The stars were a sight to behold that night.

From the dark lot directly behind Lou's Café, the night sky was easily visible. The constellations seemed a slight bit brighter as Jennifer stared at stars twinkling across the sky. Muffled music played from the café behind them. However, Marty and herself were away from the building's warm lights, the chatter of people packed into booths, and waitresses flitting back and forth with trays of steaming food.

With Marty's arm around Jennifer, they sat, huddled next to each other. Eventually, even the café grew quieter and dimmer as people inside left for the night. A slight November chill had snuck into the air after nightfall. "It's getting late," said Marty with a sigh.

"I know. But before we go, can I ask you one thing?"

"Shoot."

"Did you have fun tonight?"

"Yeah, Jen. I kind of needed tonight to get away from...everything else going on," he replied with a sigh. He took his eyes off her.

The corners of her lips turned up. "Well, maybe we could stay here for a little longer."

"Believe me, I want to. But the Doc will be pissed enough as it is if he finds us gone. We'd better get going soon; it's a long walk."

"Wait!" Jennifer exclaimed. "I have an idea. Right behind my house, there's a path that goes through town. It leads us right towards Riverside Drive, and it'll take less time to walk there. There's a bunch of trees behind the housing development; nobody would see us. So we could stay here longer, and then just take the shortcut."

Jennifer was surprised she hadn't thought of utilizing the woodsy path behind her house sooner. It had taken effort to try and keep Marty from being caught by the school's disciplinarian for various misdemeanors, after all.

She leaned back against the wall of the café and Marty wrapped his arm around her once again. Wishing the moment would last forever, she exhaled deeply in relaxation. Soon, the night would end and she'd return to Dr. Brown's home. However, she tried her best to enjoy the last bit of time before that would happen. In that instant, she almost felt as if things were normal. She didn't have to dwell on the sobering fact that she was lost in a time she didn't belong in.

...

As Jennifer neared the path's entrance, she tiptoed softly forward so as not to crunch leaves under her feet and make extra noise. The dirt path extended in front of her, seeming much longer than it actually was. She focused on the light at the end of the shortcut and began to tiptoe forward. Marty crept behind her as well, holding a bag that contained their clothes from the thrift shop. Right before they'd started the walk to the mansion, they had ducked into the café's restrooms and changed back into their old clothes. There was no need cause any more suspicion with Doc than necessary.

They continued forth and were only interrupted by Marty whispering, "Something's wrong here."

"What do you mean?"

"I can see the backs of these houses! We never could before. If someone looked out their back window, they'd see us, no problem."

"Oh, the trees! That's it. It's just a time difference between here and the eighties. The trees haven't grown to a size where they would block us from being seen. I didn't think of this," said Jennifer. Sure enough, one side of the path was occupied by the woods, but the other contained backyards, picket fences, and houses that seemed to sparkle from newness.

"Okay. We can still do this. Just lay low and get to the other side and we should be fine either way."

"Got it," she replied. Without another word, they crouched down and crept forward across the path.

Jennifer held her breath as if that would help her walk in a quieter fashion. Soon, she found herself nearing the house that she knew would one day be hers. She couldn't help but to stare at it and wonder who would be inside. Her parents had bought the house around this time, she vaguely remembered. They'd move in soon if they hadn't done so already. Even if they had, the house would still possess differences unique to the time period that was completely alien to Jennifer. It wasn't her home.

They tiptoed forward, keeping their heads down and turning their faces away from the row of houses. Jennifer tried to convince herself that nothing would happen. It's night and everyone would be going to sleep soon, she thought. Nobody would notice them at all. They would be back at Doc's in no time.

The back door of her future house was thrown open by an unseen figure. A clatter of footsteps sounded across the deck that was dangerously close to where they stood. They'd be in plain sight to the people there if they didn't do something immediately.

A bolt of adrenaline surged through Jennifer. "There's people in that house! Should we run?" she whispered to Marty.

"I don't know! They might see us. Here, hide behind this fence."

The white picket fence in question belonged to the house next to Jennifer's, and sitting behind the fence blocked their view of it. As she rested, her breaths were heavy and ragged. She feared that someone, somehow might hear them. "Now what?" she asked.

"Why don't we just wait and see if they go away? If they don't, we'll just have to sneak out."

Jennifer nodded. She leaned her head against the fence, and allowed bits of a faraway conversation to enter her ears.

"I don't trust that real estate man. I had to get away from him just to talk to you without getting interrupted. Looks shifty-eyed to me. I don't want him trying anything," said a man's voice.

"Oh, Harold, you're worrying about nothing again. It's a house showing. He's supposed to use sales tactics to get people to buy his product," replied a more feminine one.

"It's a house! It's an important part of life! He's not telling us everything I want to be safe from robbers and the like, that's all. Why'd we come to the suburbs at all? There's so much noise and people. We could've found a nice place in the country somewhere, but-"

"Oh, I like it! And I'm not living in a place where our next neighbors are a mile away. You want to make me happy, don't you?"

From her spot behind the neighbor's fence, Jennifer had to cover her mouth to keep herself from gasping as she heard the exchange near her. Even though the voices were younger and less gruff, and she could barely make out what they were saying due to the distance between them, she'd recognize those voices anywhere. "Marty, I think those people are my parents!"

"Holy shit! Okay, okay, don't panic. We'll just get out now. We can sneak away and they'll never notice."

"Hey! Who's there?" Jennifer's dad barked. "I heard something move! Don't try and hide from me!"

