Ben Song had just heard the news from Ian.
"Okay," he says, standing just outside the hostel in North Hollywood. The sky is purple as the sun sets. "Other people die, so it's not a simple matter of me not being there when the fire starts."
Ian holds a circular electronic device. "Yeah, the owner of the company actually was sentenced to seven years in prison for manslaughter. The building was a fire hazard."
"Yeah, I guess some people would cut corners to offer immigrants cheap rent," says Addison Augustine. "People like Liliana, priced out of decent apartments..."
"If it's a fire hazard, then stopping the original fire would simply allow another fire to occur," says Ben.
"Ziggy says there's a 78% chance that if you only prevent the original fire next week," says Ian, "there'll be another fire there in the next twenty years that will kill at least one person."
"I can't just stay in the past to keep that building from catching fire," says the quantum physicist. "I mean, Mikhail has to have his life back."
"If you don't change something, Mikhail won't have a life to come back to," says Ian.
"We have to figure something out," says Addison.
Through the rest of the night, both Ben and Addison ponder how to deal with the root cause of next week's tragedy.
Oooooooo
Once again, Ben and Addison are extras, this time working on a television show. Both Mikhail and Liliana subscribed to something called a call-in service, which told them where to be this morning. With Ian'a help, they navigated the MTA and got here, and now they line up to check in. After a while, they receive vouchers in which they fill their- or rather their leapees'- information.
Soon they are led to the holding area, located inside a sound stage with all sorts of equipment, an d some thin walls partitioning the holding area from the constructed sets. Folding chairs are set up, and some of the extras are already sitting.
Addison notes that no one is holding any smart phones, before remembering smart phones were not around in 2002. Two of the other extras read paperback novels, and one of them is playing on a Nintendo GameBoy Advance.
"Might as well get some coffee," says Addison, walking towards a table where there is a plastic dispenser serving coffee; containers of non-dairy creamer and sugar and stacks of Styrofoam cups are nearby.
It is not a Starbucks dark roast; the coffee will have to do.
Oooooo
Maybe an hour or so later, Ben and Addison are on set. Not surprisingly, the set is dressed to look like a diner, as the toll-free number informed them they would portray diner patrons. Ian is projected here, not wanting to miss an opportunity to sort-of be in the middle of a television show filming.
An assistant director has Ben and Addison sit at different tables.
"So, what is your name?" asks the young man with blond hair, sitting across a table from the leaper.
"B-Mikhail," says Ben. "My name is Mikhail."
"Russian?"
"No, I'm Kor-Romanian. I'm Romanian."
"I'm not anything exotic. Name's Steve."
"Nice to meet you."
Ian looks, seeing Addison chatting with a dark haired woman in another part of this set. He sees directors talking to people.
"Oh boy," says Ian, looking as an actor walks in, a young man with brown hair. "Hey guys! That's Will Friedle!"
There is no denying it. Will Friedle sits at one of the tables. A young man with close-cut brown hair and wearing a plaid shirt sits at the table across from the actors. Directors and other crew talk to the two of them.
Ian excitedly tells both Ben and Addison about the actor who became famous from his performance in Boy Meets World.
"Background," snaps the director. "And action!"
And so the substitute observer watches the crew film the scene for this television show. Friedle and his co-star talk, and then a young woman with dark hair and wearing a beige coat comes and joins them.
Then a young man with big dark hair goes through the entrance and talks to them; his shirt with visible, prominent bloodstains.
There are cuts and different takes taken. Both ben and Addison pay attention, as they had not experienced this before in their lives. The same scene is shot from different angles.
It is hours before the director wraps for the day.
Ooooooo
Back at holding, an assistant director announces the wrap time for the extras. Ben and Addison and the others write down the information on their vouchers.
"This leaping is really interesting," says Addison. "Getting to live a slice of other people's lives."
"Definitely a learning experience," replies Ben, smiling. "I can still remember leaping into the Space Shuttle!"
"You know, I wish I could leap into Taylor Swift, and you into one of your boyfriends at the time. Then we can enjoy the high life on her credit card."
"Who's Taylor Swift?" asks a young woman who looks as if she just recently entered adulthood.
"She was..a cartoon character, wasn't she?" asks Addison, a confused look on her face.
"You'll find out in a few years," Ben says to the girl. He looks at the other leaper. "I wonder if Sam has ever been background on set during one of his leaps."
"Uh, who's Sam Beckett?" asks Addison.
"You're remembering."
Addison reaches the table, and her- Liliana's- voucher is signed.
After a few bus rides with the help of their leapees' bus passes, Ben and Addison reach the street where their leapees live.
"We should find out what we'll do tomorrow," says Ben.
"Don't we need to figure out how to stop the fire?" asks Addison.
"Yes."
It had been so long, so long since he actually touched Addison. It had been about a year, from his point of view.
Ben walks into the common area of the hostel where Mikhail Covali lives. He looks around, and one of Mikhail's hostel-mates is watching television.
Ian suddenly appears.
Ben sees a phone mounted on the wall, and picks up the handset.
"You and Addison okay?" they ask.
