I almost punched Brock. Really, I was about to hit him, and I hate to get my hands dirty. Finally I yelled, "I want to challenge you to a Pokemon battle for taking that Growlithe!"
It was a stupid thing to say, Victreebell and Weezing were not going to be much good against Vuplix, Onix, and whatever else he had. I had trained them pretty well but I was outmatched and I knew it.
Misty looked at my sympathetically. "Look, we decided to take the Growlithe to the nearest police station. They'll keep it for a while to see if one is reported stolen and then you can go pick it up."
I glared at her. "Oh, right, I'll just walk right into the police station, they're big fans of mine there. Maybe I'll just ask Officer Jenny for a date, if Brock hasn't taken her out already." Jesse wouldn't care if I did, I added to myself.
Misty looked at Brock. "Maybe we could pick it up for him or something? I mean if it's really theirs..."
Brock looked contemptuous. "Yeah right, it's theirs. There are still two trainers somewhere looking for a Koffing and an Ekans too."
"You know nothing about us. We got those Pokemon as presents!"
"Look, just get lost, or we'll call the police station just to tell them you're here. We should have done that already," said Brock.
The two of them started down the path. Misty was looking over her shoulder at me, still confused. She thought better of us than the other two did. But it was too much to expect her to trust us not to steal.
Suddenly Jesse's father appeared behind me. I realized he had been watching the entire exchange.
"Well, those two aren't very cooperative types, are they?"
"Go away," I said. I'm not usually that rude but this was turning into the worst day I'd ever had. I'd had more fun on a sinking ship. Come to think of it, Jesse had been nicer to me there too.
"Look, Jesse wants me to go away, you want me to go away... Maybe if you made a little investment in my scheme, I'd be able to go away faster. Besides, you'll get a good return on this. I have to really take the folks on a tour, but there are always a few little... added expenses. My favorite is to tell them their passports are being held and I need bribe money. And I'll never have to bother my dear daughter or her business partner again."
I threw my wallet at him. That was definitely one of the stupider things I have ever done, but I think at that point I didn't care anymore. . Anyway, I knew there wasn't more than a hundred dollars in there. I was almost as angry with this man as I had ever been at my own father, and I was only thinking of how much I wished he had never shown his face to Jesse. "Here, there's everything I have in the world, it will be worth it if you never get near Jesse again."
He must not have had much pride, because he fished the money out of the wallet and left. I felt even stupider when he was gone, since there was no reason to believe he would really stop bothering us if he didn't want to. And as for the "investment", the Magikarp had been a better purchase.
I decided I would camp out by myself that night; I couldn't face sleeping in the same room with Jesse knowing there was so much unfinished between us.