Learning to Heal the Hurt - Book I: Fire Red
Chapter 5: Memories

I stared out the window of the car, my eyes constantly moving as they took in the scenery that flew past.  It had only been maybe ten minutes since I’d been picked up from the side of the road, but already I was restless and fidgety.  I knew these people weren’t kidnapping me.  They were just taking me “home”.  I still think that just picking a random girl up off the highway is a little outgoing, but I wasn’t complaining anymore.  It was actually pretty good.  I was on my way to Rustboro, and much faster than my own two feet would’ve carried me, especially with my only partially healed leg aching away like there was no tomorrow.

I had barely been noticing the passing scenery, or what was going on with the other three occupants of the car, as I had been lost deep in my own memories.  The car was whizzing down the highway, passing forest (on the left) and vast fields of wild grasses or a farmer’s summer crop (on the right).  The sky was still a shining crystal blue, but menacing, dark clouds were beginning to appear on the far eastern horizon, a promising sign of rain.  The clouds appeared black enough to be storm clouds so I hoped we’d reach Rustboro before the storm reached us.

In the driver and passenger seats Darren, who was driving, and Julia, who rode in the passenger seat, was talking animatedly about something.  I didn’t pay much attention to it because they seemed to be having a conversation about car batteries, and that totally did not interest me.  Drake… was just sitting, glaring at his feet, and keeping his eyes anywhere, but my side of the car.  I knew why though.  I thought he might not recognize me, but, as I now realized, he had heard my name so he knew who I was.  He still seemed to be mad about… that.

I don’t know what came over me then, but I had this sudden urge to apologize to him.  Even if it had been three years and all I probably still owed him at least an apology.

“Um… Drake?” I said timidly, my voice barely audible above Darren and Julia’s animated chatter.  They were still talking about car batteries.  I still don’t get how anyone could get so excited over car batteries.  I hardly knew what a car battery was anyway!

 Drake’s dark head jerked around to fix his black eyes on me.  “Shut up,” He growled, menacingly, his dark eyes flashing murder and hate.  Man, it took a lot of anger to hold a grudge for three years, especially because it had happened when we were only ten.

I sighed.  His words were awakening that fierce anger that was hidden away deep inside me.  I struggled to keep it at bay.  This would absolutely not be a good time to get angry.

“Why?” I asked sharply, sitting up straighter and glaring into his face.  I could unleash at least a tiny bit of my anger, couldn’t I?

“You know perfectly well why!” He snapped loudly, startling Darren and Julia into silence.

I turned away to glare out the window.  If he was going to act like that then I would too.  But I did know perfectly well what he was talking about.

*  *  * 

Running away?  I stopped and stared at the boy, hands stuffed securely in my windbreaker pockets.  “I wasn’t running away!” I denied indignantly.

The boy shook his dark head, “Yes you were.  You saw me and turned away.”  He was peering at me intently, much too intently for my liking.  I dropped my gaze to the ground.

“So,” I scuffed a blue and white sneaker in the dust.

The boy shrugged, “It doesn’t really matter much. What’s your name by the way?”

“Talia,” I answered reluctantly, “You?” The question was posed more out of protocol than curiosity.

“Glad to meet you Talia,” He grinned and stuck a long fingered hand out at me, “I’m Drake Coller.  I just moved here last week.

I accepted his hand gingerly for only a moment, and dropped it.  “Nice to meet you too,” I replied politely and continued on, “Why haven’t I seen you in school then if you live here?”

“My parents are still getting us all settled in,” Drake replied with a casual shrug, “I’m beginning 5^th grade next week.

I stared at him, “I’m in 5^th grade too!” I returned with a grin, driving my fingers deeper in to my pockets, “I wonder if you’ll be in my class?”

“That’d be cool,” Drake replied.  The wind was beginning to pick up again, causing both of us to tuck our windbreakers closer in to our bodies.

“Hey,” Drake said suddenly, perking up slightly.  He glanced around as if searching for something, “Do you know of any good climbing trees around here?”

“Are you kidding me?” I exclaimed with a grin, “I know every single climbing tree in this park!”

“Really?” Drake asked, his eyes widening in awe.

“Yeah,” I nodded, beginning to feel important, “I’ve been coming to this park since as long as I can remember.”

