It was a Monday morning. Jimmy woke up early every day, and today was no exception.
"Jimmy!"
The basement door swung open with a loud thud. Immediately after, a woman descended the stairs with a serious expression. She walked straight to her son, who was asleep on a large table covered with papers full of calculations.
"How much longer are you going to keep sleeping!?!"
"Oh, no… I fell asleep…" Jimmy murmured with a weak voice after a brief silence. The basement, at first glance, was a complete mess.
This left Judy speechless, as she had never seen her son behave this way.
In her mind, her son had always been a neat child who took care of every little detail in his workshop. But now, it seemed that all the rules he used to follow had disappeared.
Goddard, their robot dog, was the first to notice Judy's presence at the entrance and quickly alerted Jimmy, who was still asleep.
"I'm awake!" Jimmy exclaimed, opening his eyes suddenly, realizing he had fallen asleep on his work.
"You'll be resuming your classes at Medford High School. Since we want to stay low for a while, you'll stay here before deciding if you want to go to any university," Judy said firmly.
"I already told you, Mom, I'm not really interested in getting a degree the traditional way…" Jimmy replied. In reality, he just wanted to go to school because there were other things he wanted to experience.
Since his knowledge surpassed even that of a university graduate, he had to adapt to the circumstances and wait to find something that he found enjoyable.
"I just hope I can have my own space in this place…"
…
It was April. The warm wind was stronger than usual. Living in Texas meant enjoying perfect temperatures for seeing wildflowers.
They were in the best month of the year to experience the beauty of life in this place, even though Jimmy had other plans.
"Even if you're pretending that you want to make friends just to make us ignore the fact that you said you wanted to stay away from people, we'll be keeping an eye on you," Judy said firmly.
Jimmy looked at his mom and replied, "I thought you were just upset because I invent things that cause problems. Whether I decide to make friends or not shouldn't be your business."
"Don't you dare talk to me as if I'm not your mother!" Judy exclaimed, glaring at him while setting aside the lunch bag she had specially prepared for her wayward son.
At that moment, Jimmy's sleepy mind kicked into gear. All the neurons in his brain exchanged information quickly, and thanks to his experience, he knew it was time to back off.
If there was one person in the world Jimmy didn't want to face, it was his mother. She wouldn't hesitate to punish him using the things he loved most, and she knew exactly what those were.
"Sorry, Mom. Are you still thinking about the things I have planned to make us rich?"
Jimmy had created a video game, but the problem was that neither current consoles nor computers could support the quality of what he had. So, instead of creating a more advanced computer right away, he would first come up with a console that would outperform most of what was on the market.
He was about to turn thirteen. Due to many circumstances, he had lost several inventions that ended up destroyed by mistakes he hadn't foreseen. But for him, overcoming the conventional market wasn't a problem. If the televisions couldn't handle the quality of his console, he would use a built-in projector instead.
This technological leap would put him in the sights of many mega-companies. They would all want to work with him or buy his inventions. That would definitely be a problem, but Jimmy knew he had to think of countermeasures and proceed with more caution.
"Did you hear what I said?" Judy asked, looking at her son, who seemed to be dozing off again.
"I have a headache…"
"Didn't you sleep?"
"I was thinking about what invention we could launch for our company. I didn't want to draw too much attention, but I also wanted money. I considered many ideas, but none were discreet enough to not stand out too much."
Judy shook her head as she gathered the things Jimmy would take to school.
At that moment, Hugh Neutron came out of the kitchen with a pie in his hands, and seeing Jimmy standing with a briefcase, said, "Ah, so you're going to school today."
"Unfortunately, that's the reality…"
"Jimmy, you need to go to school to socialize more."
Jimmy nodded, then handed the briefcase to his dog, Goddard, who was happy to accompany him to school.
But before they could leave the house, Judy stopped Jimmy, who was already eager to leave.
"You're not taking Goddard to school."
"Why?" Jimmy asked, surprised. Goddard was like his right-hand man and bodyguard.
"We're in a new place, so you need to appear a little more… normal."
Jimmy looked at her in astonishment. "You know I'm normal."
"Yes, but Goddard isn't going to school."
"Well…" Jimmy didn't want to argue with his sensitive mother.