Chapter 12: Distance

Chapter 12: Distance

Joey sat quietly on the couch in Meowth’s home as the evening sun poured into the living room. Everyone else was either out of the house or had retreated to their rooms. It was dead silent.

Once more, the totodile flipped idly through the pages of the scrapbook. He was still peeking at all these unfamiliar faces, waiting for something, anything new to click. Ever since he cracked it open before dawn, he’d kept it fresh on his mind.

Right now, everything in his life felt like a cruel irony. Mathew’s scrapbook, a gift meant to ease his worries, only unearthed more questions. His partnership with Meowth was supposed to bring them closer to the truth, but so far it only served to make Mathew angrier. So many of the pokemon he met in SEAS seemed to know more about Mathew than he was allowed to. It’s as if the world was taunting him for his ignorance at every turn.

Even when he got answers, they weren’t what he was looking for. He knew a lot about the Walker family now, but the Johdaile family remained such an enigma. Earlier, Meowth mumbled something to him about a ‘B.L. affiliation’. Joey appreciated the tip, although he was left confused by his terseness when he asked Meowth where he’d heard that term. But it didn’t really help clear up the mystery.

At the end of the day, all he could say about Greg and Catherine was that they were Mathew’s friends. Nothing about whether they were nice folk, or whether they were raising him right, or whether they made sure to keep him safe.

The longer he went without the truth, the more he worried. Meowth assured him that whatever haunted Mathew probably wasn’t his fault, but that wasn’t everything. Why was it that Joey had been brought to Kalmwa’er alone? If not him, what did his mom and dad have to do with the life path Mathew’s been walking? What parts of his lingering knowledge-base could he attribute to them?

And, when Joey picked up that poison gun and held it…why did it feel so natural in his hand…?

He grit his teeth and dropped the scrapbook on the couch cushion. All these thoughts were eating Joey up inside. Whenever he wasn’t preoccupied with SEAS or the Club or training, they directed his mindset like a rider on a saddled horse. Having no identity was his only identity.

But every time he tried to fight it, tried to peel back his curtain, it just seemed to hurt himself and Mathew. Joey had been so annoyed at Mathew’s selective disclosure at Minichino’s house yesterday, but now he didn’t know what to think. Was he doing the right thing, getting Meowth to help him figure this all out?

Maybe it was time he gave it up for a bit.

The totodile sighed. He didn’t really want to stop fishing for his past. Minichino, Politoed, and Breloom had advised him to keep his eyes on his memories instead of his job. But did their advice really ring true? It was Demurke who told him that Greg and Catherine weren’t present in SEAS’ ranks. It was listening to David that helped Joey learn more about what he agreed to before he arrived. Now, with Mathew’s Wormhole Wristlet in the picture, SEAS’ help could be the whole key to retrieving his memories.

It was high time that Joey changed his approach. He needed to accept that playing along with their recruitment was the best way to move forward. On top of the Wristlet, being in a secure position with SEAS, before this whole mess with Meowth, seemed to put Mathew in a better mood. Perhaps securing their jobs would be enough to get Mathew to divulge the truth.

He still reckoned he would help Meowth — that part hadn’t changed. As long as he could do so without angering Mathew, he would. But more importantly, he needed to play this role. He needed to fulfill what SEAS wanted of him. He needed to let go.

So he would. For now.