Quantum Leap: Blind Date- September 15, 1995

Chapter 2

"You're doing great, Sam. Just keep walking straight and you'll be there in a few hundred feet."

"I didn't think walking straight would be such a struggle," Sam groaned.

Al didn't know what this was like for Sam. He had led him around, sure, but back then he just gave directions. Now he had to direct his whole life and act as his eyes, which would have been much easier if he had been there with his friend. Now he had to remember things like stairs, doors, streets, poles, and all sorts of other things around which most people could just move. He had to do this before when Sam went blind due to that flash bulb, but he also had a dog. Didn't this girl at least have a cane? Oh, yeah... she did. He saw it earlier in her room and was about to mention it to Sam, but what happened? Surely he wouldn't just forget that kind of thing on a whim. Was it that joke about taking off lots of flats in his career? Yeah probably that. How could he forget to tell him- Oh, crap, STAIRS!

"Sam, stop!" But he was too late. Sam's toe hit the stone staircase leading up to the school and he fell forward, thankfully catching himself with both of his hands, but Al could tell it wasn't just a scratch on his toe.

"Aahhh...." Sam puffed, grabbing his foot. "Why does stubbing your toe hurt so much? There's not even any outside signs that it's hurt!"

"You might be a little sensitive to that kind of thing now that you can't see it," Al pointed out.

"That doesn't even make sense," Sam griped, but he knew he could be right. "Hey, I know this has nothing to do with anything... but what do I look like? Usually I can just catch a mirror but I guess not this time."

"You're Japanese, so you've got the eyes, your mom did a nice job on the makeup, and you have shoulder-length black hair. I'd say 'hot' if she was eighteen or older, but you're really just a kid, Sam. Seventeen year olds don't look like they do in the movies, you know. Most of them are played by twenty-five-year-olds nowadays."

"So you're not getting all hot and bothered like you were the first time I leaped into a girl?" Sam raised his eyebrows. He figured Al would jump out of his skin at the sight of a young girl, but he hadn't done any of that in this leap at all.

"I'm not an animal, Sam! As much as you'd like to not believe it, I'm actually a pretty stand-up guy. I have morals, too, Mr. Boyscout. Plus that was different; she was like twenty-six or something. That's a million years away from seventeen."

Sam sighed and stood up, then started to walk up the stairs into which he just fell.

"There are like five doors all next to each other and i think you just push them to go in; no door handles," Al told him.

Sam just kept shaking his head and saying, "This is so hard. How does she do it every day?"

"Got me," he replied. "But you'd be amazed at what kids can adapt to."

"Oh crap!" Sam exclaimed, stopping in the middle of the steps. "She has braille books! How am I supposed to read them, Al?"

"Considering you're a genius who's already been through public school and did this grade when you were fifteen, I think you'll be ok just taking the tests," he pointed out. "I mean, do you really need a textbook to remember the author of 1984? Or the function of a quark?"

Sam considered this for a few seconds, then finally said, "I guess you're right. But what kind of classes does this girl take? Can you pull up her schedule?"

"Yeah, sure." He was silent as he pressed a few noisy buttons and slammed his hand into the hand link, causing it to make a whining sound like a dog. Finally, Al began to read. "Says here that her first class is Chemistry. Oh, that's good for you, then, Sam."