Mart McFly
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Part
1<---
I slide into Doc Brown's lab looking for him. He asked me to check on his clocks while he's off on one of his adventures.
I step through the doorway and look around.
"Hey, Doc? Doc. Hello, anybody home? Einstein, come here, boy.
What's going on?" I ask, hearing the dog food can opener going I glance over at Einstein's bowl.
"Wha- aw, god. Aw, Jesus." I mutter, as another dog food can gets emptied into a bowl that obviously hasn't been used for weeks.
"Whoa, rock and roll." I say, as I see a massive guitar amplifier sitting in the middle of the room.
I plug my guitar in and turn every switch all the way up.
I pull out my lucky, steel-tipped pick and play a single chord.
The power from the amp blows me off my feet and into a nearby bookcase.
I watch in horror as parts of the amp fall apart slowly.
The phone rings and I pull myself up and answer it, taking off my mirror aviator sunglasses.
"Yo?!" I holler into the phone receiver, covering one ear.
"Marty, is that you?" A voice on the other end of the line says.
"Hey, hey, Doc, where are you?"
"Thank god I found you. Listen, can you meet me at Twin Pines Mall tonight at 1:15? I've made a major breakthrough, I'll need your assistance." The doc says whispering feverishly.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute. 1:15 in the morning?"
"Yeah."
"What's going on? Where have you been all week?"
"Working."
"Where's Einstein, is he with you?"
"Yeah, he's right here."
"You know, Doc, you left your equipment on all week."
"My equipment, that reminds me, Marty, you better not hook up to the amplifier. There's a slight possibility for overload. "
"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind." I say, wishing I'd know this earlier.
"Good, I'll see you tonight. Don't forget, now, 1:15 a.m., Twin Pines Mall."
"
Right."
Without warning, every clock in the room goes off. There are hundreds of clocks, simultaneously ringing their alarms.
"Are those my clocks I hear?"
"Yeah, it's 8:00."
"They're late. My experiment worked. They're all exactly twenty-five minutes slow."
Twenty-five minutes?
Twenty-five minutes.
"Wait a minute. Wait a minute, Doc. Are you telling me that it's 8:25?"
"Precisely."
"Damn." I scream into the phone.
"I'm late for school!" I say, promptly hanging up.
I sprint out of Doc's lab and onto my skateboard. I ride into the middle of the road, past the Burger King and put on my cassette player. I grab hold of a passing Jeep's rear bumper. The driver looks back at me, giving me an exasperated stare.
I grin sheepishly and let go, sliding into the school's parking lot.
I kick my board up and sprint into the lobby.
My girlfriend, Jennifer meets me inside.
"Hello, Jennifer." I say.
She puts a hand on my shoulder,
"Marty, don't go this way. Strickland's looking for you. If you're caught it'll be four tardies in a row."
After leading me through a maze of corridors and lockers, Jennifer lets go of my arm.
"Alright, c'mon, I think we're safe."
"Y'know this time it wasn't my fault. The Doc set all of his clocks twenty-five minutes slow." I tell her, peering around corners, looking for Principal Strickland.
"Doc?" I hear the unmistakable voice of our principal behind me. I freeze and turn around slowly.
"Am I to understand you're still hanging around with Doctor Emmett Brown, McFly?" Strickland asks, scribbling on two sheets of paper.
"Tardy slip for you, Miss Parker. And one for you McFly. I believe that makes four in a row." He says, handing us our respective passes. He leans closer to my face, his breath hot in my face.
"Now let me give you a nickle's worth of advice, young man. This so called Doctor Brown is dangerous, he's a real nuttcase. You hang around with him you're gonna end up in big trouble."
"Oh yes sir." I say, sarcastically.
"You got a real attitude problem, McFly. You're a slacker." Strickland says, jamming his finger in my chest.
"You remind me of you father when he went her, he was a slacker too."
"Can I go now, Mr. Strickland?" I ask, stepping back.
He steps closer, yet again, crossing his arms.
"I noticed you band is on the roster for dance auditions after school today. Why even bother Mcfly, you haven't got a chance, you're too much like your own man. No McFly ever amounted to anything in the history of Hill Valley."
"Yeah?" I ask, with a slight hint of anger in my tone,
"Well history is gonna change."
I put my arm around Jennifer and lead her away from the furious principal.
After a long day of school, the band auditions finally come around. The audition judge calls me and my band to the stage.
"Next, please." The monotone man says into the mega-phone.
"Alright, we're the Pinheads." I say, checking all of our equipment.
I lead the group off and we start playing the first few chords in the new song "Power of Love." The man in the seat waves his hands in front of him.
We stop playing and look at him in dismay.
