Back to the Future Part II (7 page)

At least, Foley thought, she and Reese agreed on something for a change. Sometimes, her partner's fanaticism about rules and regulations got to her. According to Reese, everything and anything had to be done by the book. Stop for coffee and donuts? See Section 8. sub-paragraph C. Reese had been a cop so long that all her human feelings were gone. Maybe. Foley reflected, she would end up like Reese, too, one of these days, her emotions buried under years of working slag-heaps like Hilldale.

Foley and Reese picked up the woman between them - she looked so young, Foley kept wanting to think of her as a girl. She must have spent a bundle at one of those cosmetic factories. And she lived in a place like this. Foley wondered if there might be something else going on here, the sort of thing a good police officer should investigate.

They pulled the girl - woman - from the car and carried her across what passed for a lawn, putting her down on the doorstep. Foley decided they might as well get this over with. She rang the doorbell. They waited for a moment in silence. There didn't seem to be anybody home. She noticed a thumb plate by the door.

‘They’ve got identipad,’ she said to her partner, pointing at the plate. ‘We could just take her in.'

‘Are you kirgo?’ Reese asked with a harsh laugh. ‘That’s a violation of the privacy act! We could get our crags numped!' She shook her head in that brusque, official way she had. ‘If we can’t revive her, we leave her here.’

Leave her out here? On the doorstep? Someone looking as young and innocent as that? In Hilldale, now, while dusk was falling? Foley hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

Sometimes she hated her job.

Reese gently but firmly patted the sleeping woman's face.

‘Miss? Miss?’

The woman started to come around. She blinked her eyes, having obvious trouble focusing on anything. Not at all unusual for a trank.

‘Uhhhh,’ she groaned. ‘Where am I?’

You're home. Miss,' Reese replied matter-of-factly.

You got a little tranked, but everything's fine. Can you walk?’

The citizen still seemed a little disoriented.

‘I - I don’t know,’ she managed after a moment.

'Would you like us to take you inside?’ Reese asked.

Foley was surprised at that. She guessed, once the citizen was awake, regulations would allow you to offer assistance. Or maybe her partner still had some human feelings after all.

‘Oohhh The woman’s eyes almost crossed. Foley guessed she would have trouble standing, much less walking. ‘Okay,’ the citizen added weakly.

So now they could use the identiplate. Sometimes, Foley swore, she could make no sense at all out of those numping regulations! Foley gently picked up the citizen’s limp hand and pressed the woman's thumb into the plate below the doorbell. The door shooshed open.

Reese and Foley each took one of the woman's arms and helped her inside.

'Welcome home, Jennifer!’ a computer voice chirrupped merrily. No surprise that the computer was one of those outdated models, all warm and insincere.

Since the lights didn’t come on, there was no way to tell where they were going. They took her into what should have been the living-room.

‘Ma’am,’ Reese spoke with as much concern as Foley had ever heard. ‘You should reprogram. It's dangerous to enter without lights on.'

‘Lights on?’ the citizen replied groggily.

The computer activated the lights at tho voice command. Voice activation? This program was even older than Foley had imagined!

And the furniture in this place! She was sure there wasn’t anything in here made after 1990. The scratched coffee table, sagging couches and threadbare chairs, all reminded Foley of the kind of stuff you’d find in one of those charity stores - except the stuff in those stores would be in a lot better shape.

The two officers eased the citizen down on the sofa.

'Just take it easy and you’ll be fine,’ Reese said brusquely. ‘And you be careful in the future.

The citizen - Jennifer - looked groggily up at the two officers.

‘The future?’

There was the oddest expression on her face - like there was something wrong with the future. Maybe, Foley thought, she was just reading into the woman’s expression. Still, it wasn’t surprising. When you lived in a place like Hilldale, you didn’t have much of a future to look forward to.

‘So long. Mrs McFly,’ Foley called, trying to sound cheerful despite it all.

‘So long,’ the citizen replied, still half in her tranked-out stupor. In a way, Foley couldn’t blame her for turning to chemicals. Who knew - maybe Foley would have done the same thing if she had been stuck in a dead-end place like this?