A grin spread across Drake’s angular features, “Then what are we waiting for!”

*  *  *

The sloshing sound of water in a bottle jolted me out of my memories.  I turned my blue eyes up to glance around for the sound.  Drake was still being his old, ornery self, just glaring pitifully at nothing.  I turned away from him.  He was acting like a jerk!  It had been three years ago for goodness sake!  We were still cruising our way along the highway, passing the same old scenery and occasionally a car or two.  It wasn’t that interesting after you’d stared at it for a while.

Water. I had heard the angelic sound of water.  All of a sudden I became much more conscious of my aching, dry throat.  I turned to stare up at the front of the car.  Sure enough, Julia had brought out a bottle of clear, beautiful water, and was swishing it around in a whirl pooling motion.

I licked my parched, cracked lips unconsciously and stared at the bottle, almost loosing myself in its whirling, tempting, delicious wetness…  I was so thirsty!  I needed water!  Come to think of it, the last time I’d tasted the sweet, refreshing liquid was yesterday morning.  If only I could just get that water I’d…

“I think someone’s thirsty,” Darren’s remark broke my concentrated train of thought.  I turned my light blue eyes sharply towards the sandy haired young man at the wheel.  His sea blue eyes were on my reflection in the rear view mirror.  How did he know?  He noticed too much.

Julia’s curly black head turned in my direction.  She smiled at Darren.  I felt her strange silver gaze come to rest on me as her mouth twitched up in a slight smile. “Why, I do believe so.”  They both sounded as if they were addressing a young child.  I hated that.

“You thirsty, Talia?” Darren asked eyes still on my distorted reflection in the mirror.

“Yes!” I burst out, a little too quickly.  Just give me water for goodness sake! Was all my liquid deprived mind could think.

“Here, you may have some if you wish,” Julia said, handing the full water battle back towards me.  My grubby hand, which I was now very self-conscious of in this all too clean car, shot out immediately and snatched it out of Julia’s pale hand. 

I barely remembered to mumble a short “Thanks” before the bottle was at my lips and the cool, sweet liquid was caressing down my dry, parched throat, quenching my great thirst.  It was beautiful; the crystal clear life-giving water as it wet my lips and mouth, giving me a whole renewed strength.  My only problem now was that I was hungry.  I turned back to the window, gripping the precious water bottle protectively in my hands and stared out.  The only thing I could do now was ignore my growing hunger as my thoughts drifted back to Drake.

*  *  *

The tree was massive.  It has to be at least 150 years old with solid branches, thick enough to support ten full-grown men, which fanned out in every direction.  When you climbed it, it was almost as if you were climbing a giant spiral staircase up into the very canopy of the forest.  I had stumbled upon the tree by accident almost two years earlier when I had accidentally taken a wrong turn on one of the trails I usually followed, and it quickly led me to the tree.  Scrambling up into its branches I had huddled against its trunk.  Everything had been so beautiful up in the tree, high above everything I knew so well.  Being that high up in the air had given me a new perspective of the world.  All the everyday sites that I had seen for my entire life suddenly seemed new.  Back then the mighty oak had put me in awe of it, and even now, nearly two years later, I was staring up at the beast as if it were the first time I’d ever beheld its majesty.  Out of the corner of my eyes I could spy Drake’s face, no doubt the exact mirror image of my own, his jaw hanging slack and wide open.

“Here’s the tree,” I announced, tearing my gaze away from the giant oak, “It’s really fun to climb.  You’ll like it.”  I grimaced as soon as the words left my mouth.  It sounded as if I were giving a prepared speech.

Drake nodded, a hint of a smile touching his lips, “Cool.”

I reached for the first branch with cold fingers, and set my foot in the first foothold below it, pulling myself agilely up.  The tree was swaying slightly in the biting wind, causing me to tighten my grip on the not-so-solid-seeming-anymore branches.  Pulling myself a few branches higher I swallowed and paused, glancing back down at Drake.  He still stood in the same position I’d left him, gaping up at the tree.

“You coming or not?” I pressed quizzically. 

The boy below me jumped slightly, as if startled, and shifted is dark gaze to my lone figure high above, “What?  Oh, yeah,” He said and jumped forward to grab the first branch as I had.

