profession.
Rumors started by Little Jimmy’s ex wife had people believing that Little Jimmy was one of the most dangerous and notorious criminals that had ever existed, throughout all history, since the beginning of time itself.
On the holographic generator, between coverage of the construction of the worlds first Cranial Fusion Injector, tid bits about Dr. Treekenstein and his life and background, and other items pertaining to the extinction of trees, were interviews with Little Jimmy’s ex wife and her friends.
Little Jimmy dealt cetula leaf. He raped and tortured little children, and regularly insulted the worlds most famous and illustrious member of the most noble, honorable and distinguished profession according to the friends of Little Jimmy’s ex wife.
It was all over the tabloids, in between pages describing the elderly and graying Treekenstein with pictures of him at the library, the grocery store, the holographic theater and at sporting events. There were stories about about him sleeping with just about all of the well known pretty young holographic generator set and holographic theater starlets.
None of the prisoners had ever read the tabloids and they didn't have a holographic generator set inside the worlds most secure prison that had the worlds most dangerous criminals locked up in cages.
Fellow prisoners had hated Little Jimmy at first, in the same way that they hate all new arrivals but then got to know him and Little Jimmy got along well with everyone. He soon became popular and well liked by everyone.
Little Jimmy began his sentence at a time when all the prisoners had been co-operating and saving their little bits of income to buy a holographic generator set so that they could all watch the holographic shows. They had always heard their friends and family talk about them whenever they visited.
Little Jimmy was excited as he ever would be, these would be the best of his remaining days, he had never owned a holographic generator set and had not seen a show on one in a very long time. He would never see his children again, never again go hunting with his dawg, and certainly never fly his very own brand new hovertruck down the hoverway at four hundred miles per hour.
Little Jimmy never had any visitors. His sons had learned to hate him from his ex wife and his brother and mother had already said that they would never speak with him again, after hearing about what he had said about Dr. Treekenstein. His father, after hearing what Little Jimmy had said about Dr. Treekenstein, immediately grabbed his chest and keeled over from a heart attack and died. None of the family members could ever forgive Little Jimmy for that.
Little Jimmy didn't know what any of the other prisoners were in for, and they didn't know why the empire found it prudent to lock him up. No one asked and no one told. It was prison culture since before the P.C. calender began.
No one talked about the shows that were on the holographic generator sets because they had all heard the same things from their friends and relatives. Little Jimmy never asked, he was anticipating the surprise. Like on birthdays and Christmas, he didn't want to know what was inside his presents until he unwrapped them.
The day they had been waiting for finally arrived. The worlds most dangerous criminals in the most maximum of maximum security prison ever built had saved up enough money for a new holographic generator set.
Four hundred and fifty one prisoners gathered in the lunchroom to hear the warden praise them on all of their hard work and discipline in keeping the peace. The warden had complimented them endlessly. He explained that he had never expected such peace, co-operation and tranquility when he accepted the job as chief warden at the most maximum maximum security prison in the world.
He said that he had taken money out of his own pocket to buy a holographic generator set that was twice as tall, twice as wide and twice as thick as the one the prisoners had saved up for because he was so proud of them. He bought them an audio system to go with their new holographic generator set, and they looked around and saw speakers mounted all over the ceiling and side walls.
The prisoners all applauded and the warden lifted the veil to show them their new machine.
Then he announced that due to their good behavior over the course of the past few months, he saw no need to supervise them and he and the guards all left, shaking the prisoners hands and congratulating them for their good behavior on the way out.
Little Jimmy was to do the honors. They all voted for him to turn on the new machine.
Little Jimmy needed some help and one of the other guys had to show him where the ignition switch was. Another one of the prisoners got up to turn off the lights. The brand new holographic generator set would give them the best possible picture in the dark.
It was a few seconds until the next show came on and none of the prisoners wanted to watch the end of one show, not knowing what it was about. So they waited until the precise time of the beginning of the next program.
Four hundred and fifty hardened criminals and Little Jimmy all looked at the clock as the second hand slowly made its way to the twelve o'clock position and counted down: "Ten... .nine... .eight... .seven... .six... .five... .four... .three... two... .one". Little Jimmy turned the ignition, pulled the lever and ran over to sit down to watch the first show with the others.
The first program was a Regional Rocks and Dirt special on the famous and illustrious Dr. Treekenstein, who was going to reverse the tree extinction and was building a new device called a Intercranial Fusion Injector. Little Jimmy had done some reading the Intercranial Fusion Devices and was quite knowledgeable about how they worked, but he had never heard of a Intercranial Fusion Injector and was interested to know more.
His curiosity had taken over the cold and vicious hatred he felt toward Dr. Treekenstein.
Music began and the area in front of the prisoners lit up. A big haired young thin curvy blonde woman with augmented breasts that pointed out like those moon rockets the ancients had made appeared on the set. It looked like she was missing a couple of buttons at the top of her blouse and she was wearing a pink mini skirt.
Her lipstick glowed in the dark surroundings of the prison hall as she began to speak. The prisoners made all of the appropriate sounds and remarks necessary show their appreciation for what they were seeing.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Bubbles Bubblicious and this is the Early Holographic Science Show, sponsored by Regional Rock & Dirt magazine. I would like to announce a very special guest on the Holographic Science Show this evening.".
She paused for a moment as the three dimensional holographic display of her desk and studio surroundings spun around toward the studio audience. The studio audience cheered.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, it is is great honor for me to introduce the most distinguished tree sturgeon and a most honorable and distinguished scientist, Dr Treekenstein.".
The prisoners cheered and clapped as Dr. Treekenstein entered the display. The holographic display of Bubbles Bubblicious and her desk spun once again and Dr Treekenstein thanked her as he walked on the set and sat down. "Thank you very much Bubbles. Its my pleasure to be on your show and I am very excited to be here on this fine summer evening".
Some of the prisoners began clapping once more and some even rose to give Dr. Treekenstein a standing ovation.
Little Jimmy tried to control himself and his pulse quickened, but he knew how to control his temper in extreme situations and remembered back to a time when he, his uncle, and his uncles dawg were tracking a herd of wild beavers through the bush. His uncle was a very wise man and was a well known scholar of the ancients. He explained something important to Little Jimmy, after Little Jimmy had told him that he had got conned out of his lunch money at school the previous week and wanted to beat up the other kid.
He remembered what his uncle had explained to him.
Throughout the ages, since the calender itself began and possibly even before, and everywhere all over the earth, for all time, you could walk up to anyone and ask them one simple question and get the wrong answer every single time. This was the cl
osest thing to absolute truth that he had ever known, he explained. He always knew this somehow, he explained and he said that he continued to believe it to be true after reading about the ancients his whole life.
Little Jimmy remembered him saying that you could ask any man, anywhere, at any time, if he believed himself to be a good judge of character and the answer would always be yes. The answer would be yes every single time, for every man that ever existed. His remembered what his uncle had said next, to the very word: "If he said otherwise, it was modesty or prudence that gave him access to reason rather than his true feeling. You could bet on it, you could set your clock to it" he had said, a very long time ago, when Little Jimmy was young.
Remembering this helped Little Jimmy accept the fact that the prisoners around him had judged the fundamental character of Dr. Treekenstein as good and that they were wrong. He remembered that people could make the same mistake in reverse. People could believe the character of a man to be fundamentally bad and be just as completely wrong.
He realized once again how careful he had to be in the environment he was in. The four hundred and fifty men that surrounded him could make that mistake in reverse as easily and just as intensely as they could love Dr. Treekenstein, they could hate Little Jimmy. Little Jimmy sat and watched the
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