"Of course," replies the leaper. "I got to check what I will be doing tomorrow."
"I do have an idea. We need to look for fire hazards in this building. And I, as a hologram, well, I can see things you can't."
"How are things back home?"
"Magic, Jenn, the rest are fine," answers Ian. "We're actually looking forward to the Thanksgiving Party in two weeks."
"I remember the last one."
"We're still busy on our end, Ben. I'm sure you and Addison will be at our next Thanksgiving party."
"We look forward to seeing you."
"Now to play Holographic Fire Marshal."
oooooooo
The next day, ben shows up at Mikhail's other job at a taco stand in North Hollywood, one that does not involve appearing in front of camera.
"Mikhail," says a man with a big moustache and olive-complected skin. "You a movie star yet?"
"Not yet," Ben says to the man who must be Mikhail's boss. "I'm just taking this one leap at a time."
"Leap, eh? Well, your next leap is to wash your hands at that hand-washing station, and then get to work."
"Right on it."
Ben washes his hands at a sink using soap and water. He then goes behind a cash register. This triggers memories of his own, when he first worked at a Togo's when he went to college for his undergraduate studies. For the first hour, he mostly wipes the counter, and only an occasional customer arrives to order a taco or a burrito or a tostada bowl.
It is not long before the lunch crowd arrives, taking breaks from jobs ranging from carpentry to plumbing to auto maintenance to paralegalism. Ben and his co-worker are continually operating the cash register. In the midst of taking orders for tacoes and burritos and chips and Pepsi, Ben wonders if some of Mikhail's memories are helping him.
As he hands a man in a gray outfit a bag with two hard-shelled tacoes filled with well-done ground beef, taco sauce, and pico de gallo, he wonders how Addison is doing.
oooooooo
Addison feels cold.
It is a cold day, and the new leaper can feel the goosebumps on her skin, even as she and at least a dozen other women run along the sand on Will Rogers Beach just below the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.
"And cut!" exclaims the bearded man directing this commercial.
This is supposed to be a summer day. Addison and the other ladies are all wearing two piece bikinis.
And temperatures are in the low sixties Fahrenheit.
She and the other extras on this beach go back to their first positions; pretty much all of them wrap their arms around their bodies due to the cold air.
They do this over and over again.
"New deal," says the director.
As the crew rearrange the cameras and check the equipment, Addison and the others walk back to a blue tent used as the holding area. The new leaper quickly dawn a coat to wear over herself. A machine blows warm air into the tent. Some of the young women even crowd in front of the machine blowing hot air.
Addison walks over to another tent were hot, cheap coffee is served on a table. She soon pours herself a cup.
"How are things going with Mikhail?" asks Daria, who had driven her to this beach.
"Mikhail?" asks Addison, remembering less than a second layer that Mikhail is the name of the man whom Ben leaped into. ""Mikhail's fine."
"You've been with my brother for years," says Andrea Covali, who had also ridden in the car with Daria and Addison all the way from North Hollywood.
"I..don't know what to say," says Addison. And indeed she does not.
It is clear Liliana had been dating Mikhail in early 2002- the new leaper had seen pictures of them together.
But despite possessing the young Romanian immigrant, Addison can not go into the depth's of Liliana Adamescu's mind, despite what Ian had told her about neurons and mesons and stuff.
Addison sips the hot coffee. "I am still trying to figure things out," she says.
"I do like you," says Andrea. "You're a great girl."
"Tell me about Mikhail. I'd like a different perspective."
"Well, he's my brother, and sometimes he annoys me."
"Big brothers do that sometimes," says Daria.
"He always comes through."
"I know people like that."
Addison then notices Ian, who is wearing a T-shirt and shorts. She wishes she had a cell phone so she could look like she is talking to someone who is not there.
She then looks and sees an auburn-haired woman standing a few feet from the tent, a coat over hger bikini, holding a small piece of paper and speaking out loud.
"Excuse me," the new leaper says to Andrea and Daria. "I need to practice..acting."
"Go for it," replies Daria.
"Any news?" asks Addison.
"Ben and I inspected Mikhail's place," answers Ian. "We found some fire code violations. Ben called the fire marshal and sent a letter to their office yesterday."
"Okay, and yet this morning I was shivering in the cold while running only wearing a bikini. It was almost like Beast Barracks at West Point...Wait, a minute, West Point."
"You are a graduate of West Point. Served in the Army, left as a captain. But I need to tell you that exposing the fire code violations wasn't enough, The fire still happens, and Mikhail and five others will still die."
"Does Ben know?"
"I told him, before I tuned into you."
ooooooo
Just after sunset, Addison is back at the hostel where Liliana, Andrea, Daria, and two other young women live. She lies in Liliana's bed, trying to know as much as possible about the young woman whose life she had borrowed, reading a letter Liliana's parents mailed from Romania, as well as a personal organizer containing the leapee's schedule. On the dresser is a framed photograph of Liliana and Mikhail.
She looks at a headshot of Liliana, who is clearly a pretty girl, looking prettier in the headshot than what Addison sees in the mirror.
She wonders what to do as the fire is only in a few days.