It didn’t take me much longer to reach the top of the tree, or, as close as I could get myself to it without breaking a branch.  The closer to the top I got the thinner the branches became until I was sure if I’d been a pound or two heavier I would had snapped the branch and fallen the long dizzying drop down to the forest floor below.  I gulped, that was a long, long way down, much further than I’d at first thought.  Even with the thick branches below to break my fall I could be seriously injured if I fell.

“Hey, Talia,” Drake voice came from right below my foot. 

I glanced down at him.  He looked strange from my position.  All I could see of him was his upturned face, and his arms clinging to the branches, “What?”

“Are you going to climb higher or not?  I want to keep going higher.”

I stared down at him, “Are you crazy!  The branches are far too thin up here.  They barely hold me; if you go any higher they’ll break on you!”

Drake shook his head and grinned, “Nope, not me.  I have something called luck.  The branches won’t break on me.”

I stared at him, “Luck won’t help if you do something stupid.”

He didn’t answer, only shrugged and began climbing up onto the branch my foot was resting on.  A gust of wind shook the tree.  I shuddered and hung on tighter.  I was beginning to think that this tree climbing business wasn’t such a good idea after all.

Drake was level with me now and still climbing.  I could feel the branch we shared bending dangerously far.  He could get us both seriously injured this way.  “Drake!” I hissed to him, “Stop climbing and go back down!  If you go any higher or stay on this branch you or both of us will get hurt!  The branches just aren’t strong enough!”

Drake stared at me and shook his head stubbornly, “No, I won’t go back down.  You go back down.”

I glared at him, “Well, I’m not retreating either!”

“Fine, then be that way.”

“Drake!” I hissed warningly.

He stared at me defiantly and reached for the next branch.

“Drake!”  I don’t know what made me do it, but I shot my arm out to knock his away from the branch he was reaching for.  At the exact same moment my hand came into contact with his arm, a giant gust of wind sprung up, slamming into the tree with an alarming force, and into Drake and me.  Caught in his one moment of weakness, Drake lost his footing, and his other hand let go of the branch.  Before I could do anything to stop him, Drake was plummeting down out of the tree, toward the solid earth below.

*  *  *is sea blue eyes were on my reflection I nthe rear view mirror

“Looks like we’ve reached the ocean!” Darren’s cry broke through my thoughts, startling me back to reality.

I refocused my eyes on the passing land rushing steadily by the car window as we plowed firmly on.  The scenery had definitely changed since I’d last taken a good look at it.  As Darren had said, there was the sea.  The water extended for miles upon miles from the shore, dark blue-green water receding into the lighter blue of the cloudless sky.  The perfect crystal waves crashed against the sandy shore, etching the ocean white sand with intricate patterns.  The brilliant orange sun shone brightly down on the water, sunlight reflecting in beautiful colors off the surface.

“We’ll soon be in Rustboro,” Julia announced, eyes, like mine, on the ocean too.

I nodded.  That was good.  I would soon reach Rustboro and would figure out what I wanted to do.  Then I realized I had absolutely no idea where I was going.  No idea at all.  I had just passed days in the wilderness with no apparent idea where I was going, with only the thought of sweet revenge to fill my mind and push me on.

And where should I go?  I couldn’t just travel everywhere in Hoenn trying for my revenge.  It wasn’t practical.  I needed to find the most effective place to carry out my revenge.  Once it was done I would be satisfied, maybe not with the idea of Pokemon still living, but I would be satisfied.  I just couldn’t kill every single Pokemon there was.  There were simply too many of them.  But, then again, I had nowhere to go to direct my anger.  What if I went to Rustboro, and got my revenge there.  That was it.  I would travel to Rustboro and get my revenge on the Pokemon there.  That was my plan.  It was perfect…

*  *  *

 I wasn’t aware of my scream as I witnessed Drake’s body strike branch after branch as he fell.  I was barely aware of his either.  It wasn’t until a few seconds after Drake’s body hit the ground that I was able to think, let alone move.

