Nurse Isabelle and the Kanto Pokédex: the Diary of a Travelling Nurse

#013 Weedle

Weedle, the Hairy Bug Pokémon. Weedle can retaliate against attackers and those who step on it with its strong toxin. It can distinguish its favourite kinds of leaves using its acute sense of smell. As a young Bug Pokémon, its daily appetite for leaves matches its weight. Weedle can be found in forests and usually hides in grass, bushes, and under the leaves it eats.

Nurse Isabelle had some fond, and at the same time terrible, memories of Weedle. The first time Izzy worked with a Weedle was at Nursing School. Here, an elderly Joy taught other Joys and whoever wished to learn to be a nurse how to be one. The Joys are incredibly good at what they do. It felt like as if the Joys were born to become nurses. Isabelle sometimes thought it to be a bit sad.

At Nursing School, Isabelle had become good friends with a girl called Wendy Foxglove. Together with Wendy, they were the only non-Joys in her class of ten and so they stuck together. Wendy was a sweet girl with a submissive personality. Whenever something looked bad or someone was angry with her, she flinched and retreated in her mental shell to protect herself. And so, Isabelle protected her.

Something Wendy was good at was getting Pokémon to trust her. No matter what Pokémon they were dealing with, as soon as she touched them, they relaxed. Izzy had been quite jealous of that and tried her best develop such a gift herself. It had taken a long time for Izzy to see that forcing to become what she was not, only agitated the Pokémon she was treating. Only after she had learnt this and became confident in her own ability and skills of treating Pokémon, did she become truly good at it.

One of the first lessons on Bug Pokémon, they worked on a Weedle alone. Every girl had her own Weedle and it needed to be bandaged. Unlike Caterpie, Weedle did not lay still one moment. Within mere minutes, every girl was agitated with the wiggling worms. Some even had boils on their hands from being stung by either of their poisonous horns.

Isabelle was struggling too. Getting some bandage around a worm wasn't hard, but the tiny little feet shouldn't be covered or else the Weedle couldn't move anymore. So they had to be quite precise with it, too. Weedle, she suspected, was having too much fun. Whenever a bit was going well, it did a barrel roll to undo it all. But when Izzy placed one hand on its body to hold it down, its tail swung up to sting her harshly. The head did the same whenever she tried to hold down the tail. Holding her painful hand, Izzy realised she either needed to subdue this worm or needed someone to help her.

In the front of the class, the elderly Joy was having a great time. Seeing young nurses struggle and seeing them realise being a nurse isn't only cuddling with the cute Pokémon was amusing to her.

Eventually, with blisters and boils all over her hands, Isabelle finished last, not counting the Joy whose Weedle had slithered away and was nowhere to be found. Despite being last, she managed and, therefore, passed the class, making Isabelle feel proud.

Later that day, Wendy sat next to her as Izzy had her boils treated by the elderly Joy.

"Try being kind to them. You're really kind, Izz. Just be yourself to the Pokémon. They'll feel it," Wendy said in her usual soft voice.

If she could, Isabelle would run a hand through her hair but both were pinned down, under treatment.

"It's so hard. Why can't they see I am trying to help and just stay still?" Isabelle complained a little, grumpy from the searing pain in her hands.

"Because they're upset. You're upset now too and don't stay perfectly still either, even though you know I am trying to help. Try to imagine what they're feeling. Pokémon merely in pain are easy to treat. But they can be afraid, confused, angry, or sad. And that affects the way you must treat them. Keep that in mind, ladies." The elderly Joy spoke up.

This lesson rang through her head on the day she treated the confused Charizard, the one with the cut in its paw. Wherever the elderly Joy had gone after she passed away, Isabelle hoped that she watched over her and that she was proud of her student.