Message-Id: <32F7A1A6.21DD@mail.idt.net> Date: Tue, 04 Feb 1997 12:52:54 -0800 From: dbriggs Subject: QL: "Farm Boy" - part seven Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Can you please send your comments and thoughts about my story to DQ95@iona.edu This way I can get to them faster. Chapter Seven Sam decided to walk Kelly home that night. He grabbed her binder from his bed, and they walked out of his house together. Unlike this afternoon, her beauty now was overshadowed by her look of gloom. Her large brown eyes had lost their shine, and were now lackluster. Her face now wore a frown, instead of her usual happy expression that had made him fall in love with her. It was a look of hopelessness. "Kelly, what's the matter?" Sam asked as he came outside onto the porch. He was concerned about her, and cared about her a lot. He wanted to know what was on her mind. No mater how big or small it might be. Kelly and he started walking away from the house towards the street. "Sam, did you study for the physics test, yet?" she asked. "I tried to, but I still don't understand that stuff, and the final is only a week away. I could positively die!" "I can help you if you wnat?" he offered as they reached the road utside of the gate that enclosed his house. He wished that was all that she was worried about, but he strongly felt that her problem was more massive than a high school final exam. "Thanks," she said. "I don't even know why I even took that class anyway. I sure don't understand it." "Well, maybe it will pay off someday." "I don't think so. It sure doesn't really have anything to do with real life. History has always been my thing, not science." *Someday, history and science will met the 'real world,'* Sam laughed to himself. "Kelly, I have a feeling that's not all of what it is that's worrying you." "Sam, I have some bad news," Kelly said. "What is it?" he asked. "Well," Kelly started. She sucked in her lips and bit down on her lower lip with her two front teeth sealing her mouth shut. She looked like a chipmunk. Sam remembered that this was a little habit of hers which she did every time she did not want to say something that she knew she had to say. The imaging chamber door opened, and Sam saw Al getting out holding the handlink. "Sam, I have some news, but it isn't good," Al said as he saw Kelly. *Oh, great! Two peices of bad news on the same day, and at the same time too.!* "Yeah, Kelly." "Do you really want me to tell you?" Kelly said flustered. Sam could tell that she really did not want to tell him this piece of information. "Sam, this pretains to you as much as it does to me." "Yes, I want you to tell me," he insisted. "Remember what happens up in your dad's hay loft," she said nervously. *How could I forget?* Sam looked at her, and smiled. He remembered their expression of young love and passion between him and the beautiful young woman standing next to him. Al caught onto what they were talking about right away. "I guess you had a roll in the hay in the hay," he joked grinning. He took a look at her checking her all out. "Way to go, Sam!" *He could be such a jerk sometimes,* Sam thought as he tried to ignore Al. *It's none of his business what happens between my girlfriend and me. It is basically a secret. A secret of mine was revealed, and by Al too. Unlike him, I don't want my sexual exploits broadcasted throughout the known universe.* "Yeah, what about it?" Sam asked her. "I don't know how to tell you this," she started. "Well, my monthly is late." She was very anxious and upset about what was happening to her. "Oh, boy! Your what is what?!" Sam was confused and upset. "I'm pregnant, I think." "Oh, boy!" Sam said dismally. *This is definitely not a little thing.* "I don't really know." A small stream of tears started to flow down her cheeks. "I'm going to the doctor tomorrow for a test. So, I won't really know for a while." "Kelly, don't worry," Sam said placing his arms around her for comfort. "How can I not?" "I'll be there for you," Sam told her. "However, I want you to be quiet about all of this. You didn't tell anybody, except me." *With the exception of a certain person who just happens to be walking directly in back of us taking everything in.* "Right?" "You're the first person I told," Kelly said. "I told Dr. Miller though, because he has to do the test. He promised to do it before hours tomorrow, and keep everything secret. My brother's the one whose supposed to be out of control, not me." "Sometimes, things just happen to good people. It has nothing to do with being out of control." "Try tell that to my mom. She still thinks I'm a virgin." "You fooled me too," Al stated extremely amazed. "Sixteen! Wow! You're not as backwards as I thought you were, Sam." "If my mom only knew the truth about us, Sam," Kelly said. "She'd kill us both." "You better start planning your funeral, buddy boy," Al said. "Ziggy predicts that there is a 50% chance that she's pregnant. Although, there's still a 50% chance that she's not." *At least, this is good news,* Sam thought. *I hope.