In Brightest Day, In Darkest Night

by Gary D. Snyder

Part 1:

Who am I?

I guess that depends on whom you ask. Some people think I'm a hero. Others think I'm a loser. But if you ask most people they don't think anything about me, good or bad. It's almost as though I don't exist until I'm right in their way. I'm like the hole in the sidewalk that they have to step around, or maybe the singing bird that makes them smile that they forget about as soon as they get past.

Sometimes I think that even I'm not sure who I am.

It's always sort of been that way since my family and I came to Retroville. All I ever really wanted to do was to fit in but there was always something that always made people uncomfortable and put them off from being friends with me. If it wasn't the clothes, it was the shoes. If it wasn't the shoes, it was how I talked, or the hair…and so on and so on. When I was little I always thought that someday I might do something important and people would really like me. Or that maybe I'd become famous and everyone would want to be my friend. I think that every little kid thinks that at some time in their life. I guess I thought that most of my life, until the day I found out just what a curse that could really be.

Let me start at the beginning…

"Whose idea was it to invite the new kid along, Neutron?" Cindy asked in a not-too-subtle whisper.

Jimmy looked up from his tinkering with another of his inventions. "Mine," was all he said before resuming his work.

Cindy sighed and lay back on the grass again watching the stars slowly appear in the deeping purple of the sky overhead. She, Jimmy, Carl, Sheen, Libby, and the new kid to whom she had referred were at the top of Lookout Point not far outside the city. It was, she had to admit, a very nice view, and once the sky was fully dark they would be treated to a magnificent summer night sky. As an unseen cricket began to sing she made a mental note to herself to remember this place as somewhere to go for a special evening with someone.

"Hey! Libby!" she heard Sheen call. "Want to hear me belch the names of the constellations?"

The romantic direction of her thoughts was instantly derailed. Beside her Libby shuddered. "No," she replied as tactfully as she could. "Don't bother."

"No bother," replied Sheen, holding up a yellow and black book titled Astronomy for Dimwits. "Listen! Caa-a-a-ncer, Tau-au-au-rus, Li-i-i-bra – "

"I said no Sheen! I just want to look at some interstellar gas clouds, not listen to some."

"Oh, man," said Sheen dejectedly. Then he glared at Carl, who was staring at him. "What?" he demanded.

"Oh, nothing," Carl answered, shrinking back. "It's just that…that guy on the book kind of looks like you."

"Hey! It does!" laughed Cindy, pointing. "I never noticed before!"

Libby looked and began laughing as well. "So it does! I guess Sheen had better be ready to sign autographs the next time he goes to the Bookstore and More." Despite, or perhaps because of, Sheen's indignant expression the two girls laughed harder than ever, joined in by Carl. After a few moments of this Libby quieted down. "What's with the new kid?" she whispered to Cindy. "Doesn't he ever smile?"
Cindy shrugged. "I don't know," she whispered back. "I don't know much about him. All I know is that he moved into the neighborhood a couple months ago and that his name is Ernest."

"So what's he doing here?" Libby asked.

Cindy shrugged again. "Neutron invited him. I guess it's true that nerds of a feather flock together." She gave the new kid an appraising look. "He's not really that bad looking. Maybe if he combed his hair to the side instead of straight forward and didn't have his pants pulled so high up and didn't wear a long-sleeved plaid shirt buttoned all the way up and –"

"Forget it, girl," Libby yawned. "That kind of fixer-upper would take more good years than either of us have coming."

"I guess you're right," Cindy conceded, then called to Jimmy. "Hey, Nerd-tron! How much longer?"

"Almost ready," Jimmy called back. "Just adjusting the neodymium deflection plates now."

"Just what is this new invention of yours, Jimmy?" Sheen asked, wandering over.

"It's the Neutron Vacuum Tube Telemonitor," Jimmy answered proudly as he tightened one final adjustment screw. "It's the latest thing in state-of-the-art astronomical observation equipment."

Cindy gave a scornful laugh as she came over. "State-of-the-art?" she scoffed. "For your information, vacuum tubes haven't been used in nearly forty years."

"Au contraire, mon fille incompetent," Jimmy returned smugly. "Vacuum tubes are still superior in a number of applications such as high-powered microwave generation and audio amplification equipment. But this isn't the type of thermionic valve to which you referred. It creates a tube of vacuum in the atmosphere."

