October 8, 1988
'Cause making love to you might drive me crazy
I know you think that love is the way you make it
So I don't want to be there when you decide to break it
No
Mary Ellen Gilday, also known as Meg, wakes up in the bedroom she shares with Sammy Jo Fuller, the song by Def Leppard playing on the Panasonic clock radio with the flipping digit display. She looks at her roommate-or at least unbeknownst to her, a leaper from the future who looks like her roommate.
"I'm going to get breakfast," she says.
"Uh sure," replies Ben Song. He then looks at the substitute observer and then picks up the telephone. "Okay, so I'm here to save Gooshie. Isn't that a little early, like thirteen years early?"
Love bites, love bleeds
It's bringing me to my knees
Love lives, love dies
It's no surprise
Love begs, love pleads
It's what I need
"Ever since I got that phone call from your boss, I've been thinking about this," says Sammy Jo. "The best way to beat cancer is to detect it early, before it spreads."
"Yeah, I heard about that."
"Gooshie started treatment in June of '98. That was already too late. The cancer had already taken a foothold throughout his body. We have to get him to start treatment at the right time. Too late and he dies, too early and he never starts treatment."
"Yeah, but we can't call Gooshie now and warn him. He didn't know you back in '88."
"One thing I remember from my sorority days is that I kept a diary," says the substitute observer. "I would write in it most days. It should be in the nightstand."
Ben opens a drawer right below the telephone. He sees a small book and pulls it out. "this it?" he asks.
"Yes!" exclaims Sammy Jo. "I haven't seen that thing in a long time! Don't read it. Just turn the page to the October 8, 1988 page"
Ben flips through the pages, glancing at the black ink handwriting. "Here it is," the leaper says, looking at the blank page.
"I will dictate what you need to write to me, my younger self," she says. Sammy Jo takes a deep breath. "Sammy Jo, this is a message from your older self in the future. You will meet a beloved mentor. His name is Gooshie. He will be like a father to you. He will die of melanoma in April of 2001. You need to get him to start treatment by February of 1998. That will destroy the cancer early before it spreads and save his life."
"Looks good?" asks Ben, showing the substitute observer what he had written.
"Yes! Wait, you need to write more." Ben takes a Bic pen to the page. "Make multiple copies of this message. Copy and save it on a disk, and wherever you can store it. Do not forget. Gooshie's life depends on this. Oh, and invest your savings in Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google."
"Seriously?" asks Ben.
"Yes, seriously," answers Sammy Jo.
"All right." He then shows her the diary.
"Perfect."
Ben places the diary back in the nightstand. He then goes to look at the younger Sammy Jo in the mirror. "I;'m still here," he says. "I'm still you."
"Well, sometimes there's more than one wrong to be righted during a leap," says the substitute observer. "Sam Beckett went through this more than once."
"I guess."
"Well, let's take a trip back through memory lane."
"Well, we can start with breakfast."
Sammy Jo smiles as she sees the kitchen of her old sorority house. Even though it had been nearly four decades ago, she can still remember the layout, the refrigerator and sink and the table. She watches as Ben pours himself a bowl of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes. The leaper eats his breakfast.
"Wait a minute," says the substitute observer. "After you're done with breakfast, you gotta go back to my room."
"For what?" whispers Bn.
"I had a job, at Circuit City, back in the fall of '88."
After the leaper finishes breakfast, he goes to Sammy Jo's old room. Checking the nightstand=-drawer, he finds a personal organizer and turns the page.
"You have to show up at Circuit City today," says Sammy Jo. "You only have a fifteen minute walk."
"I'd better get dressed," says Ben. He opens the closet. "What should I wear?"
"I know we had an outfit."
Ben continues taking substitute observer's clothes out of the closet. He looks through all sorts of clothes, from very casual clothes to dresses.
"this must be it," says Ben, holding a gray shirt with the Circuit City logo, though it looks different than from what the leaper can remember. He quickly dresses in the shirt and trousers. Picking up the younger Sammy Jo's purse, he walks downstairs and leaves the Alpha Omega house.
He can see Sorority Row in the daytime. The houses are all set back maybe twenty feet from the street, with concrete walkways reading to the front door. A woman not even twenty years old jogs on the sidewalk in the opposite direction; she wears headphones connected to a Sony Walkman playing some music by Edward Van Halen.
"Good morning," she says to the leaper appearing to be a sorority girl.
Ben continues walking along the tree-lined streets, noting that the cars date from the 1980's, with a few dating back to the 1970's.
It is not long before Ben reaches a mi n road. There is a fair amount of traffic.
"There," points out the substitute observer.
Ben sees a shopping center. The parking lot has a few cars, and some tall lampposts rise from the concrete surface. The building has a Raley's supermarket and some small businesses from coffee shops to sandwich shops to laundromats to clothing stores.
w
And Ben can see the Circuit City store, the logo the same as the gray shirt he is wearing. He waits at a signalized intersection before the WALK sign is lit and he walks across the street, and then across the parking lot to the huge electronics store. Going to the glass door, it is locked.
"You are part of the opening team," says Sammy Jo. "Employee entrance is in the back; I'm starting to remember."
Ben goes around to the back of the building and reaches the red door. He opens it.
"Good morning," says another employee, a young man with blond hair.
"Uh, hi," says Ben.
