Disclaimer – I don't own Jimmy Neutron nor any other referenced media material.

Jimmy parked the hover-car well into the sandy shore, so that it would be far away from any incoming tides. As they landed and took their first up-close look at the beach, a wave of nostalgia washed over Cindy. Sights, sounds and smells came back to her, many that she had completely forgotten since they first left the island all those years ago. With them came the memories of her childhood and, suddenly, seven years didn't seem like so long.

Oh how it was, to have been ten.

"It's called context-dependent memory," Jimmy said. He was already outside of the hover-car. He helped Cindy out of the vehicle, where she took her first steps onto the beach. The wet sand was squishy beneath her sneakers. "This type of memory is enhanced when you're in the environment in which you encoded it. Being here on the island, hearing the sounds and smelling the smells that you haven't heard or smelled in years is bringing back memories you didn't even know you had in you. Isn't it?"

It took Cindy a few moments to realize Jimmy had asked her a question. When she came to, all she could do was nod.

Jimmy smiled kindly at her. "Me too."

The pair began walking along the beach, feeling the way the island felt beneath their feet, allowing the memories to pile inside their minds. Cindy was so preoccupied with both the past and the present, she hadn't even noticed that Jimmy had slipped his hand around hers. When she did, she immediately stopped walking and looked Jimmy dead in the eyes.

"For comfort," Jimmy stated simply. He gazed at her, not betraying the slightest hint of dishonesty. "I don't know about you Cindy, but…" He chuckled, then looked down. "I'm a little nervous."

Cindy took several seconds to make up her mind. "For comfort," she said at last, narrowing her eyes at Jimmy until she was sure that he saw her. Hand still wrapped around the teen genius's, she looked away and the two resumed walking.

In spite of her warning to Jimmy, Cindy couldn't prevent herself from cracking a microscopic smile. She was thankful for the darkness, which kept Jimmy from seeing it.

"Hey Cindy, look."

Cindy made out Jimmy's finger, which was pointing ahead, toward the entrance to the jungle. It was easy to recognize the jungle by the density of the foliage. What was not so easy to recognize, which was where Jimmy was pointing, was a misshapen pile that lay haphazardly strewn along the sand. Cindy kept staring at it, trying to figure out what it was, when comprehension dawned. Jimmy voiced her thoughts as they popped into her head.

"The remains of our old tree houses," he said incredulously. "I can't believe they're still there."

Neither could Cindy. Jimmy had ruined their tree houses seven years ago by firing a laser at them with his watch. He had done so in order to protect them from a giant spider, whose eggs Sheen had stolen. Cindy would have expected the leftover lumber to have been washed away by now. At least most of it. Yet there it stood, virtually unaltered, except for perhaps bloating and rot exacerbated by years of exposure to the wet and salt.

"I remember when we built those," Jimmy said. "Boy that was fun, huh? We even had rudimentary plumbing and everything."

"It sure was something, wasn't it?" Cindy remarked. Her spirits lifted a bit. Perhaps seeing the refuse from their tree houses, that it avoided being lost and managed to stay in the same place all that time, was what gave her hope. An old pile of junk wasn't much reason for hope, but it was real all the same and it was something she could hold onto. It reminded her that the time spent on the island had been real.

"I can build my own tree house Neutron!"

Cindy was sitting in a heap of lumber. An angry red welt adorned her finger, and an even angrier expression adorned her face. She had wanted to build her tree house her way, without any help from Neutron, but so far that she had made very little progress.

"I know you can build it yourself Cindy," Jimmy said. Unlike the blonde, he was concerned more than upset. "But you have to build the frame first. If you start with the base, it'll be too difficult to estimate the appropriate size."

"Well apparently your builder started with the frame first, since they obviously had difficulty estimating the size of your head–"

"Just hold them together like this," Jimmy said. He ignored Cindy's comments altogether. He placed his hands on top of hers and guided them to two pieces of lumber, so that the pieces were pushed against each other. "Now for a dollop of Neutron glue."

Jimmy squirted the pasty substance from his watch, and within seconds, the two pieces of lumber were permanently fused together.

Cindy, still fighting the growing bond between her and Jimmy, turned her head away and blushed crimson.

"I wonder what else we'll find," Jimmy said.

