Chapter 23
Ben led the way out of the room, still adjusting to the idea that it was no longer a padded cell.
“So what the hell just happened, anyway?” he asked Sam as the two of them continued collecting audio recorders from their strategically placed positions through the hospital. “Addison said it was some kind of time warp?”
Sam shrugged broadly. “Some kind of convergence of quantum energies? Sam Beiderman’s ghost? I’m not sure I want to know, to be completely honest. I’m just glad it’s over.”
“Fair enough,” Ben conceded. “What happened to this guy Beiderman anyway? Did we stop him from suicide?”
Sam let out a rush of air from his nose. “He still made the attempt, but he was found before it killed him. Someone named Alice?”
“Nurse Chatam,” Ben said, grinning. “Ha, I guess Ziggy was on the right track having me spark up a friendship with her.”
“I can fill in a bit more,” came the voice of Addison. The two men directed their attention to her, illuminated in the dark room. “Welcome back, by the way.”
“Thanks for your help,” Sam said. “Really, truly. I came dangerously close to dying there with Beiderman.”
“You’re very welcome,” Addison said warmly.
“How did things turn out for him?” Ben asked, prompting Addison to bring up the data on the handlink.
“Well, his wife stuck by him and moved in with his brother’s family when she got pregnant by Sam in 1960. He got out of here in ‘63, and started seeing Aaron Beck as he was developing CBT. Went on to be an advocate for mental health reform, and lived to the age of 72.” Addison lowered the device in her hand. “I guess being able to work this leap from multiple time periods really gave us an edge. Can’t just cure someone of depression and split, huh?”
“I’m so glad he could lead a full life,” said Sam. “So, uh, what are we still doing here? Seems like we’ve done what we needed to do, right?”
Ben raised his eyebrows. “What about Al?”
In the moment of contemplation that followed, a phone began to ring.
Iris’s phone lit up in Sam’s pocket.
“How did…” Sam pulled it out, looking at it with fear. The caller ID on the phone indicated that Joey was calling.
Cautiously, he answered. “H-hello? …Oh. Yeah, we’ll be a few more minutes. Got a little delayed. We’ll see you back at the entrance soon. Okay. Later.”
He hung up before staring down at the phone for another moment. His eyes moved up to Ben.
“All that crazy stuff with this phone before—you remember that, right?”
Ben nodded, and patted against his own pants. With an open mouth, he drew Greg’s phone out of his back pocket.
“So, uh, that definitely wasn’t there before.” He and Addison looked at one another stiffly.
“Let’s—let’s get the hell out of this place,” Sam said resolutely, and burst into motion.
* * *
In an Internet Café in Scranton, Sam sat at a computer, flanked by Ben and a holographic Janis.
“Okay Sam, you’re gonna want to open up the command prompt so we can bypass some of the restrictions and monitoring on this thing,” Janis said, studying the screen.
Sam had, unfortunately, not had many opportunities to learn the ropes of modern computers since the nineties. He’d leaped around a bit during the 2000s, but there was rarely time to teach himself much. Instead, he used his time at computers to communicate with his secure contact, who assisted him by researching the people around him, and helping him figure out possible goals to be accomplished—in the absence of Ziggy.
Sam’s contact had been in touch with him since 2002, thanks to Janis. It wasn’t easy to keep continuity with someone he communicated with in a completely random order, but they took it one leap at a time.
But this time, he was here for an entirely different contact.
“Excuse me Janis, but you can’t tell me you’re in here helping set up a secure line of communication without my help, are you?”
Sam glanced behind him towards the voice, and it seemed another hologram had appeared. Just how many holograms did they have, anyway? Back in his day, there was only Al; or occasionally, a poorly synchronised Gooshie.
The woman smiled down at Sam. “Nice to meet you at last. I’m Jenn. Head of security.”
Janis rolled her eyes. “It’s my server, Jenn. I don’t think I want you seeing how to access it.”
“Oh, come on, maybe I can tighten the security.”
“It’s fine.”
“Janis, remind me again who tracked you down when you were in hiding?”
Janis groaned. “Okay—fine. Not like the security protocols are the same as they were in 2010.”
Sam looked between them, eyebrows raised. “I can’t tell if you two are friends or enemies.”