“Drake!” I screamed above the gales of wind attempting to send me after the boy, and tear the tree from the earth, “Drake!  Answer me!”  He wasn’t responding at all.  I had to get down and help him.  Terror engulfed my body, but carefully I forced myself to climb down the tree to safety and to Drake’s aid.  Stray twigs caught at my hair and clothing as I hastily descended, and by the time I had the good solid earth beneath my feet again I had obtained numerous scrapes and scratches all over my face and hands.

What had I done? I asked myself fearfully as I reached Drake’s side, Had I just killed someone?  My hands were shaking uncontrollably as I stared at Drake’s immobile body, What had I done?

“Help!” I screamed as the first trace of tears began to slip down my face, “Help me!”

It took only a few minutes for the next person to arrive on the scene, an experienced park ranger, but when he did he quickly took charge of the hopeless situation, calling other park personnel, 911, and my mom and Drake’s parents onto the scene.  Drake was found unconscious with what appeared to be a broken arm and a couple of fractured ribs, and was quickly rushed off to the hospital, leaving my badly shaken self to cry into my mother’s arms.  Nothing seemed to comfort me right then, and my mind refused to dwell on anything else but that one question repeating itself over and over in my head: What had I done?

My question wasn’t answered until almost two weeks later, when Drake was finally released from the hospital.  Drake had suffered many minor scrapes and cuts from his fall, three broken ribs, a broken arm and a concussion.  Luckily for him he had not slipped into a coma from which he might’ve never awakened.  I had been in to visit the boy I barely knew many times during the time he was unconscious in the hospital.  He’d been out for three days, but luckily awoke soon after the accident.  I never visited him while he was awake, for which I was very glad later on.

The days had only continued to get colder as the days passed since the accident.  I was afraid to leave the house when I wasn’t at school, and mostly sat moping around inside all day when I did not have any schoolwork.  Drake never did appear at school the next week like he said he would, but that didn’t surprise me much.  What did surprise me however was the first day Drake confronted me after the accident.

I had been out in the front yard, sitting under the large cherry tree with my eyes closed, enjoying the cold warmth of the day.  I was tired, as I had been having many sleepless nights the past two weeks, and I was trying to catch a short nap before I had to go in and do my homework.

“Well, look who it is,” A cold voice spoke.  I opened my eyes lazily and tilted my head in the direction the voice had emanated from.

“Drake!” I cried, jumping up a little too quickly.  I placed a hand against the cherry tree to steady myself while I waited for the short spell of dizziness to pass.  Drake stood just outside our yard, a heavy coat gracing his thin frame.  His left arm was in a cast, and he had a few partially healed scratches on his cheeks.  His eyes were icy glints of steel.  I shivered; my happiness at seeing him well vanished.

“Yes,” He said quietly, in a way I did not interpret as friendly, “It is I, Drake, the boy you almost killed.” He sounded so formal, not at all like the boy I had known before the accident.

I stared at him, my unease quickly turning into confusion, “Kill you?  I did not almost kill you!”

He glared at me, “Yes you did, girl!  You cannot deny it or runaway from the truth!  You almost killed me!”

“What?  How did I almost kill you Drake?” I was glaring at him now, my anger growing, “I had nothing to do with that accident!  It was your fault you let go!”

“I did not let go!  You pushed me!”

“On my life I did not push you!” I cried defiantly, “The wind knocked you off!”  I wished I could believe my own words.

“You pushed me and there is nothing more to it,” He snapped, “Anyway, I did not come here to argue with you about what you did or didn’t do.  I came here to say that my family is moving.”

“M-moving?” I stuttered, disbelief crossing my face, “But why?  You just got here!”

“I thought you had more brains than that Talia,” Drake’s voice was icy.

I glared at him, “I have more than you’ll ever have leastways!”

He ignored my insult, “We are moving to Pacifidlog in hopes that no one there will try to kill my parent’s only child!”

I stared at him, deep sadness piercing me to my very bones.  Even his parents thought I was a criminal.  I felt like crying right then and there, but I didn’t; I couldn’t.

“Oh,” Was all I said.

“Goodbye,” Drake said shortly.  With that, he whirled around, and began retreating back down the sidewalk the way he’d come.

That was the last time I ever saw Drake, or heard for him for that matter.  But now, three years later, I met him by pure accident.  It’s a small world is all I can say; a very small world.