CHAPTER FIVE Sam looked out the window of Scott's dorm room that evening, looking out onto the view of the campus six floors below. He heard music coming from Sam's dorm room across the hall, "Sugar, Sugar" -- his and Kelly's song. (Although it was an all boys-dorm, Kelly was going to spend the night with her boyfriend undetected, no problem since bigger problems on campus existed on campus.) He knew it was only a matter of time that the two of them would not get sugary sweetness of love anymore. Still, although that once was the biggest, most important issue in the world, it was not anymore. Too much had happened in the world around him that the triteness of love was not important anymore. He remembered how jordan asked after the test when Newton's law was going to be important in life. Sam knew now the law was Jordan's life. He was going fast in one direction, and most probably would not stop until something forced him to stop. Sam only hoped that he could stop his decline at the beginning, -- before Death stops it at the end, done by Jordan's own fatal mistakes. "Tough day?" Al asked, walking through the rectangle of light behind Sam which quickly closed behind him. "Yes. YOu know, Al, I never really remembered any of this, the way it really is, until now," Sam stated. Before he only remembered the peachy keen happenings and his studies from when he was in college, not all of the pressures and problems which took place out of the classroom. He only lived through one day so far, but felt that his memory loss was not unintentional but meant to be. Maybe, helping people was easier when one does not remember some bad things happening, such as what happened to his former best friend. Maybe not. He could not believe what happened to Jordan. The two of them were inseparable, best friends forever. Still, somehow they ended up going in two completely different directions: Jordan went towards drugs and protests, while he went towards school and science. "Sometimes, some people's memories block out bad things which are too painful to remember." Sam guessed he had a point. He knew he never truly forgot his older brother, but only remembered that he died in Vietnam when he pondered for a long time about what happened to him. Also, Al originally had more troubles happen in his life than basically anybody he ever knew. Still, since everything changed, he did not remember most of the tragic events in his life which happened; if the changes did not cause his memory loss, his brain suppressed the memories, hiding them from him forever. "I guess I do remember everything a little bit," he said. "But not everything, like I had no idea abut what happened to Jordan until you told me and I spent today with him. He already started." "Started what?" Al asked. "Drugs," Sam answered simply. "Kelly, Samuel, him and I were in the parking lot before, and he took out some pot and offered it to all of us." From the look in Al's eyes, Sam could tell that he was steamed at what had happened. "I know he's your friend, but he's a complete nozzle, only nozzles do drugs. No, nozzles have more sense in their heads than to do drugs. People who do any kind of drugs are worse than scum," he commented. "Did anybody else smoke it, except for him?" "Nobody did, not even him. Kelly ruined it even before he had a chance to light it." The fire in his eyes began to cool, as a pleased look came over his face, telling that he was happy that his friend and Kelly took a firm stand against smoking marijuana. "Glad the kid and Kelly made the right decision, somehow knew you would," he said. Sam was unclear about who he meant, him and Kelly, and which him. But it did not matter. Making a decision against drugs ad sticking to it always is the best thing to do. He swore on his Grandma Nettie's grave that he, himself, never took drugs at all; he was pretty sure he never even tried marijuana even once like many people in his generation had done. "Still, Jordan gets messed up on them, and dies due to being high on LSD by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge when hallucinating in 1973." Sam knew his death was somehow connected to drugs, but only then heard the specifics of it. Now, he remembered the original history as clear as when he first heard it. Al looked down at the handlink. "Wait a minute, Sam." He paused for a second, surprised at what he saw. "I checked the data before I came here, but now it's different. Something must have changed. Now, your friend, the hippie, dies tomorrow in an antiwar rally. Somehow, the rally gets out of hand and turns violent. The police and the National Guard are called in, and, but the time everytime breaks up, six people are left dead. . . . one of them being Jordan." ==================== Can Sam save Jordan from being killed at the protest? Stay tuned! Monica PS: Please tell me what you think about my story, because I really want to know.