Quantum Leap: The Wall by Ashley McConnell

Author:Ashley McConnell [McConnell, Ashley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780441000159
Amazon: 0441000150
Publisher: Ace Books
Published: 1994-01-01T13:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“A statement issued by the United States, France, Britain, and West Germany warned Russia not to overrun West Berlin…”

Sam Beckett woke up on Monday morning, August 7, to the sound of an Armed Forces Radio announcer comparing Gus Grissom’s space flight the month before and Titov’s current journey. He listened, wondering, as the announcer portentously concluded that space travel would never last because of the deleterious effects of weightlessness lasting more than seventy-two hours.

The next topic was the increase in the flow of East German refugees. “Analysts believe that the end of the German school year has enabled German families to leave their homes under the guise of taking a ‘vacation trip.’ East German authorities refuse to acknowledge that their people are fleeing the repressive political system of Communist rule. Meanwhile, more than seventeen hundred refugees were registered in the Marienfeld Camp in Berlin this weekend. Many refugees indicate fear that the Communists are about to close the Berlin escape hatch. Others have decided to leave because of party pressure to speed up work in factories and on farms. Central party authorities are pressing all the way down the line for more work to overcome shortages—including the labor shortage helped by the flight of refugees.”

The radio crackled, shut off. The bedroom door swung open without a warning knock. “Missy, get up.

I don’t know where Marta could be, but you’ve got to eat breakfast. I’ve got a Gray Ladies meeting in less than an hour. Come on, please.”

She sounded sober and rational. She looked sober and rational and very tired, with dark circles under her eyes inexpertly covered with makeup. She was wearing a baggy gray dress that looked almost like a uniform, with red crosses on the blunt collar points. She stood waiting, one hand on the doorknob. “Come on, Missy. The eggs are getting cold.”

One of the sacrifices Sam had to make, Leaping into other peoples’ lives, was pretending to enjoy things he normally hated. Soft-boiled eggs, for example. Finally dressed, he came into the dining room to find a white egg cup decorated with yellow roses waiting for him, with a spoon and napkin beside it.

Steam rose from a bowl of eggs.

“Sit down and eat,” she said. “Lord, I’m never going to get out of here on time—What are you looking at?”

“Nothing,” Sam muttered, sliding into his seat. He used the spoon to ladle an egg into the egg cup, made a face, and cracked it. “Small end or big end?” he said under his breath as he rotated the cup, tapping carefully.

People declared war over the strangest things. Eggs. Walls. “Something there is that doesn’t love “

“What did you say?” Missy’s mother had finished eating already, was setting a plate with two slices of toast, carefully buttered and cut diagonally, down on the table in front of her daughter. “Did you say something?”

“No. Nothing.” Sam wasn’t inclined to explain the connection between breakfast and satire. It was too early in the morning to pretend to be six.

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