Author's Note: Have your parents ever said to you: "you don't know how good you've got it"? Well, this episode story was kind of inspired by that saying. See, Jules and Verne start taking everything for granted and their parents decided to take them back to the hard times of the Great Depression. In order to show them how "good they've got it." I think if my parents had a time machine they would of done the same thing. Oh, and I'm sorry if it gets a little sappy at the end. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: If I created Back to the Future then my name would have been in the opening credits. It wasn't. So, I have no rights to anything (except my fan fiction.)
Hill Valley, California
September 26, 1992
4:47 PM
"Give back my army men skunkhead!"
"Hush brother, I'm doing an experiment."
Jules and Verne were in the play loft that was located above their father's lab. Jules was squatting on his knees with his science logbook out and a magnifying glass in one hand. The little green army men were standing in a group and Jules raised a magnify glass over their unknowing heads. Verne watched as his brother melted the noble Americans into a pile of green goo.
"Whatever I'll get more," Verne said and went back to his baseball cards.
Meanwhile, Doc was downstairs in the lab. He was at the DeLorean time machine and working on the delicate tubes on the outside of the car. He had been working on that part of the car for a few days now and it was just about complete.
Suddenly Doc heard all this shouting and noise from upstairs. He put down the pliers and tubing he was working with and glanced upwards.
"Jumpin' jigawatts, what is all that sound disturbance?" the scientist said and proceeded to go up the stairs to the play loft. When he reached the top of the stairs he saw that his sons were fighting over a small black device with two game controls attached to it.
"Give it to me Jules!" Verne shouted as he tried to tug the Nintendo out of his older sibling's hands.
"Release it Verne!" Jules yelled.
Doc quickly separated the two. The boys saw that their father looked slightly annoyed at the childish fight.
"Boys what is going on?" the scientist asked.
"Father I wanted to use the Nintendo but Verne wouldn't allow it," Jules said and cast an accusative glance towards his younger brother. Verne looked both shocked and angry.
"Thant's not true you dork!" Verne yelled and the two commenced arguing again. They were shouting so loud that Doc had to raise his voice to the point where it cracked to be heard. With all the shouting, one of the boys made a grab for the Nintendo but it slipped out of their hands and fell to the floor with a terrible crack.
Everyone looked down to see the dropped Nintendo. The poor device had an ugly crack right down the middle of it from being dropped to the ground. It was totally ruined.
The funny thing was Jules and Verne didn't seem to care. They just shrugged and looked around for something else to do. Doc, however, was not calm about the busted game console.
"Boys look at what you caused!" Doc said as he picked up the Nintendo. The electronic device split in his hands. "Clara and I work hard to afford such entertainment devices as this. Do you know how much this cost? Do you know how much all your toys cost?"
"Nope," Verne simply said. He turned to his brother whom seemed to be calculating.
"Well it is quite an amount and I expect you to take care of your things," Doc said crossly. "You know, children I grew up with didn't have as many toys as you two have. Some children I knew didn't even have one toy."
Doc looked up from the broken device and saw that his sons weren't even paying attention. Instead of yelling at them like any father would, Doc just hurried downstairs. He needed to talk to Clara about this new dilemma.
The scientist went out of the barn and along the ground of crinkly leaves. Clara was just a few yards away in her vegetable garden. Now was the time of year she would harvest all the organic veggies she had meticulously grown all summer. When he reached her, Clara was in the middle of pulling up carrots.
"Hello honey," Clara said as she tugged at a rather tough carrot. She had dirt all over her hands and streaks of it on her pretty face. There were even some small leaves in her brown hair. "How are the DeLorean repairs coming?"
"They are nearing conclusion," Doc said with a smile as he picked some leaves out of his wife's hair. "I was just up in the boys' play loft. Clara I learned that Jules and Verne don't really appreciative of their possessions or how fortunate they are to have them."
"Are you saying we spoiled them?" Clara asked, a serious look now on her dirt-smeared face.
"Well no," Doc said. "But they seem absolutely unappreciative of what they have. It must be a state they're slipping into and I frankly do not approve of it."
"Golly," Clara said. "I don't like the sound of it either."
"We have to do something," Doc said and furrowed his brow in thought. "Something to make the boys realize how lucky they are. We have to..."
Doc stopped and Clara saw his "I have an idea" face.
"Emmett what are you thinking?" she asked curiously.
