"Well, look at it this way," Alf started, peeling an orange on Johnny's couch while watching Stomach Pump, "It could've been a lot worse. You could've been killed and Jack could've taken me to the authorities." he said loudly. Johnny was sitting next to Alf on the couch, staring blankly at the wall; it had been two weeks after Jack had been killed.
"I don't know if Jack's death was my fault or his. I feel so messed up." Johnny said sadly.
Alf snorted and threw an orange peel on Johnny's lap.
"I'm telling you," Alf complained, "Walmart has the crummiest fresh fruit." Johnny just grunted in reply.
"It's like, the day you buy it, it's nice. Then, when you get it home, it's gooey and disgusting." Alf continued, gesturing with his freshly peeled orange.
"You want a bite?" he asked. Johnny cringed.
"Oh, why not?" he murmured, snatching the orange with his good hand and taking a bite out of it. His other arm was in a sling and Alf was looking at it curiously.
"I bet that your wound will heal in no time." he said proudly.
Johnny shrugged. "Maybe so, but my conscience won't. I'll still feel like I have Jack's blood on my hands. I visited Donna at her house and she actually talked to me. Reluctantly."
Alf made a face. "I guess Jack's funeral really put her in a slump and she still feels like his death is all your fault and that you're a stupid murderer who doesn't deserve to be talked to, which I partly agree with." the alien explained. Johnny tossed the orange back to Alf and rested his head on the arm of the couch.
"Why do you have to put me down all the time?" he moaned.
"Well, someone's gotta do it." Alf said matter-of-factly. Johnny shook his head in frustration and stood up.
"Where's the DeLorean?" he demanded suddenly. Alf raised his eyebrows.
"Sick of me already?" he asked. Johnny scoffed. "I was sick of you the moment I met you." he snapped. Alf rolled his eyes.
"Now he lets on to me that he really hates me." the alien said jokingly.
"I need to know where the heck that car is. I can't stand another moment of you being in my life!" Johnny exclaimed gesturing with his good hand.
"It's your fault that Jack is dead and that people think I'm crazy! I want to get you back to the eighties so I can live my life as a normal man named John Gage. That's all I really want." he pleaded, kneeling down in front of Alf, his voice dropping to a whisper. Alf laughed.
"All you had to do was ask." Alf said nonchalantly. Johnny went slack-jawed. All he had to do was ask. That was nice. All he had to do was ask. Wonderful.
"Well, then find that DeLorean!" he shouted. Alf nodded.
"I must drink a certain beverage first and then utter the magic words. After that, I must fall asleep with the keys to the car under my pillow. Then, I will dream of the car and where it's parked." the alien explained mysteriously. Johnny screwed up his nose.
"You're putting me on, right?" he asked.
"You're good at this game." Alf said, nodding his approval. He then got up and pulled the keys to the DeLorean out from underneath the couch.
"That was a really dumb place to put them." Johnny scorned.
Alf paid no attention. "Now, if my calculations are correct, I parked the car somewhere on Brant Street. Like, I think…by a warehouse." the alien trailed off. Johnny grabbed the keys to his Barracuda and the keys to the DeLorean and ran out the door.
"Hurry up, I think I know which warehouse you're talking about." the paramedic said excitedly. Alf waddled after him and hopped in the passenger's seat of Johnny's car.
Johnny tried as best he could to control the car, but that's kind of hard when you're not a lefty and your other other arm is in a sling.
He maneuvered the car through thin traffic in the dark of the night and pulled onto Brant Street. The entire street looked rather shabby. As though no one had dared step foot there in a long time. Johnny cautiously drove down the street, looking back and forth for a warehouse. He suddenly spotted it, its silhouette standing out against the moon. Alf shuddered.
"Wow. I chose a lousy place to land." the alien muttered.
Johnny nodded subconsciously and pulled up to the chain-link fence surrounding the warehouse. Alf got out and followed him. Johnny craned his neck to see the barbed wire on top of the tall fence.
"It's gonna be a leap of faith. Or guts, if you like." he joked.
Alf looked at him with a serious face and Johnny's smile faded. He grunted to break the silence and took his coat off.
Johnny walked backwards a few paces and ran forward. He threw the coat up over the fence. The coat landed, spread out over the barbed wire. Johnny rubbed his hands together and prepared to tackle the fence. He jumped up and grabbed as high as he could. Johnny soon got over the fence and landed on the other side.
"Your turn." he said with a grin.
Alf frowned. "How am I supposed to shimmy up over there like a monkey if I have feet like an elephant?" the alien protested, gesturing towards his feet. Once again, Johnny's smile faded.
"I'll find something to cut the fence." he said determinedly. Johnny scouted around the barren, but overgrown parking lot and found a pair of rusty wire-cutters.