"I'm sure it was nothing. Just an animal, probably," her mother replied. However, the loud, thumping footsteps sounded across the deck stairs anyway as he descended towards the hiding spot behind the fence.

Marty's plan had instantly fallen through. They had grown desperate, and went with one final idea to evade getting caught trespassing.

"Change of plans. Run!" Jennifer exclaimed. Marty didn't need to be told twice. They scrambled to their feet and made a break for it. Sneakers slapped against the dirt path as they grew closer to the end of the woods. Next time, Jennifer thought, she was going to remind Marty not to try and sneak around while wearing a bright orange vest.

Jennifer's father had begun to chase them. "Come back here! You better not try and hurt us. You're gonna have hell to pay!"

Marty and Jennifer sprinted at top speed towards the end of the path. Jennifer took notice of street lamps casting light on the nearest road and beckoning her away from the dark. Their pursuer didn't show a single sign of tiring, maintaining a steady pace. His increasingly loud footsteps were an indicator of how he was gaining on them.

"Just a little longer!" said Marty.

Jennifer nodded, fixing her gaze forward with a renewed determination. She channeled every ounce of her energy into the chase and soon found herself gaining speed. The dirt path soon gave way to the pavement of the back road that led to Jennifer's house.

With Marty at her heels, Jennifer ran into the night as fast as she could. She stared only at the stretch of road directly in front of her in order to focus. Her surroundings sped past in a blur. To evade him, they turned off the main path to avoid being caught under the street lamps. The woodsy area of the path grew more distant with every step until they could no longer hear the footsteps of the person chasing them. They continued running for a while longer anyway.

Finally, she dared to stop and look behind her. "I think we lost him," she said, breathing heavily. Even in the dark, she knew there wasn't anybody else in her sight besides Marty. They were successful in their plans to escape; she didn't think her father had gotten so much as a glimpse of their faces.

"That was a close one!" he said.

"I know. Let's hurry. We'd better get back to Dr. Brown's in case my dad comes after us again."

They took off again, that time at a slow jog, on the long and winding road back to the Brown Mansion while reveling in their own sense of relief.

...

In all his life, Mr. Parker had never seen people with such strange clothes before. It must be some sort of new beatnik fad, he thought to himself. The only thing more noticeable than their strange attire was their behavior. It was their trespassing onto unknown property that made him chase after them. Maybe he was overreacting, but he didn't want to risk getting robbed or worse.

Soon after they were chased back into public property, Mr. Parker had given up. The ones he chased had been quick on their feet, enough so that they outran him. He trudged back through the trees to return to where he was before. His wife was waiting for him, arms crossed, as was the real estate agent. "Can I speak to my wife for a minute?" he asked the agent, pulling her aside before he could answer. Once the other person was suitably out of earshot, he said, "Okay, this is the last straw. I already thought this place was a bad idea, but this is ridiculous! We're here for an hour and we've already seen these delinquents running around!"

"Oh, it's not that bad. The town seems so nice, and those kids didn't hurt anybody," his wife replied.

"But they could have! I know one thing: this town is going to be a bad influence and I won't stand to live here."

"You say that about every place we visit, dear."

...

The mansion looming overhead was a welcome sight as Marty followed Jennifer up the driveway. When the garage-turned-lab came into view, Marty rose onto his toes to look inside the window. The sliver of lamplight filtering through the window seemed brighter as the outside world grew darker, but it was actually the same as when they'd left. "Geez, he's still in there," remarked Marty.

If Dr. Brown had known they were missing, he didn't show it as Marty went to the door, pushed it open, and entered the garage. While standing over the car, he startled, almost dropping the wire in his hand. After securing the wire and adjusting his goggles, he spun around to address them. "Marty! Jennifer! Come look at this. I found the DeLorean, and it has a flux capacitor identical to my design. This is amazing!" he said. His expression grew solemn. "I'll finally do it."

"That's great! Did you, uh, find anything new in the car?" Marty asked.

"Ah, yes. About that. I'm sorry, but there's no possible way to harness the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity needed to power the machine. I'm afraid you're stuck here."

Marty paled, looking as if the breath had been sucked out of him. "What? No! We can't be stuck here! I can't stay here for the rest of my life!" he exclaimed.

Jennifer stood quietly, feeling utterly helpless. Against the forces of time and space that ruled the universe, she was one person. An insignificant speck. Practically nothing. "You can't give up now, Dr. Brown," she finally spoke.

Dr. Brown was quiet as Marty paced back and forth. His head and shoulders dejectedly slumped towards the ground, and he stuffed his hands in his pockets. When his hands touched paper, he pulled a blue sheet from his pocket. He unfolded the crumpled paper, uncaringly tossed it on a nearby table, and said, "Forgot I had this."

It was the paper Jennifer had written her phone number on in 1985. Oh, how things had changed since then.

"Had what, Marty?" Dr. Brown asked.

"Nothing. Just some paper about that clock tower that got hit with lightning a while ago."

"Lightning, you say? Mind if I take a look?"

Marty picked up and handed over the paper, which was quickly inspected by Dr. Brown. He scanned the lines of text, nodding to himself and muttering, "Yes, yes, this might do," to himself. "This paper might just get you home."

"What? How?" asked Marty.

"The lightning bolt will hit the clock tower one week from today, on November twelfth. If we were to somehow channel the electricity into the car, it might generate enough energy to get you back to the future."

In the room, the mood lifted like a hot-air balloon. The glimmer of hope wasn't much, but it was something to cling to. "Well, what are we waiting for?" Marty asked. "Let's do this."