"I know what to do," Doc said with a smile and squatted down to his wife. He started whispering his idea into her ear.
0 0 0
Jules and Verne stood in the cellar with their parents preparing the time train. They didn't really know why they were here but only that it was important. As such, Verne was playing his game boy and Jules was taking notes.
"So we're going on a time trip?" Verne asked as he paused his game of Tetris.
"Yes," Doc answered and jumped down from the front of the train. Unfortunately, he didn't see Einstein and ended up stepping on the dog's tail. Einstein yelped and backed away from his owner. "Sorry Einy."
"We're going to Hill Valley of 1935," Clara answered. "A year smack dab in the middle of the Great Depression."
"The Great Depression?" Jules repeated, he didn't seem to quite comprehend all this. "Why?"
Clara jumped down too (thankfully missing the dog) and moved next to her husband. She nodded to signal that they should tell them.
"To teach you two a well-deserved lesson," Doc said slowly. "You two are going to see America, Hill Valley, in one of the worst times ever. Hopefully this will teach you how truly lucky you are."
"And to have greater respect for your toys," Clara put in.
Jules and Verne looked at each other like they had been ambushed or something. Nevertheless, they followed their parents onto the time train. Doc went to the controls and skillfully typed in the date with the typewriter keys. Then he chugged them out of the cellar and along the home-made tracks until they hit 88.
Hill Valley, California
July 2, 1935
8:50 AM
BOOM BOOM B-CRASH!
The time train appeared in 1935 but chugged right into an enormous haystack. Straws of hay scattered up in the air and large clumps of it rolled onto the time train. The hay that was in the air came down and covered the parts of the train that were exposed. The Brown family had to dig their way out of the mess.
"My that was lucky," Clara said as she picked some hay straws out of her hair. "Now we don't have to find a station to hide the time machine."
Jules and Verne brushed themselves off and looked around. The Brown family had apparently came back to their own farm (in a different year, of course). The boys recognized the farmhouse and the barn. The only difference was that there were animals everywhere and a small chicken coop. It was a fully functioning farm, be it broken in.
Before the boys could finish observing, each were taken by the hand of each parent. Doc took Verne's hand and Clara took Jules' hand. Then the boys were led to Courthouse Square of the town.
0 0 0
Hill Valley's Courthouse Square greatly differed from the present Hill Valley. The whole place greatly resembled a ghost town of those old Western movies. Most of the stores were boarded up and out of business or displayed signs saying: NOW HIRING, LITTLE COMPENSATION. Jules spotted some slovenly men snoozing on the steps of the clock tower, even though the day had started. In short, Hill Valley could be described in one word: depressing.
"Whoa what happened to the town?" Verne asked, totally blown away at the scenery.
"Well Verny these were hard times," Doc began as they walked along. "The banks closing left many people without access to their savings and alot of stores went out of business. They couldn't pay their workers and no one could afford to shop there."
The Brown family passed by the familiar fruit stand from their present time. "Healthy Jack's Fruit and Vegetable Stand" except now it was "Healthy Jacob's Fruit and Vegetable Stand."
"Townsfolk could barely afford food to eat," Doc said and gestured toward the stand. "They had to eat really cheap things like cabbage and plain bread."
Jules and Verne looked at each other and made grossed-out faces. There was nothing more they hated eating than cabbage and un-buttered bread.
They continued on until Doc recognized an antique store he used to love. It had always had an amazing collection of clocks that had inspired him to start his own collection. Clara wanted to go in too and they told the boys to wait there for them. It would give Jules and Verne a chance to see the depressing town by themselves.
Jules and Verne just stood there in the middle of Courthouse Square. They weren't really sure what to say so neither of them talked. They didn't want to see anymore of the depressing landscape so they just looked at their feet. It was quite an awkward moment.
Jules did look up after awhile and saw two figures walking along the sidewalk. They were kids around his and Verne's age and walking along calmly. Jules poked his younger sibling in the shoulder and then pointed to the children.
"Observe brother," Jules said. The two children were coming closer and the boys could now see them much better.
There was a boy and a girl walking along the sidewalk. The boy seemed to be about Jules' age and had chestnut colored hair. He wore a dirty button shirt that had seen better days and trousers that were tattered and frayed at the ends. He was holding a little girls hand as they walked along. She had curly chestnut hair and an unreadable face. She had on a simple dress that had the print fading and carried a small coin purse. Jules and Verne also saw that both children were barefoot.