"Better than nothing." he mumbled. Soon, the fence was cut and Alf had slipped through. "Let's look around for the DeLorean." Johnny said, hugging himself against the cold winds that blew at him, making him shudder. He heard Alf's excited voice over the quiet and ran over to him.
"I found it!" Alf exclaimed happily. Johnny ran over to Alf, who was standing on the dark side of the warehouse and stopped when he saw the space-age-looking car. Alf grabbed the keys out of Johnny's pocket and ran over to the driver's door. He unlocked it and the door slowly popped up like wings on a bird.
"That's out of sight!" Johnny gasped, running his hand across the hood.
Alf got in through the driver's side and slid over to the passenger's seat. Johnny got in next to him and marveled at all the complicated controls. He flicked a green pine tree air-freshener hanging from the rear-view mirror and chuckled. Alf pressed a button on the dash and the driver's door closed with a thud. Johnny yelped with surprise and slowly relaxed.
"How do I start this thing up?" he asked. Alf handed him the keys.
"It's not a 72' Plymouth Barracuda, but it's a pretty wild ride anyway." the alien said solemnly. Johnny looked at Alf nervously and grabbed the keys out of his furry paw. Johnny took in a deep breath and put the key in the ignition. He slowly turned it and jumped when the radio came on, blaring a loud song. Alf's face lit up and he started bobbing his head to Working for the Weekend.
"I love this song!" he said excitedly.
Johnny scrambled his hand across the dash, looking for a way to shut the radio off. He found something and pressed it. The radio shut off and Alf grunted.
"I sure hope that you know how to use this thing." Johnny said firmly. Alf nodded.
"All that you need to do is enter in where you want to go. The time, the date and the exact location." the alien explained. Johnny's eyes went round.
"I'm gonna have you do that." he said, his voice fluttering. Alf found the controls and did exactly as he was told. "October Twenty-Eighth, Nineteen-eighty-six, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., Willie and Kate Tanner residence." Alf said seriously as he typed it in. Johnny watched carefully, to make sure Alf was doing it right and not transporting them to some time in the eighteen-sixties.
"Now hurry up and get this thing up to eighty-eight miles per hour!" Alf commanded. Johnny nodded quickly and drove the car right through the fence surrounding the warehouse and skidded onto Brant Street.
"Are you sure about this?" Johnny asked shakily. Alf nodded impatiently.
"Yes!" he hissed. Johnny put the gas petal to the floor and stiffened as the speedometer reached seventy, then seventy-five, eighty, eighty-two, eighty-four, eighty-six…..eighty-eight! Soon, everything changed and was indescribable as the view out the windshield became a blur. Alf shouted with delight and Johnny stood still, scared to death. Suddenly, the car jerked wildly as it crashed into something. Johnny's head hit the steering wheel and Alf flew forward. The two looked out the windshield and saw that the car had crashed into some shrubs. Johnny cursed under his breath and opened the driver's door. Alf slid out behind him. A neighbor to the Tanners was watering her flowers and dropped the hose when she took in the incredible scene. Her mouth was gaping open as she watched a paramedic and what looked like a cross between an anteater and a kangaroo strut by. Johnny saluted to her and Alf did the same. The woman screamed and ran into her house, shouting,
"Trevor! Trevor! There's a creature outside and a magical car and our shrubs and-" her voice was cut off by another one, scorning her.
"Shut up, Raquel!"
Alf snorted and took the lead. Johnny followed behind him.
"I didn't think it would be this simple." Johnny said doubtfully. Alf looked up at him as he reached the Tanners' front door. After everything Johnny had endured within the past month, he found himself in a strange sense of calm. The kind of feeling you get when you've seen everything that could ever be seen. This whole ordeal didn't surprise or shock him one bit.
"You'll have a lot of explaining to do." Alf said in a low voice as he reached up and hit the doorbell. Johnny waited, his heart racing as he waited for someone to answer the door. He hadn't even thought about what he was going to say. He felt like he was entering a confessional without even thinking about what he was supposed to confess. Totally unprepared was the correct term.
Suddenly, the door opened and standing there was a little eight year-old boy with reddish brown hair. His freckled face lit up when he saw Alf. The boy screamed with delight, "ALF!" he leaped forward and hugged the alien. Several more voices sounded from inside the house and the sound of approaching footsteps grew louder.
"Alf? What about Alf?" a female voice asked.
"Did Alf come back?" another girlish voice asked.
"Alf? I don't belive it!" A deep voice decreed.
Johnny watched Alf's family stream to the front door and overwhelm the alien with hugs and tears.
"We thought you were never coming back!" the girl said through tears.
"Mom said that you probably got hit by a car." the little boy said simply. Alf looked up at the boy's mother. She grunted uncomfortably.
"Brian, let's not get carried away." she said in a stern voice.
"Alf, where in blue blazes have you been?" the father asked, standing up straight. Alf looked at them and shrugged.
