Chapter 3 - Confused
"Nathe!" Jilly said, grabbing me as I fell face forward to the road.
Her calling out my name was the last thing I heard as I slowly blacked out.
I slowly opened my eyes and noticed blackness in front of me. I turned my head to gaze around and continued seeing only black. Then as if someone had flipped a light switch, everything became bright temporarily blinding me. When my eyes adjusted, I saw Jilly holding me, now face up in her arms on the asphalt road. My jaw dropped, as I saw myself unconscious.
"What is this?" I asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" a low voice whispered.
I instinctively looked around me for the source of the voice.
"This is what could be," the voice continued.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
There was no answer. I began tapping my foot impatiently, waiting for an answer.
"You'll find out eventually," the voice finally said.
Then everything around me went black again. I felt myself opening my eyes yet again and wondered for a brief moment when I closed them. Before my eyes, I saw Jilly, with tears running down her cheeks. I began to sit up to look around at my surroundings, catching Jilly by surprise.
"What happened?" I asked.
Jilly hit me hard on the chest with her fists, in an angry way.
"You had me so worried, don't ever do that again!" Jilly nearly yelled at me.
"I'm sorry," I said, with a frown. "I couldn't help it."
"I thought I lost you," Jilly said.
"Why are you so worried about me?" I asked, slightly skeptic.
"I didn't want to be stuck in this weird place by myself," Jilly said, surprised at what I asked.
"Okay," I said, standing up to my feet.
I then assisted Jilly to her feet, by reaching my hand down for her to grab and pulled her up to her feet.
"There's nothing to worry about around here though, this is where I'm from, this is my time," I said.
"Your time?" Jilly asked. "I heard you say something like that earlier."
"It's hard to explain, but this is where I was before I met you," I said.
I was never very good at explaining things, and this moment between me and Jilly was just proof. Jilly's face just showed that she was seriously confused, as I looked at her, then I had a somewhat bad feeling, as I looked down the street to Doc Brown's house. Before my eyes, the DeLorean turned into the street that I was standing in, and was facing my direction as it sped up. The DeLorean was getting closer and fast as if the ones inside didn't even see us standing here. I jumped to the side, pulling Jilly down with me as I fell down next to the curb on the road. I looked up at the DeLorean as it disappeared before my very eyes. I stood up brushed myself off and assisted Jilly back up.
"I'm sorry for pulling you down like that," I said.
Jilly then rushed over to me and hugged me tightly. I looked down at her wondering what she was doing, and why she was doing it.
"Is everything all right?" I asked."Yes," Jilly said, rubbing her head on my chest.
I narrowed my eyes as she did that. I never had any girl ever do that to me, and I wasn't sure exactly how to respond. Jilly then pulled away as I turned back down the street toward Doc Brown's house. I thought maybe there would be something there that could help me get Jilly back to her time. I began to walk toward his house, pausing for a moment to look back at Jilly. I know that she had to go back to her time. It wasn't right to have her back in my time.
"Come on, follow me," I said.
Jilly followed me, looking to both sides of her as she walked, and kept close to me. I assumed she did so cause she was unsure of this place, and wanted me to keep her safe or something. We soon arrived at Doc Brown's house, after all, it wasn't that far away. I knocked on the garage door, not thinking, and then quickly remembered that no one was home anymore. I pressed my hands close to the garage door and began to push the door upwards. The door opened slightly and I slid my hands under the door and pulled it the rest of the way up. Jilly looked at me in surprise and appeared to wonder what I was doing. I walked into the garage and looked around. I was looking for a spare flux capacitor that I could use. I rummaged around the garage for what I was looking for. Most of the stuff had sheets and tarps draped over them to keep dust off, or so I assumed. I pulled up the sheets and tarps that were draped over the stuff just enough to peek under it and see what was there.
"What are you looking for?" Jilly asked me.
"It's hard to explain," I said, continuing to look.
I eventually came across a table with a brown tarp draped over it. Whatever was on the table had the tarp bulge up a little bit, and it was the last place I haven't looked yet. I pulled the tarp off, and to my surprise, and luck, a flux capacitor laid there, as if waiting for me the whole time. It looked slightly different than the one in the DeLorean and I noticed a note beside it. I picked up the note and began to read it out loud.
"Dear Nathan, I hope this helps you out to discover your true past and find what you've been looking for," I read.
The note wasn't signed, so I had no idea who wrote it, but I didn't think Doc Brown wrote it, it had to be someone else. I folded the note and put it into my pocket, then I grabbed the flux capacitor and a ticker display that sat next to it. The flux capacitor and ticker display seemed more advanced then what Doc Brown had on the DeLorean, but I didn't think too much of it. I then remembered that I had no idea how to even install this flux capacitor and ticker display, and what to even install it into. I slumped forward a little bit, noticing my discovery wouldn't help me in the least. In addition, Doc Brown had also installed a separate fueling device and other stuff essential to the DeLorean time machine. Where was I going to find such things as that? I left the flux capacitor and ticker display on the table and pulled the note back out of my pocket. I read over the note once more to myself, and read it another time after I finished it, hoping I was missing something.
"Nathe?" I see something written on the back of that in your hand.
I looked up at her for a moment and noticed her looking at the note in my hand. I turned the note over and noticed some writing on the back. I began to read it out loud, as I had done with the other side.
