Quinn yelped in pain and immediately started hopping on his right foot while grabbing at his left. He wouldn’t admit it, but he probably deserved this. He had spent the last half-mile walk ignoring a rock in his boot, periodically shaking his foot on the back-swing so the rock stayed at the front of his steel-toe boot. Quinn longed to get home and the thought of stopping in this 100-degree heat to get rid of another rock was preventing him from thinking with any sort of foresight.
Wake up, eat, work, eat, work, eat, waste time on the internet, sleep – Quinn’s rote routine had put him on autopilot on his commute back home. He was truly living up to his last name of Gray and wondered if destiny wasn’t actually a bunch of nonsense. The pitiful fact was that stepping on the rock was the most momentous occasion in the past month.
Summers in Ashford were always a slog for anyone who wasn’t in a tank top and shorts. The humidity made clothes feel like cling wrap and cheap deodorant more useless than the sizzling metal benches that lined the walking path. Balancing on his right foot, Quinn searched for any sort of respite from the heat and, luckily for him, about 20 feet off the path was a big white oak tree with shade that called his name. With a target acquired, Quinn hopped with relative grace over to the shaded grass, thanking the years of practice he had had jumping off his right foot to dunk a basketball.
As soon as Quinn reached the shade, he rolled down to his right knee and ultimately rolled on his back. He closed his eyes and hissed out a breath that was laced with frustration. Before he finished his exhale, a familiar shape pinned his right arm to the cool grass and also gave out a long exhale. However, this exhale was trumpeted out and was only laced with relief. At that moment, Quinn couldn’t help but forget his frustrations and a portion of the pain that he felt in his foot.
Opening his eyes and looking to his right, Quinn saw a light blue body only about one foot tall on top of his forearm. With all four legs spread out as if he had just belly-flopped from the top of the tree onto Quinn’s arm below, Phanpy pulled down his off-white hard hat over his eyes with his trunk and let it flop to the ground. Quinn wondered at times if Phanpy would like to have a Pokeball that he could relax in on long hot treks like this. As Quinn thought, Phanpy’s breathing got heavier and heavier until a soft snoring methodically started. It sounded as if it was coming from a miniature trumpet, and it was the tell-tale sign of a sleeping Phanpy.
Phanpy wasn’t spectacular by any conventional Pokemon metric, but one thing that he had over all Pokemon, except maybe a Snorlax, was his ability to fall asleep in an instant. For a while, Quinn thought Phanpy had learned the move [Rest] somehow. But after a solid hour of trying to get Phanpy to fall asleep on command in his apartment, Phanpy just stared at Quinn like he was crazy. Ten minutes after Quinn gave up on his endeavor, he found Phanpy on his back in the sunlight of his apartment window with a chorus of the familiar small snores. Phanpy slept when he wanted and only when he wanted.
Letting his head fall back to the grass, Quinn tried to distract himself from the pain still shooting up his leg. He looked up into the underbelly of the 50-foot oak tree above him, letting his eyes wander across the branches above. Quinn spotted two Skwovets chasing each other across the branches that were too shaded for leaves to grow. He waited for one of them to slip or fall as they dodged and weaved 30 feet up in the air, but they never did. He then looked a little bit lower and saw a Weedle on an outstretched branch that was halfway done building his cocoon for his eventual evolution. Then Quinn looked directly above him to the top of the tree and saw three bird Pokemon chirping their little hearts out for all the neighborhood to hear. Unfortunately for him, the dancing sunlight and shade made it too hard for him to tell which Pokemon they were as the tree swayed in the breeze. At that moment, a pain hit his gut that was sharper than the rock in his foot as he remembered laying down under a tree like this one.
----------------------------------------
“Look, Mom, a Heracross!” Quinn pointed up to the top of the tree that he and his mom were laying under. The tree was so big that no human could hope to wrap their arms around its trunk.
“I don’t see anything. Are you just pulling my leg again?” Lucy said with a smirk on her face as she shielded her eyes from the rays of sunlight that pierced the shade. She sported wavy long chestnut hair which framed a symmetrical face with high cheekbones. Her eyes caught the attention of those around her with a striking blue-green color.
Quinn rolled his eyes as he stood up. “I only said I saw a Celebi because you said you saw an Articuno. At least I picked a legendary Pokemon that might be in a forest. I'm serious about the Heracross! Look!”
Lucy failed to keep down a chuckle as she half-heartedly tried to quiet Quinn. “Shhh. If it is really there, you’re going to scare it away.”
Quinn almost growled out the words, “Just use your old lady binoculars and look at the very top. It’s on the trunk.”
