Jeffty Is Five

Jeffty Is Five Summary | Detailed Summary

Jeffty is Five tells the story of a boy who never ages past five years old. The narrator, Donald Horton, can recall when he and Jeffty were five years old together, and he tells the story of Jeffty from that time to the time of his death many years later. He begins his narrative by describing the benefits of the past, when he was five years old in the 1940's. He recalls small luxuries, like candy, and describes how the quality of candy was better and the cost less in those times. Donald remembers meeting a boy named Jeffy Kinzer, whom everyone called "Jeffty" then. At five years old, though, Donald is sent to live with his Aunt Patricia in Buffalo for two years, because his father is going through hard times. Donald is seven when he returns, but Jeffty is still five years old. The two friends still play together, and at seven, Donald doesn't recognize a large difference between himself and Jeffty.

As a seven year old, the narrator loves to sit in front of his radio with his coloring book and box of Crayola crayons, listening to the NBC Red network. He comments that back then, the big box of Crayolas had sixteen colors. Donald lists favorite radio programs, most of which are radio serial dramas. The narrator contrasts this to current radio programming, saying that at present he can find nothing good on the radio. He hates the talk shows and the country and rock music that are played on modern radio stations.

At ten years old, Donald's grandfather dies of old age. Donald is a troublesome kid, and he is sent off to military school. When he comes back home at fourteen, Jeffty is still five. The narrator recalls going to matinees of movies for ten cents when he was fourteen and contrasts the kinds of movies shown in theatres in the past with those that are shown now. He says that present day movies are just Clint Eastwood blowing people up.

When Donald is eighteen, he leaves to go to college. Again, when he returns, Jeffty is still five. During college, Donald comes home on summer breaks to work at his uncle Joe's jewellery store. Jeffty has not changed. Donald knows there is something different about Jeffty but doesn't give it much thought. At twenty-two Donald comes home for good. He opens a Sony store, the first one in his hometown, and he still sees Jeffty from time to time. At this point, Donald admits that some things are better in the present. People don't die from some of the old diseases anymore. There are faster cars, better roads, silkier shirts, paperback books, and credit cards. He also says, though, that progress has caused people to lose a lot of good things. Real linoleum is no longer used in kitchens, furniture doesn't last as long, records are thinner, restaurants no longer serve real cream in pitchers, and cars can be dented with a sneaker. In the present, all the towns look the same. They have the same fast food restaurants, convenience stores, motels, and shopping centers.

The narrator is careful to explain that Jeffty is not mentally challenged; in fact he is smart for his age. He is, however, small for his age, measuring only three feet tall. He has the walk, the voice and the appearance of a five year old, and when he speaks, he reflects the concerns of a five year old as well. He often hangs around Donald's Sony store, and Donald sometimes takes Jeffty to the movies or the county fair. Five year olds are at a wonderful age, he notes. Their eyes are wide open, though they see no patterns yet. They are not yet familiar with feelings of hopelessness. There is so much to learn and do, and the world is full of mysteries. It is a time of wonderment and innocence.

For Jeffty's parents, though, their son's inability to age is a nightmare. No one can help them. Over the course of seventeen years, their sorrow grows in stages, from concern to worry, from fear to confusion, anger, dislike and hatred, until they finally reach a depressing acceptance. Jeffty's father, John Kinzer, is a small, haunted-looking man with pale eyes. He is a shift foreman at the Balder Tool and Die plant, where he has worked for thirty years, and to his coworkers, he seems to have an uneventful life. Donald describes how he often stares at a corner of the room as though something is there that only he can see. Jeffty's mother, Leona Kinzer, tries to compensate by offering food to guests and keeping her house in immaculate condition, as though to pay for the sin of having given birth to such a strange child. She is a tall woman, but the years have bent her, and she is always seeking a place to hide from the eyes of her son. She always has an apron tied around her waist and her hands are red from cleaning. The Kinzers' house is usually dark and silent, even in the middle of the day.

Jeffty is inoffensive and lives in the strange atmosphere of the house without compliant; he is used to it. He plays as children play and is generally happy. But even he must sense, in his five-year-old way, that there is something alien about him. Jeffty is not an alien, of course. He is human, but out of sync with the world around him. Other children do not play with him, for as they grew older, they grew past him, coming to find him childish and uninteresting. Eventually Jeffty's continued inability to age frightened them, and even the children his own age began to shy away. Donald is Jeffty's only friend, and Donald himself cannot explain why he likes Jeffty. Jeffty's parents are grateful for the time Donald spends with their son, since it gives them temporary relief from the chore of going out with him and having to pretend to be normal, loving parents. Donald feels sorry for the parents but at the same time despises them for their inability to love Jeffty. Consequently, Donald's visits to Jeffty's house are awkward, as he never knows what to say.

