‘Well,’ Dave drawled in response, ‘if you don’t know, how do you expect me to tell you?’
He laughed as if that was the funniest thing he had ever heard.
Dave grabbed his brother’s arm. ‘Hey, let’s go have a few, huh? You got money, don’t you?’ He started to pull Marty toward the tavern.
Marty pulled back.
What are you talking about, Dave? I’m under age!’ brother stopped and stared at him.
‘So, Marty,’ he said at last, ‘when’d you get back?’ Marty had no idea what Dave was talking about. ‘Back?’ he asked. ‘Back from where?’
‘Well,’ Dave drawled in response, ‘if you don’t know, how do you expect me to tell you?’
He laughed as if that was the funniest thing he had ever heard.
Dave grabbed his brother’s arm. ‘Hey, let’s go have a few, huh? You got money, don’t you?’ He started to pull Marty toward the tavern.
Marty pulled back.
‘What are you talking about, Dave? I’m under age!’ His brother stopped and stared at him.
‘Under age? Quit kiddin’ around! You been over fourteen since’- he paused with a frown, trying to concentrate -‘since’- he shrugged and grinned, as if concentration was far beyond someone in his state -‘well, since your fourteenth birthday!’
Dave thought that remark was funnier than the last one. He roared and roared.
‘Fourteen?’ Marty asked. Did his brother mean the drinking age around here was fourteen? Oh, well, it didn’t matter. There was only one thing that did what had happened to everybody?
‘Listen Dave, I gotta find Mom and Dad.’
Dave stared back at his brother, suddenly sober.
‘Dad? You gotta find Dad? That’s sick, Marty. That’s really sick. What’s the matter with you, anyway?’ He shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe anyone could be that unfeeling. ‘And since when are you and Mom on speaking terms again?’
Marty was getting more confused with every passing minute here.
‘Speaking terms?’ he asked. What was going on here? But, maybe, Marty thought, any explanation Dave might give him would confuse him even more.
‘Look, do you know where she is?’ he asked Dave instead. ‘Can you tell me where I can find Mom?’ Dave shrugged as if he could care less.
‘Same place as usual, I guess. In there.’
He pointed toward Biff Tannen’s Paradise Hotel.
In there? .
Marty turned back to his brother, but Dave had already staggered half-way back toward the bar. Maybe. Marty thought, he should stop Dave. But he needed to find his mother, and figure out what had happened!
He walked toward the hotel.
Just before the hotel entrance was the door to another building, the BIFF TANNEN MUSEUM according to the neon sign out front. Marty stopped for a second to stare at the display area in front of the ticket window.
There, in the middle of the display, was the black roadster Biff had driven back in 1955 - the same one that had gotten bashed in in that collision with a manure truck. Except now the car had been totally restored; it was so sleek and brightly polished that it almost looked brand new. And next to that was a lifelike wax figure of Biff! It was a pretty good likeness, too - the same burly body and sloping forehead. They had even gotten the smirk right.
A deep voice was speaking over a loudspeaker somewhere nearby:
‘Of course, we've all heard the legend. But who is the man? Inside, you will learn how Biff Tannen became one of the richest and most powerful men in America!’
Biff Tannen was one of me richest and most powerful men in America? That would explain a lot. There was a video monitor over at the other end of the display. Marty walked over to get a closer look. The monitor was showing a photo montage - in colour and black and white - pictures from Biff's childhood, his high school sports' triumphs, shots of the exhibits inside. The same, deep announcer’s voice spoke in the background: