CHAPTER TWELEVE

        Sam and Bingo stood in the spot where they were, and watched Lizzy walk away. 
"Radar, why didn't you make ask when you could?" Bingo asked.
        "I don't know," Sam answered. Actually, he did know, and the reason was 
because he was not a teenager or a young person anymore.
        "Are you sure?" he asked.
        "I just didn't ask her out. That's it!" 
        "You're damn crazy! You got a new method of getting chicks, and a damn good one 
too. What's the use though, if you don't use it to its full potential? We're on 
leave. We're supposed to be having fun. Radar, you're not going to have any fun 
at all. Suddenly, you've turned into a damn boy scout or a damn choir boy, can't 
decide which." 
        "No, I didn't." *A person can't turn into something they already are. Anyway, 
David isn't here right now. He's in the future, probably talking to his old 
friend from the Bronx.*
        "The hell you are. In fact, you're not acting your usual self at all today," 
Bingo said knowing that his behaviour was caused by something more than being 
upset about his little sister, but not knowing what that something was. 
First, it was on the boardwalk, when we were all talking about things. Usually, 
we can't get you to stop talking. Today, you didn't even say a word. Radar, you 
got your nickname for reasons other than your flying abilities. You're probably 
able to spot the best looking chicks within a two city block radius. Somehow, 
when what's-her-name - the chick -"
        "Lizzy," Sam filled in.
        "Yeah, when Lizzy passed us before, I was the first to see her and was the 
loudest, not you. Now, especially now, you rush out into the street to save a 
gorgeous chick, and you don't even want to go all the way with her. What's the 
matter with you?"
        "There's nothing the matter with me," Sam answered. Bingo had just given Sam 
information about David's personality. Unfortunately, it was because he noticed 
a difference between Sam's and David's behaviour. To Sam, David sounded like a 
person just like Bingo, maybe, even worse.
        "Then, why aren't you collecting any rewards?"
        David sounded like the type of person that wouldn't let a woman go, like Sam 
just did. "I have plan," Sam said.
        "What is it?"
        "I'm not telling." *Probably because I don't have a plan to tell about in the 
first place.*
        "You could tell me."
        Sam thought about a plan that David would probably come up with, but came up 
with a blank. "I'm not going to," Sam said beginning to get fustrated at the 
main subject of the conversation, but afraid to change the topic because of 
David. 
        "If this plan works, you're going to sleep with her. Right?" Bingo asked 
checking up.
        *That would probably be the end result of any of these guys' plans.* Yes," Sam 
lied. "Later." *Later is good. Late never comes. No matter when it is, later is 
always sometime off in the future. Later, perhaps in this case, could mean when 
the real David gets back, but let him worry about it. He'd probably enjoy it!*
        "You're going to wait until later? You could be screwing her right now. I know 
I would, if I were you."
        *And, knowing Al, he would know ever woman from here to the West coast, if he 
really had my real job and his real limbido.* Sam gave a minorly humoured smile. 
"You probably would."
        "I know I would. You would, too. Radar, she was just your type to. She had 
legs that seemed to go on for miles."
        "I just didn't feel like it, ok," Sam said irritated.
        "It's your life. I can not believe she was such as bitch to me."
        "Those are the breaks."
        "I know, Radar," he commented. "She just treated me like I was worst than 
that slop they feed us at the mess hall. I wish -"
        *Wish what?* Sam questioned sarcastically to himself. *Wish he was with her right now? Wish 
he never had to get turned down by 'chicks?' Wish he could have any woman in the 
universe?*
        Bingo hesitated for a moment. Then he said, "I just wish that I could be 
invisible sometimes."
        "What did you say?" Sam said extremely surprised disbelieving his ears.
        "I know it sounds stupid, but I wish I could make myself invisible, not for all 
of the time, just for when I felt like it. That might be really cool."
        Sam had to bite his lip to keep from laughing at the shock of the very 
familiar situation. He felt like a little kid trying to hide a birthday present 
from his brother, knowing exactly what his brother was getting, but also 
knowing that he had to wait until his birthday party to get it. *Oh, trust me!* 
Sam thought. *Some wishes have a way of coming true.*  
        "Though, if I was invisible, I couldn't be doing the bingo-bango-bongo with 
her right now. I'm not, anyway, so it doesn't matter. If she couldn't see me, 
then she couldn't shoot me down as much as she did," Bingo continued weighing 
the options of his imaginative wish. "Plus, if I was, I could sneak into the 
woman's dressing room at Lacy's department store."
        Sam remembered that was almost exactly what he said on the air, when he leaped 
into a Peoria, Illinois disc jockey. "Yeah," Sam said. "But, what would happen 
when you get the invisible girl in the back seat of the car?"
        Bingo smiled back at his friend's goofing, but after a moment he said, "I 
can't believe you. You're such a glory hog."
        "I'm not. I don't have control over what Lizzy does."
        "I know you don't, but you could of thrown some credit my way."
        "Thanks, for pointing the car out for me, though," Sam felt that he should 
give Bingo some credit for his act, even if the girl did not.
        "You're welcome, Mr. Hero," he said with bitter sarcam. Apparently, he though 
his friend was only being patronizing and did not mean what he had just said.
        "You better get used to it, because -" Sam slipped. *Oh, boy! I know way too 
much! My mouth just went on without thinking about what I was saying.* Sam did 
not mean to say anything. He realized that his own knowledge of Al's future can 
distort Sam's view of the past. Nobody should know too much about their own 
future.
        "Because, why?" Bingo asked.
        *Because it is what you're going t be doing in about another forty years from 
now. Anyways helping, and never doing.* "Just because."
        "Jeez, Radar," he said annoyed. "You save one chick's life, and suddenly you 
think you're Superman."
        Sam figured that David would probably boast about rescuing Lizzy based upon 
Bingo's response. He somehow felt Bingo's sarcasm came more from the girl 
rejecting him, than from what Sam had said. "I would save everyone in Gotham 
City, if I had to." *That is probably true. Sometimes, I feel like I saved 
enough people to fill a small city, but only with Al's help. I am nothing 
without him.* Sam decided to stick in something David would say, so that Bingo 
would not become more curious about his friend's true identity. "I could 
probably get every woman in Gotham City, too." 
        "You and me, both," Bingo agreed. "Isn't Gotham City in Batman, though?"
        "I think so."
        "It doesn't really matter. Remember those two chicks we met at the newspaper 
stand back in the Bronx," Bingo grinned. "They taught us about comic books, and 
we read what was between their covers."
        *It never takes a genius to figure this guy out. It only takes someone to know 
what he's like, regardless of age. Nothing ever changes!* "You're really 
something!"
        "Those two chicks were really something. At least, yours was. Radar, I'm still 
trying to figure out how you ever stuck me with the ugly one."
        "Those are the breaks."
        "Do you want to know something?"
        "What?" Sam asked.
        "Right now, I have a really strong feeling that the two of us are really the 
best of buds, just like Batman and Robin."

Monica