Sam was worried for a moment. He didn't like to upset children. Neither did Al, for that matter. In that respect, the two were rather similar. In all other playing fields of life however, well, they had both lived very colorful lives. One of them more than the other. Clothes aside, of course. But where children were concerned, both Sam and Al always tried to do the right thing. But it was hard to explain their situation. It was pretty much unbelievable.
But Sam gave a sigh of relief when Annie relaxed and introduced them to Bunny. He looked up at Al and gave a soft smile. Al nodded.
"Hello, Bunny. It's a pleasure to meet you," Sam said.
"Likewise," Al replied, whacking on the handlink.
If Sam ever got back to his time, he would try and fix that silly computer interface. It had caused more problems during his leaps than solutions, it seemed.
"Hey, Sam. This is weird."
"What is it?"
"Well, according to Ziggy, there's a 79.8% chance that you running into Annie was what you needed to do to help Douglas get his life back together."
"Al, I've been on some short leaps before but that doesn't make any sense. How does meeting Annie keep Douglas off the streets?"
Al smacked the handlink. It flashed and beeped.
"Something about running into someone nearby who can set--" Smack! "--set Douglas up with a job that--" Smack! "--not only gets him off the street but allows him to help others like himself. Huh. I wonder who that someone is supposed to be."
"Ziggy can't be anymore specific?" Sam asked.
"You've changed the timeline, Sam. Douglas never spoke to Annie, so he never stood around in this spot long enough to run into this person."
Sam looked back over at Annie and gave a brighter smile.