Well, you couldn't be that man I adored
You don't seem to know, or seem to care what your heart is for
But I don't know him anymore
Ben Song finds himself is another place, another time, another person. He looks and sees a woman in her late teens in some sort of outfit.
"May I take your order?" she asks.
There's nothing where he used to lie
My conversation has run dry
That's what's going on
Nothing's fine, I'm torn
Ben looks around the place. There are wooden tables. A few people sit, with paper bags. A glass display case reveals assortments of bagels. The menu shows various selections of bagels and bagel sandwiches, as well as coffee or fruit juice for beverages.
I'm all out of faith
This is how I feel
I'm cold and I am shamed
Lying naked on the floor
He walks toward the entrance, which is a glass door. Glass windows are next to gthe glass door.
And on the other sauce of the street is the Blue Balls Sports Bar and Grill.
"What's today's date?" he asks.
Illusion never changed
Into something real
I'm wide awake and I can see
The perfect sky is torn
You're a little late
I'm already torn
"December 10th," answers the bagel shop cashier.
"1999, right?"
"Yeah."
The leaper glances at a clock.
The hour hand is at nine, and the minute hand is just past two.
Wordlessly, Ben bursts out of the bagel shop. Extending his palm, he runs across the street, jkust taking a fraction of a sxecond to make sure the cars are slowing down for him. He runs behind the building, through the garage, and then goes to the back door of Blue Balls.
He runs toward the kitchen.
"You were a nice guy, Jimmy," he overhears Cassie Wint say. "I can't let you leave."
He looks and sees Cassie, Addison,
and himself, about a minute younger, lying unconscious on the floor.
And then he sees a blue glow around his past self.
"You're leaping?" Addison exclaims. "You can't leap! You haven't finished your mission!"
the blue glow fades, and Jimmy La Motta is revealed, wearing the sweat pants and sweatshirt Ben had put on.
the observer then turns, and sees Ben, who wears a sweater and Levi's jeans and Nike shoes.
"Ben?" she asks, wondering what had just happened, how Ben got here.
Ben quickly goes to the oven and shuts off the gas.
Jimmy stands up, putting on some glasses. "Blue?" he asks. "what are you doing here?"
Ben notices a mirror. Looking at it, he sees a man in his early seventies.
That is the same man he saw when he first leaped into Jimmy, the same man who struck that feeling crook with a barstool.
Cassie looks around, and then runs out of the kitchen.
"Ben!" calls out Addison. "The device!"
Ben sees some sort of cylinder on the central steel table. Grabbing it, he quickly runs out, pushing through the front door, and then looks around. There is no one on the sidewalk near him for several meters. He tosses the device along the ground and runs.
Addison, not really being in 1999 Oakland, walks close to the device.
And then emits a shower of sparks, sparks that in another history, would have ignited the gas inside the kitchen, causing an explosion.
Both observer and leaper breathe sighs of relief.
Ben walks back into the bar, the door now unlocked. "Jimmy," he calls out. "You all right?"
Jimmy comes out of the kitchen. "Yeah," he says, a look of confusion on his face. "What happened? And was that Cassie?"
"Yeah, she tried to blow up the place for the insurance. Do you remember anything?"
"Not really."
"He just leaped back," says Addison. "His memory might not clear up."
"There's got to be evidence," says Ben. "Fingerprints. DNA. Anything."
"What about that?" asks Jimmy.
The bartender is inside the kitchen, pointing at something. The leaper enters and sees what Jimmy is pointing at.
There is a camera mounted on the corner, and there is al,so a green blinking LED on the camera.
"That's it," says Addison, pressing buttons on the handlink. "Cassie Wint plead guilty to attempted arson, attempted insurance fraud, and reckless endangerment. She got seven years' probation, and caused no further trouble.
"But get this. She sold the bar to pay for her lawyers. And the La Mottas were the ones to buy the place- Jimmy's family! Blue Balls is still open in our time, and his family still owns the place!"
"Great news," says Ben, smiling.
"Uh, Blue," says Jimmy. "We're not open until 11."
"Got it."
Ben walks out towards the front entrance.
"You leaped from Jimmy to this Blue guy within the same time frame," says Addison. "We have to take a look at this, and the old project archives to see if Sam did this before."
Ben looks through the open door of the bar, seeing Jimmy La Motta, who had been leapt into three times in his life.
"We open at eleven," says Jimmy.
"Maybe I'll see you again," says the leaper.
Jimmy closes the door and locks it, and a blue glow surrounds Ben, and he once again quantum leaps!