Chapter Three

    Sam watched the young psychologist intern walk down the hall. Her hips 
swaying back and forth under her short baby pink mini dress. She was on her 
way to the Waiting Room. Doctor Beckett had just leaped back to June 24, 1957 
into a Navy man named William "Bubba" Clemins, a young flyer from the 
Carolina region station now in Florida. Tina had told her that Doctor Beckett 
was there to save a married nurse from getting killed.
    Al was supposed to be there next to Sam telling what to do. It had been a 
year since Al had been an Observer along side of his mentor, Tina 
Martinez-Gooshman. Now, Al did all of his Observer work on his own while Tina 
stayed back at the Project manning the controls.
    She saw "Al" coming out of his chambers. "What took you so damn long, 
Albert?" she asked him.
    Sam suddenly realized who the girl was in his dream. The fantasy female 
was Kelly Viaggio, the youngest in Al's adoptive family. Sam and Al both 
dated Kelly and Al once was even married to her with a whole bushel of kids, 
but that was before history changed for both of them.
    "Uh, hi, Kelly," Sam muttered.  He was nervous that she would find out 
about the dream that he had about her. "Well, I was sleeping." 
    "You were supposed to be in the Imagining Chamber a half hour ago," Kelly 
gave out.  "Didn't Ziggy tell you that Sam leaped already?"
    "I don't know," Sam said honestly.
    "Well, haul your ass to the Control Room now," she ordered her older 
brother.
    Sam walked to the Control Room, where Tina greeted him.
    "Al, I'm glad you could make it," she said rudely. She gave a brief 
report about whom and where Doctor Beckett landed. "Now, haul yourself into 
that machine and take off." 
    Sam reluctantly got into the Imaging Chamber. As scenes were whirling 
around him, he wondered about what his mission would be.
    Sam found an older Doctor Beckett laying in a bed in a military 
dormitory. The man on the bed looked older than he remembered himself to be. 
Doctor Beckett had completely white hair and more laugh lines around his eyes 
and mouth than he could remember. He seemed to be a jovial and intelligent 
sixty-something-year-old man.
    "Oh, boy! I'm ancient!" Sam wondered out loud.
    "What is it, kid?" Doctor Beckett said. "Wondering out loud about how old 
you might have been."
    "Something like that," Sam admitted.  
    "So, what's the data?" Doctor Beckett wondered. Sometimes he felt like 
pulling teeth with the young man to get out the proper information. After 
all, the twenty-something man was a rookie in the world of Leaping. He 
motioned to the Handlink.
    Sam couldn't take his eyes off of himself. 
    "Look at the Handlink, Al," the older man said.
    "I can't believe this! I'm back!" Sam's focus turned from himself toward 
the room. A metal dresser with an old-fashioned alarm clock and a regulation 
bed were against the plain white walls. Behind him was a bathroom with a 
shower and a mirror he remembered looking into a lot the last time he was in 
this room.
    "Back where?" Doctor Beckett was completely lost.
    "This room. This use to be--" Sam stopped himself. &Al's old room,& he 
continued in his mind.
    Ziggy chirped tell Sam to tell himself what the mission was this time, 
but Sam had already completed the mission with Al's help. He didn't need 
Ziggy to tell him, unless everything changed along with Al's adoption. 
    Somehow, nothing had changed except for who the Leapee was. "You're here 
to," Sam started. Although he watched Al work the Handlink millions of time, 
Sam had no idea on how to do it. "You're here to save a nurse by the name of 
Lisa." Sam smiled, but he realized that it could be somebody else this time. 
    But it wasn't. "Lisa Sherman! How about that, uh." He had no idea on what 
to call himself. "Uh, sir."
    "What happens to her?"
    Sam was now beaming as he rushed all over the room, tapping the Handlink. 
He hopped on the bed, falling on the middle of it. He was so happy because he 
knew exactly what to tell him.
    "Kid, get off that bed, before you get hurt," Sam warned. "Now, what 
happens to this Lisa Sherman?"
    Sam pretended to act somber as he jumped away from the bed. "She gets 
raped and killed by a guy named Chip."
    "And, you're happy about this?"
    "No, I'm not!" Sam said honestly. "It's just that before I saved her. I 
mean Al saved her. Man, that kid's an alright dude! Since you leaped into 
him, --"
    "What? Did I just leap into Al? What year is it? Two-thousand and what?"
    "Actually, it's 1957," Sam said, finally calming down.
    "As I was saying, you leaped into me, uh, this kid named Bingo, who was 
Al when he was young."
    "But, Al! You are young! Now, calm down, kid!" Doctor Beckett said. "Did 
you forget to take your Ritalin again?"
    "Maybe," Sam said. He didn't know Al was on Ritalin, but a lot of young 
people are in the 21st century -- why not Al. 
    "Calm down, Al, and give me the facts. Not some TV show."
    But, it wasn't a TV show. It really happened! The first time Sam Leaped 
into Al.
    "The facts are -" Sam looked down at the Handlink that was beeping 
wildly. "The facts are that it's 1957 and you're here to save Lisa Sherman 
from getting killed by a guy named Chip Fitzgerald."
    "Is that the truth?"
    "Yep," Sam said, before he walked out of the Chamber.