"Good morning," says another man, wearing slacks, a white shirt, and a black necktie.
"Mr. Patel," says Sammy Jo. "I so totally forgot you! It's been over thirty years!"
"Good morning," Ben says to Mr. Patel.
"Almost 9:30," he says.
"Break room," says Sammy Jo. Leading the leaper to a small room with a sink and a refrigerator and a table. A poster reads, "IF YOU HAVE TIME TO LEAN, YOU HAVE TIME TO CLEAN"
"You have to clock in," she says
"How?" asks Ben.
Sammy Jo points at a metal box on the wall. Benn approaches it.
"How do I do this?" he asks.
"Yeah, it's Flintstones technology, but you taker the paper card with my name and punch it in."
Ben looks at this metal sleeve mounted on the wall with several cards He looks through them until he finds the card for Sammy Jo Fuller.
"Okay, insert it into the slot," says the substitute observer.
Ben inserts the card into the device, and it makes this punching sound. Ben looks and sees something stamped on it. He places the card back into the sleeve.
"Primitive," eh whispers.
"All right, Sammy Jo," says Mr. Patel, holding a spray bottle. "We got to wipe the counters before our customers arrive."
"Sure," replies the leaper, taking the spray bottle.
"I'm sure you know what to do," says Sammy Jo.
She goes out to the main floor of Circuit City, looking at the latest in electronics in 1988. She sees Apple Macintosh SE's and Apple ImageWriter and a Hewlett-Packard DeskJet printer. She walks to another section and sees Magnavox and Toshiba televisions for sale, all with the cathode-ray-tube equipment jutting out from behind the screen, unlike the flatscreens that are near universal in the 2020's. Walking to another aisle in the store, the substitute observer sees Motorola cell phones for sale- much larger than iPhones or Samsung Galaxies, with far less capability, and a price that would be equivalent to five digits in the dollars of her time.
She walks over to where Ben is, who is cleaning a glass display case, wiping it with a paper towel soaked in a cleaning solvent.
"How are you doing?" she asks.
"You owe me for doing your work," replies the leaper. He walks along the aisles.
"Rob," says Sammy Jo.
"Who?' asks Ben.
"Look."
The leaper looks at a box on the shelf containing a Nintendo Entertainment System Deluxe Set, featuring the Robotic Operating Buddy.
"Nintendo had that?" asks Ben.
"You would have been a baby when R.O.B. came out. Enough chit chat. Don't want you to lose my job."
Ben smiles.
Oooooooo
"I do remember you now," says Jenn, sitting at a table in the Project Quantum Leap cafeteria. "You were at Al's funeral."
"Yes, all of us from the first project went," replies Sammy Jo, slicing a piece of salisbury steak. "It has been so long. Al did miss Gooshie."
They and a few others eat in a large cafeteria, where the staff of the project can eat lunch, Various food items are offered, from various sandwiches and pizzas to entrees.
"So you were a substitute observer?" asks Ian, who is essentially Gooshie's successor
"Gooshie was the substitute observer," says Sammy Jo. "After he died, Al had to train me to be a substitute observer. I first took up hologram duty when Al and Beth were at their oldest daughter's wedding. Sam Beckett had leaped into Philadephia in 1985 to help someone. The image was fuzzy at first, but Ziggy quickly fixed everything so he can see and hear me clearly. After fixing thing,s, Sam got to go the the Live Aid concert- his host was a security guard at the stadium- and saw the opening act just before he leaped.
"I really am glad this project is going again. Ben will do a lot of good before we bring him home-with Gooshie's help."
"Al did talk a lot about Gooshie," says Magic, sticking a fork into some steamed broccoli drenched in molten butter. "What was he like?"
"Dedicated," says Sammy Jo. "He was an integral part of the first team. He'd do anything for Sam, for us. We were all diminished with his passing. And..I won;t spoil anymore. When Ben and I are done, you'll have known Gooshie for the past few years."
"I look forward to having known Gooshie for the past ten years," says Addison Augustine, smiling. "I know you and Ben can bring him home."
ooooooo
Sammy Jo re-enters the Imaging Chamber to check on Ben. The substitute observer is projected into her old bedroom in the Alpha Omega sorority house in 1988. She sees the leaper looking at a photo album.
"Great pictures," Ben says to her.
"Let me see," replies Sammy Jo.
She sees pictures of her college life, from her and her friends on campus to sorority events and a ski trip to Lake Tahoe and even a picture of her at spring break in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in April of 1988, with she and her friends wearing two-piece bikinis, looking happy.
"It wasn't exactly my college experience," says Ben. "I did have a classmate at CalTech who was in the fraternity scene, though,. I even attended a few parties and went to spring break at the Colorado River."
"You know, Sam Beckett changed my mother's life in three leaps. In a literal sense, it was because of Sam Beckett that I was even born. I could be a considered child of the Project..
And now this child will bring one of the Project's fathers home. Sam changed my mother's life for the better, and now you leaped into her daughter, so you can work with her to bring one of Sam's closest friends home to his friends and family."
"That's great," says the leaper.
"There is a secondary reason. Ziggy figured it out. I actually remember it. Mary Ellen Gilday, also known as Meg, she was my roommate."
"I saw her," says Ben. "She was at that frat party when I first leaped here. She led me back to this house."
"She was expelled for cheating, three weeks from now."