The moon had claws five inches long, like steak knives. It chased her through the night sky, steadfast at 55 mph, waxing almost full. A waning crescent of funnel cake sat on her lap like a rabbit, shivering and shaking with every bump in the road, threatening to fly off and scatter powdered sugar if her Uncle Elliot took a turn a little too fast in his brand new ’02 Jeep Liberty. She petted it and broke off little pieces, the sugar compacting onto her fingers and into the buttons of her purple Game Boy Color.

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She tried to ignore the moon, waiting for the golden streetlights to show her passing glimpses of Pokémon Crystal. Elliot the Teddiursa was fighting to save the Johto Region from Team Rocket, but then the amber light would pass, and the little bear would be gone until the next streetlight. She stared up at the moon, annoyed that it wasn’t bright enough to illuminate the small screen.

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She caught Teddiursa last week when she was playing at the family barbeque, and it quickly became her favorite Pokémon. Teddiursa was a small teddy bear with round ears and a big crescent moon on its forehead. “You should name it after your uncle,” Gregory said after she proudly showed her latest catch to anyone who would listen. He was smiling at a joke he would never explain to her.

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"Teddiursa is a girl!” she protested.

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He smiled harder, which only confused her.

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When she met her Uncle Jacob for the first time, her parents told her that he was marrying her Aunt Katie. She understood that she was supposed to be excited. But when Gregory showed up at a barbeque one day, her parents said he was Elliot’s…friend. She understood that she was supposed to be cautious. But not so cautious that she shouldn’t go to the County Fair when they offered to take her.

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Elliot rode the Ferris wheel with her—Gregory was afraid of heights—and the attendant assumed they were father and daughter. She was used to this; she and Elliot had the same blue eyes and round faces. But when Gregory walked up to them, the attendant’s face scrunched up like he smelled a bad fart. She started to notice people eyeing the three of them, and she wondered if everyone knew to be cautious of Gregory. She didn’t understand it, though, because her uncle was definitely scarier. Elliot was broad shouldered with a big beard and a leather jacket with fringe on the shoulder pads. Gregory was noodley in his striped t-shirt and brown silk scarf, his hair a mop of ash blond with a streak of lime green. She thought he looked a bit like a clown or a painter.

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At one point, she had gone to the bathroom where she overheard two teenagers.

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“Did you see those two guys?”

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“I think they’re, like, together.”

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As she washed her hands beside them, she somehow knew they were talking about Gregory and her uncle, and that she didn’t like it. But they were together, like how she was there together with them. That word, “together”, was not a bad word, but then why did this girl giggle it as if she’d get in trouble if someone overheard?

She emerged from the bathroom as the moon clawed its way above a pink horizon.

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“There you are,” Elliot said. “Want to get a funnel cake?”

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An hour later, they were on the highway, and Elliot the Teddiursa was fighting a gossiping Mukrow as Elliot the Uncle turned onto a dark backroad. She would have to fend for herself for now. The moon was higher in the sky, about to pounce, as silvered light pierced through the moonroof and onto the two men.

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“Can I have a piece of funnel cake?” Elliot asked. She offered the crescent, almost a new moon. Gregory took a piece and fed it to him. The moonlight showed her everything she needed to see. How Gregory smiled when Elliot grabbed the piece of cake with his teeth, how Elliot’s pink fingernails found Gregory’s lime green ones. She let out a small gasp. Gregory and Elliot were like Uncle Jacob and Aunt Katie. They were together.

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“Let’s show her the lookout!” Elliot said, and turned onto an even darker road. They twisted up a hill, the funnel cake nearly flying away in fear before they eventually parked in the middle of the woods. Elliot held her hand through the brush before they emerged into a small clearing by a cliff. He hoisted her onto his shoulders so she could see the view: houses sitting like veins of light through the valleys, the fair glittering like a prism in the far distance. The moon gazed coldly upon the hilltops surrounded by a bedazzled sky. She breathed in the moonlight, cool and sweet like wild honeysuckle, and she knew its claws were kind. A gentle giant set in the sky, round and blue like her uncle’s eyes. Like her eyes too.

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She reached out a hand and patted Gregory’s green hair.

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“It’s soft,” she whispered.

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“Well, yeah,” he laughed, “gurl, I use coconut oil.”

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“Oh look!” Elliot said, pointing into the night, “there’s Ursa major! And there’s Ursa minor!”

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“Aww, mama bear and baby bear,” Gregory smiled, “just like you two.”

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“He’s papa bear,” she scolded, “you’re the mama bear.”

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And the two men fell out laughing so hard that Gregory cried a little.

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             In the last few streetlights before reaching home, Elliot the Teddiursa leveled up and transformed into a new Pokémon named Ursaring. She was now a big broad bear with huge claws like the moon’s and fringing on her shoulders just like her uncle’s jacket. She finally understood the joke that Gregory had laughed to himself about. Her uncle was an Ursaring. She smiled then; Gregory knew Pokémon better than she did. And he loved her uncle like she did. And now all she wanted was to fight bad guys and drive through the moonlight as the three of them, together.