The Neutron Show

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 8:

As much as Jimmy wanted to act immediately he decided that the best course of action would be to wait until lunch period, when an attempt to slip away from school unnoticed would have the highest probability of success. There was no guarantee that he wasn't being monitored all the time but it made sense to him to wait until there were as few witnesses as possible around to witness his departure. Despite his impatience he took care to participate in the morning subjects in the hopes that it might put whoever might be watching his actions off-guard for when he made his break. When the lunch period bell finally rang Jimmy started out the door with Carl and Sheen as usual, but stopped just a few paces down the hall leading towards the lunchroom.

"Something wrong, Jimmy?" Carl asked.

Jimmy shook his head. "No. I just need to use the restroom before lunch. You two go ahead and save me a place in line. I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Okay," said Sheen as he and Carl headed off. "But don't be too long. It's beet stew today."

"Don't you mean 'beef stew'?" Carl asked.

Sheen thought about it. "Man, I hope not," he answered as the two turned the corner. "I've been looking forward to this all week."

When he was sure he was alone Jimmy turned and ran towards the school entrance. Usually the hall monitor would be posted near the doors but today the doors appeared to be unguarded, indicating either that luck was with Jimmy or whoever was orchestrating the strange goings-on had slipped up yet again. He passed through the doors without encountering anyone and began heading towards his lab. Once there and with Goddard's help, he was certain, he would be able to locate Cindy and find out what was going on. He was a block or two from his house when he was startled by a voice that seemed to come from all around him.

"Hello, Jimmy," the voice said.

After all odd occurrences he had experienced since the day before the voice did not surprise or interest Jimmy as much as it might have. He did not answer or miss a step as he continued on his way.

"I know you have a lot of questions. I'm here to give you some answers and guidance."

Jimmy slowed his pace and came to a stop. "Are you God?" he asked.

There was an indulgent chuckle. "No. But I am the creator."

"Of what?"

"Of everything you see. And, in some ways, of you and everyone you've ever known."

Jimmy's voice was defiant. "Prove it!" he challenged.

In response the sky above him began to darken, fading from bright blue to soft purple and finally to a deep black strewn with twinkling points of light. Jimmy watched in awe at the sight, momentarily speechless. Finally he spluttered, "But that's impossible. No one can control the heavens. And even if they could, the magnitudes of some of these stars are too faint to be seen from Earth without some means of visual enhancement."

Gradually the sky lightened again, restoring the familiar mid-day view of Jimmy's neighborhood. "Normally, yes. But you haven't actually been on Earth. In a lot of ways, everything you know isn't real and never has been."

Jimmy thought about this. Finally he asked the most basic question. "Who are your?"

"My name is…Davis." There was a pause. "John A. Davis. I'm the creator of a television show about an exceptional young man who does extraordinary things. You are that young man."

"Then who am I?"

"On this show your name is Jimmy Neutron." There was another pause as the speaker apparently collected his thoughts. "Your real name I'm afraid no one knows. You were orphaned at a very early age and your real parents were never identified. Some friends of mine, Hugh and Judy Neutron, adopted you and that gave me the idea for the ultimate reality television show. It would be a show about a boy who wasn't even aware he was the star of a television show. For a year or so people tuned in out of curiosity but the novelty soon wore off. I realized that if the show were to succeed I would need to change the premise somewhat. It was when your parents and I noticed that you were rather bright for your age that I had my next idea. The show would not just be about Jimmy Neutron, but about the adventures of Jimmy Neutron, boy genius. But for that show to succeed I had to…embellish things a little."

This is utterly ridiculous, thought Jimmy. "What do you mean about having to embellish things?"

"Although I wanted the show to be absolutely authentic and spontaneous, it quickly became apparent that some aspects of the show would need to be contrived for people to consider you a genius and the show to survive."

"I don't believe it," Jimmy said. "I've built dozens of working inventions. I've been in space. I've traveled through time. I've met aliens from other worlds. I've –"

"All illusions," the voice interrupted. "Your travels through time and space were holographic simulations and your inventions were little more than fancy toys that needed creative special effects to make them appear functional. Do you have a pencil on you?"

Jimmy checked his pockets. "Yes. Why?"

"Point it at the mailbox on the corner and say, 'Shrink'." When Jimmy hesitated the voice urged, "Go ahead. I just want to make a point."

Feeling silly, Jimmy pointed the pencil and said, "Shrink." No sooner had he said this than a green ray appeared to emanate from the tip of the pencil and strike the mailbox. To Jimmy's utter surprise the mailbox shrank to the size of a matchbox.

