August 7, 2010
Ben Song stares forward with a blank state.
Sexually suggestive music is playing.
A crows of men standing before him is hollering, many with vulgar comments, with others throws dollar bills. .
The leaper is completely nude.
And he appears to be a woman who calls herself Bridget.
He shifts his body around to the left and right
He hears, "Yeah, baby!" and other comments that would be censored on prime time television.
His hands are shaking a little bit and his heart is racing.
The song seems to go on forever.
And then it finally ends.
"All right, gentlemen and ladies!" exclaims the announcer. "Let's hear it for Nurse Bridget!"
The leaper can figure out his time on the stage is over.
He starts to collect the cash that the men had placed on the wooden surface of the stage. Looking around, he sees a purse, which appears to be Bridget's purse. Stuffing the cash into the purse, he starts to leave the stage before realizing a fraction of a second later that he should clothe himself. He puts on the thong panties and then the red bra. He looks around and sees a white skirt, a white blouse, and a white har. Using his experience of having leaped into the female sex before, he fastens the skirt, and then places on the blouse, which only goes to his midriff. After putting on the hat, he puts on an awkward smile as he holds the purse and walks to the back office.
In the backroom is a large room with dressers and drawers; a woman wearing a short denim skirt and a denim blouse jacket looks into the mirror. The leaper takes the opportunity to find out whom the men were looking at.
He sees a young woman with long blond hair and a milky white complexion. She look more cute than beautiful. She wears what appears to be a nurses outfit. The white hat has a red cross on it. He reaches into the purse and takes out a wallet. Looking at the wallet, Ben sees a driver's license issued by the State of Iowa. The name is Bridget Riley, and her date of birth is October 12, 1988. Her picture looks much younger; it looks like it had been taken during her senior year of high school.
The leaper sees another woman in the mirror, who has shoulder length blond hair, appearing to be in her early thirties.
"Impressive performance, Bridget," she says. "That deer-in the-headlights look. Like a young girl undressing in front of male strangers for the first time, or getting her cherry popped. In a way, the first nude dance is sort of like popping your cherry."
"Deer-in the-headlights?" asks the other woman in the dressing woman. She has olive-complected skin, and wears a cowboy hat covering her dark hair. "Trying to recall memories of your first time?" she asks.
"Yeah," replies Ben.
"Time for me to make some money."
"Convincing men to give up their hard-earned cash to look at their bodies," says Addison Augustine, projected into this strip club.
The leaper looks at the observer, and then to the other woman who is in this place and time. He goes towards Bridget's purse, fumbling through it before he pulls out a Nokia N93i cellular telephone, looking primitive compared to the Androids and iPhones that were in common use in 2022 when he first leaped. "I need to make a phone call."
He walks out to the main room, placing the cell phone by his ear.
"You probably know you're in a strip bar," says Addison. "You're in the Bouncy Cuties Strip Club, a club just outside Nellis Air Force Base, less than nine miles northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Vegas. I remember when we went to Vegas in April of '19 for three nights. We did more than watch shows and gamble at the casinos; we actually went to Valley of fire."
"I remember that," says the leaper. "We took a picture together by those ancient drawings on the rocks."
"I should continue," says Addison. "You're Bridget Riley. She grew up on a farm less than five miles outside Dubuque in Iowa. Graduating high school in 2006, she worked some waitressing jobs. She moved to the Vegas area in the middle of last winter. She found work as a waitress at Denny's, before she got into exotic dancing."
"Basically baring all."
"Yes. Well, her future seems to be fine. She used much of the money to pay for nursing school, moved back to Iowa, and became a registered nurse. She actually received a civic award from the City of Dubuque in 2022 for her nursing work. Still, it's something I can't understand though. I don;'t know if I would be able to handle leaping into a stripper."
"So her future's all right. I mean, maybe taking off her clothes for money wasn't Bridget's first choice in earning money for nursing school, but we change history for the better. We don't make history perfect.
"And now Cowgirl Letty is baring all!"
Ben looks towards the stage, and sees that dark-haired woman, now wearing only a cowboy hat and cowboy boots and nothing else. Vulgar comments are exclaimed by the men.
Addison steps in front of the leaper, looking right into his eyes. "Focus on me, Ben," she says. "Look into my eyes."
oooooo
"And that was our chocolate delight Nikki," says the DJ.
"We are closed now," says the woman who had spoken to Ben earlier.
Ben became a familiar with the place. There are several tables and booths where the girls could give full-nude lap dances. Not surprisingly, the leaper declined to offer private dances. The place offers a menu, mostly of bar food like sandwiches and tacoes and chicken strips and appetizers. A sign on top of the bar advertises a recession-buster special of sixty-nine cents for a fountain soda and ninety-nine cents for a coffee, and the prices for food are less than what a regular establishment, without fully nude dancing girls, would offer in 2022.
"Hey Bridget," says Letty, who had danced just forty minutes ago, "we'd better go."
"You're driving me home?" asks Ben.
"You're letting me drive your car?" asks the exotic dancer, dressed in her cowgirl outfit.
Addison appears. "That is Leticia Gomez-Aguilar, originally from a ranch near La Joya, Texas. She lived with Bridget in the summer of 2010. She worked as an exotic dancer, and did a five-year tour of duty at a brothel in Pahrump, before she went to community college and then the University of Texas.
The woman with blond hair approaches Ben and the girl; the leaper had figured out her name is Jane. "Take care, you two," she says.