During one of Donald's visits, Leona begins to cry. She says she doesn't know what to do anymore. Her husband tries to soothe her. She says she wishes Jeffty had been stillborn. John looks around the corners of the room, as always, as if he is looking for something that isn't actually there. He tells his wife she doesn't mean what she said. Donald leaves, for he doesn't want to witness their shame. Afterward, Donald stays away form the Kinzer house for a week. One afternoon following the scene at the Kinzers' house, though, Jeffty calls Donald at the store to ask if he will take him to the rodeo. As they talk, Donald thinks about what binds them together: Jeffty is like a little brother except that Donald remembers being five years old with him.

One Saturday afternoon, Donald arrives at Jeffty's house to take him to a double feature. Suddenly he notices things he should have noticed before. He walks up to the house, expecting to see Jeffty on the porch, but he isn't there. Donald calls out to him and hears Jeffty's voice in the distance, calling from underneath the porch. This is Jeffty's secret hiding place, and Donald remembers it from when they were children. Under the porch, Jeffty has comics in orange crates, a little table, and some pillows. Donald crawls into the space and finds Jeffty holding something gold and round in his hand. Donald asks him what it is, and Jeffty replies that it is a Captain Midnight Secret Decoder Badge, that he had sent away for received in the mail that very day. Donald is shocked. The decoder badge looks new, but the company that made them stopped making the originals in 1949. Donald asks Jeffty if the badge cost a lot. Jeffty says it cost ten cents and two wax seals from Ovaltine jars. The badge was used to decode messages in the Captain Midnight radio program in the 1940's. Every year a new badge had been issued, and Donald had one in 1945. Captain Midnight went off the air in 1950, but Jeffty's badge was new, shiny, and had not rusted. Strangely, the date on the badge was for the current year. Jeffty explains that the badge he has is used to decode messages on the Captain Midnight show. Donald doesn't understand what is happening and asks Jeffty if he has been listening to records of the program. Jeffty says no, that the program is on the radio at 5:30 each night. Donald asks if they can listen to it that night, forgetting that the program only aired from Monday to Friday. When the two go to the movies, Donald feels distracted. He can't stop thinking about the Decoder Badge, though he believes there must be a simple explanation that he hasn't perceived yet.

For the next week, Donald does inventory at his shop, so he doesn't see Jeffty again for several days. On Thursday, however, he tells his employees that he has to run errands and then leaves the shop to go to the Kinzers' house. He arrives at 4:45, and Jeffty's mother tells Donald that Jeffty is upstairs listening to the radio. Donald considers it possible that Jeffty encounters different experiences from other people; he is after all another vessel of life. Donald sits at he top of the stairs, listening, and although the door to Jeffty's room is closed, Donald recognizes the program to be a western adventure serial called "Tennessee Jed" that he has not heard in twenty years. The show is not a rerun, and even the commercials in it are for new products. Donald runs down the stairs and out to his car and searches for the programs on his own radio; he finds only rock music. He goes back inside the house and sits at the top of the stairs again, listening to the whole program as well as the programs that follow. Donald begins to cry and can't stop, until finally Jeffty hears him and opens the door. He looks at Donald with childish confusion, then touches Donald's shoulder and smiles at him. He invites Donald to come listen to the radio with him.

Jeffty receives radio programs from a place that could not exist. He also receives mail order premiums from the forties, reads comic books that have not existed for decades, and sees movies that star actors who have been dead for over twenty years. Jeffty constantly experiences the endless joys of the past, and to him they are always new. He lets Donald into his world because he trusts him, and Donald and Jeffty begin reading novels and comics together. Donald attempts to do some reading that may give him insight into how all of this is possible, but he can't find anything that provides an explanation for the situation. Nevertheless, as he narrates these events, he states that this time spent with Jeffty was the happiest time in his life,since it gave him access to two separate worlds. The first world was the real world of work, family, dating and business; the second world was the world of the past and was only accessible through Jeffty.