"Wednesday, September 10, 2003," I read from the top. "When you come back to this time Nathan for the first time, I'm sure you noticed the flux capacitor and the time display on the table before you."
I looked up from the note for a second. The date on the note was just a couple days ago. Today was Friday, September 12, 2003. I wondered how whoever wrote this note knew I'd be here and reading this note. I decided to read on as I was curious as to what the rest of it said.
"I know you can't use them right now since you have nothing to install them into. I also know that you want to return Jilly to her own time. There is something waiting for you at the address below," I read on.
I looked at the address for a moment, and then looked below that, and noticed this side had been signed. As I read the name, my eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. The name caught me by complete surprise, and there was a good reason too. It was signed "Nathan" my very name and written just the way I write my own name. This note had been written by me, but obviously, it was a 'me' from another time. I decided that it was best to go to the address written on the note, mainly to see what the 'me' from another time had put there for me.
"Come on Jilly," I said, folding the note back up and putting it into my pocket.
I went to the address written on the note I read and found it led to a house with an attached garage. The house was two stories high, like some of the other houses in the neighborhood, but I knew that wasn't very important. I walked up to the front door of the house, Jilly keeping a few feet away from me, unsure of what would be ahead. I knocked on the door and waited a few minutes for an answer, there was none. I peeked through the window and found nothing inside, no furniture, no people, nothing, so clearly, no one lived here. I looked around for a moment then tried turning the doorknob and push lightly on the door. The door opened and I walked inside, signaling Jilly to follow behind me. I began my search in the living room of the house, in search of whatever didn't seem to belong there. Finding nothing, I moved to the dining room and began to search there. I didn't find anything in the dining room either so I began to search the kitchen. I began to get frustrated as I didn't find anything in the kitchen either, so I rummaged through the house on the first floor, then moved to the second floor.
"Where could it be?" I asked aloud, growling slightly in frustration.
"What are you looking for exactly?" Jilly asked me.
"I wish I knew," I said.
"Well, there doesn't seem to be anything here, unless it's in the garage," Jilly said.
I barely caught what she said and jumped up looking at her.
"Wait...please repeat what you just said," I said.
"There doesn't seem to be anything here," Jilly said.
"No, not that, after that," I said.
"Unless it's in the garage?" Jilly asked.
"Yes! That's it! Thank you so much!" I nearly screamed kissing her in a way to express my thanks, subconsciously.
After I had kissed her, I noticed her blushing and noticed what I just did and blushed myself.
"Uh...sorry about that," I said.
"I-I-It's a-alright," Jilly said, face bright red.
I slid past Jilly and out to the garage, partially embarrassed and partially wanting to check the garage really bad. I grabbed the doorknob to the door that leads into the garage and turned it, I pushed the door open and stepped into the dark garage. As I entered the garage the room lit up automatically, which caught me by surprise, but apparently, they were motion sensors. Before my eyes was something fairly big under a large tarp made for a car. There wasn't anything else in the garage except for whatever was under this tarp. I walked over to it and noticed a note taped onto it. I ripped the note off the tarp and instantly began reading it aloud.
"Took you long enough to find it, I know you feel slightly stupid for not checking the garage first, but that's all right, anyway, enjoy," I read from the note.
The note wasn't signed, and it didn't have to be either, I knew who it was from, it was from the other 'me', that gave me the address to this place. I pulled the tarp off in one quick pull to reveal what was under it. I dropped the tarp from my hands in surprise as it gently fell to my feet. Sitting right there was another time machine, similar to the DeLorean, except that it wasn't made using a DeLorean but rather a completely different vehicle, a red Dodge Viper GTS. I always liked the color red, and Dodge Vipers as well, and a red Dodge Viper was like a dream for me. It wasn't a surprise that me from a different time would choose a red Dodge Viper to make a time machine out of, and I wasn't going to complain either. I rushed to the driver's side of my new Viper and reached for the door handle. I then quickly remembered Jilly and looked up to find her standing in the doorway.
"Are you going somewhere?" Jilly asked.
"Kind of," I said. "I should return you to your time after all."
"Oh, I see," Jilly said, lowering her head and frowning.
I thought I heard her mumble something under her breath but I wasn't really paying attention. I opened the driver's side door and sat in the driver's seat. I checked the visor for the keys, cause I always thought that's where I would store them whenever I got a car. Like I expected, the key fell down into my left hand as I pulled the visor down with my right hand. I put the key into the ignition and prepared to turn it. I then reached over to the passenger side and opened the door for Jilly.
"Come on and get in," I said.
Jilly sat next to me, holding her hands in her lap and looking down still frowning a little bit. I didn't think too much of it and I turned the key in the ignition. The Viper revved up to my excitement and the front part of the Viper where the dashboard was lit up. There was a time and date display centered in the center near with a small collapsible panel beneath it. There was also a navigation system behind the steering wheel to my convenience. This was all too exciting, I had my very own time machine car, and I couldn't wish for any more at the moment. I then noticed that the garage door was still closed, and wondered how I would drive out. Just as I thought that the garage door began opening.
"Preparing for time travel," a computerized voice came from within the Viper.
I pressed on the acceleration and drove out of the driveway. I turned into the main road and stopped for a brief moment.
"Setting year to..." the computerized voice began.
I didn't pay attention after that as I sped down the road and everything flashed before my eyes.