Sometimes she really hated this job.

‘Mrs McFIy!’

Jennifer woke up. That’s what the police officers had called her Mrs McFly. And they had talked to her about the future. Was that where she was? The future? She remembered getting in the DeLorean with Marty and Doc, the lights and noise, and then that display that said they were in 2015. That's right! She had been all excited about being here with Marty, and had started asking Doc Brown all those questions.

And then what?

She must have fallen asleep. But how could you fall asleep if you had just gone someplace as exciting as the future? And why wasn’t she in the DeLorean anymore? Had something happened to Marty and Doc? It must have - they wouldn’t just leave her all alone -would they? And why had she been with the police?

And where had the police left her?

She stood up and looked around. The policewomen had called her Mrs McFly. Could this be where she lived - in the future?

The first thing she noticed was a large picture window that looked out over the grounds of what must be a very large estate. There were manicured lawns, formal gardens, and row after row of neatly trimmed hedges, all leading back to a charming white gazebo in the distance. The view was all quite lovely, except for one thing. It was daylight out there. Hadn’t it been getting dark a few minutes ago, when the cops brought her in?

Jennifer frowned as she looked at the room around her. Shouldn’t the furniture be nicer if they lived in a mansion? The things she could see, in this room at least, looked pretty shabby. There were stairs going up to the second floor at one end of the living room, right next to the front door. She wondered if she should go upstairs to see if things were any different.

She glanced over at a book case that took up most or the wall next to the stairs. There was A Match Made In Space, the book Marty’s father had written. Jennifer walked over to get a closer look, and saw that it wasn’t a book after all - the label on its side said ‘videobook’, whatever that was. And just beyond that on the shelf were another half-dozen videobooks, all of them with neatly hand-written labels:

FAMILY VACATIONS - 1995-2005

GEORGE & LORRAINE 50TH ANNIVERSARY

THE KIDS: MARTY JUNIOR AND MARLENE. VOL. 1

THE KIDS: MARTY JUNIOR AND MARLENE. VOL. 3

THE KIDS: MARTY JUNIOR AND MARLENE. VOL. 2

Jennifer gasped. This really was her house that the police had brought her to - her house in the future, that is. This wasn’t just any old future, it was her future.

But all thoughts of the videobooks left her when she took a closer look at the framed photo at the end of the shelf. It was a wedding picture - of Jennifer and Marty But she was just wearing everyday clothes and Marty was wearing a t-shirt with a tux front printed on it! What had happened to that big church wedding that she had wanted? They were both standing in front of a big neon sign that read ‘Las Vegas’ 
own - CHAPEL OF LOVE!’ 
Chapel of Love? They must
 have eloped!

'Oh, my God!' Jennifer cried. 'I get married in the ?Chapel of Love?'

She and Marty had eloped? What about their parents? What could have happened to their future?

A girl’s voice called out from upstairs.

’Mom? Is that you?’

Oh, no. There was somebody else here! What could Jennifer do?

‘I’ve gotta get out of here! ’ she whispered. The wedding photo fell from her hands and clattered to the floor. She ran for the front door as she heard footsteps upstairs.

Jennifer stopped and stared at the door in horror. There was no doorknob. There were no marks of any kind, only some weird metal plate on the wall nearby. The front door was nothing but a solid slab of wood. She stepped up to the door and pushed against it. It didn't budge. How could she possibly get it open?

Jennifer jumped as the doorbell rang. There must be somebody on the other side of the front door, somebody right in front of her. Maybe the newcomer knew the secret way to open this thing. What if the front door suddenly disappeared or something? But Jennifer didn’t want to be seen, by anybody! She turned around, looking for some other way out of here. The footsteps upstairs were getting louder. She thought she saw the girl’s shadow on the landing.

‘Mom?’ the girl’s voice called. ‘Mom?’

Where could Jennifer go?

Jennifer spotted a louvered door beyond the bookcase, a door with a handle that she could open and close. Maybe it was a way out of here!

She yanked the door open, and was confronted by a dozen hanging coats.

She heard the footsteps start down the stairs overhead.