"Oh, around." the alien replied. "You were gone so long, we thought that you… that you had been killed." the mother choked out. The daughter looked up and noticed Johnny standing behind Alf, watching the happy reunion.
"Um, did you….did you…um, find Alf?" she asked, wincing at her own words. Johnny smiled a little bit.
"You could say that, yes." he replied. Suddenly, all of the family members were staring with horror-stricken faces at Johnny. They all looked speechless.
"Don't worry." Johnny assured calmly, "You're secret is safe with me."
All the Tanners sighed in relief.
"Come in." the father said happily. Johnny came in and didn't know what to say.
"What's your name?" the daughter asked.
"John Gage. I'm a fireman-paramedic." Johnny replied.
"Oh, and you found Alf?" the mother asked. "Well, Alf kind of found me. But, only me and a couple other people know about him. I made them swear a path to secrecy." Johnny answered with a chuckle.
"Well, let me introduce you to my family," the father started, "I'm Willie Tanner and this is my wife Kate." he said, putting his arm around his wife.
"And this is our daughter, Lynn and our son, Brian." Mr. Tanner concluded.
"Pleasure to meet you." Johnny said, extending his good hand to shake Mr. Tanner's hand.
"Are you really a fireman?" Brian asked.
"Yes. I am." Johnny replied, amused by the boy's fascination with him.
"Yes, Johnny-baby here has been good to me." Alf said, patting Johnny on his arm.
Mrs. Tanner noticed that Johnny's right arm was in a sling and she pointed at it.
"Um….I hope Alf didn't do that." she said worriedly. Johnny looked down at his arm and chuckled. "Well…in a way…yes he did. Just a gunshot wound, nothing serious." he replied. He flinched when he realized how stupid that sounded. Mr. And Mrs. Tanner both gasped.
"Alf!" they said scornfully. Alf looked up at them. "What?" he asked.
"I hope he didn't damage anything…besides you?" Mr. Tanner questioned nervously. Johnny shrugged.
"Not really. But…" he thought better of what he was going to say and left it at "not really". The Tanners let out sighs of relief.
"If he did….I would gladly pay for the damages." Mr. Tanner offered, pulling out his wallet. Johnny shook his head.
"You don't have to do that," he said, "It was just one week of groceries. I don't really eat that much anyway." Mr. Tanner went slack-jawed and looked at Alf.
"Please, I insist." he said. Johnny sighed.
"Well, okay." Johnny agreed, taking the twenty that was offered to him.
"Hey, you should join us for dinner and tell us about what happened with Alf." Lynn suggested. Brian nodded excitedly.
"Can he stay for dinner? Please, Mom?" Brian begged. Mrs. Tanner looked down at her son, who was tugging at her pant-leg.
"Of course he can." she replied.
Mr. Tanner straightened out his glasses. "Well Mr. Gage, I sure hope you like fried chicken, because that's what we're having." he said with a laugh.
"Just try to keep me away from fried chicken!" Johnny joked. "I sure hope it's better than what they serve at the fire station!" soon, everyone was seated at the supper table, eating and talking excitedly about Alf. Johnny told the Tanners everything about Alf's antics, but left the part out about time-traveling. It was too dangerous for them to know. Johnny was careful about how much he explained, because according to Mrs. Tanner, Alf had only been gone for four days, but for Johnny, Alf had been with him for a little more than a month. Time seemed to work in funny ways. After everyone was done eating, Johnny thanked them for the food and stood up.
"Leaving so soon?" Mrs. Tanner asked in a surprised voice.
Johnny sighed. "Well, I have to leave, but first, I have to say goodbye to Alf." he said. Alf got up from his seat at the table and walked over to Johnny and looked up at him. After everything they had been through, Johnny had never thought that he would ever be sad to leave Alf. It was almost heart-wrenching. Johnny knelt down and hugged Alf, taking the alien by surprise. He whispered in his ear, "It was fun, Alf." Alf nodded and said back, "It was interesting, Johnny-baby." Johnny stood up and blinked back a tear. He faked a smile and nodded.
"I'm going to miss you." he said. "Well, where exactly are you going?" Mr. Tanner asked.
"I'm going away. Back to my fire station. Y'see, I'm being transferred to somewhere in Colorado," he lied, "And I'm never going to be able to see any of you again. This is the last time I'll be able to talk to Alf. The fire station seems like almost twelve years away." Johnny replied softly. He brightened a little and looked at Alf.
"I hope you stay out of trouble, you darned son of a gun." Johnny teased. Alf shrugged. "I hope you find 'the one'." the alien replied.
"Kate, Willie." Johnny said with a nod. "Lynn, Brian; I'm glad to have brought Alf back. He's one heckuva an alien and don't you forget it." the Tanners smiled back.
"Oh, we know." Mr. Tanner said assuredly.
