had sat talking easily like the good friends they were, while in the background, his beat-up radio played music that helped fuel their conversation.
Jessi rolled over onto her stomach. Apparently, it was impossible to stop thinking about someone who had been such an important part of her life.
"Poke Tunes FM- the best mix of music on the air!" the radio blared. "Tonight we have a special program for all those lonely hearts out there."
Jessi’s ears perked up. "If you want to catch the attention of someone you remember well but feel has forgotten all about you, here’s your chance. Boot up your computer and E-mail us your dedication at..." Jessi had a pencil and paper ready and scribbled down the E-mail address. Then she reached under her bed and pulled out her laptop.
"Tell us your name and who you are dedicating the song to along with a short message. We’ll read it over the radio, and hopefully your dream partner will hear it and think of you."
By the time the music started again, Jessi was on the blank screen of the E-mail message. Her fingers hovered for a moment over the keys, but soon she was typing at lightning speed.
"Two years ago, my partner and I were split up due to an emergency. I haven’t seen him since. I want him to know I think of him all the time. James, I do miss you very much. So, if you would please play Selena’s "Dreaming of You", I would really appreciate it. --Jessi in Smallburg."
She clicked the "send" button, put away the laptop, and laid down to listen for her dedication. Her eyes slowly closed as a feeling of comfortable drowsiness overcame her. Suddenly she was jolted out of her sleep by the sound of her own written words being read over the radio.
"...and so, from Jessi in Smallburg, to James, wherever you are, here is Selena’s "Dreaming of You." Jessi’s heartbeat quickened as the familiar lyrics came over the radio.
"Late at night when all the world is sleeping
I stay up and think of you
And I wish on a star
That somewhere you are thinking of me too
‘Cause I’m dreaming of you tonight
‘Til tomorrow, I’ll be holding you tight
And there’s nowhere in the world I’d rather be
Than here in my room, dreaming about you and me
Wonder if you ever see me and I
Wonder if you know I’m there
If you looked in my eyes, would you see what’s inside
Would you even care?
I just wanna hold you close, but so far
All I have are dreams of you
So I wait for the day
And the courage to say how much I love you..."
The rest of the song was lost to Jessi. Her eyes eased closed, and, true to the song, she did dream of James, and their escapades in Team Rocket. But unlike the song, her "day" to wait for was already night. She had lost her chance to ever confess her feelings to James.
The next week passed uneventfully for Jessi. She went to work as usual, came home, moped around and went to bed early. So on Saturday morning, she was completely surprised by the sound of the doorbell. Jumping up, she grabbed a brush and ran it through her hair a few times. She wondered who it could be- she hadn't had any visitors in all the time she'd lived here.
Jessi ran out and threw open the door. What she saw nearly took her breath away. James, her former partner and longtime friend, stood there with as much unmasked joy as Jessi imagined showed on her face.
For all of five minutes they only stared, each taking in every bit of the other. Jessi saw that the attractiveness James’d had in adolescence had reshaped into more mature good looks. His hair was an inch or two shorter than when she’d last seen it, but it was still the same style. He was a few inches taller, too, even without the heavy boots they’d worn in Team Rocket. All in all, the small changes only served to make him look better.
"James... it’s been a while, huh?" Jessi ventured awkwardly. He smiled at her, the same smile she so vividly remembered in her mind.
"Jessi..." The boy hesitated for a moment, but then his words all spilled out in a rush. "I was listening to the radio last week and I heard your song. I heard where you were and I looked you up and asked around and here I am. And I wanted to tell you... I mean, ask you..." James took a deep breath. Jessi read the expression on his face like a book; he had to say this now, or never. When the words wouldn’t come, he sighed and just smiled at her. "You knew what I really meant to ask, didn’t you? Back at the old headquarters?"
"Well... I think I did, anyway." Jessi knew perfectly well what he’d meant, but she felt it would only be real if James said it himself, out loud.
"I... I meant to say, Jessi... that I love you. I always have, and I still do." He took a tentative step forward, into the doorway.
"I love you too, James." Before she knew what she was doing, she had thrown her arms around James in a gentle hug. He was startled, but, Jessi noted, it didn’t take him long at all to hug back.
"Being separated was... torture," he whispered in her ear. "We’d been together so long, I just felt... incomplete without you. And not even knowing if you were still alive..." Jessi felt him shudder.
"I know how you felt. It was the same for me. But you don’t have to worry anymore, because you’re staying here with me," Jessi told him softly. Without realizing that she was doing it, she kissed him lightly, as if to seal their union. His only response was to blush and hug her closer.
Jessi couldn’t believe her change of luck. Her friend- her love, she corrected herself dreamily- had finally been reunited with her, and within 10 minutes they had admitted their love for one another, hugged, and kissed. It was a dream come true!
James pulled away slightly so he could look Jessi in the face. "One more thing- Meowth lives with a human family on the other side of this town. I saw him on the way here." Then it was back to the seemingly never-ending hug.
All sorts of irrelevant thoughts bounced around in Jessi’s head. This was her "day." This was her happy ending. So they did exist, after all. Among all of the stray thoughts, the last lines of the song that had brought James back to her at last were most clear. She’d always tuned them out before, but now they held a special meaning for her.
"Late at night when all the world is sleeping
I stay up and think of you
And I still can’t believe
That you came up to me and said ‘I love you’...
Now I’m dreaming with you tonight
‘Til tomorrow and for all of my life
And there’s nowhere in the world I’d rather be
Than here in my room, dreaming with you endlessly..."