Jennifer jumped into the closet. She eased the door shut behind her. The footsteps clumped heavily towards the front door. Who could it be? If this was her house, in her future, would it be someone in her family? Jennifer wished she could see what was going on out there.

Maybe she could. There was light coming into the closet from the louvered door. She shifted around as quietly as possible, doing her best to keep the coats behind her. If she leaned forward just so, she could peek through the slats.

A teenage girl stepped into the living-room at the bottom of the stairs. Oh, my God! Jennifer breathed in sharply. The teenager was the spitting image of Marty!

The teenager disappeared from sight as she moved toward the front door. There was a soft shooshing sound.

The teenager stepped beck into view. 'Oh, hi, Grandma Lorraine.'

 Grandma Lorraine? Marty's mother? Jennifer peeked through the slats, but the newcomer was still out of sight.

'Hi, sweetheart,' Grandma Lorraine replied. She sounded like Marty's mother. 'I brought dinner. Are your folks home yet?'

The teenager shrugged her broad shoulders. She was built sort of huskily for a girl. Jennifer thought, probably one of those high school athletic types.

'Mom should be home any minute.’ the teenager answered her grandmother. ‘Dad - who knows?'

‘Mom?’ Jennifer asked under her breath.

She blinked. If Dad was Marty -

Oh my God! Jennifer realised - it would have been obvious if this future business wasn't all so new to her - she was Mom!

The teenager stepped back to let her grandmother in. Grandma Lorraine walked past the stairs, so Jennifer could see her at last. She was Marty’s mother, older now, with grey hair. Still, she looked pretty good for a woman in her seventies. She was carrying a small, silver bag - too small. Jennifer thought, to hold dinner for a whole family. So where was the food? 

'Grandpa! the teenage girl called. 'You threw your back out again!'

There was a humming noise as a machine coasted across Jennifer s view, a machine that held Marty’s father - with grey hair now, but still as skinny as ever - strapped in 
upside down! George
 stopped the gizmo right in front of the bookcase next to Jennifer's hiding place, close enough for her to read the ‘Ortho-lev’ name-plate on the machine’s crossbar.

‘Your grandpa got hit by a car,’ Grandma Lorraine explained. ‘On the golf course! It just dropped out of the sky. He could have been killed!’ She shook her head with a grandmotherly frown. 'I don’t know what this world’s coming to.’

‘I'll take this. Grandma.'

The teenage girl - boy, did she look like Marty! - stepped in front of Jennifer’s hiding place and took the little bag from Lorraine.

Grandma Lorraine walked over to the window. There seemed to be something wrong with the view now. The lawn, the gardens, the gazebo - all of it was slowly rolling, like a TV screen that was losing its vertical hold. There was also snow or static or something up toward the top of the picture.

‘Oh.’ Grandma spoke as if she wasn’t surprised. ‘This window’s s
till
 broken.’

She walked back across the room and picked up a remote control unit from the bookshelf. The image in the window changed to a tropical island, then abruptly shifted to a mountain view, and just as quickly changed to a picture of a city at night, but all three flipped and were full of static. Then the city, too, blipped out of existence, replaced a moment later by a night-time view that was nowhere near as picturesque.

This, Jennifer realised, must be the real view outside, with no flip, and no static. It showed the side of the building next door, complete with half a dozen garbage cans overflowing with trash.

'Maybe we should buy them a new one.' Grandma Lorraine suggested. 'What do you think. George? We could afford it.'

She stepped further into the room, out of Jennifer's line of sight.

‘Well ..'.Grandpa George didn't sound very enthusiastic. Or very quick to make up his mind.

‘I don’t know.’ he said at last. His floating harness whirred as he picked something up from the floor. Jennifer’s heart almost stopped when she realised it was the wedding photo she had dropped! But old George merely put the photo back on its shelf -although Jennifer could have sworn he put the picture back upside down.

‘Yeah. Grandma,’ the teenage girl spoke again. Seeing Lorraine fiddle with that big video screen had reminded Jennifer about the names written on those videobooks - the ones about the kids - Marty Junior and - Marlene?