"Hey, George. Rise and shine." Mike tapped on the car window outside the private theater.
"Huh? How did I fall asleep..." George groggily lifted his head from the steering wheel and unlocked the door to let Mike and the others in.
"I remember being worried sick about you guys... why would I just doze off?" George racked his brain, trying to piece together the last few hours.
Judging by his current state, it was highly likely he'd been "neuralyzed" by the Men in Black. Otherwise, given the commotion inside the theater earlier, there's no way he wouldn't have noticed anything.
"Forget it, as long as you guys made it back safely..." George didn't dwell on things he couldn't explain. He turned to his youngest son, switching to a lighter topic. "Shelly, how was the science documentary?"
"Actually, I don't recall watching anything," little Sheldon shrugged, sounding helpless.
"Right... you were probably just too tired and fell asleep in there, too," George offered an excuse he didn't even believe himself. Knowing his son, the kid would never sleep through a science film.
Father and son, both suffering from missing time—it was definitely spooky.
Looking out at the pitch-black night and hearing the distant chirping of crickets, George felt increasingly creeped out by this place. Feigning calm, he said, "Let's head back to the motel and get some rest."
He started the car without issue and drove toward the small motel.
Once they reached a busy area with streetlights, the fear in George's heart dissipated significantly. Calming down, he tentatively asked, "Mike, do you remember what movie we watched?"
"Mission to Mars. Just a standard extraterrestrial educational film..." Mike gave a brief summary of the movie, naturally omitting the parts involving the octopus-like aliens.
Hearing Mike's account, George's unease finally settled.
After spending the night at the motel, the trio returned to the town of Medford on Sunday afternoon.
Seeing that her youngest son had returned with his worries resolved, Mary expressed her appreciation for her husband's efforts.
Meanwhile, after the trip to the Houston Space Center, Mike's life returned to its normal track.
Thanks to the moment he ripped off the chameleon alien's tongue, Mike had acquired a very useful skill: [Silver Tongue].
Two weeks flew by.
During this time, Mike casually kept an eye on online forums regarding aliens.
Although he had no intention of getting involved, there was no harm in staying informed.
Sure enough, a lot of people popped up online claiming to have visited that "Private Cinema."
However, regarding the actual movie-watching process, none of them could give a coherent account. Clearly, the Men in Black were doing a thorough job of scrubbing information about extraterrestrials.
But the online chatter also indirectly showed that "Francis" wasn't the only one trying to spread panic among the populace.
"Earth seems pretty unsafe. But I trust organizations like the MiB can handle it..." Mike didn't let the online rumors disrupt his peaceful life.
Different positions in life come with different worries. That was a bit of wisdom Mike had summed up from his experiences.
---
Meanwhile, at school, having blitzed through the high school Math Olympiad curriculum in record time, Sheldon was already thinking about quitting the team to find a new "hobby."
His brilliant brain gifted him with incredible learning capabilities—a blessing, but also a curse.
For someone who learns everything easily, running out of goals quickly leads to boredom.
That was exactly the situation Sheldon was in now.
At dinner time, when Mike and Meemaw arrived at the Cooper house, they could hear Sheldon sawing away on a violin from a mile away.
Yes, Sheldon was ready to take his "talents" to the field of music.
"Sheldon, your violin playing sounds like someone sawing through a log. It's noise pollution..." Georgie expressed his strong dissatisfaction with Sheldon's new hobby.
"I am exploring..." Sheldon explained. "Einstein was a piano enthusiast, Stephen Hawking played the harmonica, and Charles Bolden mastered almost every instrument... Therefore, research shows that smart people love music. I am simply aligning myself with the greats."
"Bull..." Georgie wasn't buying his little brother's speech. All he knew was that the violin playing was annoying and causing serious damage to his eardrums.
Seeing Mike arrive, Georgie looked at him like a savior and countered, "Mike is smart. Why isn't he learning an instrument?"
"He..." Sheldon wanted to say Mike wasn't as smart as him.
Over their long period of interaction, Sheldon had keenly realized that in terms of raw IQ, Mike couldn't compare to him. Mike's apparent brilliance was mostly due to a vast accumulation of knowledge.
However, up to this point, Sheldon had never actually beaten Mike in a direct contest of knowledge. Even in high school Math Olympiad topics, they had only fought to a draw.
Since Mike had also finished reviewing all the high school math points—and had secured a promise from Ms. Sharon that he didn't need to attend the Olympiad school thanks to his perfect test scores—Sheldon couldn't confidently say Mike wasn't smart.
"Mike, are you interested in the violin? I can teach you," Sheldon pivoted. Since he couldn't prove Mike wasn't smart, he'd try to prove the inverse: that smart people love music.
"Thanks, but I have no plans to learn an instrument right now," Mike politely declined Sheldon's offer.
As he walked past Sheldon, he reached out and grabbed a large glowing orb dropping from the boy.
[Perfect Pitch]: The ability to identify or recreate a given musical note without the benefit of a reference tone.
God only knows why Sheldon, who possessed [Perfect Pitch], made the violin sound so terrible.
Seeing Mike refuse, Georgie got excited. He gloated, "See? Mike doesn't like music."
He wanted to use this to prove that "smart people" didn't necessarily have to like music.
Sheldon didn't agree with Georgie's teasing.
"Mike only said he doesn't want to learn an instrument right now. He didn't say he dislikes music. You're conflating the concepts..." After forcing his explanation, Sheldon tucked the violin under his chin again. As he began to play, he said, "Music is a bridge to the soul. It keeps my inner self at peace..."
Just as Sheldon was getting pontifical, George Sr. leaned half his body out of the kitchen and shouted, "You guys hear that? Something's sawing wood, and it's loud as hell!"
Screech... Scrape...
Questioned once again, Sheldon stopped his bow mid-stroke. Frustrated, he set the violin aside.
"Bridge... to the soul..." Georgie, seeing Sheldon abandon his musical "dream," laughed like he'd won a war, cracking jokes from the sidelines.
"You'll never understand my pursuit of the arts," Sheldon said spitefully, ignoring his brother.
Inside the kitchen, Mary shot a glare at her husband, asking unhappily, "Why did you say that to Shelly?"
"Isn't that exactly what you were thinking?" George replied, implying she felt the same way.
In fact, Sheldon's violin phase had been going on for days.
Mary, having listened to the noise for days on end, was at her breaking point. If George hadn't just stopped Sheldon, Mary probably would have taken action herself.
The kid's playing was just too awful.
Hearing her husband's answer, Mary let out a knowing smile and dropped the subject that embarrassed her youngest son.
---