Chapter Four

    It was ten o'clock at night. 
    Tina opened the Imaging Chamber door, closing it behind her.   "Sam, it's 
ten o'clock, do you know where your student it," she rephrased a slogan from 
her teen years.
       "Probably next door studying," Sam said. "He should be back already."
       "Wrong, cutie," Tina said. "He's still out on a date. Maybe, you 
should call him."
       "How? I don't know where he is?" Sam said. "Plus, I don't want to 
disturb him."
       "Please disturb him, Sam," Tina begged.  "He has one of these on him, 
and I'll tell you the number." She tried to pick up the cell phone that was 
on the table, but her holographic hand went straight through it.
       Sam took the phone, and dialed the number as Tina told it to him       
      "     Ziggy, focus me on Al, 'k?" She was gone in a flash.
            
                                                 *" *" * * * * * * "* * * * *

       Al was in a dorm room with a buxomous female co-ed. He had just met 
her in the Student Union that afternoon, and already they were having a roll 
in the sheets. He loved how some of the party girls were loose at the 
University of New Mexico at Stallion Creek.
Somewhere a phone ringed. "Is that me or you, sexy?" she asked. He sat up, 
and she ground her body into his back, draping her arms around his shoulders.
       "It's for me," he took his cell phone out of his pants that were on 
the floor of the girl's room. "Uh, hello."
       "Hello, Albert," Sam answered. He could not remember ever calling his 
ex-best friend at any age.
       "Stop stalking me, Doctor Beckett!" He was going to hang up, but 
decided to hear what his professor had to say. The moment was ruined anyway!
       "You're going to fail your physics course, if you fail this test." Sam 
knew from looking at the grade book that afternoon, and knew many other 
things about Al's academic history in his course.
       "I'll study later," he told Sam. "It's only one grade."
       "Still, this test counts for 50% of your grade. It will totally mess 
up your entire transcript."
       "I'll get right on it," Al said, finally realizing how important the 
exam was. 
       Al hung up the phone. He sprung out of the bed and started to get 
redressed.
       "Who was that?" the girl asked.
       "My professor," he told her. "That jerk wants me to study."
       "Well, are you going to?"
       "Yah, I have to," he answered. "See you at school."
       He walked out the door, got on his bike and went back to his house to 
study for the big test the next day.


diana beckett
(formally Monica Briggs)

(C) June, 2002