CHAPTER TWO

	After Al left, Sam gave Tina the pill and glass of Deer Park 
water. She went to their bedroom to take a nap, and Sam went to 
the living section in the kitchen. He sat on the comfy, overstuffed 
leather couch. Arranged on the table were several magazines about 
either computers, which he knew belonged to Tina, or  rock 'n' roll 
and the music industry, Tony's,  or current news events.  Sam thumbed 
through these magazines or a while, surprised at how much happened in 
the world since he began leaping in 1995.
	But, the biggest surprise was coming!
	He picked up the skinny, black television remote and pressed the 
round button in the first row to turn the large television set on.  The 
screen flashed on, showing a cartoon-looking picture of Saturn with the 
words "Do you ever wonder?" written underneath. 
	Oh, Sam wondered a lot since he began leaping, usually wondering 
why.  Why is he leaping through time? Why can't he get home? Now he 
had even more to wonder about, mostly wondering how. How much had 
actually changed? (He was certainly very much sure things had changed, 
but was unsure about the extent.) How much do people like Al and Tina 
remember from their previous lives? How much had changed in Sam's own 
life?
	There are many wonders of the world: the pyramids, Stonehenge, 
the dinosaurs' extinction, why he keeps leaping, how Michael Jackson 
could be so popular for so long. But, according to Sam, the biggest 
wonder occurred when that screen of the planet and saying flashed to a 
picture of him leaping. His memories seemed to be captured on film, 
then shown as science-fiction on cable.
	Sam was watching the show for some time, when Tina walked into 
the room. She noticed his eyes permanently glued to the show. "Tony?" 
She rolled her eyes and shook her head.  "Tony, do you know we have 
to leave in ten minutes?" She got no answer from the couch potato. 
He seemed more glued to the show than ever, even worse than how 
Tony, his brothers, and father are every Thanksgiving watching the big 
football game. Deciding she had to take drastic action to get him from 
watching, she walked in front of the television set. He moved his 
head, trying to see it behind her. She let out a big sigh as her eyes 
rolled up to heaven. "Theorizing that one could be too addicted to 
a stupid television show --"
	 Sam turned away from the show, and toward the woman talking 
to him. "Sorry, uh, honey," he said. "I was just watching --"
	"This episode for about the zillionth time," she said. "Why you 
watch this show is beyond me."  She turned the set off by pressing 
the power button on the set, the way she considered people did it back 
in the olden days when dinosaurs roamed the earth. "Since I'm doing this, 
let me spoil the ending for you. The cute guy saves the pig but loses 
the girl, and the looser gets his girl back. I think they also write 
a song for Buddy Holly in the process." 
	While the show meant so much more to Sam, he was surprised 
that she was able to reduce it to "a stupid television show" about 
"the cute guy" and "the looser."  He smiled at her cute and totally 
clueless take on everything.
	She smiled at him. "Now, Tony, can you get ready to go to your 
parents' house tonight?" She was already dressed in her red and white 
pants suit, which she bought on sale when she was two months pregnant 
and eventually grew into.
	"Yeah, sure," he said. He got off the couch, and walked down 
the hallway. 
 	One look at her husband in his stained gray T-shirt with the 
pink and blue WOLZ emblem and worn, torn and dirty jeans, she knew 
he was not ready yet. "Your mom sure is right," she commented. "When 
guys get married, they sure do lose all of their tastes in clothes. 
You with your dirty 'comfy clothes.' And, your father . . . well, I 
think your mother gave up all fashion hope for him a very long time 
ago, since he always comes into work looking more like a neon sign 
than a human being."
	Sam smiled, and wondered if she would always feel that way 
under all circumstances. 
	He easily found their bedroom, since it was the first room 
off the hallway. On the wrought iron canopy bed, Tony's clothes 
were set out already, either by him or his wife. Sam quickly changed 
into the beige slacks and a gray pinstriped collarless shirt.  He 
glanced into the wicker-framed mirror to check how he looked. 
	Since he leaped in, he always thought of Tony as just Al's son, 
somehow forgetting who the mother was. But, one glance at what Tony 
looked like, and there was no doubting who she was. If Joey really 
took after his father, Tony really took after his mother. He looked 
exactly like a male version of Kelly, and was just as handsome as she 
was pretty. He had the same large brown eyes, hair color, and most of 
her other facial features. His honey blond hair was cut short around 
his ears, and also formed a thin mustache over his upper lip trying 
hard to make him look even more handsome and less boyish. His body was 
muscular, not Godzilla muscular like body builders but fit muscular, 
the body of someone who looked like he was extremely athletic. Still, 
like his mom, he did not look like someone who knew and boasted about 
how good looking they were. He was just handsome, and didn't think much 
of it. There was also that sense of sweetness and outgoingness in his eyes, 
which his mother also processed. 
	"Tony, stop admiring yourself," Tina said.  "Let's go."
	She smiled sweetly at him, while Sam realized that sweetness 
Sam noticed in his eyes, which Tony inherited from his mom, drew him 
toward her in the beginning of their relationship just as much as 
Tony's eye, which he inherited from his father . . .  maybe even 
more so.
