The kiss was interrupted by a familiar sound. Actually, the sound was not familiar in a realist sense at all; however, somewhere at the back of my memory, I could recognize it. It was a whooshing, clanging sound. The sound of a door opening and closing. Not an ordinary door, but an automatic door. Not a supermarket or Bradley's automatic door, but a portal to a different place and time.
As soon as I heard the noise, I quickly pulled away from you-know-who (and if you don't, his initials are A.C.). "Oh, boy!"
"What is it?" Bingo asked, surprised at me stopping something he could tell we were both enjoying.
"How dare you take advantage of me!" I said, frowning.
"'Advantage!' You were the one sending out a quadrillion signals."
"What do you mean?"
"Well! You know what I mean."
"Get lost, Bingo!" I said, turning around. I started to walk away. The hologram tried to hug me as I walked through him. "You too, Admiral!"
"Huh?" young-A.C. turned around to see me walk away.
I looked over at Bingo. His complexion was as white as a ghost, and his mouth was gasped open in shock. "What's the matter?" Somehow I knew that his expression had nothing to do with me.
Bingo crunched up his face, and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. "Nothing, Leia," he said, staring at an empty space which was once occupied by a holographic image.
"How come I have the feeling that you're hiding something?"
"It's none of your damn business," he said. "Man, what do they put in the beer here?"
We walked outside to get some fresh air away from the smoke and strong smell of beer.
"Are you really from Manhattan?" I asked. He nodded. "What part?"
"My father bought a house around Mulberry Street."
"Little Italy. Cool. I went to the San Genario festival a few times."
"Same here."
"Are you Italian?" Duh? Calling Captain Obvious!
"Si."
"Me too. Well, my mom is Irish and my dad is Polish, but my step-mom is German and my step-dad is Scottish."
"Sounds confusing. Your parents split up?"
"Yes," I said. "They divorced when I was five."
"Mine spit but never got divorced. My dad kept wishing that my mom would come home."
"I'm so sorry."
"Forget I said anything," he said. "It's just--"
"'Just what'?"
"Aw, forget it!" He rose from his chair.
"It has to do with what you saw?" I commented. "Doesn't it?"
"What I saw or didn't see --"
"You saw your Uncle Jack," I said quietly so that nobody besides Bingo could hear.
"Maybe yes; maybe no." I could tell that he was becoming confused and terrified.
"Don't worry! I saw him too," I said. "And I know a lot more."
"Chip put you up to this, didn't he?" Bingo smiled, thinking that I was joking. "Somebody used a film projector to --"
"Chip's a real donkey's behind!"
"Sure he is," he said sarcastically. "He's also probably your boyfriend. You probably set up that little scheme at the PX to throw me off track."
"First of all, Chip isn't my boyfriend or even friend for that matter," I answered, disgusted at the idea of me that jerk. "Why do you always blame him for when things turn weird. This isn't a practical joke. This is real life!"
"Uh huh," he said, smiling, making a part of me melt due to his gorgeous smile, cute dimples and laughing brown eyes, and another part of me feel like smacking that grin right off his face.
"Don't you remember anything about the past few days?"
"You mean it wasn't a dream! Promise me you won't tell anybody. I'm only telling you this because I feel like you'd understand, no matter how strange."
"I promise."
"I really did see my uncle Jack again," he stuttered. "My uncle's dead. He died of a heart attack when I was seventeen."
I knew exactly whom he saw, since I heard the noise. "Maybe, it wasn't your uncle," I said truthfully.
"Then who was it?"
"Maybe, it was some officer who looks like your uncle Jack." That's one way of putting it.
"But, I think he's a ghost," he said under his breath. "My uncle was never in the service, and he wasn't wearing a uniform."
"A ghost? How can you believe in such things?"
"Well," he said slowly. "I don't know." He reached up and pushed back a lock of my hair. "You know you're really pretty."