Jules and Verne went over to the children to say hello.
"Hi," Verne said.
"Hi," Jules said.
"Hello," the boy said and the girl hid behind him. She was about a few years younger than Verne. "My name's William, but you can call me Will, and this is my little sister Mary."
Mary remained behind her big brother and didn't say anything.
"She's shy," Will said.
"I'm Jules and this is Verne," Jules said and gestured to his younger sibling.
"What are you guys doing in town?" Verne asked curiously.
"Our father wants us to purchase some milk for this week," Will said and then smiled. "We have not had milk in ages. He got a shiny new dime for us to buy it with, show 'em the dime Mary."
Mary opened the coin purse and pulled out a shiny ten cent coin. She smiled as she held it up and so did Will. To them the dime was a gorgeous and amazing thing, but to the boys it was just a dime.
Then, just like that, Will and Mary turned and continued on into the remaining grocery store. Jules and Verne were sort of sad to see them go. They went back into their awkward state until Will and Mary came out of the store, now holding a fresh bottle of milk.
"We don't really see alot of other kids around here," Will said after he caught up to them. "Mary and I were wondering if you would like to come over our house."
"That would be pleasant," Jules said and then looked to and fro for his parents. Verne nudged him to signal that they should go with Will and Mary, hoping his brother would go with the flow for once.
"I suppose they won't be back for awhile so let's go," Jules said and Verne smiled in victory. The ten-year-old went up to Will and started talking as they headed out of Courthouse Square.
Meanwhile Doc and Clara were still inside the old antique shop. It was all dusty in there and crowded with stuff that Doc was particularly nostalgic of. The whole store was organized alphabetically and the husband and wife were in the "S" section.
"Do you think it was all right to leave the boys alone?" Clara asked as she passed by a silverware set. It was quite lovely and she almost wanted to purchase it but then she remembered they had many sets of silverware at home. Doc was always buying them cheap to use for inventions. To him, a fork could serve many purposes.
Clara turned to her husband but saw that he wasn't really paying attention. Doc was examining a whole shelf full of broken or used mechanisms and muttering their purposes to himself. It was a thing he would do all the time at home or in a museum.
"Emmett did you hear me?" Clara asked and jarred her husband out of his examination. "Do you think it was all right to leave the boys alone?"
"Yes they'll be fine," Doc answered and picked up a broken mechanism that Clara couldn't even recognize. "Perhaps they will fully absorb the state in which Hill Valley is currently in."
0 0 0
Turns out Will and Mary lived in the same farmhouse the Browns were currently living in. Jules casually looked over and saw that the time train was still brilliantly hidden in the giant haystack and seemed undisturbed. Verne was walking alongside Will and talking about Western Willy comic books (the comic books had actually first come out two years ago.) Will had swiped a few from garbage cans and gutters and read them over and over.
Standing in the doorway of the farmhouse was a tall bearded man. He possesed facial features that were quite similar to Will's and even had chestnut colored hair. Upon seeing him, Mary ran full speed towards the porch and embraced him around the neck. The man hugged her tightly and whispered something to her.
"That's our father," Will said before running over and joining in on the family hug. Jules and Verne walked over to the porch and Will let go of his father to introduce his new friends.
"This is Jules and Verne," Will said and pointed to each future boy. "Mary and I met them in town."
"Jules and Verne," the father repeated and smiled. "After the french novelist that wrote Around the World in Eighty Days, correct?"
"Yeah," Verne said and rolled his eyes. "Our parents liked that guy so we ended up being named after him."
"He reads that Around the World book to us all the time," Will said as they all entered the house. "Mary likes the part where Phineas rescues the pretty lady from being burned to death."
Mary just nodded.
Will led them upstairs and into his bedroom (Jules' bedroom back in 1992). All that was in the room now was a small bed, a wooden chest, and a very dirty braided rug. Will proposed that they play a game. Jules and Verne agreed, thinking Will had a board game or something, but were extremely surprised when the kid pulled out a rusty bucket of rocks.
"The game's called 'Pyramid Pile-Up'," Will said and dumped the whole bucket onto the rug. Rocks of all oval shapes fell in a big dirty heap right in front of Jules and Verne. "The first player that builds a steady pyramid wins. Mary and I play this all the time."