Cindy shook her head, shaking off her flashback. She glanced around the island, considering Jimmy's question, when a thought occurred to her that was so simple yet so elementary, she couldn't believe that neither of them had brought it up. She almost wanted to laugh and cry at their foolishness.

"Uh Jimmy," she said, wanting to be careful how she phrased this. She didn't want to burst Jimmy's bubble, or otherwise lead the way into another argument. "Not that I want to be the wet blanket here…again, but um…" She winced as she couldn't think of any other way to continue her sentence. "How exactly are we going to explore the island? Or do anything for that matter? Since…you know. It's nighttime. And we don't have any flashlights. Or lanterns. Or any other usable form of illumination."

The blonde cringed, waiting for Jimmy to shout out in anger, or to lower his head in defeat. Instead, like the resourceful Jimmy that she had once known but had almost forgotten, the teen genius just smiled. Cindy could barely make out the upward curve of his lip.

"I was wondering when you'd say that Ms. Vortex," he said with a cryptic air. Eyes glittering, he turned away from her. "What you're about to see is a demonstration of the first invention I developed for the Intergalactic Missionaries." Jimmy removed his ever-present watch from his wrist. He opened a flap on the wristband, which issued a bright but localized glow, and punched what must have been several buttons, though Cindy had a hard time seeing. "You see, part of the admissions process is validating your scientific ingenuity."

Before Cindy could say another word, Jimmy appeared to press one final button. A powerful rumbling emanated from the watch. It was so strong that Cindy felt it vibrating through her feet and teeth. After the rumbling subsided, a glow enveloped Jimmy's hand, the hand that was carrying the watch. Still holding onto the watch, Jimmy slowly lowered his hand, until his fingers connected with the sandy ground.

What followed was one of the most breathtaking scenes that Cindy had ever witnessed. And as a seasoned space-traveler by the age of ten, that was saying something. When Jimmy touched the beach, the glow that enveloped his hand rapidly spread throughout the entire island, covering every rock and every tree. Once it had done this, the glow began creeping into the air. It spread more slowly here, and seemed to follow along some invisible path. As it progressed, Cindy saw that it was forming a large dome over the island. She wanted to say something, to ask Jimmy a question, or several, but her voice had left her.

After much anticipation, the glowing dome had finally finished forming. Cindy thought she knew what was coming next, but even so, it managed to surprise her. The shining dome evaporated and the surrounding sky burst into light, so suddenly and so brightly that Cindy had to cover her eyes with both hands. It seemed to take ages for her to adjust, but once she had, she unveiled her eyes.

It was like being transported to another planet. Or better yet, like taking a ride in one of Jimmy's time machines. The island hadn't changed, she hadn't changed, Jimmy hadn't changed, and she was pretty sure that their positions hadn't changed, but instead of the milky twilight scene that had been there before, it now appeared that it was the middle of the day.

And she could see everything.

Cindy positioned her hand at eyebrow level and craned her head, so she could study the sky more directly. It was nothing less than the deepest blue, painted out of an artist's most treasured color reserves. Right in the middle of it burned the sun, a great golden sphere that positively shocked Cindy by sending her warmth. She was so dazzled that she became light-headed.

"You see, being a missionary involves traveling to other planets, where the light-dark cycle may vary considerably from the missionary's own indigenous environment. In order to safeguard your mental and physical well-being and to prevent your circadian rhythms from becoming distorted, you must be able to create your own source of natural light."

"I…" Cindy began. Her brows furrowed. She was dumb-struck. "You…"

"Of course, the Missionaries rejected this proposal. It was too ostentatious you see. In addition, while it kept my own light-dark cycle at a preferable level, it would disrupt that of the surrounding wildlife."

Cindy retracted her gaze from the sky and aimed it at Jimmy. She simply stared at him, twin emeralds sparkling with innocence.

"A few hours exposure like this will have minimal adverse effects, other than temporarily confusing some of the animals. Once I'm on an official mission, I'll use a form of phototherapy instead. Similar to the kind they give to people with Seasonal Affective Disorder."

"Is this all just limited to the island?" Cindy said. Impressed would have been an understatement.

"Yep."

Cindy kept staring at Jimmy. "And you're able to do this…with just your watch?"

"Uh-huh."

Cindy glossed over the scene, unable to stop her head from shaking. "You've gotten…better at this since we last hung out. Haven't you?"