	   		* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
	The family and Sam were in the large house suburban house, still 
small for the ever growing family who lived there. The father sat in 
his special, overstuffed chair watching a basketball game, the LA 
Lakers versus the Phoenix Suns, constantly yelling the screen telling 
the players what to do. The mother and the mother-to-be put the 
finishing touches on the supper they were going to eat that night, 
while the mother gave advice about everything from cooking to babies 
to her daughter-in-law; the mother made a fuss over the younger woman 
who was carrying her newest grandchildren. The three boys played in 
the driveway outside shooting the basketball through the hoop hooked 
up above the garage door. 
	"Can you believe that, Tony?" the father exclaimed. "The Lakers 
stink this year. If they were as good as they should be, that nozzle 
would have never gotten that basket."
	"You're right, Al," Sam agreed, trying to act as interested in 
the game as his friend was. "The Lakers should have blocked it, before 
they got it in."	 
	"I'm telling you Shaq should pay more attention to his game, not 
his music and movies."
	"Well, Albert, I'm glad we have a son who pays serious attention 
to his music," Kelly said, as she walked out of the kitchen carrying 
a tray filled with vegetables and dip. 
	Tina followed her mother-in-law out of the kitchen. She held 
some paper plates, napkins, and forks in one hand, as her other hand 
rested on her large belly. "Well, that and his family," she added, 
sitting on the couch next to "her husband." 
	She never knew how close a family could possibly be until she 
became a part of her husband's family. She  was glad that her babies 
were going to be raised in a tightly knit extended family, instead of 
the seriously broken home she came from. She had no idea what would 
happen or how she would cope without her Tony by her side, but she 
would be unhappy--at least, romantically.
	Sam looked at Kelly, (who was still gorgeous after all of these 
years and looked more like a woman around forty or fifty than sixty 
but he guessed Al looked much younger than his age as well.) "What do 
you mean 'my music', Kelly?"
	"Tony, you must be very dedicated to it in order to be the 
morning dj of the leading station in New Mexico," she responded. 
"As well as the best assistant-manger in all of New Mexico."
	"There goes your mom again boasting. If you're so great, kid, 
do you think you can get us tickets for 'Wet 'n' Roll Fest'?" Albert 
asked naming the latest event the station was sponsoring. "We can make 
it into a family day for us."
	"I can try," Sam agreed. "How many? A hundred, Al?"
	"Just me, your mom, three little brothers. And, of course, 
your wife," Albert stated.
	"And, Tony, when did you stop calling your father and me 'pop' 
and 'mom'?" Kelly asked, slightly annoyed. Sam could tell she was glad 
about the tickets, but bothered by his slip up.
	"Sorry, mom," he said. He felt awkward about calling a woman he 
dated a long time ago "mom" and his best friend "pop," even if he did 
leap into their son. 
	Kelly sent her husband outside to start to barbeque, and looked 
through window calling for her son's to stop their game and come in. 
Al left because it was half-time. Joey rushed in, practically running 
over his father, for the same reason, followed by one of his younger 
brothers (the youngest decided to stay outside, helping Albert with 
the hamburgers and hotdogs). Joey swung himself over his father's 
chair, plopping himself down sideways. His younger brother, Angelo, 
made a comment saying his brother's rush was so he could catch the 
Laker Girls do their cheers, and Sam--having met Joey a year later 
when he helped his father---agreed with Angelo.
	Within minutes, Albert arrived followed by his youngest son, 
Sammy.  He placed the large spaghetti platter holding the hamburgers 
and hotdogs in their buns on the large butcher block table in the 
dining room, and the entire family gathered around to eat. 
	Kelly turned CD players on the stereo on and Frank Sinatra's 
"Love and Marriage" came on, the words saying how marriage cannot 
happen without love. Sam wondered how much love was in Al's 
marriages in his past life. But, definitely knew there were tons of 
love between Al and Kelly in his present life. 
	Within that night, Sam gained an appreciation and love for Al's 
family, the ideal all-American family which somewhat reminded him of 
his own family when he was growing up. The patriarch, Al, who 
constantly tried to catch glimpses of the game through the open 
doorway, with his kind control for his kids when the younger ones' 
behavior got out of hand and love for everyone sitting there eating 
and the other members of his family far away. The matriarch, Kelly, 
with all of her sweetness and motherly charm, and who kept fussing 
over "her son" and daughter-in-law due to her pregnancy. Then, 
there were Al's three young sons: Joey, who spent the entire 
supper time stuffing his face with burgers and hotdogs and more time 
talking on the phone to his girlfriend than with his family; Angelo, 
who kept making smart-alack wisecracks (like when he said that "his 
Uncle David was as fat as a walrus that the last time he went to Sea 
World they threw a fish at him," which was prompted by an offhanded 
comment Tina made about feeling as large as a house); Al and Kelly's 
youngest, Sammy, with his dark intelligent eyes and who hung on every 
word everybody said taking everything in (Al had named his son after 
his best friend, and Sam guessed the name fit the eleven-year-old 
boy since the boy reminded Sam of himself as a boy.) Then, of 
course, the extended family . . . well what Sam could see of it, 
which was only made of innocently sweet Tina, who reminded him much 
of Kelly when she was younger.  
	Sam smiled to himself. He was in love with the wonderful world 
he founded.	 



Monica, (c) Summer, 1997