* "Kelly, I have a feeling you're not pregnant," Sam told her upon hearing this news. "How do you know? Did a little birdy tell you?" she asked trying to smile through her tears. She rubbed her eyes to get rid of he small stream of tears still falling from her large brown eyes. "You could say that." Sam couldn't tell her the truth. He could just picture himself telling her that a computer from the future predicted it. She would think that he was nuts. "I have a really god feeling you're not," he said. "I just do." Ziggy gave semi-good stats against it. Also, out of all of the few scattered memories Sam had, he could not remember Kelly ever getting pregnant. "I mean we used protection. Didn't we?" he covered up what he just said. It was the only reason that he could think of of her not to be pregnant, which had nothing to do with the future. "That stuff doesn't always work. Anyway, you never really use that stuff anyway. You said that you didn't want to buy it at the drug store, because people wil find out what's happening, including our parents." "That's stupid!" he said thinking of his mixed up small town sixteen-year-old logic. "People will talk even more, if you're really pregnant. Still, Kelly, will you marry me, if it comes out postitive?" he asked to be on the safe side. He most certainly did not want Kelly to be abandoned, if the 50% percent chance does end up happening. "What about college?" "This is more imporant. Will you marry me?" "Yes." She leaned over. Their lips met as they kissed each other goodbye. "See you later, cutey." Sam watched Kelly as she continued to walk down the road towards her house. "I can't believe it!" Al exclaimed. "Mr. Morals knocked up -" "Al!" Somehow, Sam knew that as soon as Al returned to the project, he was going to tell everyone about what he had just learned. "I sure don't blame you though," he said lecherously as they both stood on the road and watched Kelly walk away. "Maybe, you really are a little like me, even though you hide it." "I most certainly am not!" *Whatever gave him that idea!* Sam was disgusted at even the thought of him being even remotely like him. "You have potential though. You just never had much of a selection, but you definitely got the pick of the liter." He paused for a moment giving Sam a look of approval. A impish grin came over his mouth as he inhaled from his cigar. "So, what do you remember?" Sam felt his cheeks inflame as he looked down at the ground. "It's none of your business, Al." "At least, tell me how old you were when you first did it?" Sam's face now seemed to become engulfed with flames. "You really don't know when to quit." "Just give me a answer." After a moment, he answered quietly under his breath, "Sixteen." "What was that?" he said trying to bother his friend. Sam embarrassment over what he did turned into anger towards his friend. "I was sixteen. In case you ask, it was the summer of 1969. Many things happened in the summer of 1969 - the moon landing, Woodstock." "You and Dodger in the hay loft," Al added smiling. *Actually, it was in the seed corn field, but he doesn't have to know that,* Sam thought. *He also doesn't have to know that I was only about to turn sixteen.* "I bet that was a birthday present you never forgot." Al hexitated for a moment as he watched Kelly continue to walk home. "I still can't believe that you and a girl like that -" "I love her, and she loves me. That was the reason above all things," Sam said started to really lose his temper. "We wanted to express our love for each other. It wasn't because she's beautiful, even though she is. And it was most certainly not becacuse of any of the other stuff your thinking." "She was good. Wasn't she?" he stated his own conclusion based upon Sam's reaction. "You're imposible! You know that? I don't remember, and even if I did it's none of your business. I'm not talking to you about this." *Hew is such scum sometimes! Why couldn't he be quiet? Kelly and I are going through a tough time right now, and he's acting really insisitive to the both of us.* Sam could tell that he was only saying these things to bug him, and right now it was really getting on his nerves. Al grinned smugly as he took a puff of the cigar he was holding. "You do remember! Now, you want her even more than she wants you." "Al, can't you just disappear. Go back to Tina, instead of asking me what's going on between me and Kelly." "Tina's boycotting me right now. She caught me cheating on her, and -" "I really don't care about your love life! In case, you haven't realized, I'm facing a major problem. I could care less about your sex life. There's still that 50% chance saying that I'm going to be a daddy," Sam informed him. "I'm surprised that Ziggy isn't postitively sure about that girlfriend of yours. I would think that she would give results 100% one way or the other. Ziggy has been unable to find any information at all about Kelly, except to find out why yuo are here. Well, at least, you said that you'll mary her. If you love her, marry her. If not, dump her. That's how Beth -" Al stopped himself mid-sentence. "You got Beth pregnant. Didn't you?" "What do you think? When I was younger, I cared more about babes than babies." *He still does,* Sam thought to himself. *Nothing ever changes!