Jimmy shrugged. It was all he could do to prevent himself from launching into a goofy dance. "A little bit." He watched as Cindy's eyes jumped from point to point, and then back, like she couldn't take it all in.

"So," he said in what was undoubtedly a very satisfied tone. He assembled his hands behind his back. "Any questions?"

Eventually, Cindy turned to Jimmy. Her face glimmered at first, then deadpanned. She pointed at his watch.

"Got any extras?"


A few minutes later, Cindy and Jimmy were trekking aimlessly through the island, unable to keep to a specific path since there was so much to explore, so many places to revisit. They went in and out of the jungle, though they were careful not to go too deep inside. Indeed, the sudden ignition of night into day had confused the animals, and many were stirring about, trying to figure out what it was that had happened. Cindy felt bad for them at first, but Jimmy reminded her that a few hours exposure wouldn't do them much harm. He compared it to staying up a few extra hours to study for an exam. When done repeatedly it could deteriorate a person's performance, but if done only once, it yielded little effect.

"So," Cindy panted as they pushed through a patch of heavy undergrowth. They had only been at it for about ten minutes, but it felt much longer. Already, their breathing had grown labored. "Where should we go…first?"

"I think," Jimmy began. "That the question isn't…where should we go…but rather…the question is…where shouldn't we?" He glanced at his watch, which among other things, still served to tell time. "I've got a little over nine hours before takeoff." He swallowed a large gulp of air. "If it takes us two hours to get home…and I need three hours to get ready before leaving…that means we have four hours left."

"What about sleeping?" Cindy said. "I'll be fine but…you've got a long journey ahead of you."

"I can sleep on the way. I have to do a few things while going to…Intergalactic headquarters, but…other than that I've got nothing but…time."

"Intergalactic headquarters?"

"Yeah. You see, before we can take on any missions…there's a training process. I think it's several months in earthen time, but…they won't tell me how long exactly." Jimmy looked right, then left, trying to discern their location. Sweat rolled down his temples. His invention had changed everything from the time of day, to the temperature, to even the quality of air. It felt just like Cindy remembered, from way back when. "But enough of that. What do you want to do right now?"

"I don't know. It's like you said. It's not what we should do, but what…we shouldn't." Cindy racked her brain, determined to use every last second of her limited time with Jimmy. "There's the guava patch. We can rustle up some smoothies if the fruit's good. And then there's the water by the cliff. We can go for a swim."

"Good suggestions," Jimmy said. "But before we do any of those…do you mind if we do something else first?"

"Something else?" Cindy said. She thought she had pegged the highest priorities. "Like what?"


As quietly as possible, Cindy and Jimmy leaned past the trunk of the tree they were perched on, and over the branch. They carefully controlled every movement, for fear that the slightest snap of a twig or brush of a leaf might set off their target. Currently, that target had its back to them, and was preoccupied by something on the ground.

"On the count of three," Jimmy whispered. He gave Cindy a serious look.

"Oh Jimmy I don't know," she whispered back. "What if he doesn't recognize you? You've gotten a lot taller."

"On the count of three," Jimmy repeated, leaving no room for argument. He nodded at Cindy's fist, which clutched his watch. "You know what to do?"

"Just go and do it already," she said. She sighed impatiently, staring down at her other fist, which carried a bunch of bananas. "I still think it's a stupid idea."

"One," Jimmy began. Cindy flipped the panel on Jimmy's watch and pressed a button. A tiny LED light peeped out through an invisible hole. Cindy aimed the light at Jimmy.

"Two," Jimmy continued, holding up two fingers and looking directly at the watch. He waited several seconds and then extended his third and final finger. "Three."

Jimmy leapt out of the tree and hurtled toward the creature like a madman. Cindy aimed the watch's tiny light at Jimmy, trying to catch his every movement. Before the little creature knew what hit it, Jimmy had skidded to a stop behind it and wrapped one of his arms around the creature's belly. Using his other arm, Jimmy grabbed hold of the creature's right hand and made it wave back and forth at Cindy.

"Hiii," Jimmy drawled in a scratchy voice. "I'm Paul."

Jimmy immediately released the little monkey's hand and backpedaled several feet. He anticipated the creature would react, but he didn't know how to approach other than by ambush. If he had tried walking up to it, he had feared that the monkey would have been scared off, and then they would have lost its trail for good.

