Chapter Six

    Doctor Beckett sat down at a booth at the Pensacola base's Officer's
Club. A blond nurse was sitting next to him. They were sharing a basket of
French fries, and two beers were on the table.
    Lisa was snuggling up close to "Bubba," telling him about her workday an=
d
how terrible her husband was compared to Bubba. Doctor Beckett was intently
listening.
    Sam stepped into the past, spotting the familiar looking nurse. In the
original history, before Al left his own time for good, Lisa Sherman was
young Al's girlfriend for a while and Bubba was Bingo's buddy. He thought he=

was funny that Lisa and Bubba were now dating, since a young Albert Calavicc=
i
was no place in the year 1957. He had to bite his lower lip to keep from
giggling.
    The hologram caught Doctor Beckett by surprise as he was trying to put
ketchup on a corner of the fry basket. He ended up getting some on his kaki
tan military uniform.
    "I'll be right back," Doctor Beckett said. "I have to use the head."
    "Be right back, ok," Lisa smiled.
    Before Sam got up, the Imaging Chamber door opened again and Tina and Al=

stepped out.
    Upon seeing, Lisa his hormones went into overdrive. He got a lustful loo=
k
upon his young face. "Nurse, how about if you give me a sponge bath?"
    "She probably did too," Sam said out loud. After all, in the original
history, the young man was dating when he was about five years younger.
    "Huh? Whatcha mean, Sam?" Al said. "I never saw her before a second ago.=
"
    "Oh, never mind," Sam answered.
     "Who probably did?" Doctor Beckett asked.
    "Sponge bath," Sam filled the doctor in.
    "Al, I know men hit their sexual prime in their twenties," Doctor Becket=
t
scolded, "but can you please keep your thoughts to yourself."
    Sam blushed.
    Al was starting to wander from the group of other time travelers. He was=

wide eyed, and felt odd coming here. "Sam, can I talk to you privately for a=

minute?"
    "How come?"
    "Because, I'm feeling really like I have a case of d=E9j=E0 vu."
    Sam knew this day was coming. He came out of the past, but remanded in
the Chamber. "What is it that you want to know, kid?"
    "It's like I was there before," the young man said. "Like, if I didn't g=
o
into the future when I was 16, then I would be there. But the weird thing,
that being back in the past, I kind of remembered some stuff that never
happened."
    "Like what?" Sam was curious about what the kid was remembering from the=

original timeline.
    "Like I think I actually went into the Navy and possibility Annapolis,"
he commented. He was completely confused and scared about what was happing t=
o
his mind.
    "Yes, you did, Al," Sam said. "You were career Navy."
    "I got up to be a ranking Ensign, right? Like the guy the other Doctor
Beckett just did."
    "Higher, Al?"
    "Higher, but I'm only 25," Al commented. "You mean past the 1950's. I be=
t
I became an Admiral."
    The boy's guess was right on target, causing Sam to smile.
    "Cool!" Al beamed, but then took on a somber expression. "So, did I,
like, go to Nam?"
    Vietnam was the one thing that kept him from signing up for military dut=
y
when he was in his teens and still living in the past. Maria told him that a=

"brutal civil war" was going to happen, which a lot of people were going to
be against. She said it was going to be a time of turmoil both for the State=
s
and the Far East. At the time, he couldn't picture anything worse than World=

War Two, but Maria said it was going to almost as bad. He was talked out of
joining by a middle-aged ex-hippie child.
    "I'd rather not say, kiddo," Sam answered. He remembered how Al spent 6
years as a POW of the Viet Cong, and how Al had returned a worn and saddened=

man.
    "I might have gotten married, but I bet I was still a party dude,
especially with the chicks," Al said. "At least, when I was my age."
    Sam laughed as he returned back to 1957. &At any age, Al! At any age! &