* "You leaped into me when I was younger, and you said that I was even worse back then," Al continued. "Actually, you said that I had more babes back then compared to now, but it means the same thing. If somebody told me, when I was younger, there was a chance I was going to be married with a little baby in my arms a few years after leavin Annapolis, I would think that you're crazy and had lost your mind. Somehow, that's what almost happen though. I always really loved Beth." Al had told Sam a lot about his life for as long as Sam had known him. Well, what he could actually remember and even what he got confused with. However, this was the first time he ever told him this. Somehow, Sam always secretly thought that there was a reason he claimed to love, which propelled Al to marry his first wife, Beth, the one person he claimed to love more than anyone. Now, Sam knew for sure. Sam guessed that he still did not want to believe it. Sam gueseed he's just a hopeless romatic believing that love is strong enough to make two people want to spend the rest of their lives together. This news meant more than just why Al and Beth got married. Sam figured that there was a young Calavicci and maybe even grandchildren Calavicci's that were around, but never knew their father or grandfather. "I never knew you had children before," Sam said kindly. "I don't," he said sadly. "Came close though." He remembered the day when he and Beth were only married for a short period of time. She was six months pregnant. He had just gone on leave, and was taking her out to eat at the Flagship diner, where she worked only a few years before. He was speeding through the streets of he city, when a car pulled out of nowhere and crashed right into them. Beth and he sufferent no injuries, but he accident caused Beth to miscarry. he often wondered what would have happened if his child was born into the world. After the accident, Beth and he decided not to have any children. Beth only believed it to be based upon the fact that his Navy assignments and her assignments as a military nurse would not allow them to be a mom and dad. Al knew better. He knew that the real reason why he never had any children with Beth, or with anyone else for that matter, was that he was terrified that God, fate or whatever force was govering the universe would take his child away again, just like what happened to his child-that-could-have-been. "Now, what's about that news you were going to tell me," Sam said changing the subject back to business. He could tell that Al did not want to carry this conversation any farther. Al lifted up the handlink he was holding down at his side. He took a look at the colored lights and buttons. "You're here, because," he started as he hit the handlink's side. "Something, happens to Dodger." Sam was concerned. Sam hoped that nothing ever happens to her, but he had a feeling that something was going to. "What happens to her?" "The night after tomorrow, she and a group of your friends were partying at Lake Black Weed. I guess that's a nearby lake." "Yes," Sam said. "Right after the talent show, probably." "Well, it seems that Dodger had too much to drink that night, and decided to take a boat into the water. She fell over board, and ended up in the hospital in a severe coma for a little over a year. Ziggy says that there's a 100% chance you're here now to stop that from happening." *Why did I ever forget that?* Sam thought as the painful memories about Kelly began floding bacik. He remembered when people found her body all distorted from being in the water. Kelly lying helpless in the hospital bed hooked up to all of he medical machinery that was needed to help keep her alive. She was so young and lovely for something like that to happen to her. He knew that it was this nightmarish event that actually prompted him to get a doctorate in medicine. Even though he wanted to become a doctor since he was a little kid, the accident was the match that started the fire of his determination in medicine. He wanted to help people in need, like Kelly. Now, he had the chance to actually save her, before anything could happen. *Oh, why did it have to happen!* Sam lamented. *I'm now here to save the first woman I ever truly loved. Hopefully, I can fulfill my mission, because I cannot bear the pain and suffering and am unable to go through again.* "I can't believe that actually happened," Sam said as he reached the gate. Katie was walking up the long driveway to meet him. "You're talking to yourself now. I hope you're not begining to go nuts on us again. Who's going to die this time? It's already June, and Tom's not dead yet, and he's been in Vietnam for seven months now." "I'm not losing it," he stated, "and nobody is going to die." Sam hoped not anyway. "Sam, who were you talking to back there anyway?" "Kelly." "After she left, I mean. It looked like you were talking to somebody, but I didn't see or hear anybody out there with you." "I was just thinking outloud," he fibbed. "It sure didn't sound like that." "Well, I was! All of the pressures from the end of school and college is realling getting to me." *And my girlfriend going to get into a serious disaster. And maybe, a baby on the way.* "I hope I don't get as messed up as you, when I'm a senior," she said as they both went into the house through the front entrance. Monica "Here's a little story, about . . . two all-American kids growing up in the Heartland. . . . Oh, yeah! Life goes on. That's what you get for living in the storm. Oh, yeah! Life goes on. That's what you get for living in the storm. - (words from a song)