The moment Jimmy had released it, the monkey jumped into the air. It whirled around to look at Jimmy and then went rigid, visibly deciding whether it was going to flee or attack. As the monkey excitedly eyed Jimmy, the teen genius could see it's little chest rapidly rising and falling. His nerves on edge, Jimmy also began to feel guilty.

"Paul?" he said tentatively.

The little creature peered at Jimmy. It's heart was still thumping wildly.

"Paul?" Jimmy repeated. He placed one foot forward but then retracted when he saw the animal beginning to react. Slowly, ever so slowly, Jimmy hunkered down to his ankles, so that the monkey would feel less threatened. "Do you remember me?" He smiled at the creature, but it made no response. "Do you remember me and Cindy?"

Jimmy pointed back at the low-hanging branch of the tree, where Cindy was still perched. The blonde, rolling her eyes, waved the bunch of bananas at Jimmy and the monkey, all the while keeping the tiny video camera in Jimmy's watch trained on their location.

Paul didn't seem to care about Cindy or the bananas. He just kept staring at Jimmy, torn between his fight-or-flight instinct.

"Jimmy," Cindy called from the tree. She spoke discreetly, so as not to disturb their primate target. "Maybe you better just forget it. I don't think he's–"

Without warning, the little monkey pounced on Jimmy. The teen genius gasped inadvertently as he was knocked to the ground. Although he couldn't see her, he heard Cindy let out an exclamation, followed by some noisy clambering down a tree.

Preparing to defend himself, Jimmy balled his hands and stuck his head up. When he did so, he was very surprised to find that the monkey was not baring his teeth at him, or making any other type of defensive gesture.

Instead, it appeared that Paul was…dancing.

"What the…" Cindy had appeared at Jimmy's side, and was staring down at the supine genius, as well as the little monkey that was hopping and hooting atop his chest. "Uhh…"

Jimmy just laughed. He caught the monkey in his hands and began tickling it, knowing full well that monkeys weren't ticklish in the same way as humans, but enjoying it all the same as Paul shrieked with delight and began poking him back on the arm.

"What do you know?" Jimmy said, laughing some more. "You really do remember me, don't you boy?"


The reclaiming of Paul did something to Cindy and Jimmy. It was like the sky had become brighter, brighter than any artificial environment that Jimmy could conjure up with his watch. Having their former short-term pet rejoin them, it was like going back seven years in time. They felt like they had all the time in the world together. That there was no one on the planet except for them. That no matter what else had been going on in their lives previously, they had the moment. They had the moment and everything that was in it.

And at the time, that moment, as well as everything that was in it, couldn't have possibly seemed any brighter.


"So," Jimmy began as he and Cindy were walking through the jungle. They were each holding one of Paul's hands, and together held the monkey suspended in midair. Paul seemed to enjoy this, as he did everything from chin-ups to backwards and forwards flips. Currently, he was just hanging onto the humans' hands, chirping occasionally and very happy. "Now that we have the full family back together–"

Paul hooted at being mentioned.

"–What should we do now?"

"Hmm," Cindy said. She scratched her chin. To her right, Paul seemed to be thinking hard as well. Whether the monkey was truly brainstorming or not, at the same time that Cindy appeared to stop thinking, Paul appeared to stop thinking as well. The two doffed their thinking caps, and then, as though they had noticed each other for the first time, they looked at each other.

It only took Cindy and Paul a minute of mutual staring before they both looked at Jimmy. Grins broke out on their faces.


"Oof!"

Jimmy fell face-first into the sand. After recovering, and taking a moment to consider his burgeoning humiliation, he twisted to his side and spat out a mouthful of the coarse, tasteless grains. It was with extreme difficulty that he opened his eyes and faced Cindy and Paul's leering faces.

"Now remind me why I agreed to this?" he said.

At either side of him, Cindy and Paul both laughed.

"Because you're so bad at it," Cindy said. She took the bunch of bananas clutched in her hand and rattled them in Jimmy's direction. "Face it Neutron. Even now that you're two feet taller, you still stink at this game."

Jimmy made a guttural sound in his throat. Climbing to his feet, he waved his arms around desperately, hoping that for once, just once, he could catch the bananas and make Cindy the monkey-in-the-middle instead.