I moved his hand out of the way. "Boy, you never change, Al Calavicci," I said, shaking my head downward. "I can't believe I'm standing here with you right now. If this is one of your plans, --"
"It's not a plan," he said. "I really saw--"
"Your uncle Jack," I completed, rolling my eyes. "I know exactly who you saw, and it wasn't any of your uncles." I took his hand, and we started to walk far away from the bar. "Do you remember a all-white room?" I asked, remembering a scene I saw a long time ago on NBC.
"You do understand!" he said astonished. "I remember a little bit."
"What do you remember?" I felt like a psychologist.
"Well, I remember my uncle Jack being there, and this sexy redhead which--"
Which had these enormous kasabas, my mind completed. "Figures, you'd remember your girlfriend . . . well, your future girlfriend."
"In the future, I get a chick like that," he smiled. Then, he looked me over as he wrapped his arms around my waist. "Though not as sexy as you, sweetie." I couldn't resist. I kissed sweetly on his lips. After we kissed, he backed his head up. "How far in the future?"
That was the first time I was truly jealous of Tina, . . . and she wasn't even born yet. "Oh!" I pouted. "A few decades."
"Even more time to spend with you," he smiled. He thrust me closer to him, and he started sucking on my neck.
I wiggled out of his tight embrace. "Calavicci, can't you behave yourself?" I smiled.
"It's hard when I'm strolling with someone as beautiful as you," he complimented. I noticed his eyes addressing my breasts.
"Don't you want to know about your future?"
"I'll tell you yours," he smiled. "You, me, my Corvette, and Lover's Cove."
"I'm serious. I probably know more about you than you do."
"Oh, really? What can you tell me, Madame Sorcerer?"
"A lot," I told him.
He backed away, surprised. "Really?"
"Yeah. Really!"
"Then can you tell me about why I saw my uncle Jack, and why he disappeared."
"What do you mean disappeared?"
"There was a door of light and he walked right through it," he said. "Also, you walked right through him, and called him 'Admiral'."
"Oh! That's easy to explain."
"Then, tell me," he said surprised.
"I can't. It's wrong to learn your future before it happens," I stated. "Anyway, you won't believe me."
"Try me."
"Well, your uncle Jack isn't who he's supposed to be. I mean he is who he is, and he's a Calavicci through and through."
"I know," he said. "He's my pop's brother." I tilted my head and looked at him directly in his Italian eyes. "You mean? That's what he said? But I'm me, how could he be me?"
"I really meant it when I said there were a few decades in the difference."
"So, it is true," he said in awe. "But, how do you know?"
"The second to last time I checked the date is was June 15, 1999. Happy birthday!"
"1999! You're joking, right?"
"I'm just as serious as you are."
"So, future girl, what's it like in '99?"
"Well, tv's have about sixty channels, we're friends with the Russians (don't worry, we won the cold war), and the US landed a man on the moon (in fact, you actually walk on the moon)."
"Did I build a house there, too?"
"No," I giggled. "And, want to know something really secret?" He nodded. "You get to travel in time." He laughed. "I'm serious."
"Does everybody time travel?"
"As far as I know, you're one of the special ones. In fact, you already did."
"I did?"
"Don't you remember Leaping?" He gave me a blank stare. "Well, anyway, it's only you, me and a future friend of yours."
"Who? Chip?" He named a few more names, and I shook my head to all of his suggestions. "Then, who?"
"Right now, back here in '57, he's probably a little Indiana farm boy in the first or second grade."
"A little kid?" He smiled in disbelief.
"Don't put him down," I said. "He knows Calculus."
"I had to struggle through that, and you're saying that some pipsqueak knows it."
"Yeah. But he's a lot older when you met him."
He smiled, letting go of a laugh. "You're making all this up, right?"
"Are you making up seeing uncle Jack?"
"There's usually a reason why you and the so-called 'pipsqueak' travel, but I don't know what it is."
"He, uh me, told me." He ran his fingers through his military cut, curly, black hair. "This sure is confusing."
"What did he tell you?"
"I really don't know, but I have a feeling someone I know is going to be in a lot of trouble."
"Don't worry! No matter what it is, I'll be there for you."
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