Regarding a certain Calvin Klien...
A/N: I wrote this fic to satisfy my curiosity about what would have happened if Marty, who'd heard about 'Calvin Klien' from his parents, asked Doc about him...the Marty in the story is the Lone Pine Marty obviously...
August 24th, 1985
"Say Doc", 17 year old Marty McFly began, one Saturday evening, when he was hanging out at his friend and mentor Emmett 'Doc' Brown's garage lab, killing time before his date with Jennifer.
"Hmm", the inventor absent-mindedly said. He was hunched over a table, bent down over some new device he was working on.
"Who's Calvin Klien?" Marty asked Doc curiously.
"Who?" Doc asked, evidently not having heard his young friend clearly.
"Calvin Klien, Doc", Marty said, a bit louder.
"Oh...Calvin Klien? Why isn't he that famous designer fellow? Marty, please don't waste my time with pop quizzes right now...I'm a bit busy now", Doc said hurriedly.
"Doc, not THAT Calvin Klien...I'm talking about another one...whom my folks met back in '55. Your nephew, Doc. THAT Calvin Klien!"
There was a sudden tense moment. Doc seemed almost to have a heart attack when he heard Marty's statement. A shocked expression came over his face, though Marty couldn't see it. "Great SCOTT!" he whispered loudly to himself.
"Um, Doc..." Marty asked, slightly perturbed by his friend's silence.
"Oh, sorry Marty...my mind...wandered a bit", Doc said turning round. "Yes...I remember...Calvin".
"I wanna know about him Doc...mom keeps raving about what a 'dream boat' he was...and my old man, he keeps telling me that Calvin Klien's the one who made him who he is today. But they don't seem to know much about him...except that you were his uncle!" Marty said.
"Yes. Yes, of course... Calvin was my nephew, a very very distant relation", Doc said. "He stayed at my house for about a week back in November 1955"
"Was his nickname really 'Marty'?" Marty asked almost incredulously. "Cuz mom said she kinda named me after him. Though 'Martin's' an old family name too".
"Yeah it was...curious coincidence, that", Doc said. Marty could have sworn he saw Doc almost roll his eyes when he said that.
"How did he come to know my parents, Doc?" Marty asked.
"Well...that's a pretty long story, Marty...perhaps some other time..." Doc said, trying to brush him off, but Marty was persistent. "C'mon, Doc...I've heard my parents speak about this guy for most of my life...I wanna know about him!"
"Oh, you'll find out someday, Marty..." Doc said. Then the scientist stole a glance at a nearby calendar and added softly, "Quite soon, in fact".
Marty didn't notice his friend's glance at the calendar. "PLEASE Doc...why can't you just tell me?"
Doc sighed. Obviously there was no getting past the persistence of his young friend.
"Well", Doc said, sitting down. "He met your father first. Saved him from being knocked over by a car. Your grandfather's car. That's how he met your mother...she became a bit...infatuated with him. The Florence Nightingale effect", he added by way of explanation.
"Oh I see", Marty said. "You mean, she fell for him cuz she felt sorry that her dad hit him with the car".
"Precisely", Doc said. "But Calvin knew that your father was the one she really cared for all the while". As he said that, Doc crossed his fingers behind his back. "So he...uh...helped your father...gave him some valuable advice which I'd given him...and which I've always given you time and again".
"If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything", Marty muttered.
"So what happened to him?" Marty asked. "Mom claims they never saw him again, after the day of their first date".
"Well", Doc hesitated and then continued, "We...uh, kind off lost touch after that...I heard he'd moved abroad...never heard from him again after a couple of years".
For a few moments, the two friends stayed silent. Then Marty at last spoke, "That's a pity...I kinda hoped I could meet him someday. He seems like a pretty cool guy".
"Oh I'm sure you would have liked him", Doc said, with a strange twinkle in his eye.
"I suppose, he's kinda the reason why I ended up being born", Marty said.
"Oh believe me Marty, he is...in ways you cannot begin to fathom", Doc said softly.
Suddenly, Doc's clocks chimed seven. "Jesus Christ, Doc! Is it seven already?" Marty exclaimed.
"Yeah", Doc said.
"Damn! I'm late for my date! See you later, Doc", Marty said as he hopped onto his skateboard and raced away.
Doc sighed and shook his head. "That kid really has no concept of time". Then he laughed aloud at the irony of his own words. After all, he alone knew that Marty was, in a little over two months from now, destined to be the world's first human time traveller.
But Great Scott! To imagine...if only Marty knew that the mystery matchmaker from thirty years from he was so eager to know about, even to meet, was...himself!
Doc sat back in his chair and stared at the device he had been working on. He had been putting finishing touches to nothing less than a device that would enable him to remotely control the Delorean, which would have its test run a little over two months from now. He'd got the idea from watching that video Marty had shown him way back in 1955, but he knew there was a reality, had been a reality where he'd come up with it on his own...a reality where he and Marty had never even had that conversion about 'Calvin Klien'...
Thinking about Marty and the strange but miraculous events of November 1955, Doc almost absent-mindedly made his way to his safe, opened it using the digital combination lock (which had the code-111255; a tribute to the day he witnessed the first 'time travel experiment'; at least the first chronologically for him), and withdrew a taped together letter.
"It won't be long Marty", he muttered to himself, reading for the zillionth time through the letter that would save his life not long from now. "Not long before we can talk about everything that happened back in those days. Not long before we can talk about who Calvin Klien really was".
He sighed and put the letter back in the safe.
Now, he thought, he really must do something about ordering that bulletproof vest...