"Okay, I think we've collected enough now."

After she laid the last guava in their growing pile, Cindy dusted off her hands. Her lips were formed into a proud smile.

Paul was so eager to get started on the fruit, he sprinted from Cindy's side, toward the pile. Lucky for Jimmy and Cindy, the blonde had the reflexes of a Jedi master. She quickly grabbed a hold of the gluttonous primate.

"No Paul," Cindy told him. "We have to make them into smoothies first."

Cindy's eyes suddenly went wide. She smacked herself on the forehead. Cocking his head to the side, Paul provided an additional smack himself.

"Cindy, what's wrong?" Jimmy said.

"We forgot the coconuts," Cindy said. "The trees are all the way back at the entrance of the jungle. We can't carry all this fruit over there."

"No worries," Jimmy replied.

Cindy was about to remind Jimmy that without the hollowed coconuts they had nothing to hold their drinks, when Jimmy began fiddling with his watch. Cindy couldn't tell how Jimmy kept all the buttons on the tiny, adjoining keypad straight, but they must have made sense to him since after some pressing, a confirming type of beep followed.

Jimmy's watch trembled a bit, and then, like magic, three clear plastic cups popped out of thin air. Each landed at Jimmy, Cindy, and Paul's respective feet.

"Well," Jimmy said, once this latest feat had been completed. He mirrored the proud smile Cindy had worn a minute ago. "What do you think?" He pointed at his wrist. "An artificial wormhole connects this thing to my hypercube. I programmed it so instead of having to actually reach inside the hypercube and pull out my desired object, all I have to do is press a code and then that object would pop out instead." He gazed happily at Cindy. "Isn't it great?"

The teen genius became confused when he saw that Cindy did not share his enthusiasm. Instead, the blonde simply stood there with her arms crossed, a muscle twitching in her cheek.

"The watch?" she said in a hollow voice. Her foot was tapping. "Again?"


"And so, Dr. Van Pretzelstein continued with his experiments, delving further into the territory of the unethical, the unquestionable, the scientifically horrifying."

Cindy and Paul sat on their log with bored expressions on their faces. They were mindlessly shoving popcorn into their mouths (courtesy of Jimmy's endless watch), munching with annoyance as Jimmy continued his story.

"But then, at the end of the year, just as Dr. Van Pretzelstein was about to submit his progress report, something even more terrifying happened."

"Whah wuff dat?" Cindy uttered through her stuffed mouth. Frowning at her for a minute, Jimmy then wiggled his fingers about in a spooky gesture and said:

"He found out that the government had already canceled his funding. Ooooooooh." He wiggled his fingers again.

Cindy and Paul just stared at each other. They swallowed their popcorn. After an uncomfortably long silence, Cindy cleared her throat.

"Okay. Letting you tell campfire stories in broad daylight, and without a campfire, was a really, really, stupid idea."


"Last one there is a rotten egg."

As fast as he could, Jimmy removed his shoes, socks and shirt. Although his head wasn't quite as disproportionately large compared to the rest of his body these days, it was with great effort that Jimmy finally got his noggin through the sweat-dampened, cotton material. When he had, he saw Cindy standing before him, waiting for him to finish so that they could race to the lake.

Or rather, he saw more of Cindy standing before him than he had expected to see.

"Holy koo-koo-munga!" Jimmy blurted. He tried covering his mouth, but the damage had been done.

"What?" Cindy exclaimed. She frowned at Jimmy, but quickly noticed that the teen genius wasn't staring at her head but in a more southern direction. Teeth gritting, a blush crept across Cindy's face.

"Get a grip Neutron!" she said in an angry voice. It didn't help much. Now, Jimmy's eyes merely darted from her chest to her head, and then back again. "So I'm only wearing a sports-bra. Big deal. You've seen me at the beach loads of times."

"Of course," Jimmy squeaked. "You're perfectly erect – I-I mean correct – I mean…"

A murderous glare took over Cindy's features. Jimmy was reminded of the look serial killers wore in slasher films. Quickly, before his nerve ran out, he fumbled out one last thing.

"They've grown."

With that, Jimmy sped off like a bandit, Cindy hot on his heels.

"NEEEEUUUUTROOOOOOON!"


"And that's not all the items I have programmed into my watch."

