Back To The Future, Part II

The second cop frowned up at her partner.

‘Hey, did it just say her birthday was 1968? She’s got one hell of a job! Wonder who her doctor is. My mother-in-law could use a lift like this. ’

The other cop laughed. ‘She couldn’t afford work like that! That’s a whole face and body job.’ She looked back down at the still-sleeping Jennifer. ‘Well, she’s clean. That means we take her home.'

The cops picked Jennifer up and carried her to the police car.

‘Oh. no!’ Marty whispered as the police car took off - straight up. The cops had Jennifer, and were taking her home. Home? Who knew where home was? He had to find Doc Brown right away!

He ran out of the alley, back toward the park. ‘Marty!’ Doc's voice called to him. ‘Over here!’ Marty spotted Doc over by the Café 80s. Doc had changed his clothes, wearing the sort of outfit, lab coat, Hawaiian shirt and all, that he used to sport back in 1985!

‘Doc!’ Marty called breathlessly as he ran to meet him. ‘We're in some serious shit!’

‘What do you mean?’ Doc pointed into the window of the Café. ‘Did something go wrong in there?’

‘In there?' Marty nodded. ‘Yeah! For one thing, the real Marty Junior showed up!’

Doc’s eyes grew wide when he realised his mistake. ‘Great Scott!’ He snapped his fingers in frustration. 'The sleep inducer! Because I used it on Jennifer, there wasn’t enough power left to knock your son out for the full twenty minutes. Damn!’

Doc shrugged and shook his head. ‘It’s all my fault. Marty. I just assumed if we could get your son to say no to those guys, we could prevent the event that puts him in jail from ever happening.’

‘Doc. he did say no!’ Marty insisted. ‘And just as he was gonna change his mind, that's when I got into it.'

Doc raised his eyebrows. ‘Well, in that case He pulled the USA Today back out of his pocket. unfolding it to read the headline.

‘Marty, look!’ He hit the paper with the back of his hand. ‘It's changed!’

Marty looked over Doc’s shoulder. The headline was different. It no longer said LOCAL YOUTH JAILED IN ATTEMPTED THEFT! It now read LOCAL YOUTHS JAILED FOR RECKLESS HOVERBOARDING! And the photo of Marty was gone, too, replaced instead by pictures of Griff and his gang - and a shot of the damage they had done to the courthouse. The photo of Marty Junior was gone!

Doc pulled out his binocular card to get a better look at the courthouse, and what looked to Marty like a robot, with a USA Today logo on its back, taking a picture of the wreckage. Marty realised that very photo must be the one that appeared in the new version of tomorrow’s newspaper - the version they had right in front of them. But that was weird. How could something change when it hadn’t happened yet? Marty decided he still didn’t understand this time travel business at all!

Doc tucked the binocular card back in his pocket and grinned broadly.

‘Proof beyond positive that we’ve succeeded!’ he cheered. ‘Because this hoverboard incident has now occurred, Griff now goes to jail. Therefore, your son won’t go with him tonight, and that robbery will never take place! Thus, due to the ripple effect, the newspaper is now altered!’

‘The ripple effect?’ Marty asked.

Doc nodded. ‘Just as the past affects the future, the future reverberates into the past.’

Whoa. This was heavy. But Marty remembered something like this happening once before, when he had first messed things up in 1955.

‘Kind of like that picture of me and Dave and Linda,’ he asked, ‘where my brother and sister started to disappear?’

‘Precisely!’ Doc patted his young cohort enthusiastically on the shoulder. ‘Marty, we’ve succeeded! Not exactly as I planned, but no matter. Mission accomplished!' He took a step toward the alley. ‘Let’s get Jennifer and go home.’

Oh, no! That’s what Marty had meant to tell him!

‘But that’s just it. Doc!’ Marty exclaimed. ‘The police took her away!’

Doc looked like Marty had just told him that one of his dogs had died.

‘Great Scott! Are you sure?’

Marty glanced back toward the alley. ‘About a minute before I found you.’

‘Damn!’ Doc snapped his fingers in frustration. ‘Those cops were the reason I didn’t land the DeLorean here.’ His voice dropped lower as he confessed: 'Some of the modifications I’ve made on it aren’t exactly street legal.’

He waved for Marty to follow him into the alley. Once they were both out of sight of the courthouse, Doc pushed back his sleeve to reveal what Marty had thought was a wristwatch, but apparently also served as a remote control for the DeLorean. Doc twisted something on the wrist device, and the car appeared overhead, emerging from wherever Doc had hidden it behind the buildings. Doc pressed something else on the midget remote, and the car lowered to the ground. He pulled a larger remote control unit from another one of his pockets - the same remote he had used way back at the Twin Pines Mall, when this whole thing had started - and manoeuvred the DeLorean in front of them.