Lucy sat up and took out binoculars from her backpack. “Oh no, my feeble hands aren’t working like they should. They’re just skin and bone on this decrepit old lady,” Lucy dropped the binoculars, and they landed next to Quinn’s foot.
“Mom, you’re not that old. Just look; I bet you've never seen one before.”
“Never seen a Heracross? Please,” she said, dragging the “please” into two syllables. “I live in trees like these. My downstairs neighbors are Herracrosses.” Lucy puffed out her chest with a gleam in her eye as she picked up the binoculars to look. “You said near the top, on the trunk?”
“Yeah. It’s hard to see, but it’s there!” Quinn spoke so fast he started to mumble his words together.
“Oh my goodness, Quinn. I see it! It’s camouflaged really well. How on earth did you see it?”
At this confirmation, Quinn tried to hide his excitement, but he couldn’t help but bounce on the balls of his feet. “I knew it! Most people don’t like Bug-type Pokemon and they say they’re gross, but that’s just because they only see Wurmples and Blipbugs everywhere. Show anyone a Heracross and they'll change their mind.”
Lucy looked at her son and started to laugh out loud. “Watch out there, Quinn. That’s more emotion than you have shown in a month.” At that moment, with all the noise the two were making, the Heracross dislodged from the tree and flew off into the canopy of the forest.
“Wow, Mom. I can’t believe you get to climb giant trees like this and see all kinds of cool Pokemon up close,” Quinn said, still trying to follow the flight path of the giant beetle.
Lucy scrunched her face up. “I don’t just go climb trees and look for Pokemon. It’s hard work to do what I do.”
“I know, I know. We can’t let dead trees and branches fall whenever they like. Someone has to be the Reaper of Trees.” Quinn chuckled as he remembered the name that his Mom’s boss gave her.
Lucy got up on her feet and inched closer to Quinn. “Yes, I'm the Reaper of Trees, and I have come to exact the revenge of all the twigs you have stepped on!” Lucy grabbed Quinn and started to tickle him.
Quinn couldn’t help but laugh as he tried to get away, but his mom had him in too tight of a hold. Eventually, the Reaper ended her assault and Quinn caught his breath. “Ugh, why am I so ticklish and you aren’t? That should be genetic or something.”
Quinn didn’t catch it, but Lucy’s shoulders dropped a little at that. The two didn’t say anything for about a minute when Lucy broke the silence. “You know that you’re turning 13 here soon, right?”
“Duh, I'm so ready to be a teenager. I'm sick of everyone treating me like a kid.” Quinn grumbled as he thought about how kids in the eighth grade treated him before summer break.
Lucy dawned a poker face. “Well, I agree. You’re getting older and are ready to be a teenager. And when we get older we get more responsibility,”
Quinn tried to decipher what she meant by “more responsibility,” but couldn’t see the trap she'd set up. “Sure…”
Lucy, enjoying the tension she was building, let the conversation lull for a couple more seconds. Breaking the silence, Lucy said, “And what takes more responsibility than taking care of someone else?”
“Ummm…” Quinn paused as he tried to understand what his mom was getting at. Then it hit him.
His mouth opened up so wide that he might have let some of those Bug-type Pokemon he adored fly into his mouth. “Are you serious?”
And with a smile that showed off all 32 of her pearly whites, Lucy said, “Yep.”
Quinn hugged Lucy and said, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you…” followed by at least 30 more thank-yous before he ran out of breath. After taking another big breath, Quinn asked while looking behind his mom, “Do you have them with you?”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“No, no. We both need to meet the Pokemon before we have them join the Gray family. Not every Pokemon will be able to live up to our legacy,” Lucy said with her most regal face. She continued, “However, I did hear that Mr. Tucker’s Donphan had a bunch of eggs hatch three days ago. He said there's one that’s too small for farm work. Do you think he'll be too small for our apartment?”
“A Phanpy?! That would be the coolest Pokemon ever! Phanpys are so strong that they can pick up their trainers! Can we go see the Phanpy now?!” Quinn exclaimed as he bounced around like he was about to wet himself.
Lucy stopped herself from another fit of laughter and said, “Yes, we can go now. Mr. Tucker already knows we’re coming. But before you get any big ideas, no battling.” Lucy said while she failed to keep a smile off her face. “We barely have room for a Phanpy — there is no way we can house a 250-pound Donphan!”
“Whatever you say goes,” Quinn reassured his mom. All he cared about was having a Pokemon that he could call a friend.
----------------------------------------
Quinn lost track of time under the tree remembering that day with his mom, but pinpricks in his right hand got him out of his half-dazed state. His Phanpy was small in comparison to pretty much any other grown Phanpy, but a small Phanpy still weighed 50 pounds.
