Chapter 44
“If you keep that fridge open any longer, we’re gonna have to buy new milk,” Sammy Jo said playfully to her daughter, who had been spending the last couple of minutes spacing out in front of the Tupperware-enclosed leftovers. “Something eating you? Did your counter-protest go badly?”
“No, Mom,” Addison replied distractedly. “Actually, we did beat those Bible thumping assholes. Metaphorically, not literally.”
“Language…”
“Sorry.” Addison let the door of the fridge fall shut, turning around. “No, I just wish I could spend more time with B—buh, Janis.”
“You really like her, huh?” Sammy Jo smiled. “Well, there’ll be time to get to know her. I guess the Calaviccis are… family friends for us now.”
Addison winced. “Well, there’s something about her right now that’s, um, limited-time only. And I’d like to see her again before that changes.”
“What does that mean?” Sammy Jo furrowed her brow, trying to comprehend Addison’s words.
Addison looked about ready to burst. “Look, I dunno if I’m meant to tell you this, Mom, but everyone else seems to know now, even my Great Uncle—”
“—Great Uncle?!”
“Yeah, Gramps’s brother showed up,” Addison said flippantly. “Long story. Anyway, the thing is, Janis is…”
Addison trailed off, looking over Sammy Jo’s shoulder.
“Janis is what?”
“…Right behind you…”
Confused, Sammy Jo turned her head, only to see an otherwise empty room. She returned her gaze to Addison, eyebrow raised.
“Addison, what are you—”
“My god you look… old,” Addison said, pushing her mother aside and staring intently at something Sammy Jo wasn’t seeing.
Almost like a…
“No, I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just—what are you, like my Mom’s age?”
Limited time…
“My help?” Addison continued. “Really? At the prom? Oh hell yeah I’m in.” She circled the empty space before nervously meeting Sammy Jo’s gaze, realising the way her mother was looking at her. “Oh, uh, you may be wondering why I’m talking to thin air, right?”
Sammy Jo folded her arms, as all the pieces seemed to fall into place within her genius mind.
“Well, from the clues you’ve dropped, it appears that somebody’s leaped into Janis. You said something about Janis was ‘limited-time only’, and you faltered, starting to say a name beginning with ‘B,’ so I can only assume the leaper is the man named Ben who brought Sam home. And now, for some reason, their hologram is talking to you. And the hologram is… also Janis…? Presumably a version of her from twenty years in the future, given you compared her age to mine. Am I close?”
“Damn, Mom,” Addison said, impressed. “Very Sherlock Holmes. You’re observant when you wanna be.”
“Just what is that supposed to mean?”
“Absolutely nothing. Anyway, yeah—you got it. And they need my help tonight. Can I, Mom?”
“They need your help? With what?” Sammy Jo gave the empty space a withering look. “Listen, you. I’m gonna need some more details. Addie’s only sixteen, remember.” With a look back to Addison, she added: “Leapers can be involved in awfully dangerous things, you know.”
After a look at the hologram and a moment’s pause, Addison returned her eye to her mother. “All they need is someone to watch one of the exits outside Janis’s prom tonight and stop her girlfriend from wandering off. And Gramps will be there, and Al’s gonna drive everybody home after. Easy peasy!”
“Hmm,” Sammy Jo frowned. “Do you think it would be better if I went? That way, if something happens…”
“Mo- om!” Addison huffed. “They have the hologram tuned to me and everything. Plus I know kickboxing if anything goes wrong.” She raised an index finger. “Not that anything will.”
Sammy Jo sighed. If they were enlisting Addison’s help, then this must have been more serious than she was letting on. But then, if that were true, they clearly needed all the help they could get.
“How about we go together?” she finally suggested.
Eyes lit up, Addison looked to the hologram for a few seconds, listening, before relaying the new information. “She says they have one more exit to cover, so you can watch that one.”
“Alright,” Sammy Jo conceded. “Guess we do this as a family, then.”
“You’re the best, Mom!”
* * *
Peering with a frown at Janis’s reflection in the bathroom mirror, Ben opened a lipstick and rolled it up, before groaning loudly. This was going to be a disaster, wasn’t it?
“Something the matter?” Al asked, poking a head in the open door. “Can’t figure out whether to sit or stand?”
Ben sent him an exhausted look. “Very funny.” He gestured to the makeup laid out on the vanity. “I’ve only been a girl a handful of times, and I never had to do this before. I’ve got no idea what I’m doing.”
