CHAPTER FIFTEEN


        Lizzy could not believe that her best friend had just broken up with her 
fiancee. Kelly always seemed to be madly in love with him. It seemed the only 
subject Kelly wanted to talk about sometimes, especially right before she left 
for her trip, was her fiancee, Sam. Kelly's and her ex-boyfriend's relationship 
lasted basically straight through high school and slightly into the time after. 
She knew that they were having some difficulties due to him being away at 
college in Massachusetts, and Kelly working across the country in Florida. 
Problems can cause a really rocky relationship, but usually time works 
everything out. *Maybe, they should of gave each other a second chance,* Lizzy 
figures. *Maybe, everything would be better the second time around. How could 
anybody totally forget a relationship that meant that much to a person? He 
probably loves Kelly as much as she used to love him. With love around, there 
are no problems in a relationship that love cannot conquer.*
        Lizzy kindly lifted up her own hand. As she looked out from behind the counter 
at the handsome young men dressed in their uniforms, who were packed into the 
diner. In her opinion, they all looked so handsome, like modern knights or 
princes out of a fairy tale. She imagined one of them marrying her, and 
carrying her off to be his queen of all of eternity. *Maybe, I am going to 
marry a Navy man, just like my mother did,* she thought. She remembered the old 
pictures of her mother and father at their wedding, pictures which were now 
turning brown with age. Her father looked so dashing wearing his dress whites, 
and her mother looked so beautiful in her frilly white wedding dress. She 
wondered, if some day, someone would take a picture of her with her white 
knight, just like somebody did of her mother many years before. *Maybe, on the 
other hand, I'll marry a civilian with a successful professional job, just like 
Kelly was planning to do once her boyfriend left college and just like my older 
sister did,* Lizzy thought as her daydreams changed directions. *He'd be as 
rich and powerful as a Rockefeller. No matter who I marry, he's going to take 
really good care of me, and love me above all things.*
        *What am I doing thinking about marriage?* she questioned herself bringing her 
mind back to reality. *I'm not like Kelly! I don't want to get married young, 
like she wanted to. One think is for sure though, when I met the right man, it 
will be love at first sight.* She looked directly at the young man she had met 
earlier that day, and gave him a slight wave.