"Okay, that's enough. Now stop the microphone. I'm sorry fellas. I'm afraid you're just too darn loud." He says.
Jennifer meets me backstage and we walk together into town.
"I'm too loud. I can't believe it! I'm never gonna get a chance to play in front of anybody."
She gives me some words of comfort, but I reject them.
"Nah, I just don't think I'm cut out for music."
"But you're good, Marty, you're really good. And this audition tape of your is great, you gotta send it in to the record company. It's like Doc's always saying -- "
"Yeah I know, If you put your mind to it you could accomplish anything..."
We talk some more and our conversation is interrupted by a crazy old lady who works with a charity.
"Save the clock tower, save the clock tower!" She says, shaking a coffee can in our faces.
"Mayor Wilson is sponsoring an initiative to replace that clock. Thirty years ago, lightning struck that clock tower and the clock hasn't run since. We at the Hill Valley Preservation Society think it should be preserved exactly the way it is as part of our history and heritage."
Simply to shut her up, I give her some change.
"Here you go, lady. There's a quarter."
"Thank you, don't forget to take a flier." She says, shoving the paper in my face.
"Right."
She leaves us alone, annoying other people in the town square.
"Where were we?" I ask Jennifer.
"Right about here." She says, leaning in for a kiss.
She stops only a centimeter before our lips touch when she hears a voice.
"Jennifer."
"It's my dad." She says, depressed.
"Right."
"I've gotta go."
"I'll call you tonight." I say, as she approaches the car.
She turns around and comes back.
"I'll be at my grandma's. Here, let me give you the number. Bye."
She scribbles her number on the back of the flier, with an attached message of "I love you!"
I smile as I fold the paper into quarters and put it in my life-vest.
I ride my board the two miles back to my house and pull into my drive way as the sun sets.
I see our family car, totaled and wrecked being delivered by a tow truck in the drive way.
"Perfect, just perfect." I say, tapping the hood.
"I can't believe you loaned me a car, without telling me it had a blindspot. I could've been killed."
"Now, now, Biff, now, I never noticed any blindspot before when I would drive it. Hi, son."
I recognize the two voices in the kitchen before I'm through the front door.
The first, manly voice, belongs to Biff Tannen. Resident *******.
The second, timid voice, belongs to my father, George McFly. The town doormat.
A wave of shame flows over me to know both of them.
I wave sheepishly to my dad as Biff keeps ranting.
"But, what are you blind McFly, it's there. How else do you explain that wreck out there?"
My dad changes the subject,
"Now, Biff, um, can I assume that your insurance is gonna pay for the damage?"
"My insurance? It's your car, your insurance should pay for it.
Hey, I wanna know who's gonna pay for this?" Biff says, pointing at his shirt,
"I spilled beer all over it when that car smashed into me. Who's gonna pay my cleaning bill?"
I come dangerously close to pointing out to Biff that perhaps drinking alcohol and driving don't mesh well, but the fact that he can tear me a new one three times over stops me.
Grabbing some nuts, Biff continues to have a tantrum.
"And where's my reports?"
Ah, yes. Biff's idea of work: push the weakest man in the office around until he's willing to do the work for you.
"Uh, well, I haven't finished those up yet, but you know I figured since they weren't due till-"
Biff promptly wraps his hand around my dad's tie, pulls him close to the ground, and knocks on his skull with his knuckles.
"Hello, hello, anybody home? Think, McFly, think. I gotta have time to get them re-typed. Do you realize what would happen if I hand in my reports in your handwriting. I'll get fired. You wouldn't want that to happen would you?"
He pulls my dad in closer,
"Would you?"
"Of course not, Biff, now I wouldn't want that to happen. Now, uh, I'll finish those reports up tonight, and I'll run em them on over first thing tomorrow,
alright?" My dad says, pretending to run.
"Hey, not too early I sleep in on Saturday." Biff points to the ground. My father looks down, too.
"Oh, McFly, your shoe's untied. Don't be so gullible, McFly." Biff says, slapping my father's face. He prances through our home as if he owns it and opens the fridge.
"You got the place fixed up nice, McFly." "I have you're car towed all the way to your house and all you've got for me is light beer?"
"What are you looking at, butthead?" Biff asks, glaring at me.
"Say 'hi' to your mom for me." He adds, leaving.
"I know what you're gonna say, son, and you're right, you're right, But Biff just happens to be my supervisor, and I'm afraid I'm not very good at confrontations."
"The car, Dad, I mean He wrecked it, totaled it. I needed that car tomorrow night, Dad, I mean do you have any idea how important this was, do you have any clue?"
"I know, and all I could say is I'm sorry."
After an uneventful dinner, I pull myself up the stairs and fall into bed.
