Babs giggled. Here was a mission she could understand. “I’ll drive you,” she said.
“All right. Let’s go before he gets out of sight.”
The two girls were headed for Babs’ car when Lorraine suddenly found herself face to face with George McFly once again.
“Hi,” he muttered.
The chocolate mustache was still there. Looking away, Lorraine said brusquely: “Hi. Sorry I have to go now, but I’m really busy.”
He fell in step beside her. “This’ll only take a second,” he began. “I was wondering if you’d like to go to the dance with me Saturday night.”
“The dance? Oh, yes—”
“Yes, you’ll go?” George leaped in.
“No. What I meant to say was…yes, that’s right, the dance is this Saturday. Time sure flies, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah…Well?”
“I’m sorry. I sort of made a prior commitment but I haven’t found out about it yet.”
“How can you do that?” George asked.
“It’s very complicated. But if I didn’t have this thing that may be coming up, maybe I’d go with you.”
George took her reply as a positive one, despite the network of disclaimers.
“Maybe if I…that is, we waited a day or two—”
“Oh, no,” Lorraine smiled. “That wouldn’t be fair to you.”
“Well, you’re the only girl I want to take,” he said, hating himself all the while for wearing his heart on his sleeve.
“Thank you,” Lorraine said. “Maybe next time.”
“The next dance isn’t until spring.”
“Well, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?” Lorraine cooed, having just learned the line in English class.
“Yeah, but it’s not even winter yet,” George protested weakly.
“Thanks very much for asking,” Lorraine said, leaping into Babs’ car. “I’ll see you later.”
“Yeah…”
“And wipe off your mouth.”
She drove off, leaving him standing on the sidewalk, his fingers exploring his upper lip.
The candles masquerading as lamp posts were the nicest touch, Doc Brown thought, moving several steps backwards to admire his work.
“Very good,” he murmured, smiling. “Maybe I’ll keep it up until Christmas and use it as a garden.”
He had spent most of the afternoon planning and constructing his own replica of Hill Valley’s Town Square. Set up on a large piece of plywood, it consisted primarily of a piece of wood with a watch strapped around it (the clock tower of the courthouse) with a “lightning rod” (a nail) attached to the top. A wire ran from the lightning rod down across the square and between two lamp posts across the street. Near the lamp posts sat a windup toy car with a small wire sticking straight up from the back. To the wire was attached a hook.
Consulting his worksheet which contained lines of statistics and computations, Doc Brown nodded. He was sure it would work.
“Good,” he said as Marty entered. “Now I can explain this to you. How did you make out with the continuing saga of George and Lorraine?”