Date: Wed, 9 Jun 93 11:20:43 EDT From: Tracy Finifter To: alt-ql-creative@cisco.com Subject: "A New Face to Reality" Part 1 Message-Id: "A New Face to Reality - April 8, 1980" by Tracy E. Finifter Part 1 The crowded high school gymnasium disappeared into the brilliant blue light as Sam leapt, still calling his brother's name. The new reality coalesced around him, a reality which greeted him with the sudden blare of gunfire. Before he knew what was happening, he dove into the muddy pool in which he found himself standing, trying desperately to escape from the confusion around him. Countless seconds later, it was over, just as suddenly as it had begun. Slowly and cautiously, Sam rose out of the water. He looked around, terrified and confused, into his brother's eyes. "Damn, Magic!" - - - Sam jolted upright in his bed, out of breath. He looked around, trying to orient himself to the surroundings. The bed was warm and comfortable and the room was dark and quiet, far removed from the clamor he had just experienced. He tried to calm himself and sort things out in his mind. What had just happened, it was just a dream, wasn't it? But was it his or someone else's? It didn't make sense. Nothing made any sense. "Oh, boy," he whispered. "Honey?" came a sleepy voice. Sam turned to see a woman nestled beside him. Under normal circumstances, he would find the situation uncomfortable at the least, but her presence beside him actually helped him to relax. As his eyes adjusted to the dark, Sam could see that she was attractive, if not beautiful, somewhere in her early thirties with short, dirty-blond hair and light eyes which eyed Sam with concern. "What's wrong?" "Nothing, go back to sleep," Sam tried to tell her reassuringly. "You were having one of those dreams again, weren't you?" she asked, with a mixture of concern and annoyance. Apparently, she was used to his persona waking up abruptly in the middle of the night like this. Sam quickly wondered if that had anything to do with his own dream. "It's nothing. I'm fine," Sam repeated. "No, you're not," she replied with a quiet vehemence that took Sam by surprise. Before he could answer her challenge, she sighed and nestled her head on his shoulder. Just before she fell asleep she whispered, "We'll talk about this in the morning." Sam let the comment go without response. He tried to sleep as well, but after a few restless minutes gave up and decided instead to take a walk and familiarize himself with his new surroundings. Besides, he needed to think. He needed to get his bearings and take a breath, with the realization that this leap wasn't going to be easy already clear in his mind. He quietly slipped out of the bed, put on a nearby robe, and walked down the stairs of the house. It was as if a flood of painful memories came rushing back to Sam at once. As hard as he tried to fight it, he couldn't stop the images from flowing through his mind: V-C soldiers lying in ambush, the chu-hoy aiming her gun at his brother, and Maggie Dawson running to her death. But of all the memories he had of his brief encounter in Vietnam, the two that stood out most in his mind were the haunting picture of a younger Al being led by the Viet Cong down a forgotten jungle road and the pained look in the older Al's eyes when Sam finally realized the decision his friend had made for him. "What the hell?" Al had said. "I get repatriated in five years." As if that was supposed to make everything better somehow, everything different. He had given up his one chance at freedom to do Sam a favor Sam could never repay. Sam groggily stumbled into the bathroom and flicked on the light. The sudden brightness hurt his eyes, forcing him to close them quickly as he turned on the sink and splashed some water on his face. Hopefully he could snap himself out of whatever it was that was disturbing him. When he opened his eyes and looked up, he could hardly believe the image he saw in the bathroom mirror. It was Tom Beckett, his own brother, standing alive and well and in the mirror in front of him. At once Sam forgot about Vietnam and his nightmare as excitement and elation swelled inside him. His brother's image was definitely older than Sam had ever remembered seeing him, by a few years, but he still looked like the same, easy-going brother Sam had known. Most of all, Sam knew for the first time since his leap to Vietnam that he actually saved his brother's life and that he would live to come home. It was a reassurance that Sam had somehow been denied during his leap to Vietnam, between Maggie's death and the knowledge of Al's sacrifice. But now, for the first time, he could actually allow himself to be happy that his brother had lived. * Tracy Finifter | "Life is what happens to you while * * finifter@gandalf.rutgers.edu | your busy making other plans." * * Douglass College, Rutgers University | - John Lennon *