Chapter 43
When Al returned to the Imaging Chamber, both Sams were standing on the porch of the house, leaning against the railing and watching the suburban evening in quiet contemplation. At the sound of the door, they turned their heads towards it as Al emerged.
“Well?” Sam B asked, looking impatient.
Al shrugged. “Bobby told me he’s willing to do whatever he can to help out the commune.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear,” Sam B said, grinning.
Al screwed up his nose. “Is Brenda gonna agree to whatever you’ve got in mind?”
The Sams exchanged a smug look.
“Why don’t you check with Ziggy?” Sam A asked.
“Check with… okay…” Al looked down at the handlink, requesting the most recent data. To his surprise, things really had changed. “How did you manage that so quickly?” he asked, incredulous.
“Come on—tell us what happens, would you?” Sam B coaxed. “We know we changed things, but you need to give us the specifics.”
Al read from the handlink, impressed. “It looks like Bobby and Brenda refinance their house and buy up the land when it goes on sale. And when Bobby ships out to Vietnam, Brenda moves there to dry out. The commune is saved… and Brenda ends up teaching the kids when the schoolhouse is built.” He peered up at the two Sams, and both looked incredibly proud of themselves.
“Seriously though,” Al continued, “how did you do it?”
“Never underestimate the value of a well-worded letter,” Sam A said with a self-satisfied wink.
“A letter?”
“Well,” Sam A said, folding his arms, “with the whole ‘star child’ cover story that I know Marsha and Alicia will be telling when we’re gone—”
“—it seemed safe enough to leave behind some requests for Bobby when he leaps back in,” added Sam B.
“I gave it to Marsha to give to Bobby later,” Sam A concluded.
Al frowned. “Well, I have no idea if that breaks the rules or not, to be honest. But hey—looks like it’s gonna work. So I’ll take the win.” He shrugged. “So let’s just finish this leap and get outta here, huh?”
Both Sams nodded vigorously.
“Just gotta say our goodbyes,” Sam A said, heading for the front door with Sam B following.
Inside, Brenda was reclining on the couch while Marsha passed her a freshly brewed cup of tea, and Alicia and Mike were setting up The Game of Life board game on the coffee table. Everyone seemed to be getting along famously.
Eyes moved to the Sams as they entered, and the two doppelgängers stood by the door, each wearing a bittersweet expression on their faces.
“Well, it’s time we went,” Sam A said, with a pointed look at Marsha. She crossed the room, and pulled him into a tight embrace.
“Are you sure Richie wants this?” she whispered into his ear.
He nodded. “Trust me, this was his decision. I’m sure he’ll call, okay?”
Marsha nodded. “Thank you, Al,” she said, before planting a kiss on his lips. This caused him to look guiltily towards Al, who pretended not to see it.
Alicia was the next to hug Sam A, as Marsha moved on to Sam B.
“Listen, back at the commune…” Sam B said quietly. “That was—”
“I know. It wasn’t Bobby,” Marsha whispered back with a wink. “We won’t tell.” She patted him on the cheek. “Thank you for helping Al and Richie.”
Mike ran over to the Sams, hugging each of them. “You’re leaving?”
Sam A nodded. “Yeah, you won’t be seeing me or Richie for a while,” he said, crouching. “But you have to promise me you’ll learn to read, okay?” He held out a pinky finger, and Mike grabbed it with his own.
“Promise!” Mike said, and turned to Sam B. “Bye Mister Sam. Oh, and tell Bingo bye too.”
“I will, kid.”
“I heard ya,” Al said, chuckling.
From the couch, Brenda watched in curiosity. “Bobby’s not going to jail, is he? Why are you saying goodbye to him?”
Marsha turned to her, grinning. “Oh boy, do we have a story to tell you.”
“Uh, you can go ahead and do that, but we gotta go,” Sam B said, hiking a thumb over his shoulder.
“So, uh,” Sam A added, “Bobby should be seeing you a bit later. Okay?”
With a final wave, they headed out the door.
* * *
“Hi, we need to make a statement,” Sam A said to the police officer at the desk. He looked the two bruised and battered Sams up and down, eyebrows raised.
“You two get in a fight or somethin’?”
“You should see the other guy,” both Sams said in unison, each pointing a finger to the other.
The cop snorted. “Alright, take a seat, an officer will be with you shortly.”
They sat on the uncomfortable chairs by the door, looking at one another, as Al stood watching.
“So, I was wondering—what psychological magic trick did Verbena pull to get you to work with me?” Sam A asked Sam B.
“Well, it wasn’t really Verbena that did it.” Sam B looked up at Al. “A familiar face showed up to set my bone.” He turned back to his counterpart. “Remember Beth Calavicci?”
Sam A’s eyes widened. “Oh boy.”
“It helped me realise that… maybe it’s not so bad leaping if I can have a chance to help the people I care about.” He sighed, shaking his head. “Of course, the painkillers probably helped too.”
Sam A chuckled at this. “Guess so.”
“And what about you? What convinced you to work with me?”
Al tensed up as Sam A opened his mouth to answer, but he was mercifully interrupted by the officer who’d come to take their statements.
“Gentlemen, this way please.”
One statement later, the ‘twins’ sat quietly together in an interrogation room as the officers tried to make sure they were arresting the right twin for draft dodging.
As the officer stepped out of the room with their statements, Sam B turned to Sam A once more.
“So, you were saying? What got you to work with me?”
Sam A rubbed the back of his neck, eyes welling up, as Al bit his lip. This was a bad idea. If Sam B remembered Donna, he would be more resentful about leaping than ever.
“Well…” Sam A said slowly, “…it was Do—”
And then Sam leaped.
* * *
The moment the leap overtook the two Sams, they immediately felt whole again.
Perhaps more whole than Sam had in a long time, despite his continued Swiss cheese memory. His vision filled up with a sparkling blue light and he found himself feeling a renewed drive to tackle whatever new challenge was coming his way.
And when he found himself corporeal once again, he was holding a piece of chalk to a chalkboard.
He was pretty sure he’d been about to say something a moment ago, but whatever it was had vacated his mind with the leap like a dissipating wisp of Al’s cigar smoke.
As he looked at the chalkboard, he saw that whoever he’d leaped into had just written a basic algebra equation:
4 - x + 8 = 9
“Thank you, dear,” came a voice Sam was sure he recognised. Sam turned his head to see… who was that again? Boy, she looked familiar. Long black hair… yeah, he knew this woman. And he’d seen her recently. But she was older.
He placed the chalk down as he began to hear the sound of a small child giggling behind him.
He spun around, seeing that he was in a small classroom populated by a handful of kids of all ages. Boy, it sure looked familiar.
“So who can tell me what x is?” the woman—teacher—asked the class. She winked at Sam. “Other than you.”
A hand shot up. It was one of the youngest children here, Sam realised. Probably no older than five. Unless he was looking at a fellow genius, it seemed unlikely this small girl knew the answer.
“What is it, Allie?” the teacher asked, frowning.
“Where did Mike go?”
The teacher furrowed her brow. “What do you mean? He’s standing right here.” She gestured to Sam.
“Mom, that isn’t Mike,” the little girl next to Allie chimed in. An identical twin. “It’s an old guy.”
“Yeah,” Allie agreed. “And there was a big blue light. Didn’t you see?”
Sam swallowed, and as he sifted through his jumbled memories, he began to piece together who these people were.
“Oh boy…”