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

#122 Mr Mime

Mr Mime, the Barrier Pokémon. From birth, this Pokémon is an excellent pantomime. As it matures, it gains the ability to solidify air molecules by vibrating its fingertips. This ability allows it to create invisible objects with its gestures. It punishes those who interrupt its act by slapping them. Mr. Mime is usually very rare, but can be found in suburban areas.

When they were at Nursing School, Wendy Foxglove had been Nurse Isabelle's closest friend. It began when they were roomed together, forced to live and study next to each other. They attended classes together, ate every meal together, and studied together. Because they spent so much time together, they grew very close.

In their final year of their education, they handled real, and sometimes quite tough, cases. On one such occasion, Isabelle and Wendy were grouped together to assist a depressed Mr Mime. Wendy had a natural talent with Pokémon, which Izzy made up for with determined studying, a caring nature, and experience. Wendy was very loving to all Pokémon, believing there was good in every single one of them, but she seemed to treat this Mr Mime especially gently, even more than she usually did. As expected of the two excellent students, their charge soon felt better.

During lunch, eating sandwiches with chocolate spread outside, Isabelle decided to ask about it: "I noticed you treated Mr Mime in a special manner. Any reason?"

Wendy sighed a little, looking over the lake in the distance where Psyduck swam, hoping for bits of their bread. "Like your mum, my parents were always away. Gone on business trips or wherever they went. My only company was this female Mr Mime." Wendy chuckled lightly. "I called her Mrs Mime. It made sense to me as a child. Left alone at home, Mrs Mime raised me. She knew how to cook, how to sew, and even how to clean."

"Raised by a Pokémon, hm?" Isabelle asked, thoughtfully. "That's probably how you can understand Pokémon so well. Almost like a second nature."

Wendy nodded. "I'm better with Pokémon than humans. You're different, Isa. You feel more like me than the Joys do."

Izzy leant back after pushing away a Psyduck that had snuck up to steal her bread. "That's because I was raised at the Celadon Pokémon Centre. Mother left me there, to be entertained by whichever nurse was on her break or whichever Pokémon roamed around. I guess I'm a bit of both worlds. I don't know what I would do without a Pokémon around me."

Wendy nodded in agreement. "I'd take a furious Rhyhorn over a livid Gertrude any day." Both girls laughed at the visual of comparing their mentor, the Elderly Joy, to a charging Rhyhorn.

Isabelle sobered quickly. "Do you want children?"

That question caught Wendy's attention, who didn't notice her bread was stolen from her lap. Izzy secretly hoped the Psyduck would get stomach ache from his greed. "I... I don't know..." Wendy stammered.

"I don't," Izzy said harshly, tossing the crusts hard at the gaggle of Psyduck a bit further away. "I don't ever want to do to my children what mother did to me. I can already tell I'll be a nurse until I can't take it anymore, physically or mentally. It's a full time job, one that doesn't stop when the night falls. I could not care for a child as well. Maybe an apprentice, to raise as my own, but they'd be 10 or so."

Wendy still seemed unsure and a little startled by Izzy's bitterness. Unlike Isabelle, Wendy forgave easily, almost as if she could not even remember the wrongs that had been done to her. It was a little frustrating at times, but her mellowness made her who she was and Izzy would do anything for her friend.

The bell rang. Break time was over. Time for more theory studies.