I'm woken up by my cordless phone ringing.
I wearily answer it. If this is a prank call, I might just lose it.
"Hello?"
"Marty, you didn't fall asleep, did you?"
"Uh Doc, uh no." I say, waking up immediately.
"No, don't be silly."
"Listen, this is very important, I forgot my video camera, could you stop by my place and pick it up on your way to the mall?"
"Um, yeah, I'm on my way."
After a quick trip to Doc's house, I skate into the parking lot of the mall. The clock outside reads 1:16 AM.
I skate next to Doc Brown's white van and see Einstein sitting next to it, panting.
I kneel down next to him and pet him.
"Einstein, hey Einstein, where's the Doc, boy, huh?"
My reuniting with Einy is cut short by the back of the van opening. Smoke pours out and I see the front end of a machine slide out.
Once the machine comes to a stop on the cold pavement and the smoke clears, I realize it's a car... a DeLorean to be specific.
Sure, it's got a few modifications, but I woke up at 1 in the Morning... for a DeLorean?
Doc emerges from the other side of in demand and runs towards me.
"Marty! You made it."
"Yeah." I say, half asleep.
"Welcome to my latest experiment. It's the one I've been waiting for all my life." Doc says, obviously thrilled.
Stating the obvious, I simply mutter,
"Um, well it's a DeLorean, right?"
"Bare with me, Marty, all of your questions will be answered. Roll tape, we'll proceed."
I go to ask about the car again,
"Doc, is that a De-"
"Never mind that now, never mind that now."
Adjusting the camera I say with a sigh,
"Alright, I'm ready."
I press the "Record" button on the old, beaten up tape recorder in my hands and give the Doc a thumbs up. He straightens his jacket apprehensively and runs a hand through his hair. He's standing in front of the silver DeLorean.
"Good evening, I'm Doctor Emmett Brown. I'm standing on the parking lot of Twin Pines Mall. It's Saturday morning, October 26, 1985, 1:18 a.m. and this is temporal experiment number one. C'mon, Einy, hey hey boy, get in there, that a boy, in you go, get down, that's it." He says, opening the gull wing doors of the car, and puts his dog in the passenger seat.
He pulls a watch out from under his t-shirt and lab coat and compares it with one around Einstein's neck.
"Please note that Einstein's clock is in complete synchronization with my control watch." He says, as the numbers change from 1:20 to 1:21 AM in exact sync.
"Right check, Doc." I say, nodding with the camera.
"Good. Have a good trip Einstein, watch your head." He says, closing the door over his dog. He turns the car on and pulls out a remote control.
"You have this thing hooked up to the car?" Looking down at the RC controller.
"Watch this." I turn the camera towards him, but he shoos it away. "Not me, the car, the car." He turns a few knobs and flips a few switches and looks over at me.
"If my calculations are correct," He says. "When this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour, your gonna see some serious ****."
He throws the car into park at the other end of the lot. I stand still, apprehensively waiting for Doc Brown to tell me something as the tires on the car smoke.
As soon as the Mile per hour gauge reaches 32 mile per hour, Doc Brown flips one more switch and the car is gliding down the pavement, headed straight for us. When the car is about thirty yards from us, I try to get out of the way, but Doc Brown wraps a hand around my arm and pulls me in closer to him.
"Watch this, watch this." He says, as the car reaches 55 miles per hour. In the next 30 yards, the car reaches 80 miles per hour and the undercarriage illuminates as if electricity is flowing through it.
Some lights glow in the car and when it's inches away from us, the car disappears in a blinding flash of light, leaving nothing more than a fire-trail from the tires and Doc Brown's novelty license plate that reads "Outta Time."
"Ha, what did I tell you, eighty-eight miles per hour!" He says, leaping for joy.
"Eighty... eight!" He repeats over and over again, running to and fro in the
abandoned parking lot.
Then, as if he suddenly remember the eye of the camera was on him, he starts reciting scientific figures. "The temporal displacement occurred at exactly 1:20 a.m. and zero seconds!"
"Hot..." I say running a hand through my hair,
"Jesus Christ, Doc. Jesus Christ, Doc, you disintegrated Einstein!"
"Calm down, Marty, I didn't disintegrate anything! The molecular structure of Einstein and the car are completely intact!"
"Well, where the hell are they?" I ask in confusion.
"The appropriate question is: "when the hell are they?" You see, Einstein has just become the world's first time traveler. I sent him into the future. One minute into the future to be exact. And at exactly 1:21 a.m. we should catch up with him and the time machine." The Doc says hurridly.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute, Doc, are you telling me that you
built a time machine out of..." I pause, unsure if my next few words are going to make sense.
"...out of a DeLorean?"
