The Devil Comes Back to Retroville

by Gary D. Snyder

Part 4:

While Cindy was pondering the identity and motives of the stranger she had noticed, Jimmy was working in his laboratory. Except for Goddard Jimmy was alone in the lab and as he busied himself with various pieces of equipment his mechanical pet watched with growing apprehension. Finally, when Jimmy picked up a metallic helmet, Goddard gave a whine of worried recognition.

"What is it, Goddard?" Jimmy asked without turning from his work.

Goddard whined again, and then barked. When Jimmy again failed to stop whatever he was doing Goddard barked again. With a sigh of resignation Jimmy finally turned around to face his persistent companion, a jeweler's precision screwdriver in one hand and a partially disassembled circuit assembly in the other.

"What is it, Goddard?" Jimmy repeated with a trace of impatience.

In reply Goddard looked from Jimmy to the helmet and back again, whining with concern. Jimmy mimicked Goddard's actions, looking from Goddard to the helmet and back again. After a few seconds of bewildered silence Jimmy suddenly understood.

"Oh, I get it. You're worried about me using the brain drain helmet, aren't you?" Goddard gave a bark of affirmation. "Well, don't worry. I know I had some problems with it the first time, and then there was that whole episode with Sheen, but I'm not going to be using it. I just need to get the synaptic router from the cerebral interface circuit."

Goddard gave Jimmy a sideways look, requesting more information.

Jimmy set the tool and assembly on the workbench and stood up with a sigh. It was his habit to walk back and forth when he was trying to explain something he himself wasn't completely clear on, and this was one of those times. He still wasn't clear himself whether he was doing the right thing and it helped to talk. "It's like this, Goddard," he said as he paced. "All my life I've been different from most people and it's been hard for me to get to…well, get very close to anyone. All this time I thought it was because I was so smart that it made people uncomfortable. But today someone helped me to see how that wasn't the problem at all. It's not that girls don't like me because I'm so smart, Goddard. It's because I don't know how to relate to them. I'm a left-brained person trying to establish right-brained relationships. For years I thought that I could think my way around the problem, but in some situations you just have to go through the problem. And that's what I'm doing now."

Goddard had been listening intently, his head moving to and fro like a clock pendulum as his gaze followed Jimmy walking back and forth in front of him. He gave another whine and Jimmy stopped, having come to his main point.

"Basically, Goddard, I'm rebalancing my brain," Jimmy told him. "I'm going to shut down some of the activity on the intellectual left side of my brain and transfer it to the creative right side." Goddard gave a yelp of disbelief, sitting up in complete astonishment at this news as Jimmy pounded a fist into his open palm in decision. "Yes," he said in renewed determination. "I'm going to do it. For the first time in my life I'm going to be a well-rounded and fun person to be with, and not just some logical, fact-spouting automaton. And the sooner the better."

Having made his decision Jimmy turned back to his work with renewed energy while Goddard watched and continued to worry. The time passed quickly for Jimmy as he skillfully manipulated, connected, and verified tiny components, oftentimes using a microscope and delicate tools to perform the tasks. As he worked something drifted through the back of his mind and bothered him, like a melody he that couldn't quite remember or an equation that he couldn't quite solve. Finally, however, the last microwire was bonded and the last check performed, and his latest invention (which looked something like an electronic bike helmet) was ready for use. As he rose to connect the intricate device to his head Goddard rose expectantly and walked over to stand next to him.

"Hey, boy," he said, reaching down to stroke Goddard's head. "I forgot all about you. I guess I wasn't very good company, was I?" Goddard looked up and Jimmy saw, or imagined he saw, a pleading look in the photoreceptors. "I know you're worried, Goddard, but don't be. Everything will be all right. If anything, I'll be even better company for you than I ever was."

Goddard merely hung his head and whimpered. Although he was not especially familiar with the concept of left-brain and right-brain processes he knew or sensed that the Jimmy he knew and loved was somehow going away. Jimmy seemed to understand what Goddard was thinking and hugged him around the neck.

"Don't be sad, boy," he said. "I'm not going anywhere. I'll just be doing things a little differently is all. It'll still be me. Really." Goddard looked up, seeming to cheer up a little. "That's a good dog," Jimmy said. "After this is over we'll get you a nice aluminum can. Would you like that?" At this Goddard barked happily and sat up in a begging position. "Yes, I thought you would. Then let's get this over with."

He slipped the electronic helmet on his head and fastened several electrodes to his temples and forehead. Then, not sure what would happen to him while his brain was being re-balanced, he crossed the lab to a padded couch, lay down on it, and adjusted straps across his shoulders, chest, and stomach. His finger moved to the actuation switch and for a second he paused as he looked around the lab that had been so familiar to him. Then he threw the switch, activating the device.

It seemed that he was watching a montage of bizarre images, like an insane video running incredibly fast. Equations and formulas materialized before his eyes only to dematerialize before he could understand them, and technical discussions changed into the voices of people he felt he should know but couldn't recall. Scenes from his past flashed before him, and all the faces in them that he had long known seemed somehow new to him.

Nick.

Betty.

Libby.

Sheen.

Carl.

Cindy…

He could almost feel the warmth of her hand in his and smell the pleasant fragrance of her hair as he was drawn into the exquisite green depths of her eyes. Her voice was almost musical to him and seemed to be a gentle promise of days together that were yet to come. As he watched she began to recede from him into the blackness, her hand stretched out towards him. Was she bidding him farewell, or asking him to follow? As he pondered the question she vanished into a bright ring of light in the void and he was left alone.

He suddenly became aware that he was staring up at the ceiling of his lab and that the ring of light he had seen was an overhead lighting fixture. Sluggishly he undid the straps holding him to the couch and he sat up, trying to clear his confused thoughts. At first he was not sure that anything had changed and thought perhaps that his invention had done nothing more than give him some strange hallucinations. Then he became aware of something that convinced him that his invention had worked and that he was different. There could be no other explanation for it.

He was in love with Cindy Vortex.

End of Part 4