“Best frenemies,” Jenn said, making eye contact with Janis.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Janis replied, but Sam could detect some fondness in the way she looked at Jenn.
The two holograms leaned over Sam’s shoulder and began to guide him through the process of setting up a call. In Sam’s periphery, he could see Ben move to the other side of the Internet Café, peering out the windows to the street.
“Are you sure that’s enough layers of security?” Jenn asked. “We did manage to trace Sam’s call to Hawaii, remember?”
“What do you suggest, then?”
“Well, you could always reroute through my onion server. 2010 me might notice the connection and attempt to trace it, but the security you have set up should stop me.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“Then we might become best frenemies a little sooner.”
Janis frowned. “Oh, what the hey. Let’s do it.”
The two of them walked Sam through the remainder of the process, and Sam finally donned a headset and entered Al’s number.
As he let the computer dial and connect, he glanced over at Ben, beckoning.
But as Ben approached, a web of blue light began to shine out of him. He was leaping.
“Oh god, not yet!” he cried, straining to hold back the inevitable. Eyes wide, Ben held out his hand to Sam. “Quick, grab me. That’s what you said to do, right?”
At the same time, the phone call connected.
“Hello?” came the unmistakable voice of Al Calavicci.
Oh god. I have to choose between leaping with Ben or talking to Al one last time.
Sam bit his lip. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d given up his chance to go home for Al.
“I can’t go,” he murmured, as the light took Ben away.
As the light faded, Greg Nguyen blinked and looked around in confusion. Sam squeezed his eyes shut, and turned back to the computer.
“What?” Al’s perplexed voice asked over the headset. “Who is this?”
“Al, don’t hang up,” he whispered. “It’s Sam.”
He held a hand against the microphone and looked up at Greg. “Hey, would you order me a coffee? Please?”
“…Sam?!” came Al’s raw, alarmed voice.
“Uh… yeah, okay…” Greg scratched his head and nodded, before heading for the counter in something of a daze.
Sam returned to the phone call. “Yeah, Al. It’s me. I assume you understand why I sound like a girl right now.”
“How do I know it’s really you…?”
Sam was smiling ear to ear. He was really, truly, talking to his best friend after all these years.
“Well, I guess you don’t. But I suspect not many people in this timeline remember you having five wives and a long-term relationship with Tina.”
“Well. Hot damn,” Al wheezed. “Where the hell have you been all these years, Sam?”
“Oh… you know. Leaping from life to life. Putting right what once went wrong.”
“Without me?”
Sam felt his eyes welling up. “You don’t need me anymore, Al. You’ve got Beth.”
Al was silent a moment.
“Al?” Sam prompted.
“I’ve wanted to thank you for that for a long time,” he finally replied. “It’s like my life just clicked into place, you know? But it’s still had a piece missing, ‘cause you’re not in it.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, no, I understand. Terminally good, I called you once—remember? You don’t know when to quit.”
Sam laughed through his sobs. “You’re damn right about that. I just gave up a chance to go home to make this call.”
“Sam, you didn’t!”
“Worth it,” he said with a grin and a sniff. “Look… I may not ever be able to speak to you again, I don’t think, but there’s one thing I’d like to let you in on. You just have to promise not to hold it against her.”
“Hold what against who?”
Sam grimaced. “Janis. She may have been keeping track of my leaps without telling you about it.”
“Whaddaya mean Janis has—? Since when?”
“It’s been a few years now. I want you to speak with her and tell her I said it’s okay to tell you who the contact is.”
“Contact?”
Sam noticed Greg heading in his direction with a cup of coffee.
“Listen, I’ve gotta go. It’s… it’s been really good to hear your voice, Al.”
“Well, likewise,” Al said drily, “even if you do sound like a broad.”
“She’s a blonde, too,” Sam said, chuckling.
“How are the ta-tas?”
“Al.”
“What? A married man can still appreciate the female form. I’m just curious, that’s all.”
I’ve missed this.
“Goodbye, Al.”
“So long, Sam. I’d say don’t be a stranger, but… you know—that’s pretty much all you do.”
As the line disconnected and all traces of the phone call were purged from the computer, Sam felt a leap overtake him.