Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 18:11:36 -0700 (MST) From: "Katherine R. Freymuth" Subject: Memories - Part 13 Message-ID: Quantum Leap Memories by Katherine R. Freymuth Copyright 1997 Part 13 "Try, Al. At least try to forgive her. She had your best interests at heart. All she wanted was to make your life and Trudy's life better." Al huffed. "Yeah, well, her method stinks." "You won't get any argument from me. But consider this: if she hadn't left you, how do you think your life would have turned out?" Al looked at Maddie firmly. "Trudy would still be alive." Maddie raised her eyebrows. "Would she? And if she were, would you be in the Navy now? Would you have met Sam and be a part of this project? Or would you have become a construction worker like your father?" "My father was a good man," Al told her, a hint of anger in his voice. "Yes, he was," Maddie nodded. "But this isn't about him. This is about you. Do you think your life would have been better if she had stayed and continued to abuse you?' There was a long moment of silence between the two friends. "I suppose not," Al finally said quietly. "Damn right!" Maddie exclaimed. "Leaving you was the only way she knew how to make sure you had a better life than her." She paused. "It was inevitable for her to leave, Al. It might not have been a box of crayons but something would have eventually caused her to become angry enough to hurt you the way she did." Al looked at Maddie with wide eyes full of realization. "You and I went to the five-and-dime after school and I brought Trudy a box of crayons and some paper. I'd gone without lunch the whole week just to buy them for her. But Momma was angry because of what I did and so..." He looked at Maddie. "She knocked me unconscious. That's why I stuttered then. I had a concussion and I'd lost a lot of blood from the cuts I gave myself smashing my fist through the kitchen window." He looked slightly away from her, remembering the past. "When Dad came home, he called an ambulance and went with me to the hospital." He paused with a frown. "He never even mentioned her after that day. If I ever asked a question about that day, he would either change the subject or give me a false story having nothing to do with her." Maddie touched his shoulder. "He was only trying to protect you as best as he could. He didn't want you to hate your mother nor did he want you to feel responsible for her leaving. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that you remembered just enough for the former to be true." She looked at Al carefully. His face was somber, showing a quiet anger that years of hatred brought. "Can't you forgive her?" Al exhaled. "It's very hard to give up a hatred that's been with you for fifty-nine years." He shook his head. "If she had left a note, I might feel differently about all of this. All she had to do was let us know why." There was silence between the two friends as Maddie walked slowly around and hugged Al firmly. When they finally separated, Maddie looked at Al, making sure that her brown eyes met his. "Al, do me a favor when this leap is over." Al smiled slightly. "If I can, I will." Maddie returned the smile. "Then, you will. Look me up. Come visit me." Al raised an eyebrow. "Then, you no longer believe that you're dying." Maddie's smile faded. "I am dying, Al." Al frowned. His features softened as he realized what she was saying. "In my time," he concluded. Maddie nodded. "Then why didn't you want custody of Linda and John?" Al asked. Maddie smiled. "Because I knew that wasn't my destiny. Also, I misinterpreted the dream. But once I realized that, in my dream, you were as you are now, I knew the truth." Al looked at his star-crossed friend of childhood. "Maddie," he started uncomfortably. "Just promise you'll visit me." She smiled. "Make an old woman's day." Al smiled slightly. "You're only two years older than me." He took a breath. "I promise I'll find you and visit you and marvel at how lovely a sixty-seven year old woman you are." Maddie laughed gently, folding into Al's arms again. "I'll see you in forty-six years," Maddie said in his ear. Al was about to reply when she was suddenly gone. For a moment, Al looked quickly around in confusion before realizing the truth: Sam had leaped and Maddie was home in 1953. Taking a breath to recompose himself, he exited the Waiting Room and entered the Control Room. "Ziggy?" "Yes, Admiral Calavicci?" the hybrid-computer replied. Al looked at the computer console. "Look up everything that resulted from this leap and patch it into my office. Include the current address for Madeline Jane Daniels." "I have already the report you have requested, Admiral," Ziggy told him. "It is being sent to your office computer now." Al smiled. "Thank you." "You're welcome, Admiral. May I also say that this leap has had a positive effect on you. I hope that you are in agreement." Al smiled slightly. "Thanks for the sentiment." He took the handlink out of his jacket's pocket and put it on top of the control console. "I'll be in my office." REPORT ON THE EFFECT ON THE TIMELINE DUE TO CHANGES DONE BY DR. SAMUEL BECKETT ON JUNE 16, 1953. Al quickly skipped over the usual description of the original history. He didn't need to read it. That part of the report was mostly for the record and for the Committee. Besides, he already knew all the other alternate timelines that could have happened but never did, thanks to Sam's intervention. Timelines that Al never told Sam about, such as the one that caused Al's brief outburst in the Imaging Chamber - the one in which Linda never forgave Michael for leaving her. Al could understand that history. It was one that he might have followed if Charlie "Black Magic" Walters hadn't shown him that there were people who cared. In that timeline, Linda hadn't been as fortunate as Al. She had even run away from the same orphanage Al had but, instead of running into an old black pool hustler, she ran into the Beatnik crowd. She experimented with drugs, protested the war in Vietnam, and eventually died of a drug overdose in 1968 at the age of twenty-one years. In comparison, John was more fortunate. He was still alive in a government-run senior citizen's home. But that wasn't how history was now and Al wanted to see the changes that had happened. He found the section he was looking for and read it with anticipation. THE CURRENT TIMELINE IS NOW AS FOLLOWS: ---MICHAEL TORNELLI DIED IN 1996 OF NATURAL CAUSES. HE WAS NINETY-EIGHT YEARS OLD. ---LINDA TORNELLI IS CURRENTLY WORKING AS A THERAPIST FOR MENTALLY HANDICAPPED CHILDREN. SHE IS FIFTY-TWO YEARS OLD. MARRIED. ONE CHILD. ---JOHN TORNELLI CURRENTLY LIVES UNDER HIS SISTER'S AND HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW'S CARE. HE IS FIFTY YEARS OLD. ---JOSEPH DANIELS WAS ARRESTED, CONVICTED, AND EXECUTED FOR THE FIRST-DEGREE MURDER OF MANUEL BICCIO - AGE: FORTY-TWO, ETHNICITY: HISPANIC-ITALIAN-AMERICAN - IN 1964, ELEVEN YEARS AFTER HE LEFT HIS SISTERS IN LITTLE ITALY. THIS DOES NOT DEVIATE FROM THE ORIGINAL HISTORY. ---CHRISTA DANIELS GRADUATED FROM NYU AND OPENED A SUCCESSFUL BAKERY BUSINESS WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF HER SISTER MADELINE DANIELS. CHRISTA MARRIED AND IS THE MOTHER OF FOUR CHILDREN. ---MADELINE DANIELS ASSISTED MICHAEL TORNELLI IN BREAKING HIS DRINKING HABIT. THE TWO MARRIED FOR THREE YEARS BEFORE DIVORCING. MADELINE MARRIED AGAIN AND DIVORCED THREE TIMES. SHE IS CURRENTLY SINGLE, NO CHILDREN, AND IS THE PRODUCTION MANAGER FOR HER AND HER SISTER'S BAKERY COMPANY MACRIS BAKED GOODS. Al laughed slightly to himself. He hadn't realized just how similar he and Maddie really were. He was glad that Christa and Maddie were doing so well. Yet he also grieved for their loss of their brother due to his blind prejudice. The thought of what they must have felt wiped the smile on his face. "Now to fulfill a promise," he said to himself, looking at the very end of the report. He quickly wrote down the address before shutting off his computer.