"We can't thank you enough for bringing him back to us. I don't think we ever imagined what it would be like without him. It was awful." Mrs. Tanner said. Mr. Tanner nodded in agreement. "Yes, thank you." Johnny nodded and gave one last smile at Alf. He then turned and walked outside to the DeLorean. Once he was in the car, Johnny just sat still, thinking about everything that had happened in the last month. All the shock, all the anger, all the despair, all the heartbreak. But it all seemed worth it, just seeing the looks on the Tanners' faces when they were reunited with Alf. Johnny pushed away his sappy thoughts and started up the car. He typed in the date it was when he had left his own reality. Soon, he was flashed back to the past. Johnny got out of the DeLorean, back to the warehouse.
Suddenly, it hit him. He had to get rid of that DeLorean. Johnny knew exactly what he had to do. That DeLorean had to be returned to its rightful owner. Johnny typed in the date he wanted and got back in the car. Once he had sped it up to eighty-eight miles per hour, he opened the hatch. He was suddenly scared of what he had to do. Johnny jumped out and flew down on the hard pavement. He gasped when the breath was knocked out of him. All that he saw was the DeLorean disappearing in a flash of white light and a trail of flames left on the road as he passed out.
Meanwhile, Marty McFly was sitting on the hood of a car in a parking lot, resting his chin on his cupped hands. He sighed once more and cursed under his breath; his time-traveling DeLorean had been stolen right out from under his nose. Suddenly, a flash of white light came from right next to the car he was sitting on. He saw a blur of gray as a car sped by, leaving a trail of flames behind it. It crashed into another car in the lot and Marty jumped up excitedly. He ran over to the car, his heart racing with excitement when he realized that it was his DeLorean.
"I don't believe it!" he declared happily. "Thank goodness she's back!"
"So, he's where he belongs?" Donna asked, holding Johnny's hand as she walked out of the hospital with him. Johnny couldn't help feeling thankful that Donna had forgiven him for Jack's accidental death. It was like everything was back to normal. Johnny's anger at her betraying him was now just a fading echo.
Roy was following them, his hands in his pockets. Dixie and Dr. Brackett were in tow as well.
"I still think that he was a cuss." Roy muttered. Johnny shrugged.
"Well, Alf's happy with his family. I never could have kept him from what he wanted most." he replied slowly. Donna nodded. "You did the right thing."
"I still don't know why you didn't tell us about this whole thing sooner." Dr. Brackett said angrily, folding up his stethoscope and putting it in the pocket of his lab coat.
"We could've helped you." Dixie scorned, crossing her arms.
"I didn't want to tell you about Alf, the car or Jack or anything, just because I was sick of explaining it. I was also afraid of how might've taken it." Johnny joked. Dixie and Dr. Brackett rolled their eyes.
"You really banged yourself up when fell out of the DeLorean." Roy chimed in. Johnny looked back at him.
"I had to do it. It was too dangerous to keep around." he said. Roy raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, but how do you know that that McFly kid won't abuse its power?" he demanded. Johnny stopped and rubbed a large cut on his cheek.
"I don't know. Life's just a test of faith that's periodically faltered throughout my life, but never totally quit. I can't be sure that he won't use it for evil, but I can't be sure that he will. I just trust that it is where it belongs." Johnny said quietly. "How did you know which coordinates to enter in to get it back to McFly?" Dr. Brackett asked.
Johnny looked back at him.
"During supper at the Tanners' house, Alf slid a piece of paper with the coordinates on it, into my hand underneath the table. He knew as well as I did what had be done." Johnny explained. Dixie shook her head. "I just feel so left out of everything!" she complained.
"Don't worry Dix, I know how you feel," Dr. Brackett agreed, "But, if I had known that that 'mascot' was actually an alien, I would've fainted." Johnny grinned. "That's why I didn't tell you." Donna smiled and grabbed Johnny's good hand.
"If you're done with your lecture, I think that we should get something to eat. There's a hot-dog stand across the street, over there." she said. Johnny smiled back at her.
"If you're really that hungry." he said, pulling a twenty dollar bill out of his pocket.
Donna caught a glimpse of it and snagged it from him.
"Johnny, this is the nineteen-eighty-six issue!" she exclaimed, "It must be the one that you said Mr. Tanner gave to you!" "What?" Roy asked, pushing his way in between them and marveling at the bill. Dixie and Dr. Brackett craned their necks to see and widened their eyes. "Wow." they said in unison. Johnny raised an eyebrow and grinned.
"Think that he'll notice?" he asked, gesturing his head towards the man tending the hot-dog stand. "I don't know." Donna said. Johnny grabbed her hand again.
"There's only one way to find out." Johnny said, still grinning as he walked over with her to the hot-dog stand.
THE END.
You're probably wondering what I'm going to do next, but honestly, I didn't think I'd make it this far.
