The Neutron Show

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 10:

As the flycyle raced through the skies over Retroville Jimmy wondered where Goddard was taking him. Because he assumed that Cindy was hiding he had expected her to have left the city, but Goddard's course appeared to be taking him towards the heart of the city. At the speed he and Goddard were travelling he didn't have long to wonder about this, for their apparent goal came quickly into view. At first he thought that it merely chanced to lie along Goddard's course but as the flycyle came to a landing there was no doubt that this was the planned destination.

He was at Retroland.

Jimmy looked doubtfully about him. "I don't know, Goddard," he said as Goddard resumed his normal canine form. "Are you sure that this is the right place?" When the robotic dog barked as affirmative Jimmy simply shrugged in resignation. "Okay, then. Let's go find Cindy."

Finding her actually proved to be more difficult than he anticipated. Although it was the middle of a weekday there seemed to be a large number of visitors to the amusement park and finding her became a task similar to finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. Maybe, he admitted to himself, Retroland had been a good choice for Cindy. It certainly hadn't been an obvious place for him to look, and there was any number of locations in which she could conceal herself. The down side, he realized, was that every minute spent looking meant another minute for anyone else looking for her to arrive and find her.

He and Goddard made the circuit around the park, searching the lines and immediate environs around the Bat Outta Heck, Octa-Puke, Show Me the Mummy, Firedrill, and other popular thrill rides with no success. A check of the Smack a Tack proved equally fruitless, and even a search of children's attractions such as the Flutter By ride and petting zoo failed to locate Cindy. Finally, worn out from searching and worrying, he dropped onto a bench to rest and think with Goddard at his side.

"I don't get it, Goddard," he said. "I've looked everywhere I thought she might be. Where else is there?"

In response Goddard opened his chest plate to reveal the message:

THE GIRLS' ROOM

Jimmy gave his head a vigorous shake at that. "Uh-uh, no way! There is no way that I'm going in there." And Goddard deactivated and concealed his video screen Jimmy went on. "I don't know. Maybe Vox really isn't a computer and couldn't come up with a real answer. Or maybe it is and just came up with a wrong answer. All I could really expect was a probable location, not a certain one." He stood up in defeat and began heading towards the exit. "Let's go back home. Maybe Vox can give us another place to check."

Goddard obediently fell in beside Jimmy and they trudged towards the park entrance. Before they got there, however, Jimmy heard a familiar voice say, "Hello, Jimmy."

Surprised, Jimmy turned to face the speaker. Sitting in the coin-operated Strato XL ride not ten feet away was Cindy. She was not looking at him. Instead, her head was down and she seemed deep in thought, sitting so quietly and motionless that she might easily have been mistaken as an exhibit for the ride. Surrounded as they were by the milling crowds Jimmy would have walked right past without noticing her had she not spoken.

"Cindy!" Jimmy exclaimed as he walked up to her. "You weren't in school and no one knew where you were. What are you doing here?"

Her voice was almost inaudible. "Thinking."

"About what?"

"Nothing." She gave a slight shrug. "Everything."

"That doesn't make sense."

"Nothing makes sense."

That was certainly so, at least to Jimmy. Lately nothing made sense to him. He had hoped that Cindy would be able to help change that, but it seemed that she was just as confused as him. Was it possible that she hadn't been the person leaving the messages for him? "Did you want to talk about it?" he offered. "Maybe together we can figure things out. Maybe make sense of things."

"I don't think there's enough time."

"Enough time to talk?"

"Enough time for me."

Jimmy didn't like the way Cindy was talking. She seemed depressed and he knew that people who became depressed enough sometimes thought of ending it all. "Cindy," he said, "let's go someplace and talk." When she said nothing he added in a wheedling tone, "Please?"

Slowly, and seemingly almost unwillingly, Cindy climbed out of the rocket ship ride and accompanied Jimmy to an empty bench. When they were seated Jimmy waited for her to speak. Listen, he told himself. Don't talk. Just listen. This is about he, not you right nowr.

After what seemed an eternity Cindy finally said, "Do you remember the first time we met?"

Jimmy thought back. "In the Retroville citywide junior spelling bee when we were both about six."

"We were the last two left. Even the middle school kids had been eliminated. Then it came my turn to spell 'caracul'. I spelled it c-a-r-a-c-u-l and when the judges said I was wrong and had you spell it you spelled it k-a-r-a-k-u-l. My mother challenged it and the judges said that your spelling was the preferred variant and gave you first prize even though my spelling was technically correct."

Jimmy said nothing. He remembered the incident well and preferred not to go into it but didn't want Cindy to stop talking.

