From: cheryl492@aol.com
To: alt-ql-creative@cisco.com
Subject: Twist in Time - Part 7
Date: Thu, 03 Jun 93 18:18:07 EDT
Message-Id: <9306031818.tn11515@aol.com>

Twist in Time 
Cheryl A. Bellucci

Part 7

     Sam glanced at Al and then looked back at Walt.  "I just used that
phone."

     "It's dead now."  Walt replaced the receiver.  "Get out of here,
Wayne.  Go home."

     Sam nodded, then carefully stepped through what was left of the
showroom door.  Al met him outside.

     "Okay, Al, what am I supposed to do?"

     "Uh, Sam, Ziggy still isn't sure - "

     "What do you mean, you don't know why I'm here?"  Al shook his
head.  "Great."

     "There's still the 65 percent probability that whatever it is you
have to do will occur between here and home.  So, Ziggy suggests that
you head back to the apartment."  Al summoned the imaging chamber
door.  "We're still checking, I'll be back in a little bit." And then
he disappeared.

     Sam crossed the street.  True to Al's words, the music store was
damaged, the roof completely gone.  He stuck his head through the frame
of the front door and called out.  "Anybody here?"

     "Yes."  An older man came from the back of the store.  "But we're
all okay."

     "You sure?"  When the man nodded, Sam turned and continued his
walk.

     The school across the street didn't look too bad on the outside,
but Sam could tell the structure was badly damaged from peeking in
through a broken window.  Pieces of the ceiling lay on the floor, and
deep cracks ran up the walls.  Turning around, he saw what he took to
be teacher and a couple of students coming out of the building.
"Everyone okay?"

     "Yes,"  the teacher answered.  "We've accounted for everyone."

     "Miss Little, I got scraped."  One of the students held up his
arm.

     Sam looked at the scrape, but it wasn't too deep.  "You'll be
okay, just make sure you clean it real well."  Then he remembered and
quickly added, "But you'll probably need a tentanous shot." The young
boy made a face, and the teacher put her arm around him.  "I'm sure the
police or someone will be here soon," Sam said.  In fact, only seconds
after the tornado went through, the sounds of sirens from various
rescue and police agencies began, and would continue throughout the
night.  "Where do you live?"

     "I live over there."  The boy pointed toward the direction that Al
had told Sam to take the day before.

     "I'll stay here with Cindy," the teacher assured Sam, "Can you
take Tony home?"

     "Yeah, I'll walk him home."  As Sam led the boy across the street,
he noticed damage to a few more buildings.  Tony noticed it too.
"Pretty scary, huh?"  Sam asked him.

     "I saw it, it was big."  Tony was shaking.  "There!"  He stopped
and pointed at an undamaged house.  "There's my house, and it's okay!"

     Sam walked Tony up to the front door and knocked.  A woman
answered.  Before Sam could say anything, she grabbed Tony and hugged
him.  "Tony, are you okay?  I was so worried."

     "Mom, I'm _fine_," replied the boy, embarassed by the attention.

     "He's got a scrape on his arm, but it's not too bad.  He'll need a
tetanous shot, though," Sam told the worried mother.

     "Thank you for bringing him home."  She shook his hand.

     "No problem, I'm trying to make my way home, myself."

     "Good luck.  From what they're saying on the radio, there's more
destruction just north of here."

     Sam left Tony with his mother and continued down the street
towards the park.  He stopped just in front of the high school.  Yellow 
buses lay in the middle of the building like discarded toys, and half
the building was flattened.  Police and rescue workers surrounded what
was left.

     "Is everyone okay?"  Sam asked a nearby cop.

     "We're pretty sure everyone got out okay.  We've got crews in
there checking it out."

     "Anything I can do to help?"

     "Not here, we don't want anymore people in the building than is
necessary."

     Sam turned to see Al standing on the corner, and he raised his
shoulders in question.  Al shook his head.  "There were some kids in
there practicing a play or something, but they're all okay."

     As Sam walked toward Al, he noticed the destruction in the park.
What few trees were left were wrapped in debris, and all of the glass
was broken out of the pavillion.  People were standing in front of the
houses across from the park.  "Well?" he asked Al.

     "Sam, I don't know..."

     "Well, I'll just keep helping people until you do know.  Go ask
Ziggy again."  Sam watched his friend disappear once more behind the
imaging chamber door.

     Sam asked everyone he came up to if they were okay.  Most of the
people looked a little dazed, but responded that they were fine.

     "But I want to find her now."  Sam came upon a girl, about
thirteen, apparently arguing with her mother.

     "You are not going back in that house," the older woman answered.

     "What's wrong?" he asked the woman.  "Is someone missing?"  He
glanced up at the house they were standing in front of.  The entire
roof was gone, as was the left side wall.  The house looked like
someone had thrown down and smashed a doll house.

     "We're all okay, but she insists she wants to go back in and find
her cat," the mother answered, indicating the girl.  Behind her stood
two young boys, wide eyed and scared.

     Sam looked back up at the house, then at the girl.  Everyone
looked shocked and dazed.  "What if I go in the house with her?"

     "Are you sure it's safe?"  The mother looked at the house.

     "I think so.  We won't go in if it doesn't look, uh, safe." Sam
wasn't sure what he was saying, it didn't look too safe from the
outside.

     "Be careful."

     Sam followed the girl up to the front door, which was standing
wide open.  He grabbed her shoulders before she could go in, and he
noticed she was shaking.

     "Wait, we go in together."  Once inside, he noted that the
staircase ran along the right side of the house, opposite from the
missing wall.  "Where do you think your cat is?"

     "The basement.  That's where we were.  I couldn't find her before
the storm hit."  Sam followed the girl along the wall to another set of
stairs that ran under the first, down to the basement.  "My name is
Wayne, what's yours?"

     "Carol."  She was still shaking.

     "Okay, Carol, we're going to go downstairs, me first.  But we're
going to take it slow, okay?"  She nodded.  Sam started down the
staircase, carefully testing each step before putting his full weight
on it.  Once at the bottom, he stopped and looked around.  "Come
here."  He motioned for her to step in front of him, and he took her by
the shoulders again.  "Now, where do you think she is?"

     Carol shrugged.  "I'm not sure."

     They took a couple of hesitant steps toward the center of the
basement, looking around to the corners.  But they both jumped
when they heard a loud pop.

     Carol froze.  "What was that?" 

     Sam looked down.  He had stepped on a small bag of potato chips
and the bag had burst beneath his foot.  He started laughing.  So did
Carol.  "I think we needed that bit of comic relief."  They stood there
for a couple of seconds, then Sam asked, "Any ideas?"

     "She hides behind the stairs sometimes."

     "Okay."  Carol led him to the back of the stairs they had just
come down.  There was a set of shelves there that led to a hole in
the wall.  Sure enough, when Sam looked up just beyond the highest
shelf, a pair of eyes looked back at him.  He reached up and pulled
the cat out and handed her down to her owner.

     "Thank you."

     "No problem.  Now, let's get out of here."  He followed the girl
up the stairs and out of the house.  'I couldn't have been here to
save a cat,' he thought as headed back towards the street.  Then he
saw Al across the street, motioning to him.