"How could you be so mean?" Lisa chided her brother as Alan looked on.
"Get real, Lis," said Bart earnestly. "This kid put a grown man in diapers. He's too dangerous to hide here. Let the police take care of him."
"He's my friend, Bart," was Lisa's response. "He's your friend too. We're the only ones standing between him and life as a scientific specimen."
"Give it up, Lisa," said Alan sadly. "I can't stay here."
"Yes, you can!" said Lisa, taking the boy by the hand. "Make Bart forget who you are again. It's easy."
"No," said Alan, shaking his head. "I don't know what'll happen if I use my power on him over and over. I've caused too much brain damage already."
"Where will you go?" Lisa asked him.
"I don't know," Alan replied. "Maybe Professor Frink will take me in."
For minutes on end, Francine and Dolly watched Mary Moo Cow and her acolytes prance about on the sound stage. "Two and two are four," sang Jean Stiles in her cow voice. "Four and four are eight…"
"Is it true that three- and four-year-olds watch this program?" Dolly whispered to Francine.
"Uh-huh," the monkey girl answered.
"Merciful heavens," Dolly marveled. "You're raising a generation of geniuses."
When the recording was finished, Binky and Mrs. Stiles changed out of their suits and met with the two girls offstage. "I hope you enjoyed yourselves," said the polar bear woman.
"I certainly did," said Dolly with delight. "It was like being inside a television set."
Mrs. Stiles chuckled. "That's a funny way of looking at it," she remarked.
Wyatt Holberg arrived just as she was leaving for the ladies' room. "I hope you can come and watch us again someday," he said to Francine and Dolly.
"I hope so too," said Dolly. "Before you all leave, I'd like to share some chocolate candies with you."
"Mmm…chocolate," said Binky, licking his lips eagerly.
"Uh, I'm watching my weight," said Wyatt hesitantly.
"Now, now," said Dolly, drawing from her pocket a plastic bag filled with chocolate orbs. "You don't want to hurt a girl's feelings."
"I'll be right back," said Francine, stepping quickly out of sight of the others.
"Please try it," urged Dolly. The candy in her outstretched palm tempted Wyatt, who finally picked it up and bit off half of it.
"Can I have one now?" Binky asked Dolly, who motioned for him to be patient.
As Wyatt chewed on the confection, an odd feeling spread through his body.
Francine kept her eyes on him from behind a partition. Come on, come on, she thought, barely suppressing a giggle. She fondly recalled the occasion when she had requested a love potion from Dolly in hopes of making Arthur fall for her, only to accidentally ingest it herself and fall head over heels for Alan.
The feeling was unlike anything Wyatt had experienced. He looked at Binky, then at Dolly, then at Binky again.
Omigosh, no…
To the surprise of Binky and Dolly, the gaping, wide-eyed boy turned and ran from their presence.
He ran so fast that he nearly collided with the automatic exit doors. He ran until he reached the sidewalk, where the two women who cared for him waited at the curb.
Opening the door and leaping into the back seat, Wyatt gasped, "Take me away from here. Take me away now!"
"What's wrong?" asked the woman in the driver's seat as she rolled the steering wheel. "Is there a bomb in the studio?"
Wyatt didn't answer. Pressing his hands against the car window, he gazed longingly toward the building he had just left. Stop thinking about him, he ordered himself, closing his eyes tightly. Stop thinking about Binky…
Francine, meanwhile, leaped out from behind the wall to speak with her befuddled friends. "What just happened?" she inquired.
"Something unexpected," was Dolly's reply.
Binky turned to her. "On second thought, I'm not that hungry."
Alan could feel the sweat between his hand and the phone receiver.
"Ng'hey. Professor Frink speaking."
"Hi, Professor. This is Alan."
"I was hoping you'd call, Alan. I'm still examining the scans of your brain. Let me put that another way—I can't take my eyes off them. The neurons in your hippocampal area are networked in a manner I've never seen. This isn't a mere evolutionary advance—it's clearly a result of intelligent design."
"Whatever," said Alan. "Just tell me if you can cure me of my powers."
"Patience, boy, patience," said Frink. "You can't expect me to succeed overnight where others have striven for years and failed."
"Others?" said Alan curiously. "What others?"
Frink stammered a bit. "I'm not the first scientist to investigate this phenomenon. My colleagues—or should I say, other scientific professionals with whose work I'm familiar…"
"Hold on," said Alan in a discouraged tone. "You're telling me it could take years to find a cure?"
"Or months," Frink replied. "Or days. But probably years. It doesn't matter—time is relative, as Einstein taught us."
Alan's heart sank.
"But take heart," Frink went on. "You're the owner of a unique brain. As long as you don't fall into the wrong hands, you have a bright future as an instrument of human progress."
Unwilling to hear more, Alan put down the receiver forcefully.
"You didn't ask him if you could stay at his house," said Lisa.
"What's the point?" said the exasperated Alan. "He doesn't know how to cure me. He'd keep me in his lab for years, poking and prodding me with his pokers and prodders."
Seeing the despair on her friend's face, Lisa stood on her toes and put her arms around his neck. He felt the coolness of her pearl necklace against his shirt.
"You're not alone, Alan," she said gently. "You'll never be alone."
Bart couldn't help but be touched by the sentimental scene. "Gee, Lis," he said apologetically. "If I'd known he meant so much to you, I wouldn't have called the FBI."
"WHAT?" cried Lisa and Alan.
"Just kidding, guys," said Bart with a smirk.
There came a knock at the door, and Lisa hurried to answer it, praying it wasn't a return appearance of Principal Skinner.
"Hi, everybody!" said the black-haired man wearing a smock and stethoscope.
"Hi, Dr. Nick," Bart and Lisa responded.
The European doctor addressed his words to Alan. "Principal Skinner told me that you have the ability to remove memories. One year ago I pulled the plug on my mother's life support, and it has haunted me ever since."
"So you want me to erase it from your mind?" said Alan.
"No," replied Dr. Nick. "I want you to erase it from the minds of the malpractice lawyers. They won't leave me alone!"
"I've got you now!" exclaimed Lionel Hutz as he grabbed Dr. Nick around the ankle.
to be continued