"My mother made a big fuss about it but the judges said their decision was final and that you were the winner. She said I'd been cheated out of first place because of you."

"I'm sorry," was all Jimmy could say.

"Then you didn't even bother to go to the regional competition." Cindy's voice became hot and tight. "I'd studied day and night to win and then when you won you didn't even bother to go on. It was like everything that was important to me meant nothing to you…like what I cared about wasn't even worth your time." She took a deep, quavering breath. "I hated you even more for that than for my mother saying that you had cheated me. And for years I hated you because I thought you were some big show-off who thought he was too good to even come to our school, even though that made me the smartest one there. And then when you did start coming I hated you because you the smartest instead of me."

Jimmy couldn't thing of a response, but Cindy saved him from having to reply.

"And then, years later, I found out what had happened. I learned that you didn't go to the regional competition because you told the judges it wasn't fair and that I should have won, and that if I didn't go then you wouldn't either. And I found out that your parents wouldn't let you go to regular school because you were smaller and all the other kids bullied you and made fun of you because you were smarter and they thought you were trying to be the teacher's pet. Your parents waited until they thought you could hide how smart you really were."

"I'm still pretty bad at doing that," Jimmy said softly.

"No. You don't lie very well." She was fidgeting with something in her hands as she spoke. "But in a way your whole life was a lie. You hadn't cheated me like my mother told me. You didn't think you were too good for the rest of us students like we all thought. Until the Yolkians took all our parents and you helped get them back most of us didn't even know how…brave or noble you could be. But you are and you deserve to know the truth about things."

"I already know," Jimmy replied. "I was told everything. I know that none of that was real. My life, my friends, everyone I've known and everything I've done was just make-believe. Everything was a lie."

Cindy interrupted him. "No," she said softly, looking at him for the first time. "Not everything. There's something important that I want you to know."

Jimmy suddenly remembered why he had been searching for her so desperately. "What is it?"

"We've been through a lot and even though I deny it a lot I know that we've gotten pretty close. I want you to know that…well, the truth is…"

She was interrupted by the sound of screeching tires and the sound of car doors being slammed. Startled, the two looked up to see men in dark suits and sunglasses rushing towards them from sleek, official-looking automobiles that had driven into the wide walkway. Before Jimmy could protest two men had seized Cindy on either side and begun pulling her towards one of the cars. That was enough to galvanize Jimmy into action. He attempted to move towards the vehicle into which Cindy was being placed and was blocked by two other men. Another two men blocked Goddard, who was watching them warily and growling.

"What are you doing?" Jimmy called out angrily. "Where are you taking her?"

"Her parents have been looking for her everywhere," one of the two men told him. "There's been a family emergency and they need to leave town immediately."

This didn't satisfy Jimmy at all. "What emergency? Where? When will she be back?"

As the car with Cindy pulled away the men detaining Jimmy and Goddard headed to their own vehicles without answering. Jimmy followed after them, demanding answers and receiving none. As he watched the cars depart he was somehow certain that attempting to follow would be useless and, further, that he would not see Cindy again. Even if his friendship with Cindy hadn't been real the realization that she was gone distressed him. Dazed, he plodded back to the bench and dropped into it. What had she wanted to tell him?

As he slumped forward, trying to collect his thoughts, he spotted something on the ground and reached down to pick it up. It was a Retroland souvenir photo button with a picture of Cindy that she had apparently dropped when the men had dragged her away. Below the photo was the trite and somehow incongruous caption Greetings from Retroland. For long minutes Jimmy regarded the picture as his fingers gently stroked it. We didn't even get to say good-bye, he thought numbly.

Without trying to understand why he was doing so he felt for the pin on the back to fasten the button to his shirt and frowned when he found nothing. Turning the button over he immediately saw that the pin had been removed. Closer examination showed that there were fine scratches on the back, most probably made with the missing pin. The marks were very faint and difficult for him to make out, but after several minutes scrutiny he was able to make out Cindy's last message to him. On the back of the pin were the words:

BELIEVE THE LIE

End of Chapter 10.

Author's Notes:

One reader wanted to know if Sheen was supposed to be Asian. Undoubtedly the answer has already been posted but if not the answer is that Sheen Guerrero Estevez is of self-proclaimed Mexican descent, as indicated in Jimmy Neutron: Rescue Jet Fusion. He is, as far as I know, the only one of the five main characters who has only one parent (a father) although he has mentioned that he has sisters. A bit of trivia, the origin of which I can't recall, is that the name Sheen Estevez is an homage to the brothers Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez, sons of Martin Sheen. I feel a little bad that I haven't given Sheen and Libby more attention, but the next story I plan to write will give them much more time in print than I've given them thus far.