        "Hey, I think that chick's waving at you," Bubba stated.
        "What chick?" Bingo asked as he looked around the diner.
        Bubba looked at the girl standing behind the counter. "The waitress over 
there," he said pointing to Lizzy. "I think she's waving at Radar, though." 
Bubba noticed that Sam was not listening, and hit his arm from across the 
table.
        "Huh?" Sam said turning towards the conversation.
        "The chick from before is waving at you, Radar," Bingo told him.
        *Oh, great!* Sam thought. *Not only do I have to hang out with these young 
creeps. Now, I have a eighteen-year-old girl who likes me - and it's not even 
Kelly.* "Really?"
        "Yeah," Bubba said.
        "Why don't you go talk to her?" Bingo suggested. "Maybe, then, I won't be 
the only one getting any action with the chicks, when we're on leave."
        "Well, most of us started out leave today," Chip said, "and not last night."
        "I don't really think that I should, guys," Sam commented.
        "Why not?" Bingo asked.
        "I don't know," Sam shrugged.
        Bingo saw Kelly walking to a nearby table, and motioned her her to come over. 
"Hey, Kelly! Do you know that chick?"
        "Who?" Kelly asked.
        Bingo pointed towards Lizzy. "Her."
        "Oh, that's Lizzy," she said. "I should know her. She's my best friend down 
here."
        "Do you think your brother should talk to her, because he doesn't want to?" 
        "I think I just saw a pig fly past that window, and it wasn't any of you 
guys," she said. Chip started making farm pig noises, and Bubba joined right 
in. "Oh, please, guys!" Kelly rolled her eyes at them, before looking at Sam. 
"Gee, this must be a first. My big brother doesn't want to talk to a girl."
        "So, you think he should?" Bingo asked.
        "I don't know," she shrugged. "It's really up to him. She's really nice, 
David." Kelly hoped that he would that he would talk to her. Maybe, then she'll 
go out with him, and  he could finally have a serious girlfriend, instead of 
just another girl's name in his big little black book.
        "Ok, I'll talk to her," Sam said getting up from his seat and starting to walk 
over to Lizzy. Sam slowly made his way across the crowded diner, until he 
reached the counter. "Hello," he greeted the girl he had met a short while ago. 
"Were you waving at me?" he asked hoping that she wasn't.
        "Hi," she answered nodding as she smiled. "David, right?"
        "Yes," he said. 
        There was a moment of awkward silence as they both though of something to say. 
Even though through leaping, he was constantly meeting new people, those people 
usually already knew the person Sam had leaped into. Sam usually had to rely 
upon their leads to direct him in the right direction, when it came to 
conversations and actions. Talking with her was entirely different. With her, 
he was going to make a whole new start and a whole new relationship. He was 
definitely sure David, had never met this girl before in his life. As for Sam, 
he could not shake the feeling he had met her before when he was a different 
person.
        "Thanks for what you did before," she said.
        "You're welcome."
        Another moment of silence past between them. "So, you're Kelly's friend?"
        "Yes," Sam said. "I'm her -" Sam hesitated. He desired to say boyfriend, or 
even husband, if their plans for marriage really worked out, but it was not the 
truth. Even if he was actually himself, and not her brother, it would not be 
the truth. "I just know her," he managed to say telling the only truth he knew.
        Kelly approached Sam and Lizzy, and turned to Sam. "The food's ready. Ok, 
bro?" she said.
        Lizzy looked at Kelly and Sam. "So, you're Kelly's brother?" she said 
hesitantly as she removed a wet rag from behind the counter.
        "Yes. I guess you could say that."
        She began to wipe down the counter turning her back slightly towards him. "I 
heard a lot about you," she said.
        Sam noticed there was a neutrality in her voice, a neutrality that Sam could 
not make heads or tails about. He did not know what Lizzy had heard about 
David. She could of interpreted all of her knowledge in his favour or against 
him, but there was no telling which it was. He could not figure out if she 
liked what she heard about him, or disliked what she heard. "What have you 
heard?" he finally asked her.
        "All kinds of stuff," she said without giving him any clues. Something, 
though, told him that she was on guard about his words and actions.
        Sam turned his head around to look at the guys seated at his table. He wished 
he was not talked into making conversation with her by David's friends and his 
sister. He wanted to be as far away from everybody as possible, especially far 
away from David's friends. In a way, he welcomed talking to Lizzy, since it 
gave him a chance to escape from the guy's conversations.
        Suddenly, Sam got a plan!
        Sam had already told Bingo he had a plan, but Sam's purpose of his plan was a 
little different from the reason which he had told Bingo. Sam's purpose was to 
spend as little time as possible with these guys, and one way he could do that 
and still hopefully be considered acting as David was if he decided to spend 
his time with someone else, especially a female someone else. "Lizzy, do you 
want to go out with me sometime?" he asked hoping she would agree. She would 
serve as his way out.
        Lizzy thought about it for a minute, and then she said, "Sure."
        Her answer really surprised Sam, he felt she would say no, probably because he 
really did not want to go out with her. Somehow, he had a gut feeling that she 
was going to say yes. It was a feeling he had not only based on what happened 
earlier that day, but a feeling which was also due to another event, which he 
could not recall, although the event was not with him. "How about tonight?"
        "Ok."
        Sam pondered as he tried to think of something he and Lizzy could do together. 
He remembered his dates with Kelly, when he was still in high school. Kelly and 
he always went to a school function, such as a game or a dance, hung out at his 
or her house or went into town with a group of friends from school. None of 
those dates were appropriated for Lizzy and him. Sam knew that Bingo and the 
others were planning to go to a nearby park for a small keg party, and were all 
planning to bring a date, so they could get drunk and "have some fun" as Bingo 
put it. Sam knew that - for him - going to the park would be anything but fun. 
The reason why Sam wanted to go out was not so he could drink and fool around 
with "chicks," but so he would not have to spend any more time then he had o 
with the "jerks" he wanted to avoid.
        "So, what do you want to do?" he asked her deciding to let her choose their 
activities for the night.
        "Why don't we go to Frosty's?" she suggested.
        "That sounds ok with me," he said. *It's totally mindless and pointless,* he 
thought. *but spending a stupid date with her is better than spending the night with the 
guys.*             
        "Maybe, we could go to the movies after," she added hesisitantly.
        "Yeah, maybe."
        Kelly came out of the swinging doors near the counter carrying a large tray 
filled with dishes of food. "Hey, David," she said to Sam. "Your and you 
friend's food is ready."
        "Well, you better eat your food before it gets cold," Lizzy said. She took out 
a blank piece of paper and a pen from her pocket. She quickly wrote down her 
address, and passed it to Sam. "Pick me up at eight, and don't be late."
        "I won't," he said picking up the piece of paper. "See you then." Sam started 
to walk back to his table with Kelly.
        "Bye," Lizzy said before going back to her job.
        Kelly looked up at Sam as she tried to balance the large tray. "Soo, you'e 
going to take Lizzy to the park tonight?" she asked slightly disappointed that 
they were not going on a non-park date. 
        "No, we are going to do something else." He wondered about how their date 
would go that night.
        "That's good."
        "Kelly, how did you know about the park?" he finally questioned her.
        "Only, what I overheard you and your friends say. I never went," she said, 
"until tonight, at least."
        "What do you mean tonight?" Sam said. He did not want her to go. He heard all 
of the stories Bingo and his friends had told him on the boardwalk about what 
went on. The guys had plainly stated that it was a night for partying and for 
having sex with loose drunk women. He did not want Kelly participating in what 
he knew went on there.
        "Albert asked me to go with him.
        "Oh, he did!" Sam felt his anger fill his chest, but placed a heavy lid 
clasping it down. "Did he?"
         "Yes, he did." She noticed a small trill of enjoyment race through her blood 
from her thoughts about what was going to happen.
        "I don't want you to go."
        "Why?" she asked. "I went to keg parties back in Indiana."
        *She is so naive,* Sam thought. *I went to a few keg parties back in Indiana 
too, basically because Kelly and Jordan dragged me to them. The parties back in 
high school sound nothing like what goes on here.* "You're not in Elk Ridge 
anymore, Kelly."
        "I know, David," she answered. She really wanted to go, and wanted to prove 
right them that she could handle herself. *Why is he always allowed to do 
things, but as soon as I want to, he won't allow me?* she pondered. *Tonight, 
he's not going to the park, but that does not mean that anything ins not going 
to happen.* "Well, if it's the other stuff your worried about, I can handle 
myself. When it comes to that, there's nothing that goes on there that can't 
happen parking up at Lover's Leap, where your date with Lizzy is probably going 
to end up."
        Sam and Kelly reached the table, and she placed the tray on a nearby table and 
started to remove the plates of food setting each one down in front of the 
intended person. Kelly and Bingo gave each each other flirtatious looks as Sam 
saw the imaging chamber door opening next to him. 
        Al stepped out and looked directly at Kelly, who was picking up the plate with 
Bingo's omelette from the tray. "What a dish!" Al said.
        Sam could not believe what Al said next.

Monica