Jimmy's blue eyes, one ringed with bruised flesh, gazed brightly at his two audience members. He began pushing more buttons on the keypad to his watch, and one by one, objects began popping out of thin air.

"I also have my Cheese-Ray. My Shrink Ray. My Death Ray. My Sneeze Ray. My complete volume of Albert Einstein biographies, on tape. My Fart Ray. My Puke Ray. My Ray-Ray. Hehe, that last one was a joke."

Cindy clenched her hand into a fist.


"OW!"

"Cindy, hold still."

Jimmy and Cindy had stopped in the middle of a small clearing in the jungle. Cindy had gotten something in her eye, so Jimmy was presently hunkered down in front of her, his fingers holding Cindy's eye open, his face only inches from hers.

"You know," he said, one keen blue eye probing her one wide green eye. "I don't see anything in there."

Jimmy swallowed audibly. He couldn't remember the last time that he had gotten this close to Cindy Vortex.

"Maybe," the blonde began, committing a loud gulp herself, "It came out just now when I moved."

Jimmy moved closer as he gave her eye one last examination. "Maybe…"

The two teens looked at each other. Only an inch separated them. But the desire. That awful, voracious desire…

"I see the sea," Cindy said. Her green orb focused on Jimmy's blue one.

"Me too," Jimmy replied. He mirrored her expression.

For while the sea could be blue, sometimes, it could also be green.


They had been walking for a bit when Cindy felt Jimmy, once again, ensnare her hand within his. This time, she noticed it right away, and shot Jimmy a warning look.

"For comfort," Jimmy repeated. His gaze had become sad. It glanced from Cindy, to his watch, then back to Cindy. "Only two hours and thirty minutes left."

Cindy hesitated at first, but then chose to wrap her fingers around Jimmy's hand as well. She gave it a futile squeeze.

"For comfort."

Though they had both said the same thing, deep down, they knew they were lying.


"And I have my jetpack. My Shoebot. My Brain Drain. My Book Gum…"

Cindy's fist grew tighter.


"You know, back when we were here on the island for the first time, I had the strangest dream about Paul."

Cindy threw Jimmy a suspicious look, but was surprised to find that the genius was being serious. "What about?"

Jimmy's brows knitted in puzzlement. "Well, I dreamt that he was a chimp instead of a rhesus, that he had a third eye in the middle of his head, and that when he saw me, he waved and said, 'Hi, I'm Paul.'"

Cindy knitted her own eyebrows together. "So that's why you named him Paul?" She then added: "And where you got the idea for that stupid greeting."

"Yeah," Jimmy said. He peered down at the little monkey, who was tramping along happily in front of them. "But it was so weird, don't you think?"

"You're telling me," Cindy said. She couldn't keep the strangeness out of her voice. "The weird thing is, and I don't know how this is even possible, but…" She shot Jimmy a mystified look. "Somehow that all sounds really familiar."


"Are you ready?"

"If this is another stupid thing that your watch can do Jimmy, I swear I'm–"

"And open sesame!"

"Open sesame my foot, you – oh!"

Jimmy had taken his hands off Cindy's eyes, hoping she'd be impressed. He was not disappointed. Her dual emeralds shone like the sun, taking in every inch of the beautiful landscape. It had taken some effort to climb to the top of the cliff, especially while trying to keep Cindy blind-folded, but it had been worth the exertion. From their current vantage-point, they could see almost all the way out to the end of the island. Hundreds and hundreds of endless trees, with sparkling blue streams snaking in between them. Jimmy had originally found it seven years ago, but never had the opportunity to show it to Cindy.

"Oh Jimmy it's beautiful!"

The blonde turned around and wrapped Jimmy in a fierce hug. The teen was surprised by this at first, but then the surprise was replaced with gladness. He held onto Cindy with all the passion of a lover, a lover he wanted to be but couldn't. He restricted himself to a contented sigh, and a soft nuzzle of his nose against her mesmerizing golden hair.

"I love it up here," she said, muffled by Jimmy's chest.

The teen genius held her against himself, drinking in the aroma of her jasmine, which had always been his favorite scent.

"On that Cindy, I think we can both agree."


"And I have my quantum scooter. My inter-dimensional chess board. My Red-Rider BB gun. I kept it in there for years so Mom wouldn't find out about it. My first nano-chip. My anti-gravity hair gel."

