Chapter 1 - A Letter From The Future

A Sylvester Ponniah Fanfiction production,

inspired by Donald P. Bellisario, Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis

A Quantum Leap Back To The Future - Part I

Act 1, Scene 1A

Sunday

December 28, 2014

10:00 PM

(Sylvester hands a letter to Mark. The envelope reads: 'Do not open until March 2015.')

Mark: What is the meaning of this?

Sylvester: You'll find out next year!

Mark: It's about the future, isn't it?

Sylvester: Yes. People's lives could depend on it!

Mark: No, I refuse to take the responsibility.

(Mark rips up the letter. He is about to throw it away, but is distracted by the stormy weather. He puts the pieces of the letter in his coat pocket. He bids farewell to Sylvester and they part.

Later, he figures 'what the Hell!' and decides to tape the letter back together so he can read it, but he finds that there was a hole in his pocket and all the pieces have blown away. The wind was so blustery, that he will never be able to find all the missing parts in the dark.

Suddenly, Sylvester returns.)

(Sylvester seems distracted, looking over to his left, every now and then, as he approaches Mark.)

Mark: Hey, Sylvester, how come you are back?

Sylvester: I had to come back. Back to help you. You really need to read the letter before it is too late.

Mark: I did change my mind and was about to but, after I tore it up, the wind has blown it all away!

Sylvester: Oh Boy!

[CUE TITLE]

Act 1, Scene 1B

Mark: Hey, wait a minute. You are not Sylvester!

(Sylvester looks to his left again, then shiftily back to Mark.)

Sylvester: What are you talking about? Of course I am Sylvester. Who else would I be?

Mark: I don't know. You are acting very strange. Why do you keep looking away?

(Again, Sylvester looks to his side. He raises his eyebrows, as if waiting for a response from someone.)

Sylvester: Al.

Mark: Al what?

Sylvester: I'll explain. Okay, okay. You're right. I'm not Sylvester. I am from the future.

Mark: Yeah, right. Then who are you, Future Boy?

(Sylvester starts arguing, looking to his left as if someone is there.)

Sylvester: I have to... He will believe me. I can see it in his eyes. I can trust him.

Mark: Who are you talking to?

Sylvester: My name is Sam Beckett and this, though you can't see him, is my friend, Albert Calavicci, who you can call Al.

Al: Hi.

Sam: We have come here on a mission - a mission in which we need your help.

Mark: Sylvester, is this one of your practical jokes? Although your behavior is different, if you really are someone else, how come you look just like Sylvester? Also, why can't I see or hear your friend?

Sam: This is going to be hard for you to believe. I have 'leapt' into Sylvester. The body you see is still Sylvester's physical body. However, it is me, Sam, whose mind, or spirit, is in his body. Sylvester, or rather his mind or spirit, is in the future - in my body, in a place called 'The Waiting Room.' And Al, is not actually here. He is in the future, too. I can hear him, and see him as a hologram when he enters a room called 'The Imaging Chamber.'

Mark: This is heavy! This all sounds unbelievable, but Sylvester would never come up with something as far-fetched as this.

Sam: You have got to believe me. We are running out of time. I am a scientist, who invented a time machine. I have been trapped in the Waiting Room since I don't know how long. I have been leaping backwards and forwards through time, striving to put right what once went wrong for other people. I have been hoping, each time, that my next leap will be the leap home. Al is in direct contact with a computer, named Ziggy.

Al: Sam, you got to succeed. Ziggy says there is a 100% probability that you will come home if you do.

Sam: What was that? 100%? Al says that if we fulfill this mission, there is 100% certainty that I will finally stop endlessly leaping through time and return home for good. Help me, Mark Azariah. You're my only hope. Please help me get back to the future.

Mark: Sylvester has always been fascinated by the fantasy of time travel and the paradoxes that could occur, if it actually existed. Only a belief in 'parallel universes' could explain away paradoxes, he says. Anyway, whoever you are, Sylvester or Sam, yes, I will help you.

Sam: Great! Thanks for believing in me. Firstly, you need to read that letter.

Mark: But I don't have it anymore.

Sam (turning to Al): Ask Ziggy if he can get a lock on all the pieces of the letter.

Al: Did you hear that, Ziggy? (To Sam:) Because of the storm, tracking will be a problem. We need more information.

Sam: Al says, due to the bad weather, they are going to be hard to track, but Al will see what he can do.

Al: If we know the exact number of missing pieces, we can scan the area. Ziggy says the letter must have been folded twice, forming three sections.

Sam: Al says, you first have to work out how many pieces to the letter there are to find. According to Ziggy's calculations, bearing in mind the dimensions of the stationary, the letter must have been folded in three, with two creases, in order for it to fit in the envelope. Do you remember how you ripped up the envelope?

Mark: Well, I believe I ripped it up two times. First, down the middle. Then, I put together the two halves, one on top of the other, turned them ninety degrees around, then ripped them again.

Sam: Okay then. You have to work out - in your head - the number of pieces, before we can make our next move.

(End of first chapter.)

Author's footnotes

Sam has just given Mark a simplified interpretation of what 'leaping' is. For a clearer explanation - before continuing to read - please leap into the EPILOG. Your mission there: to read the first paragraph. Once you have gained enlightenment - your mission completed - please leap back here.

It will be like you 'never' left (or leapt).

I will include all the chapters to this story, but some parts of the story originally had pictures, which are not possible to show clearly here.

So, if you would like to read the story with the pictures and a prolog, please search 'aqlbttf' on facebook. (To stay in the loop, please join the group.)

PS - Next chapter features a puzzle. If you would like to solve the puzzle yourself, please stop reading after Act 1, Scene 2A. Then try to solve it, before you read Act 1, Scene 2B.