"Uh…Jimmy? Don't get mad, but…so what?" said Carl.

"Well, Carl," Jimmy explained, "astronomical observations using light gathering telescopes are extremely poor because of the constant turbulence of the atmosphere. You've noticed how things seem to shimmer on hot days or when there's a fire burning?"

"Yes. We all have," replied Libby, who had joined the group.

"Well, that's because the heat creates turbulence in the air and makes it move, causing the light to refract, or bend, back and forth. The same thing happens all the time in the atmosphere. Atmospheric turbulence makes starlight bend and make stars seem to move back and forth. That's why stars twinkle. "

Carl hung his head in disappointment. "Oh. My mom said it was because the angels were winking at me."

Libby gave Jimmy a disproving look and he looked embarrassed at inadvertently stepping on another of Carl's cherished beliefs. "Oh…well…that too, I guess." He hurried on. "But in any case, my invention clears the air out of the way, creating a vacuum tube, or tunnel, for my telescope so that there's no atmospheric distortion. As a result, we can see thing far more clearly than anything else we can get on Earth."

"Well, let's get on with it," Cindy said with undisguised impatience.

"As you wish." With a flourish Jimmy flipped a switch, causing a hum to start from the device on which he had been working, and peered through the eyepiece. "Mars should be high enough to see by now," he muttered as he adjusted some knobs. "Aha! Perfect! Behold the Red Planet of War!" he cried in triumph, stepping back.

That was enough of an invitation for Cindy. She stepped forward looked into the eyepiece that Jimmy had vacated. "I don't know why you always have to make such a big deal out of – " she began, and ended with a gasp of amazement. She had seen Mars before through other telescopes, but it had always seemed fuzzy and far away. The half-lit red orb that shone before here was so crystal clear that she involuntarily reached out with one hand to touch it. "It's…so…beautiful…" she breathed, suddenly realizing that she had been holding her breath.

"Cindy?" Jimmy asked. "You're drooling on the controls."

"What? Oh." She gave an embarrassed laugh and moved away as Jimmy wiped the switches and knobs with his handkerchief. "Sorry. I guess it's time for someone else to get a chance." She turned away quickly, wiping her mouth.

One by one the others took their turn, with each reacting much the same as Cindy. Finally only Ernest remained, but he hung back. "Your turn, Ernest," Jimmy invited.

"Well…" The boy's voice and manner reminding Cindy of a puppy that had been cruelly handled his whole life, who hoped for kinder treatment and but was unsure of finding it. As he moved uncertainly forward Cindy suddenly felt a wave of compassion.

"You'll love it, Ernest," she said brightly. "It's incredible."

Ernest gave her a surprised look, smiling hesistantly at the friendly comment. He looked into the telemonitor but did not say anything.

"What do you think?" Jimmy prodded.

"Is Mars…red?" Ernest asked in return.

"Of course." Jimmy sounded surprised by the question. "Why?"

Ernest sounded apologetic, as though he had done something wrong. "Because this is…white."

"What?" Jimmy couldn't believe his ears.

"Not 'what'," Sheen offered helpfully. "'White'."

"And…it looks like….it's getting closer," Ernest continued, still glued to the telemonitor. "Much closer. And it's coming…very…fast."

"Look out!" Carl screamed, pointing into the sky. Everyone turned to follow Carl's lead, except for Ernest who seemed mesmerized by the sight in the eyepiece. Up in the sky a blazing point of light streaked towards them, growing in size with frightening rapidity. Everyone stood paralyzed for a split second at the sight of the approaching meteor, not quite believing what they were seeing.

"Everyone down!" Jimmy yelled as he took his own advice. As he hit the ground he saw everyone else following his example. Everyone that is, except Ernest, who was still transfixed by the image in the telemonitor. For a split second he saw a vision of Ernest and the telemonitor silhouetted against the brilliant glow of the meteor. Then there was a blinding flash and deafening roar and he saw nothing else.

End of Part 1.

Author's Notes:

No doubt many people have already noticed that Sheen looks a lot like the caricature on the cover of the (Your Subject Here) for Dummies books. This was probably an inside joke for the Jimmy Neutron animators, although patently unfair to Sheen.