"Love you, Jane," replies Letty.
He follows the other dancer out through the back door of the club and into an asphalt parking lot. Ben notices a large neon sign reading "Bouncy Cuties Full Nude Est. 2003". They soon reach one of the cars in the lot, a blue 2005 Honda CR-V.
"If I am driving, I will need the keys," says Letty.
"Sure," replies the leaper, reaching into the purse and pulling out a keychain.
The other dancer opens the drivers side door and presses a button to unlock all the doors. Ben sits in the passenger seat, fastens his seat belt, and Letty turns the key to start the car.
Girl, you know I-I-I, girl, you know I-I-I
I've been fiendin', wake up in the late-night dreamin' about your lovin'
Girl, you know I-I-I, girl, you know I-I-I
Don't need candles or cake, just need yo' body to make, ooh
Birthday sex, birthday sex (it's the best day of the year, girl)
Birthday sex, birthday sex (it feels like, feels like, lemme hit that G-spot, G-spot)
Letty pulls out of the parking lot. Soon, they are traveling on a main road. From looking at a sign suspended from a straight mast-arm also holding a traffic signal, the leaper notices they are traveling on Nellis Boulevard. On the horizon he can see the skyline of downtown Las Vegas. One of the upsides of leaping is being able to sightsee.
It is maybe ten minutes later that Letty parks the CR-V on a residential street.
"So we're here?" asks Ben.
"This is the closest parking space we could find," replies the exotic dancer.
Ben gets out of the car and follows Letty. The street is well-lit by lampposts, and is much quieter than the Vegas Strip is at this time. After maybe a few meters, Letty reaches this apartment complex. She unlocks the front gate.
He follows Letty into a courtyard; the shadowy outlines of garden plants clearly visible. The leaper then follows Letty up some stairs and then into an apartment.
The lights having been turned on, it looks like a typical apartment in the early 2010's, with sofas and a coffee table and a Toshiba television. There are several magazines, including a fashion magazine and a magazine about firearms. Attached to the television is a Microsoft Xbox and a Nintendo Wii. A kitchenette lies in an alcove to the right, with a Kenmore refrigerator, a stove, and kenmore microwave oven.
Letty goes into one of the bedrooms, and Ben goes to the other bedroom. Turning on the light, he inspects Bridget Riley's inner sanctum. The bed is made, somewhat. Opposite the foot of the bed is a small dresser. To the right of the bed is a closet. Ben opens the closet and finds typical women's clothes, along with some clothes that are clearly outfits for the strip club.
Finding a plug, he connects a charger to the Nokia cell phone. The leaper feels tired, especially as a few hours ago in his time, he was a rookie Atlanta cop who just defused a hostage situation.
Soon, he is fast asleep.
Oooooooo
Ben wakes up early to some noise. He looks at a bedside General Electric clock radio and the time is about 5:30 AM.
Walking, out, dressed in Bridget's nightgown, he looks and sees Letty wearing some tights.
"What are you doing?" he asks.
"Goin' to 24 Hour Fitness," replies the exotic dancer. "Got to stay in shape to earn money. You coming with me?"
"Ah, no," replies the leaper. "I think I'll stay."
"Don;t skip workouts too often, girl."
Taking her purse, Letty heads out the front door. Ben walks back into Bridget's room. He can see more. There is an Apple MacBook on top of the varnished surface of the wooden dresser, with an emblem of a flag consisting of an eagle holding a scrolled bill in its talons stickered on the back. Also on the dresser is a picture of several women, including Bridget, Letty, and Jane. Taking the MacBook to the kitchen, he has a simple breakfast of Post Honeycomb cereal and tomato juice. As he eats breakfast, he activates the MacBook. The familiar WiFi icon appears on the right side of the menu bar; it appears that the apartment complex has WiFi and Bridget's computer automatically connected.
Opening a folder called Pictures, ben opens some pictures. Some are clearly that of Bridget's family, who all have either blond or light-brown hair. There are pictures of some of the other dancers, including Letty.
And there is one picture of Bridget and Jane, standing close together at the Fremont Street Experience. Both women are smiling.
He then opens up Google Chrome and types something.
He then clocks on a link to an article in the Atlanta Journal- Constitution, which was published May 27, 2010. He reads the article about the man who had held that cop hostage eighteen years before this time, or yesterday in Ben's time. It is an interview about the hostage situation, his time in prison, and his work in mentoring at-risk youth.
"Good morning," says Addison, projected into the kitchen.
"Just catching up on my reading," says Ben. "This article was about my last leap. Here is what our buddy Jason said. 'When he said that if I pulled that trigger, I'd steal a life, I thought about my life for a second and knew I didn't want to be that kind of man'."
"I suppose it's nice to read about your accomplishments from another source," says the observer. "We figured out why you leaped into Bridget. It was big news. I remember it now. I first heard about it back when I was stationed in Fort Benning."
"Tell me."
"I;'ll show you first." Addison presses a button on a circular device called the handlink, which serves as a remote terminal for Ziggy, the supercomputer that runs Project Quantum Leap. A hologram appears.
It is the top of the front page of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, dated August 11, 2010. The headline reads "Woman Jumps from Hoover Dam".
"Was that one of the dancers?" asks the leaper.
"The woman had been identified as Jane Schrader," answers Addison. "You've met her; she's the general manager of Bouncy Cuties. Her body was never found and the Las Vegas Metro Police suspected suicide."