"Now say, 'Grow'," the voice instructed.

"Grow," Jimmy said mechanically, too stunned to think. This time a red beam shot forth from the pencil and the mailbox instantly expanded to its normal size. Jimmy stared numbly at the pencil, not sure what to think.

"You see?" said the voice. "All fancy technological tricks. Nothing more."

Jimmy shook his head angrily. "No!" he cried stubbornly. "I don't believe it. Everything was perfectly normal in my life until yesterday when these weird things began to happen. It's all a trick, or something."

The voice was calm and patient. "Weird things have always been happening, Jimmy," it soothed, "because no one can be perfect. It's just that you're growing up and you've only just started noticing all the inconsistencies in this artificial world we've created for you. But the 'weird things' you refer to have been there all along."

"Like what?" Jimmy demanded, sure that the voice was wrong.

"Really, Jimmy," the voice said. "Can't you see them even now?"

"Tell me!" Jimmy shouted.

"Do you really think that it makes sense for you to be able to travel through outer space without a spacesuit or a life support system? Or be able to speak in a vacuum? Or walk on the moon under normal Earth gravity? Have you ever stopped to wonder why the chalkboard in Miss Fowl's room has the same thing on it almost every day, or why the clock in the back of the classroom always shows the same time? Or why Cindy Vortex's Aunt Suzy looks like her mother but has her father's last name? Could someone like Carl really be allergic to infrared light? Or –"

This was more than Jimmy could stand. "Stop it! Stop it!" he cried, dropping to his knees and pressing his hands over his ears in a desperate attempt to shut out the noise.

"You can disbelieve me if you want," the voice said when Jimmy uncovered his ears again. "But deep down I think you're smart enough to know what I'm saying is all true."

Jimmy knelt on the sidewalk, trying to absorb what the voice was telling him. Was it true that his life was really all a fabrication? That nothing he had ever done was real? Were his friends even really his friends? "Who said you could do this to me?" he finally asked in a tight voice. "What gave you the right to do this to me?"

"Those questions were decided in court long ago, Jimmy," the voice answered. "Do you really have anything to be angry about?"

Jimmy got to his feet, his fists balled in anger. "Just that my entire life is a lie!" he raged. "Everything that happened is a figment of someone else's imagination! Nothing about me is real!"

"Come now, Jimmy. Your life has been as real as that of anyone else. Your life has been genuine reactions to circumstance just like that of anyone else. Your friends have really been your friends. Does it matter if the friends and circumstances came from fate, chance, Providence, or the mind of some writer?"

"It matters to me," Jimmy snarled.

"You're not being logical."

"I'm not really a genius, remember?"

"In real life, no. But I've given you something that no one else has ever had and for which millions would give everything they owned. I've given you the chance to truly be the hero of your own life. I've let you rise above the ordinary and be something genuinely extraordinary, not just to yourself but millions around the world. Is that really so bad?"

Jimmy slowly nodded. "It is. If it's all a lie, it is," he whispered in a broken voice.

The voice let out a long, unhappy sigh. "Then I'm going to give you a choice Jimmy. You can stay here,and continue the show, and everything will go on just as it has – inconsistencies and all. But if you're really unhappy, and you really want out, you can go."

Jimmy looked up, disbelieving. "What?"

"I knew that this day might come someday, so I made special preparations if ever it did. You, your parents, and everyone on this show will be moved to a real city of Retroville, identical to this set you've always known, and resume normal lives on the outside. Once there a post-hypnotic command given to them will be activated, making them believe that everything that happened on the show really happened and that they're where they've always been. You were never given that command so you'll remember everything. But you can never be the boy genius again. You'll have to live the rest of your life as a smart, but completely ordinary, person." The voice paused to give this a chance to sink in. "What's your choice?"

Jimmy thought about it. The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Honor Student? he thought. It would be a hard thing to get used to, but at least it would be real. He should, he supposed, tell the unseen speaker that he wanted out immediately and have done with it. There was nothing left for him here and there was no sense staying if he knew it was all just a pretense. But despite this he hesitated, thinking that there was something still missing from this equation. No, not something.

Someone.

Cindy.

End of Chapter 8.

Author's Notes:

John A. Davis' name is used without permission. I could have used another name for "the creator" but thought it would be more fun to use the name Jimmy's real creator as that of his alleged creator in this story, rather than some fictitious name like A. Nonimus, Sue D'Onim, or Norm de Plume. In the unlikely event he ever reads this I hope he gets a chuckle from the idea rather than call his lawyer.