Cindy's fist grew even tighter.


"Jimmy?" Cindy said. She thought it had been a trick of the eye at first, but now, she wasn't so sure. "Is the sun…setting?"

Jimmy's visage grew somber. He placed a hand on Cindy's shoulder, gazing in the same direction that she was. "It's running out of power. I put it on a timer in case we…needed coercing."

Cindy didn't flinch. "You mean…"

Jimmy nodded. "We're better start making our way back to the beach. Before it sets."


They walked hand-in-hand the rest of the way, all pretense of comfort gone. They were holding hands to hold hands. And no matter how hard they squeezed, it wasn't hard enough.


Jimmy was so close. He could do it. He could do it right now. All he had to do was pull on Cindy's arm, take her by surprise, and kiss for all she was worth. He had done it before. Back in fifth grade, when all those rumors Libby had started on the news were flying about. He did it back then, out of nothing more than guts, desire, and curiosity. Now that he was seven years older and seven years wiser, he could do it again. He could do it so that she knew, once and for all, just how deeply he felt for her. He could do it…

But every time he was about to, that something, that terrible something which had been gnawing at the back of his mind the whole night, was what held him back.


Paul was hopping about, happy as could be, when he stopped. The little monkey had been having the most fun he had had in years, but just now, something made him pause. He turned around and realized that the humans, the one with the large head and the one with the hair that looked like bananas, were a whole lot quieter now. He hobbled over to play with them, and found that his suspicions were confirmed. While they were still affectionate, they hardly reacted at all to him.

Paul decided to become quiet as well. Maybe, if he was really quiet, just like those two were being, they would stay with him longer than they did that last time.


"And last of all, I give you…a peanut butter and jelly sandwich."

Jimmy caught the sandwich before it could hit the ground. He took a bite out of it and swallowed with triumph. "You see Cindy and Paul, that's the most brilliant aspect about my latest hypercube. Not only does space cease to become a reality. Time ceases to become a reality just as well. I can keep enough food in here to feed me indefinitely, and not even have to worry about it spoiling."

Jimmy beamed proudly at his two, quiet audience members.

"You know what I think about your little…programmable watch Jimmy?" Cindy said.

Jimmy had been so excited about showing her his invention, he had missed the deadly tone in Cindy's voice.

"What's that Cindy?" he asked. He could hardly wait to hear her response.

Cindy's deadly note evolved into an even deadlier smile. "I think that if that watch isn't off your wrist and in the lake in five seconds, I'm going to rip it off myself and jam it so far down your digestive system, you'll have a second artificial wormhole running from your butt, all the way to planet Jupiter!" She waited a second, so that her words sank in. "Have I made myself perfectly clear?"

"Well Cindy, y-you can't just make a wormhole with your bare hands. You see, Einstein said that–"

"Five-four-three-two-one!"

"Cindy, you have no idea how long it took me to program this thiiiiing! Quick, run Paul! Paul? Pukin' Pluto, you're chasing me too! Son of a – AHHHHHHHHHHH!"


"Cindy," Jimmy said. His voice was as solemn as the grave. He, Cindy, and Paul, had all been gathered on the beach for ten minutes, wanting to do something with their precious remaining time, but feeling far too anxious to actually focus on anything. Jimmy had walked up to the two, who were sitting on a trio of logs they had dragged near the hover-car. He and Cindy hadn't wanted to sit inside the hover-car just yet, since it reminded them too intently of their imminent departure.

"How much?" Cindy asked. She sat as still as a statue on her log, dreading Jimmy's announcement. She knew that they didn't have much time left. It was obvious from the sky overhead, which had almost completely run out of power and had nearly reverted to the nighttime scene. Yet in spite of all this, hoping against hope, Cindy prayed it wouldn't be too soon.

"One hour," Jimmy said, glancing up from his watch. He studied Cindy with sadness. He felt the weight of his words hit them all. Even Paul seemed to feel the effect. "We have one hour before we need to leave the island."

It was then, after he had said this, that it began to rain.

AN: Thanks again for the reviews guys. Not sure if this chapter seemed too fast, but the next one will slow down a bit. I'm really anxious to upload the next chapters. My plan is that this story will get better and better, as well as more intense, as we approach the end. Now, I can finally show you all why I've dubbed this fic a drama.