Back To The Future, Part II

Marty admitted it; he was more than shaken up, and not just with that huge, flying truck. Commercial transport airspace? Transponder?

It was time for some answers.

‘What the hell’s going on, Doc?’ Marty demanded. ‘Where are we? When are we?’

Doc pointed at the time display as he eased the nose of the DeLorean downward.

Marty read the digital display:

‘OCTOBER 21 2015. 4:29 P.M.’

‘We’re descending toward Hill Valley, California,’ Doc repeated much too calmly, ‘on Wednesday October 21 2015.’

‘2015?’ Marty repeated. ‘You mean, we’re actually in the future?’

They were suddenly surrounded by flying passenger cars that didn't look all that different from the DeLorean. They must be down in the non-commercial air lanes now. The cars seemed to be going much too

East in all this rain, but then, Marty realised, there weren’t any roads to slip on any more, were there?

An old, beat-up heap with a noisy muffler zipped past them, its dented rear-end covered with bumper stickers:

I brake for birds!

Littering can kill!

This summer, do something a robot can’t do - pick grapes!

Littering could kill? Marty looked down from the window of the DeLorean. He guessed almost anything could kill if you dropped it from this height.

Marty had to face it. He was having a little trouble coming to grips with all this.

Sure, he had travelled through time before, but that had been into the past, where he’d met younger versions of his parents and other people from Hill Valley. Everybody remembered the past. It was just something you accepted as being there. But travelling to the future - he was someplace where stuff hadn’t even happened yet!

Jennifer turned from where she too had been gazing out the window. She looked at both Marty and Doc with that same, cautious expression Marty had seen when he announced he had been gone for a week and she had seen him the day before.

‘The future?’ she asked tentatively. ‘Marty, what do you mean? How can we be in the future?’

Marty tried to think of a good way to explain things. He decided there wasn’t a good one.

‘Oh, well,’ he tried anyway, ‘you see, this is actually a time machine.' He patted the dashboard.

Jennifer continued to stare at Marty. ‘Doc built a time machine out of a DeLorean?’

Marty grinned and shrugged.‘That’s Doc.’

‘I figure if you're gonna build a time machine in a car,’ Doc agreed cheerfully, ‘why not do it with some style!’

‘And this is the year - 2015?’ Jennifer pointed at the main digital time display.

‘October 21 2015,’ Doc repeated with a hint of pride at his accomplishment.

‘So, like, you weren't kidding? We can actually find out what happens to ourselves!’ Jennifer got this funny little smile.

‘Now, did you say we were married? And we’ve got kids?’

Her smile got larger, as if she liked the idea.

‘How many kids?’