Dear PokeMonholics Annonymous,

Enclosed is a letter of recommendation from my mother and husband, both of whom say a grown woman should not be playing Pokemon and that I should be committed.

Institutionalize me for my addiction if you wish.  Send me to a rehab center where there are no Gameboys.  But if you do, know this.  Ash Ketchum and I grew up together.  Me and him.  Him and me.  We've caught them all.

He has been with me since I was nine.  Longer than my husband.  Longer than my baby.  Longer than my longest time bestest friend.  Pokemon is how I first learned to draw.  Pokemon is how I first learned to write stories.

Oh?  You've changed your mind?  I can stay?  I can keep my DS?  Good.

Ash and I thank you.

Love,
Rachel
PokeMon Champion

Dear Friend,

Remember when we waded down the river and ate junk food and talked about California?

I get that I was obnoxious and that you were an inch shorter than me and just a-little-bit-skinnier and that you were leaving forever and ever.  Understood.

You left.  Soon, I met my "lobster."  My missing puzzle piece.  The one who gets my stupid jokes.  We had a perfect daughter together, and now we have a perfect life.

Everything is perfect.  Except for one thing.  You were supposed to be miserable.  You were supposed to be old and lonely and own fifteen cats that you didn't like and didn't bother naming.

Because everyone deserves to be missed.

Love,

An Old Friend