I stood there and stared at them for a moment. Jesse didn't even seem to recognize them, and she still had to lean on me to stand up.
"What are you doing here!" yelled Ash
I didn't care what I told him. "Jesse's hurt," I said. "Please, just get out of my way."
"What happened?" asked Misty.
"It was a psychic attack from a snake," said Meowth.
"So you're trying to catch the new Pokemon?" asked Ash.
"Never mind that Ash!" said Brock sharply to him. "Listen, you and Jesse can ride on Onix, and we'll take you to the nearest house and decide what to do."
In the back of my mind I was wondering whether I should accept help from these people, but I was too worried about Jesse to really care. I sat Jesse in front of me on Onix and put my arms around her to keep her from falling.
"I've never seen a psychic attack like this," said Misty.
"Neither have I," I said. Onix began to move down the trail. Jesse stirred and said my name again. I began to speak to her. It's going to be O.K., Jess. It's all right."
Finally we reached a house. Jesse and I stayed where we were while Brock knocked on the door. A woman who looked to be in her thirties answered. She wore an apron and a headscarf. I could here Brock speak to her.
"We have someone here who's been damaged in a Pokemon attack. Mind damage."
"A Kyuumu?" Brock looked blank. "The snake pokemon?" the woman asked again.
"Yes," replied Brock.
The woman looked around at us and approached Jesse.
"A Kyuumu got her?" she asked me.
I nodded. "We need to call an ambulance or something."
The woman shook her head. "You can do what you want, but it will be worse for her to be transported right now. This could last for over a day, she'll have bad dreams, bad memories, maybe hallucinate. We know more about Kyuumu up here than they do in the city. We've had them around for years, and it's only now that other people believe us."
"Where should we take her then?" I asked.
"You can bring her in my house. There's only the one spare room, but the rest of you can sleep in the front room. She'll need her friends nearby"
I nodded toward Ash, Misty and Brock. "These people aren't our friends. They'll be leaving."
The woman frowned at the three of them, trying to make sense of the situation. It's getting dark, I don't know where else they could go."
"We'll stay," said Misty. "We aren't going to hurt Jesse."
The woman asked our names and introduced herself as Anne. She helped me bring Jesse into a bedroom. She took Jesse's boots off and laid her down, talking to her gently. Then she went out and I heard her talking to Misty.
"I need you to go and watch Jesse so I can talk to her friend," Anne said to her.
"No!" I said. "Jesse's afraid enough now without Misty around."
Jesse looked up at me confused, "Misty," she said. Then she nodded, "Misty."
Jesse looked calm enough, so I followed Anne out the door after all. "What's going to happen to Jesse?" I asked.
She asked me to tell her the whole story of what had happened. I started by telling about Jesse capturing the genken. Anne shook her head at that. "I knew that would happen when they came out of the mountains. Genken don't belong to people." I started making excuses, but she said that it wasn't important now and told me to finish the story.
Finally she said, "I've never heard of anyone having permanent damage from this. I don't even think it's an attack, I think it's the fear from the Kyuumu confusing the brain. It takes a while for the brain to sort it out."
Ash overheard. "What about that kid we saw in the town? He wasn't all right. And I heard his parents say a Kyuumu got him."
Brock was yelling at Ash, but I was too frightened to hear his words.
Anne shook her head. "Some people would rather say anything than admit their child has a problem. I haven't heard of a Kyuumu getting near a child. Your Jesse is going to be fine, and she'll be fine sooner if we can all stay calm. Just talk to her if she talks, and try to help her stay calm and sleep."
I went back into the bedroom. Jesse was murmuring something.
"Who is Mondo?" Misty asked me. "Jesse just asked me if he was dead."
I sat down. "Jesse, Mondo's all right. He isn't dead. He isn't even in jail. Just relax."
Misty eventually realized that I wasn't going to talk to her about this and left the room.
Who was right, Ash or Anne? Was Anne only trying to make me feel better, or could Jesse never recover? I sat at Jesse's bedside, thinking up promises to fate or whatever might be listening that I would complete if she came back to herself.
"If she just gets better, I'll..." What could I promise? That I wouldn't hack in to Professor Oak's computer again? After this I couldn't imagine doing that again anyway. That I'd be nicer to my parents? Nobody could expect that of me. That I'd finally tell Jesse I loved her? That was selfish of me; maybe she didn't want to hear it.
I sat up with Jesse all night. It was horrible. She kept telling me she saw her mother in the corner of the room. Sometimes she thought the Boss was coming to get her. I tried to talk to her but she didn't seem to hear me, so after a while I just clasped her hands and tried to look into her eyes. Eventually her eyes did meet mine. She said "James," a few times. Then she fell asleep.
Anne came in then and told me she would sit with Jesse while I took a nap in the other room. I didn't want to go but I couldn't stay awake any longer.
I woke up a few hours later to hear what sounded like the call and hiss of the Kyuumu. When I looked out the window I saw several forms that looked like Kyuumu, but with giant wings like the wings of a Venomoth. Anne was helping Jesse eat something, but she got up when she heard the noise and stood next to me. It's the evolved form the of the Kyuumu. I've never seen one this close before."
Then I saw that Meowth was outside with them. He was staring at them, looking hypnotized. Suddenly I realized he was speaking to them in Pokemon language. I couldn't remember ever hearing Meowth speak that way, even to Pokemon. I saw that they had shimmering hand-like fins, and one of them was holding something. It put the object in Meowth's paws and they all flew away.
Meowth came in the door then. He was holding a baby kyuumu.
I stared at him. "What happened out there?"
Meowth looked dazed, but finally began to speak. "This is the child of the snake Jesse's genken hurt. I couldn't understand everything they were saying, seems like the mother will have to evolve to be healed but it takes a long time for them."
"So why is this baby Kyuumu here?"
"The mother sent it. She says it's our responsibility now."
"What, she isn't afraid Jesse's genken will get to it? Why won't the other snakes take care of it?"
"James, I don't know what's going on with them. They aren't people, they aren't even Pokemon like any I've ever seen. I tried to ask, and they said the mother knew Jesse's mind well."
"From attacking her!" I said. "What are we going to do?"
Meowth was looking at eyes of the baby snake. He had a look in his eyes I had only seen once before - when he was taking care of Togepi. This was even stranger than Meowth and an egg. Meowth didn't even like Arbok. I didn't feel anything in my mind from the baby kyuumu, but maybe Meowth did.
"Fine." I said. "You take of it until Jesse gets better; I'm not going to tell her about this now! Go ask Anne what they eat or something."
I went into the bedroom. Misty was watching Jesse sleep. Ash and Brock were next to Misty, talking. Even Pikachu was looking at Jesse. "She hasn't woken up, James. And she looks more peaceful," said Misty.
"Thank you," I said. I didn't understand why they were being nice to us but I was at least a little grateful.
Jesse opened her eyes then. "James!" she said. "I though you were gone. You got married, remember? You got married to Jessebelle!"
"No, Jesse, I didn't." Ash, Misty, and Brock filed out of the room and I sat down to take Jesse's hand again. "Anne says you should be better by tomorrow morning, Jesse." I sat and held her hand, hoping that was true.