mber 14, 2020

September 14, 2020

The tiny dormitory room was in complete chaos. Both Albert and his new roommate had plenty of work to do before they could even think about dinner or any other social activities.

"So, whadjadoo this summer, Albert?" the new transfer student asked as he shoved his open suitcase into the corner underneath his desk.

"Went to New Mexico to see my father." Albert answered, plastering a 10 by 12 Star Trek XIV poster over his bed. "I never met him until this past July."

"You never . . . “The other student's face reflected the picture of confusion. "How can you never meetcher own father?"

"He was a missing person since before I was born," Albert explained. "After twenty years, he was finally located, and I spent some time with him."

"Twenty years? Man, that's weird," the other guy gasped. Albert's roommate tossed a bundle of rolled up posters onto his bed and began to chew on the end of one of the pencils scattered across his untidy desk. "My mom keeps talking about someone that disappeared twenty years ago too."

"Whatter ya talking about, Tony?" Albert wondered as he stood heavy text books upright in an empty milk crate by his own desk.

"My mom used to take in boarders a long time ago. She told me that one day, before I was born, some kid came by looking for one of the boarders . . . He wasn't home, so the other guy stuck around and waited for him. When the boarder brought our dog home from the vet, he gave Mom the receipt; and she stepped into the other room. When she came back, there was the dog, but the kid and the boarder were gone without a trace. Mom never could figure out what happened to them."

If you only knew. Realizing he couldn't leak any information about Project Quantum Leap, Albert fell back on his father's leap-related memory loss to back up the reason behind Sam Beckett's disappearance. "My dad had amnesia for a long time, and was living somewhere far from home. Finally, a relative found him and brought him home to recover," Albert improvised with just enough truth to protect the Project without making a liar of himself. "He's doin' fine now . . . still fuzzy at times, but he'll be okay."

"That's cool," Tony commented as he placed a framed picture on his dresser.

Albert's brown eyes and dumfounded mouth popped open when he caught a glimpse of the woman featured in the rectangular frame. The body was thinner, but the face was the same as he remembered it during his leap. Smiling at anyone who set eyes on the photo, Beverly Webb stood with a newborn child asleep in her arms. For several seconds, the dumbstruck physics major stood staring at the picture, and Beverly's image kept staring back. The spell was broken when a mountain of paperbacks came tumbling down on Tony's head.

"Want some help, Tony?" Albert volunteered as he bent down to retrieve some of the fallen reading material.

"Sher," Tony thankfully accepted his roommate's offer.

Lying on the floor with its inner front cover exposed was a paperback that bore the title: Life In The Fourth Dimension; and, under the title and author's name, the words: Property of Tony Webb. Albert picked up the novel and studied the page that had caught his attention. "Oh, boy," he whispered as he deposited the book on his roommate's desk.