“Phanpy, you gave me a dead arm again. This is why you don’t sleep in my bed,” Quinn told a still-sleeping Phanpy, even though there were a myriad of other reasons why Quinn’s bed had a one-person occupancy. “Come on, roll off my arm. I need to check if this is a rock in my shoe or a Larvitar.”
Eventually, he wormed his hand out, and Phanpy stirred awake, ending the persistent small trumpeting coming from his trunk. Quinn sat up and started opening and closing his hand in an attempt to maximize blood flow while pulling up his left pant leg to gain access to the laces at the top of his boot. These boots had been good to Quinn over the years, but he might need to get a new pair if he didn’t want to pick up rock collecting as a hobby. Quickly untying the boot with his left hand, Quinn looked at the ball of his foot with the sock still on and found the offender lodged in the middle.
“Ugh, why did it have to draw blood?” Quinn asked no one in particular as he pulled the rock out of his foot and the sock off to assess the damage. At the sound of the word “blood,” Phanpy sat up so fast that his hard hat fell off his head and landed to the side with the Pokeball logo facing Quinn. Trying to figure out what went wrong, Phanpy looked at Quinn's exposed left foot and saw the injury. He trumpeted in alarm and looked up at Quinn. Phanpy must have noticed Quinn’s puffy eyes because Phanpy’s ears dropped and a look of sympathy replaced the look of alarm.
“Yes, you should feel bad for me. They may have to amputate,” Quinn teased with a smile. Quinn knew that his puffy eyes and evidence of tears on his face weren’t caused by the rock, but he didn’t want to try and explain that to Phanpy.
“Phanpy, can you get the bandages out of my purse? I think they're in the small inside pocket.” Phanpy nodded his head and ran around Quinn to open the purse that still hung around his left shoulder. Quinn knew most people did a double take when they heard him call his purse a purse, but he didn’t care. Guys always try to call their purses other names to make them sound manly: satchel, briefcase, shoulder bag. Quinn once heard a guy refer to his purse as a bro-sack, which made for an uncomfortable situation after Quinn laughed, thinking the guy was joking.
Most people would be surprised to see how nimble a Phanpy could be with its trunk. Quinn not only asked Phanpy for help because he didn’t want his foot to touch the ground but also because Phanpy would be able to get the bandages before Quinn could, even if he used both hands. After a few seconds, Phanpy gave a short snort and held the bandages high up in the air as if he were showing off a gold nugget.
“Thank you, Phanpy. You sure are quick when you want to be.” Quinn took the bandages and scratched the back of Phanpy’s right ear. At that, Phanpy gave out an almost purr-like sound of happiness.
Quinn examined his foot closer and saw that while the rock had punctured the skin, the wound was no longer bleeding. He was no medic, but he didn’t think it would need stitches. Not that he'd go to a center to get it stitched up, but he felt a little better that he wouldn’t have to find a how-to video online about sewing yourself back up. Quinn would just need to keep the wound clean, bandaged, and ignore any pain it caused.
Quinn bandaged his foot and put Phanpy’s hard hat back on his head. Phanpy adjusted that hat to his liking and started to sniff around for dandelions. They were a strange treat for him, but seeing how they're weeds, Quinn never stopped Phanpy from being the Reaper of Dandelions, which his mom used to always call him. Quinn looked around, more aware of his surroundings now that his foot pain was dulled, as he put his sock and shoe back on.
This walking path went right through the middle of Ashford and was quite lively today despite the heat. Quinn could see around 20 people on the path, with most people walking and a handful of people on bikes. One intense-looking man was running at a pace that would be a sprint for Quinn, a teenage boy was walking seven different types of Pokemon and actively working to keep the leashes from tangling, and two moms chatted under a neighboring tree as their kids played tag close by. However, everyone was avoiding the hot metal benches like the plague.
About 30 yards down the path, he saw two people talking next to a Growlithe that was sniffing a lamppost and a Rockruff sniffing the Growlithe. After a few seconds of sniffing, the Growlithe lifted his leg and let it fly. Unfortunately for the Rockruff, there was some friendly fire involved which sent the Rockruff yelping back to its presumed owner.
Distracted by the dog debacle, Quinn didn’t notice two teenage girls stop on the path, one of them shrieking, “Sofia! Look how cute that Phanpy is! It has a hard hat and everything!” Without missing a beat, the other girl squealed along with her friend as they grabbed each other's hands and ran up to Phanpy. Phanpy, seeing an opportunity to get some scratches, put on the charm by lifting his ears so his hat lifted off the crown of his head and trumpeted out a perfect high C. Quinn could swear he could see both girls starting to tear up at how cute Phanpy was being. Phanpy knew he had them hooked, and so he flopped on his side with his belly exposed to the girls, inviting them to give him compensation for his spectacular performance.