As time presses on, the membrane between the two worlds begins to grow thinner. Somehow, Donald knows that he can carry nothing from one world to the other. Eventually, though, Donald grows careless. One Sunday afternoon Donald arrives to take Jeffty to the movies. In the car, he asks Jeffty what will be playing that day and is told that it will be Bullwhip Justice and The Demolished Man. Donald is pleased, for The Demolished Man is one of his favorite books. Jeffty tells Donald all about the actors who will be in the movies and also reveals what cartoons will be playing.

As he drives, Donald looks down and notices a pad of purchase forms that he had forgotten to drop of at the store. He tells Jeffty that he has to stop and drop them off, but promises him that they will not be late for the movie. Jeffty decides to come in with Donald; There are only two theatres in town, and since they are going to the nearby Utopia, they will be able to walk over after Donald concludes his business. When they walk into the store, however, they encounter chaos. It is the first Sony promotional sale, and color televisions are finally being sold for a reasonable price. Donald tells Jeffty that he needs to help some customers for a couple of minutes but promises that he won't be long and they will not be late. He tells Jeffty to take a seat in a nearby chair as he envisions paying off his loan; as he sees it, good business comes first.

Jeffty sits down in front of the TV display wall. There are thirty-three sets in a range of sizes, some black and white, and some color; programs from thirteen channels are all playing at the same time. The narrator comments in hindsight that he should have understood that the present kills the past. Half an hour passes. Donald glances over at Jeffty, who looks like a different child. He is sweating, pale, and gripping his chair in terror. Donald runs over to him and pulls him out of the chair and toward the front door, while customers continue to yell to Donald for assistance. One customer pressures him, saying "you wanna sell me this thing or don't you." Donald looks at the customer and back at Jeffty, who is like a zombie. Donald pulls him up, but his legs are rubbery, and his feet drag as he is being pulled. Donald scrambles for money in his pocket, and hands it to Jeffty with instructions to go to the theater, buy the tickets, and wait for him there. Jeffty stumbles out the door and heads in the wrong direction and then stops to gather himself before he turns to head toward the movie theatre. Donald finishes his sale and then hears a terrible sound in the distance; he can't figure out which TV set it is coming from.

Donald arrives at the ticket booth of the theater twenty minutes later to discover that Jeffty has been beaten up. He is in the manager's office, where an usher watches over Jeffty and puts a cool cloth on his head. Donald orders her out of the office, then sits on the couch beside Jeffty and tries to swab the blood away from Jeffty's face. Jeffty's eyes are swollen shut, his mouth is ripped, and his hair is matted with dried blood. Donald learns that Jeffty had been standing in line behind two teenagers, who were listening to the radio. Jeffty had asked them if he could borrow the radio to hear a program for a minute while their station was on a commercial break, and the teens had agreed. When he handed the radio back, though, they were unable to pick up the game they had been listening to; the radio was locked in the past. They beat Jeffty viciously and then ran away. Donald had left Jeffty with no weapons or protection and had betrayed him to make a sale.

Donald takes Jeffty home. He doesn't know why he goes there instead of to the hospital. When they arrive, Jeffty's parents stare at him without moving or speaking. Donald tells them what happened, and they still do not move. Donald yells, "He's your son," asking them what kind of people they are. Jeffty's mother wears an expression that says "I've been here too many times and done this before. I cannot bear to go through this again." Finally, she moves toward Donald and takes Jeffty from him, then carries him upstairs to bathe him. John and Donald stare at each other within the darkness of the room, and Donald falls into a chair, shaking, as the sound of bath water comes from upstairs. After a long time, Leona comes back downstairs, wiping her hands on her apron. Donald hears rock music playing upstairs. Leona calmly asks Donald if he would like some pound cake. Donald doesn't answer. He listens to the music coming from the upstairs radio and realizes what has happened. As he jumps up from his seat, the table lamp dims and flickers. He screams and runs for the stairs, but Jeffty's parents don't move. They sit with their hands folded, as they have for so many years. Donald falls twice as he runs up the stairs.

Donald brings the story back to the present day at this point. He says there isn't much on television that can keep his interest and that he has bought a radio at a second hand store and replaced its parts with originals. He sits in front of it for hours, turning the dial slowly, but he still can't find the old programs. Donald realizes now that Jeffty's mother did love her son, and he doesn't hate Jeffty's parents; they only wanted to live in the present world again. It isn't such a terrible thing to want, he muses, and Donald says it is a good world, all things considered, better than it used to be in many ways. People don't die from the old diseases anymore; instead they die from new ones. Donald ends his narration with the words "that's Progress, isn't it? Isn't it? Tell me. Somebody please tell me."