“What, a little greasepaint? Some maquillage, if you will?”
Ben stared back blankly. “What?”
Al chuckled as he came into the room, and picked up a bottle of foundation. “Here, lemme make you up, kid.”
“You know how to put on makeup?”
“You kiddin’?” Al snorted. “Of course I do—I had four daughters! And I’ve been known to appreciate a good application of makeup in my time. You could say I studied abroad—or two.” He laughed heartily at his bad joke, even as Ben groaned. “I even know how Janis likes her little ‘emo’ look. Just sit still and shut your eyes.”
“Thanks, Al,” Ben said gratefully, and did as requested. A moment later, a cold paste began to be applied to his face.
“Well you know, if I’m gonna have photos to commemorate the time a leaper took Janis’s face to prom, that face might as well look pretty.”
He massaged the foundation into Ben’s face, then used some kind of sponge to blend it at the edges.
“So, what made a guy like you decide to go quantum leaping, anyway? While engaged, no less—or didja propose to a hologram?”
He began dabbing a soft powder puff over Ben’s face, pausing occasionally to tap it in the compact.
“It was actually supposed to be Addison,” Ben confessed, as the powder puff moved away from his mouth and ascended toward his forehead. “Only, I found out from my future that there was a leaper coming to assassinate her in my past.”
“Assassinate? Oh boy. And so, you went in your Accelerator to save her life, huh?”
Ben snorted despite himself. “I left the night of our engagement party.”
“And she’s still on the hook?” Al’s voice was surprised. “A lesser woman would have pawned her ring. You got lucky. Keep those eyes closed, will ya?” A moment later, he began to apply eye shadow.
After finishing the first eye, he continued his chat. “We looked you up with Ziggy, you know. You’re one smart cookie.”
“I thought you might have.”
“What got you interested in time travel and quantum physics, anyway? Pretty niche sort of topics.”
“Same reason as anyone gets interested in time travel, right? Regrets.”
“Regrets?”
Ben heard a container closing, then another flip open before a brush started dancing on his cheekbones.
“Mmhmm,” Ben said, not wanting to make his face move too dramatically while Al was doing this.
“What do you regret? Or is it too personal?”
The brush withdrew, and Ben could hear Al rummaging through the makeup on the vanity.
“It’s alright. I just regret not telling my Mom I loved her before she died. She… she died very suddenly, and I’d been a total jerk to her.”
“Oh. Yeah, that’s a common one. Sam felt the same way about his Pop. And me… well, I told my sister and my Dad I loved ’em all the time, but—” he shook his head as if to shake away the emotion. “Anyway, I’m gonna do your eyeliner and mascara, so tilt that head back and raise your eyebrows. Try not to flinch.”
As Al applied the makeup, Ben tried his best to minimise his involuntary blinks.
“Must feel pretty weird to be talking to someone who looks like your daughter, but isn’t.”
Al chuckled. “It’s nothing compared to our psychiatrist, Verbena. Once, she had to deal with a chimpanzee that looked like Sam.”
Ben stifled a laugh. “Are you kidding? I could leap into a monkey?”
“Well, a great ape. I can’t see you leaping into a spider monkey or something else all teeny weeny like that. But you better watch out if you leap into a bonobo. I hear they don’t ask consent, if you catch my drift.” Al waggled his eyebrows.
“I’ll be sure to keep that in mind,” Ben said with a look of distaste, before changing the subject. “Must have been wild to have that—what was it? Waiting Room?”
Having finished with the eyes, Al pulled at Ben’s jaw and began gliding lipstick over his lips.
“You don’t got a Waiting Room? Where’s the other guy go?” He let go of Ben’s face. “Smack your lips together, sweet cheeks.”
Ben did as asked, before finally glimpsing his reflection.
Oh, that’s emo alright. Dark, smokey eyes and black lipstick juxtaposed starkly with Janis’s pale face, with a little brownish blush contouring the face so it didn’t look completely flat.
“The ‘other guy’ remains in a quantum superposition, occupying the same space,” Ben explained. “Janis really is here, she’s just… sharing with me. Great job on the makeup, by the way. Thank you.”
“Di niente!” Al said, admiring his work. “Now let’s see you in this dress those boys went and had stitched up for Janis. And we can both cross our fingers the heels won’t trip you up. Don’t want you messing up that makeup by planting your face in the dirt.”
“No, we do not.”
Of course, the perils of high heels were the least of his worries at this point.