Gotta Catch The Pretty Ones
© 2011-2014 by Mr. David R. Dorrycott
Chapter Eighteen
Days turned into weeks, weeks when nothing happened other than that Lars returned home. His divorce wasn’t even near as bloody as everyone had feared. His parents and Sissy’s had both demanded a blood test on Sissy’s son. Little Peter Winston it turned out wasn’t a Winston at all, he was a Po. Horribly, Sissy legally released her son to the Po family and ran away. It was a terrible mess with none of the close combatants escaping unbloodied, Sissy’s family blamed Lars, Lars family blamed the Po’s and the Po’s pointed a finger at Sissy’s family. Eventually Sissy’s small family moved out, leaving the small town short a journeyman leather worker and very good laundress. What was worse, Sissy’s body was found five days after her family had left. She had thrown herself off the same cliff that Lucy had accidently tossed that Pokeball.
It was as Penny put it later, A Bad Day in Stonehome.
Afterwards things slowly calmed down. Lars eventually came by asking if he could help. There really wasn’t anything he could do though, Stonehome just didn’t have that much work for more than one Pokeball Tech and a single Hall. Instead of turning him away though Sara gave him one of her three remaining sets of type five parts. “See if you can make this work, you can ask all the questions you want.” she told him. She knew that if he could make that work then his buttery finger days were over.
Type fives were of course rare now, certainly none were used in the field. Lars would have to dig in the Library or borrow Sara’s ragged manual if he needed help putting it together. They still popped up on the collectors market but they rarely drew more than a thousand P even when in mint condition. Sara considered the thing as basically spare parts though a few more advances in Types and the lazy collectors would start hunting them out. But it was the ones to three’s that really drew interest in auctions. In any case Sara really wasn’t interested in its monetary value. If she wanted money, putting her two extra type ones on the chopping block would bring in more than a hundred type fives.
“Steel?” Lars asked as he picked up the still packaged casing.
“Actually stainless spring steel” Sara explained. “It caused the ball to bounce occasionally and the developers forgot that at spring annealing even stainless steel is magnetic, so you can imagine what going up against a Magneton was like.” She took the paper envelope from Lars, weighing it. “Advantage, retains its shape at high impacts, exceptional strong. Disadvantage?”
“A Magneton can throw it right back at you” Lars answered. “Like, ow. That could hurt.”
“And did” Sara agreed. “My grandmother can tell you about that, she had an old one as a child. Then the six’s came out, ceramic shells. Problem with the ceramic shell, though it was almost as tough as spring steel if it cracked you replaced the whole shell. That is expensive work.”
“So, most of the differences in Pokeballs is just the shell?” the young man asked.
“With a couple of types, yes. Others its all internal and every type has modified software. Type elevens are carbon fiber you know. This isn’t anything they didn’t cover in your second year Lars.”
“I’m sorry Mrs. Richards, my mind wasn’t on Pokeball’s at the time” the young man admitted.
“I understand. Go ahead and use my worktable in the Storm Shelter. There is a pristine manual in the library and you’ll find a pretty battered one on my shelves. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. But leave Penny’s special furniture alone. Understand?”
“Yes Mam. Thank you Mam.” Lars turned and left, taking the paper bag with him. Sara wasn’t worried about him finding her special journal. He might know the Martine’s tricks, so she had moved it to her bedroom. In the bath behind the mirror.
It would be just over a week before Lars returned with the completed Pokeball. He had bugged her with second year questions but Sara had been careful to hold her patience. She really wanted to open Penny’s two new Pokeball’s yet with Lars around that wasn’t possible. It did though make the two women feel secure, what with Lars there the chances of Waterdown attacking them was less than it might have been. They still closed the doors tightly at night, including the new inner doors that had two iron reinforced wooden bars across them.
Examining the completed type five Sara finally gave it a pass, presenting it to Lars. “Charge it up and go hunting” she ordered. “Just stay away from Magnetons. You only have a couple of months before you go back to school so please just have fun.” She looked at the boy, no man. He had finally recovered from Sissy’s stupidity and her death. After having put together an antique thing like a type five with nothing but the boxed instruction book and a rugged Tech’s manual his hands no longer shook. There certainly wasn’t anything else she could do for him but she pitied the next girl that fell for him. He would be a hard mark to catch after what Sissy had done to him. Watching Lars leave for home, the precious antique Pokeball in his hands Sara couldn’t help but smile.