Forest Orphanage

Paul was comforting Eevee as he was sitting on the living room. There was another Eevee beside him, that worriedly looked at the Eevee on Paul's lap.

His parents decided to clean up his birthday celebration first, before starting their story. After wrapping things up, they then proceeded on the living room, away from the prying ears and eyes that could be present outside. Mary and Joseph were sitting together at the other side of the couch, with Paul and two Eevees located on the other side.

Mary was the first one who initiated to talk. "At that time, both of us were under hard circumstances." She paused for a few seconds. Joseph also felt his wife's nervousness thus he held her hand. Mary looked up to her husband to give a silent thank you.

She then continued, "As you know, your dad and I were both orphans. What you didn't know was that we already knew each other since we were children. We both came from an orphanage named Forest Orphanage located at Viridian City."

Mary stopped as Joseph trailed, "Your mom and I grew up in the orphanage, as we were there since we were babies. At that time, everything was simple. Despite not being able to have toys and new clothes, at least we were still able to eat three times a day. They weren't able to provide money for us to study, but there were still weekly classes. The teachers who taught us were mostly volunteering licensed teachers or visiting Pokemon Trainers. Thankfully, we were able to learn basic literacy skills, such as reading, writing, and basic math. The passing Pokemon Trainers were also able to teach us different knowledge about Pokemon despite most being rudimentary knowledge."

He paused for a while in order to drink water. After quenching his thirst, Joseph resumed, "It was helpful for us, especially most of us were hoping to be Pokemon Trainers. Sadly, reality struck as we near the age of 10; the age where one could legally own a Pokemon. Personally, I wouldn't like to travel at the age of 10, as most kids this age would still be either studying or be at their own home. But we did not have the privilege to choose, as the earlier you were able to start as a Pokemon Trainer, the faster you would be able to earn when your Pokemon became stronger."

"I've learned that becoming a Pokemon Trainer at the age of 10 was the result of a long-practiced tradition. This was for the past nations and forces to train stronger Pokemon Trainers, thus they let them start training with Pokemons at the age of 10. Now, this was preserved as it was a convenient custom for the majority. Most kids at that age become Pokemon Trainers because they wanted to, but for us, it was a necessity for survival. There was a time that I became jealous of the kids who were able to enjoy their childhood, while I needed to clean to help the orphanage and learn hard for my own survival. However, I realized that it would do me no good, but just build blind hatred and jealousy in my heart. I just turned it into passion, for me to do better and be more successful when I grew up." Joseph ended.

Mary proceeded for her husband, "Imagine when we realized that we were unable to become Pokemon Trainers as the orphanage was unable to provide us our starter Pokemons. Despite being low leveled, Pokemons such as Ratatta, Pidgey, or Caterpie were out of our league. Not mentioning the pokeballs, as the orphanage was also unable to provide us the money for buying pokeballs as they were even struggling to get money for us to be able to eat three times a day. When I realized this, I tried to find fellow orphans who would try and change this status quo, but there was no one. Most of them became shackled by the reality of orphans, thus this left me confused and made me wonder if I should give up."

"That's when Mary and I became friends." Joseph interjected. Mary nodded to her husband, "That's when your dad and I became friends." Mary repeated.

Currently, Paul was attentively listening to his parents' story. He was absorbed in their past, as it made him ponder about the similarity of their experience to the current status of orphans in the Pokemon World.

Paul's thoughts were interrupted as Mary continued, "After we became friends, Joseph and I tried to find jobs so that we could buy our own pokeballs. For a few days, we weren't able to have any luck; but before that week ended, we were able to come across a job opportunity. Thankfully, because of our experience in our own shares of cleaning in the orphanage, we were able to apply and be hired as cleaners of a grocery store. It was a close call as hiring children under the age of 10 is illegal. However, when we explained our situation to the owner of the grocery store, we were able to convince grandma to hire us. There was a catch though, our salary was quite meager; we still took the job as it was better to have one than none."