Sofia still had some sense to look around for Phanpy’s owner for permission before pouncing. After seeing Quinn sitting in the shade not too far away, she said, “Jenny, wait. Hello, is this your Phanpy?”
Quinn’s evil side showed itself as he briefly thought it would be funny to tell the two girls that Phanpy had rabies and they needed to stay away. However, as soon as Sofia and Jenny looked away from Phanpy, Phanpy gave a glare to Quinn that could paralyze any human or Pokemon. Putting all those thoughts away, with a smile, Quinn said, “Yep, and he loves scratches behind his ears.”
With nothing holding the two girls back, they showered Phanpy in compliments and scratches for the next few minutes. Phanpy soaked it all in and knew precisely when to give gleeful trumpets whenever Jenny or Sofia hit the perfect spots. Their energy took a while to die down, but eventually, Jenny asked Quinn, “Why does he wear a hard hat?”
“Phanpy works with me building the new offices on the west side of Ashford next to the old Poke Mart. All workers, Pokemon included, are required to wear a hard hat, and he just loves it. It's been four years since we started working construction, and he never leaves the house without it. I have no idea why he wears it when he doesn’t have to, they make my head itch.”
Sofia joined in the conversation, “Really? That’s so cool that you work with Phanpy. My dad works with his Pokemon too! He has two Slowpokes that help him fish out at Mirror Lake. He says that they catch more than him most days!”
While Sofia was talking about her dad and the kinds of fish he'd catch, she talked with her hands to convey the sizes of some of the fish. Phanpy, noticing that Sofia’s hands were needlessly not scratching his belly, gave out a melody of three short trumpets that got her attention back on him. Quinn smiled and couldn’t help but wish he had a quarter of Phanpy’s natural charisma.
Quinn wasn’t surprised to hear about Sofia’s dad and his Slowpokes. Working with your Pokemon was pretty common, especially in manual labor positions. Pokemon are capable of doing jobs so much easier by using their natural strength, speed, flight, or moves to do things that would take humans much longer. When work was slow last winter, the only reason that Quinn wasn’t laid off was because Phanpy made life so much easier for the rest of the crew. Pretty much any Ground-type Pokemon can manipulate dirt and soil, but Phanpy had a certain finesse that other Pokemon lack. Quinn’s boss always praised Phanpy for being able to locate rocks in the ground where a foundation needed to be laid and bringing them to the surface for some of the other stronger Pokemon to move easily. And if that wasn’t enough to be everyone’s favorite elephant, Phanpy could easily smooth and level any patch of dirt.
Remembering that scary time when Quinn thought he might lose his job and all the other crap that Phanpy had lived through with him, he didn’t want to think about where he'd be if his mom hadn’t struck up a conversation with Mr. Tucker over nine years ago.
Quinn, shaking himself out of his deep thoughts, told Phanpy, “Hey, do that thing!”
Without missing a beat, Phanpy shot up to his feet, grabbed his hard hat with his trunk, and backed away from the two girls but closer to Quinn. With the girls' full and undivided attention, Phanpy threw the hard hat five feet up in the air. As the hat flipped end over end, Phanpy waited for the perfect moment when the top of the hard hat was facing down and shot a stream of water out of his trunk, hitting the hard hat dead center. Keeping the stream at a constant pressure, Phanpy worked to balance the hat on the top of his [Water Gun].
Sofia and Jenny erupted in a cheer that would rival any crowd 10 times their size. “Phanpy! You’re amazing!” The girls continued to cheer and clap as Phanpy started spinning around while keeping the hat balanced. Phanpy couldn’t keep a [Water Gun] going for more than about 15 seconds, but he milked the spotlight for as long as he could. When Phanpy knew he was running out of water, he gave one last burst of all the remaining liquid, and the hat sailed up until it hit a bottom branch of the tree.
Quinn, not following where the hard hat fell, looked at Phanpy, who was posing like they'd practiced with his front two legs up in the air and his trunk arched up and over his head. Quinn joined Sofia and Jenny in clapping and gave a mocking cat call, “Ow ow!”
However, Quinn’s applause was interrupted as he felt a splash on the top of his head. “Phanpy, you need to work on your aim! I may be sweating up a storm, but that doesn’t mean I want a shower.”
The girls looked on the top of Quinn’s head to see the damage. Sofia immediately burst out laughing while Jenny tried not to laugh but just ended up snorting out her response, “I bet you'll want a shower from Phanpy when you see what really landed on your head.”
Quinn looked up to see the backside of a Pidove on the branch above and wished for a world where Phanpy had worse aim.