"That's cool," Verne said, even though the game sounded super lame. "But don't you guys have any real toys we can play with?"
"Verne we don't even have one," Will said as he divided up the rocks. "That's how come I invented Pyramid Pile-Up."
Jules and Verne looked at each other, amazed. Their dad had been telling the truth. Kids now a days really didn't have toys.
The two sat down and played a couple rounds of Pyramid Pile-Up none the less.
Hill Valley, California
July 2, 1935
11:01 AM
"Jules! Verne! Where are you?" Clara called as she and her husband searched around Town Square. Their sons were not anywhere to be found and Doc and Clara were getting seriously worried.
"Boys!" Doc called and looked into a closed store's window. "Reveal yourselves!"
The scientist stopped looking in the window and turned to his wife. Clara was cupping her hands and looked quite pale. She was feeling very uneasy that her children were no where in sight.
"Don't worry Clara beau," Doc said and put an arm around his wife. "They couldn't of run off too far. Let's just head back to the time train, perhaps Jules and Verne went back there."
"Maybe," Clara said and started heading back to the farm with her husband.
0 0 0
Jules and Verne were in the middle of another game of Pyramid Pile-Up. It was really the only game that Will had and Mary didn't have anything either. Jules and Verne were only half paying attention and not really trying to win.
They were starting to feel a little bad because back in the future they had a dozen stuff to play with while Will and Mary had nothing. Verne couldn't imagine life without his game boy. Jules couldn't imagine life without his chemistry set. The whole thing made them feel kind of bad.
"Father plays with us but he always loses," Will said as he looked at a rock that bore a resemblance to Abraham Lincoln. "I think he lets us win."
"Your father seems nice," Jules commented and then had a thought. "How come we didn't see your mother anywhere?"
Without warning, Mary suddenly started crying. Will dropped his rocks and put his arms around his little sister and she calmed a little.
"Our mother's in heaven," Will said as he stroked Mary's hair. "She was ill last year but father said now she's all better because she's an angel."
"You mean you don't have a mom?" Verne asked, as if the subject was totally unbelievable. How could someone not have a mom?
Jules felt terrible that he even brought up the subject.
"I'm very sorry," Jules said to Will. "I didn't mean to bring it up and make Mary cry."
"It's okay," Will said and they all returned to their game. They played in silence for a long time, with no one making any noise at all. The silence was finally broken when Will and Mary's father trudged up the stairs and appeared in the bedroom doorway.
"My goodness it is quiet up here," the father said. His hands were very dirty, probably from planting. "Jules and Verne I think your parents are here."
The boys looked at each other and then followed the man downstairs and to the door. Indeed, Doc and Clara were standing on the porch awaiting their sons. Jules and Verne rushed to their parents and hugged them. Doc thanked Will and Mary's father before the family headed away from the house and towards the concealed time train.
None of them really talked during the walk. Neither Doc nor Clara scolded the boys on galloping off with strangers or not listening to them. They just walked in their usaul manners with not a word escaping their lips. Jules and Verne understood that. They didn't quite feel like talking either.
The Brown family reached the time train and they began pulling and blowing hay off the locomotive. It took awhile to get all the hay off and it left a sort of dusty texture on the train. The boys offered to wash it when they got back home, much to the surprise of Doc and Clara.
"Well we think it would be nice to do something for you two, rather than vice verso," Jules explained.
"Yeah we want to do something nice for you," Verne agreed. Their parents still had surprised looks on their faces but they smiled warmly.
"Why thank you boys," Clara said as she got on the train. Doc was already at the controls setting the time circuits for exactly two minutes after they originally left.
Before boarding the time train, Jules and Verne took one last look at the farm. Well, one last look at their farm in 1935. When they looked at the animals and crops, they thought of the little money Will and Mary's father must of earned for the farm work. When they spotted some rocks by a water pump, they thought about Will and Mary's lack of toys and personal belongings. They heard their mother talking to their father and thought about what their life would be like without a mom. Finally, they thought about the Great Depression itself and how its impact on Hill Valley made life so very difficult.
With that last look, Jules and Verne suddenly realized how grateful they were for what they have and the people that gave it to them. They turned back to the time train and saw their parents still fussing over the controls. Both boys felt a great wave of admiration for their parents wash over them and they rushed up the steps and hugged their startled parents tightly.
The boys realized that they were very fortunate in life.
Very fortunate, indeed.
END