Nervously, Mary resumed, "After that arduous day, it was a month full of sweat and cleaner liquids, but we were happy nonetheless as we are a step closer towards our dream. Finally, the final day of month came, the time when we would finally receive our salary. Mary and I were able to buy two pokeballs each, where we went directly to the Viridian Forest to catch our own starter pokemon. We stayed on the periphery of the forest for us to stay safe from dangerous wild pokemons. As Caterpies were always found in that part of the Viridian Forest, Mary and I directly went there and stayed for a few hours. We were scared and nervous the whole time, but we remained there until we caught each of our own Caterpie. It was really a nerve wrecking event, as it was the moment that would finally change our lives."

Joseph took over to let Mary rest her voice and emotions a bit. "We weren't able to capture a Caterpie of our own though. All of the pokeballs became useless as the captures were unsuccessful. They were able to avoid being caught by shooting string shots unto the pokeballs, thus making all our efforts sink down in the drain. Though, as that day was a failure, we were still positive that our efforts would be rewarded someday. Eight months of repeatedly failures of trying to capture Caterpie by sheer dumb luck; we were already really nervous as we would already be ten in the upcoming four months."

"In the orphanage, once an orphan is already ten years old, the orphanage would no longer prioritize them when distributing food. Though the shelter is still there, you would need to bunk beds with a lot more orphans who weren't able to leave the orphanage when they turned 10 years old. As far as I was concerned, there weren't any other orphans who became Pokemon Trainers coming from our orphanage. Most of them found jobs here and there, succumbing to reality. While others were rotting, waiting for nothing at the orphanage. The luckiest ones were those who were adopted, but not all of us have that luck. The parents who wanted to adopt children were mostly preferring younger orphans, mostly children aging three to five years old." Joseph then let Mary resume.

"That's why we decided to hold our own destiny into our own hands. By the time it was the eighth month of trying to capture a Caterpie, the world finally shone us a ray of hope as I was luckily able to capture a Caterpie who was paralyzed by some random Pokemon. I spoke to your dad, saying that we should focus on raising this Caterpie. After it grew into a Butterfree, I would then help him capture his own starting Pokemon. Your father kindly agreed with me, as he would have better chances by relying on a future Butterfree than to blindly wait for sheer luck that might never happen again. After a pooling a little bit of our money, we were able to let the Pokemon Center treat my Caterpie."

"I'm not sure if you know, only people that pays annual taxes enjoy the benefits of the Pokemon Alliance. Majority of the population were able to afford the taxes, but most orphans and people with a very low income weren't able to. After Caterpie was treated, we tried to start on training it. As we've learned, Caterpie needs to accumulate enough energy for its evolution. So, we still tried to earn money through our job to buy enough food and berries for Caterpie. Your dad helped me on raising it, he sometimes even went on excursions; going to the Viridian Forest just to get a few berries. When lucky, your dad was able to find some berries, but most of the times, the berries were already eaten by wild pokemons. After two months of letting Caterpie eat, it finally showed the signs of evolution. By the end of that week, it finally turned into a Metapod. The more it was near the deadline of 10-year-olds in our orphanage, the more your dad and I was excited. After a month of waiting, Metapod finally broke out of its cocoon and turned into a Butterfree." Mary stopped as she reminisced on her first ever pokemon.

Seeing his wife's seeming recollection, Joseph carried on with their story, "Mary's Butterfree was quite good, it was also nice to us as we fed it and made it evolve. After earning the salary of our eleventh month of working, one month left to the deadline, we finally bought pokeballs for Mary to help me capture my own starting Pokemon. She was able to help me capture a Pidgey, who was also quite nice to me. We both were able to train our pokemons until each of us with our own respective pokemons were able to build rapport. Though, reality was really cruel as the deadline for ten-year-old orphans came, we met a bunch of gangsters on our way back from training. Though they weren't wearing uniforms, we realized the people we met were criminals." Joseph paused a while to carefully look at his son, who was now looking at him with a serious expression.

Joseph finally stated, "They were from Team Rocket."