Quantum Leap: "Leap In, Leap Out--Kayla's Story"
by Orianna

The most incredible thing has happened to me. I'm hurrying to get it all down, because even as I write, certain events are vanishing from my mind, as if someone took my brain and turned it into swiss cheese!

It began this morning, but I guess it wasn't *this* morning, because my calendar says that today is Thursday. I don't understand how so much time could have passed without me knowing! So, it was Monday, and I was busy getting ready for class. (I'm a physics major at MIT, with a secondary major in computer science) I'm not sure what I was doing exactly, but I remember this strange sensation--like static electricity--all over my body. My stomach felt queasy. Maybe I passed out, I don't know, but when I opened my eyes, I was definitely not in my apartment.

The walls surrounding me glowed with a strange blue light, making it impossible to tell how big the room was; the only object I could see was a sleek white table. There were no exits that I could discern. My clothes had disappeared, and I wore a bodysuit made out of a fabric that I had never seen before.

I wanted to know where I was, and why I was there, but since I was alone, I decided to sit at one of the two stools that stood by the table and wait for whoever had brought me there to show up. A naive part of me was hoping that I had been abducted by extraterrestrials, but although the people who eventually came were strange, they were definitely human.

A woman of African descent appeared first. Her clothes looked fairly normal, but she had the neatest pair of earrings--they glowed! Or rather, twinkled. I think it must have been a new type of LED that doesn't require much power, because I didn't see any obvious battery-pack.

This woman had to be a shrink, although she didn't come out and say it. Her name...Darn it! It's already gone. But she was friendly enough, tried to reassure me and stuff like that, all the while asking questions like who was I? what year did I think it was? was anyone that I knew going through a personal crisis? So I told her about Vikki and how hysterical she was that she couldn't find the right shade of pantyhose for the date she was going on this weekend. I'm not sure if that irritated her or not, but she looked at me rather strangely, then left without explaining anything.

Then a man entered the room, not too tall, smoking a cigar. I immediately asked him to put it out, and with a sincere apology, he did. His clothes were remarkable--a clash of bright colors and interesting fabrics that on anyone else would have looked atrocious, but looked great on him! I wish I had the guts to dress that way, but I guess being an Admiral in the US Navy gave him the right. I know this because the second time I saw him, he wore dress whites. Very handsomely, I might add.

He asked me the same questions as the woman, but something about him made me want to be honest. I answered everything he asked as best as I could, but I was having the same memory problems then as I am now. He understood, though, and when he came back, he tried to explain a little about where I was and why I was there.

It had something to do with time travel, I know, but the details are gone from my mind. For some reason, I keep thinking of string...I wonder if this could have anything to do with that new string theory of universal structure...? I'll have to do some research on that.

Anyway, what shocked me the most was when I was shown my reflection in the mirror. It wasn't me! The face looked very slightly familiar, though I suppose that could just be my imagination. He was a man in his early forties maybe, good looking, with kind hazel eyes, and a streak of premature gray at the front of his dark hair. This whole thing was some kind of experiment that had gone wrong, I think. But what kind of a project could make someone look like someone else? Darn, this is frustrating! The man with the cigar probably explained it, but I just can't remember.

I don't recall being there in that blue room very long, but since it is now three days later than it should be, I guess I was there for longer than I thought. I remember sitting at the table, staring at the reflection that wasn't mine, when the same queasy, tingling sensation came over me. Then I was back in my apartment, T.J. meowing at my feet for his breakfast.

I still haven't fed him, anxious as I was to get this written down. Things don't seem changed here, though I'm not sure why I expected they would be. Everything that happened is now completely blurred, and reading back on this, I'm not sure that I haven't hallucinated the whole thing. It sounds so incredible! Well, maybe someday I'll remember all of what happened. Meanwhile, I've got to get ready for this afternoon's class--Dr. Samuel Beckett, one of the world's brightest physicists is going to give a special guest lecture, and I've been wanting to meet him for years. Good thing those people, whoever they are, didn't keep me longer! I wonder if I'll ever see any of them again?