Chapter 39
Sam sat at the upright piano in Donna’s living room, absent-mindedly playing scales as he continued to think about his big choice, turning over what Verbena had said in his head.
Feeling responsible for too much… she wasn’t wrong, he supposed. All those years knowing that he was the deciding factor in who lived or died. Even before he ever leaped, his few short years working in medicine had caused him significant stress, thinking about how much he held his patients lives in his hands.
Now, he had to admit, it was second nature to him to feel that way.
If he did stay, maybe that was a way to feel like he was still making a difference; going back into the medical field. He supposed he would need to brush up on advancements that had been made in recent years.
But even then, he’d never be able to get it out of his head that there were other times and places he was supposed to be. He mashed a palm onto the piano, sighing.
“It’s been a while since anyone played that,” Donna said as she wandered in from the kitchen, a mug of tea in her hands. “I’d been considering selling it, but I’m glad I waited.”
Sam mustered up a weak smile for her. “Any requests?”
“Did you pick up any new songs while you were leaping?” she asked, a twinkle in her eye. “I know there were at least a few musicians in the mix.”
Sam chuckled. “Yeah, a few.”
With a shrug, he poised his fingers over the keys and began playing Somewhere In The Night, a cheesy ballad he’d learned shortly before narrowly avoiding being blown to smithereens by a car bomb and then being shot in the lateral quadricep.
During the first chorus, his song was interrupted by the doorbell. Seeing that Donna was going to get it, he resumed playing.
“Let me love you there, somewhere in the—Tom?”
Sam abruptly stopped his song, standing from the piano bench as he looked Tom Beckett up and down. His older brother was a little dishevelled and had a hastily packed overnight bag in his hand.
“My god, you weren’t kidding about taking the next flight…” Sam marvelled, rushing over to Tom and wrapping him in a hug.
“I was only over in SoCal for some Navy business,” Tom explained. “Not a long flight.”
Pulling away, he gestured to the piano. “That song you were playing, I think I heard it before at some bar in Waikiki a few years back when I was out there visiting Mom and Katie.”
“That figures,” Sam said, meeting Donna’s eye momentarily. “Guy who wrote it lives out that way.”
“Well, I think you sing it better,” he laughed, and took a few steps back. “Hey, let me take a look at you. You seem healthy. Guess whatever you were doing gave you time to work out. You look fitter than I ever saw you.” He reached out a hand, feeling Sam’s arm. “Yeah. Firm, nice and toned. Impressive.”
“Uh, yeah, you could say my job’s been… pretty physically demanding,” Sam said. “But… you look great, too.”
Tom laughed. “You’re just saying that to be nice. I know I’ve lost a bit of strength lately. Getting too old, you know? The young guys are taking me to school in weight training. But never mind that—where can I stash this?” He held up his bag.
“I’ll take it to the guest room,” said Donna, taking it off him. “You two go ahead and catch up, okay?”
“Thanks, Donna,” Tom said, and turned his attention to Sam. “So, top secret project, huh? What can you tell me, Sam?”
Sam licked his lips uncomfortably, before gesturing to the couch. “Listen, why don’t we sit down? It’s going to be… difficult to wrap your head around.”
Tom raised an eyebrow as he took a seat. “Why? Is it complicated quantum physics stuff?”
Sam chuckled. “Yes, but that’s not the part that’s going to make your head spin. Now, you should know that I’m not technically cleared to tell you about this, but you have the right to know where I’ve been. And I need you to know that as far-fetched as it’s going to sound, I’m telling you the truth.”
He sat himself across from Tom, leaning on his knees.
Tom cocked his head, looking at Sam through narrow eyes. “Jeez. How far-fetched are we talking here? I know that guy Calavicci was an astronaut; so, uh, you haven’t been… in space, have you? Don’t tell me there’s a secret moon base or something?”
Sam laughed. “No, no. I haven’t been to space.” Under his breath, he added: “Though I came close a couple times.”
“What?”
“Nothing. Listen, do you remember when I was at MIT, I got my doctorate off the back of my quantum theory of time travel?”
Tom nodded. “Sure, you wouldn’t stop talking about it. The thing with the piece of string, and screwing it up into a ball.” His eyebrows rose as he connected the dots. “No… you didn’t—?”
“Build a time machine?” Sam finished. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I did.”
“Holy smokes,” Tom breathed. “But that doesn’t explain why you disappeared, does it?”
Sam winced. “I disappeared because I was—er—travelling in time,” he said nervously. This was the part that was going to be difficult.
“Oh, come on.”
“It’s true! And you even saw me do it.”
“What are you talking about?”
Sam let his shoulders drop. “Remember when I was sixteen… you came home for Thanksgiving before being deployed to Vietnam… and I was convinced you were gonna die there?” He gestured a hand for emphasis. “I told everyone I was from the future…”
“Yeah, I always assumed that was the start of your interest in time travel.”
Sam shook his head. “No, I was telling the truth. I was from the future. Only, you just saw the young me, so nobody believed it.”
“Yeah okay, that’s real cute, Sam.” Tom regarded him with a cynical expression. “If that was you from the future, why didn’t you know I survived Vietnam, huh?”
“Because you didn’t the first time around,” Donna chimed in from the hall entrance.
“Pardon?”
“I know it’s a little mind-bending, but when I first travelled in time, you had died in Vietnam,” Sam offered. “But I managed to change it. I went there and I saved your life.”
Tom frowned. “The only guy who saved my bacon in ’Nam was—”
“Your buddy Herbert Williams, right? Nickname ‘Magic?’”
“Exactly. I told you about him, didn’t I?”
“Maybe you did,” Sam said with a shrug. “But I wouldn’t have known at the time that it was actually me.” Sam let out a heavy breath. “There was a reason he had a ‘sixth sense,’ Tom. Why he knew things before they happened. The same reason the teen version of me knew the date you were supposed to die.”
Tom’s brow was deeply furrowed. “I don’t understand, Sam.”
“I was Magic. Or at least, for a couple of days, I was. That’s how my time travel worked. I would replace other people for short periods of time; live their lives. And you witnessed it twice.”
Tom was silent for a few moments, then finally frowned. “You have to be yanking my chain, right?”
“It’s the truth, Tom,” Donna said quietly. “Things were different before Sam travelled in time. You were… dead… and I had never married Sam. He’s helped far more people, you know. So many people are alive today because of Sam.”
Donna crossed to a bookshelf, pulling out an old book on the Vietnam war and flipping through the pages.
“It’s in here somewhere… that photograph that won the posthumous Pulitzer for Maggie Dawson…”
At this, Tom’s gaze snapped to her. “Maggie Dawson? I knew her…”
“Me too, because I was there,” Sam said. “She took photos of those POWs just before she died, if you remember.”
“I haven’t seen those photos in decades,” Tom admitted.
Donna turned the book, showing the photo.
“Wait…” Tom murmured. “Is that…”
“That’s Al Calavicci,” Sam confirmed. “The same one I’ve been working with all these years. I couldn’t get him home early, and I couldn’t save Maggie, but I did save you.” He swallowed. “I’m not telling you this to brag, or claim some kind of hero status, I just thought you had the right to know.”
Tom melted into the couch, taking in all that he had just heard. “Jesus,” was all he uttered as he rubbed his eyes.
“Can I get you some coffee?” Donna said suddenly. “Or…”
“Got anything hard?”